True glory
by chuckofish
On this day in 1580 Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the Earth.
Can you even imagine such a thing? In the sixteenth century?
Drake’s expedition was the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580, and was the first to be completed with the same captain and leader of the expedition throughout the entire circumnavigation. (Ferdinand Magellan died in the Philippines and the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation did not make it up to North America.)
Yes, Sir Francis Drake was quite a guy. Why, I ask, didn’t they make a movie about him starring Errol Flynn?
Well, according to IMDB.com, there is a movie called Seven Seas to Calais (1962) starring Rod Taylor as Drake, which was Italian-produced and originally called “Il dominatore dei 7 mari”.
In this dubious flick “Sir Francis Drake goes on an expedition to the New World and steals gold from the Spaniards. After making a daring getaway, he returns to England where he protects Queen Elizabeth I from a network of spies who are plotting to overthrow her.” You can see the whole movie on Amazon and I may have to check it out this weekend.
Meanwhile, let us not forget that there is a new show debuting on Sunday night starring Don Johnson.
I’m sure it is terrible, accent on really bad, but I have to give it a try. I mean c’mon. Don Johnson.
I will close with this great prayer by Drake which I know I have quoted before, but it certainly bears repeating:
“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little,
when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the waters of life, having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes, and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ. ”
Have a great weekend!
dual personalities 
Oh man! I can’t imagine sailing around the world NOW!! And I’m excited for the Don Johnson show, even if it is awful…I mean, watched Arrow for at least half a season before giving up 🙂
One of my favorite books when I was little was Roy Gerrard’s “Sir Francis Drake his Daring Deeds!” He was the coolest, sailing through the stormy Patagonia straights and fighting South American Indians. “Two ships they burnt, to cook their meat (and dry their clothes and toast their feet). They felt much better after that, and likewise their bedraggled cat.”
I always liked that they had a cat on board 😉
OF COURSE you did.