In June of 1579
Sir Francis Drake was sailing his ship the
Golden Hinde, as a
privateer for
Queen Elizabeth I. The ship was leaking badly, but having
pillaged the Spanish settlements in
South America and burned
Panama City, Drake could not return to
England the way he came. He had to sail on, around the world.
But first the ship needed repair. He didn't know what the problem could be; he could examine and repair the ship in
dry dock, but the nearest was on the other side of the world.
So he looked for a quiet
harbor where he could heave the ship over on its side and look at the bottom. But the
west coast of
North America was unexplored - he had to find his own
harbor.
On June 17, 1579, he pulled around the hook of a point and found a "fair and good harbor". He paid it the ultimate compliment: he thought it looked like
England,
white cliffs and all.
Over a
sand bar and up a
channel, his crew found a small
cove, protected from the prevailing westerly winds and the summer mist that Drake called "fogges" by a hook of a
sand spit.
So 422 years ago, Drake ordered the
vessel unloaded. The
ballast was shifted and the crew careened the ship,
counterbalancing possibly by a second ship, or lashing in place by lines connected to shore. The
Golden Hinde keeled over on its side, exposing the
hull.
The ship was repaired over the
spring and
summer. It was such a good job that Drake did indeed sail around the world and back to
England.
All this repair work was done in the little cove shown on a map that Drake made with his own hand - Labled "
Portus Novae Albionis".
The mystery began later, in 1956, when the small
cove and
sand spit were flooded with sand and debris, making the enterance to
Drake's Estero (a small, shallow bay that opens onto the larger
Drakes Bay) look completely different from the
port shown on Sir Frances Drake's map.
Suddenly, towns in
Oregon,
Washington,
British Columbia, and
Alaska claimed that they were the true location where the
Golden Hinde landed. Seventeen sites in all say they were Drake's port.
During an April
storm in 2001, the spit and cove were uncovered - making the
geography perfectly match the map once more.
I highly reccomend a trip to
Drake's Beach, and the rest of the
Point Reyes National Seashore in
Marin County,
California. Bring a picnic and enjoy the drive past the historic farms, the beach and
Point Reyes Lighthouse.