His career as a salty sea dog began when he was apprenticed to Sir John Hawkins, the first Englishman to become heavily involved in the slave trade and transporting them to Spanish plantations in the New World but he came into his own when he was given his own fleet and decided that slaves were not lucrative enough for him so began a career in piracy, even teaming up with the French pirates currently operating in the Spanish Main transporting gold back to Spain.
One time he robbed a Spanish mule train loaded with gold and silver and killed them all including the mules but then realised that it was too heavy to carry back to the ship in one trip and regretting killing all the mules, he buried the treasure and made a map marked with a big X which began that particular Pirate thing but by the time him and his men came back to retrieve it, the Spanish had found it and dug it up again.
A Pirate's life is so dark and shadowy and full of fear and trepidation but then so was going to the toilet on a Pirate ship in the middle of the night so he returned to England and was hailed a hero before turning his hand to Exploring.
Leaving Plymouth today in 1577, he sailed around the World in the Golden Hind, stopping off at a few places to teach johnny foreigner good wholesome British values like stealing other peoples land by force and wearing crotch hugging tight pants while you do it.
After his triumphant return to England, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I and made Vice Admiral of the Navy just as the Spanish were getting bolshy again.
He was famously playing bowls when they attacked England with their Armada so he finished the game and then set out to create what will become the year 6 syllabus centuries later.
He was buried at sea off the coast of Panama but nobody has been able to find his body, someone should have made a map and put a big X on it i guess.
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