Friday, August 11, 2017

HEART OF OAK: EARLY HISTORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY

THE STORY OF THE 400 YEAR OLD STRUGGLE OF THE BRITISH NAVY AND THE NAVY'S ROLE IN BRINGING GREAT BRITAIN INTO THE FIRST RANK OF NATIONS IN THE MODERN WORLD

File:John Hawkins.JPG
QUEEN ELIZABETH I                                    SIR JOHN HAWKINS

"As treasurer (1577) and comptroller (1589) of the Royal Navy, Hawkins rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588. One of the foremost seamen of 16th-century England, Hawkins was the chief architect of the Elizabethan navy. In the battle in which the Spanish Armada was defeated in 1588, Hawkins served as a vice admiral. He was knighted for gallantry. He later devised the naval blockade to intercept Spanish treasure ships leaving Mexico and South America."-Wikipedia
File:1590 or later Marcus Gheeraerts, Sir Francis Drake Buckland Abbey, Devon.jpg

"Sir Francis Drakevice admiral (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596[3]) was an English sea captainprivateernavigatorslaver[4]and politician 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."
Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588 and a cousin and close confidant of Hawkins."  From Wikipedia

 The people depicted above and whose biographies are linked to took a rag tag aging, and tiny English Navy and started it on its way to becoming a global force which would propel Great Britain into the first rank of nations. HEART OF OAK   is an entertaining but historically accurate video that tells the story of the early rise of the British Navy,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcKgDRqpMlo. Every Naval history buff should see HEART OF OAK   then stay tuned for the various episodes of EMPIRE OF THE SEAS which follow and bring the story into modern times.

Click here to begin: HEART OF OAK  

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