<P> Sir Francis Drake ( c. 1540 -- 28 January 1596 ) was an English sea captain , privateer , slave trader , naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era . Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition , from 1577 to 1580 , and was the first to complete the voyage as captain while leading the expedition throughout the entire circumnavigation . With his incursion into the Pacific Ocean , he claimed what is now California for the English and inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish on the western coast of the Americas , an area that had previously been largely unexplored by western shipping . </P>
<P> Sir Francis Drake ( c. 1540 -- 28 January 1596 ) was an English sea captain , privateer , slave trader , naval officer and explorer of the Elizabethan era . Drake carried out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition , from 1577 to 1580 , and was the first to complete the voyage as captain while leading the expedition throughout the entire circumnavigation . With his incursion into the Pacific Ocean , he claimed what is now California for the English and inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish on the western coast of the Americas , an area that had previously been largely unexplored by western shipping . </P>
first english ship to circumnavigate the world in 1577
first english ship to circumnavigate the world in 1577
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake