Description

pp. 400, “Bawlf narrates the sea dog’s voyage and plumbs maps and chronicles published in its immediate wake. Although Drake’s trashing of Spanish galleons and towns in America was a lucrative boon and sensational propaganda for Elizabeth I in her sinuous maneuverings against Philip II, Drake’s precise route through the Pacific was purposely obfuscated. The concealment annoyed cartographers such as Mercator, whose frustration Bawlf quotes, but energizes the author’s scrutiny of maps. Reproduced profusely in this work, the charts show islets off the northwest coast of North America. Drake also vaguely recorded geographic landmarks in the region (e.g., “frozen land”). Bawlf melds these details into a conjecture that Drake poked the Golden Hinde around Vancouver Island and its labyrinthine waters. Mavens of maritime history will tingle at this kind of sleuthing, and they’ll rollick as well in Bawlf’s fluid retelling of Drake’s drama-filled life at sea and court.”