A talk by Bob Ward
Thursday, Nov. 19 at 6pm at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center.
Francis Drake spent the summer of 1579 at a harbor somewhere on the west coast of North America during the course of his famous voyage around the world. He claimed the land for England, naming it “New Albion” and placed the local people under the protection of his Queen, Elizabeth I. This was the very first time that a local people had been placed under the protection of the British crown, so wherever it took place was the Birthplace of the British Empire. When he got home, his voyage was surrounded by secrecy. All his logs and charts were confiscated and never seen again, his crew were sworn to secrecy, and no account of the voyage was allowed for almost ten years. When one was published, it said that Drake’s New Albion was at 38⁰, which placed it in the region of San Francisco, California. However, it is easy to demonstrate that the account was falsified in several places, and a small trail of clues enables it to be identified as Whale Cove, just south of Depoe Bay, Oregon. These clues include a previously-unknown account written by one of Drake’s crew that Bob found in the archives of the British Library, two sketches of the anchorage, and a description of an animal that is not found in California. Bob presents the evidence, explains the reason for the secrecy and the very real consequences for Oregon.
