Sir Thomas Cavendish, "the Navigator"

Thomas Cavendish, Cavendish also spelled Candish   (baptized September 19, 1560, Trimley St. Martin, Suffolk, England—died c. May 1592, in the North Atlantic), English navigator and freebooter, leader of the third circumnavigation of the Earth.

Cavendish accompanied Sir Richard Grenville on his voyage to America (1585) and, upon returning to England, undertook an elaborate imitation of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation. On July 21, 1586, he sailed from Plymouth with 123 men in three vessels. He reached the Patagonian coast of South America, where he discovered Port Desire, now Puerto Deseado, Arg., his only significant contribution to geographical knowledge. After passing through the Strait of Magellan, he attacked Spanish settlements and shipping from South America to Mexico. Among his prizes was the treasure galleon “Santa Ana,” seized off the coast of California (Nov. 14, 1587). After touching the Philippines, the Moluccas, and Java, he rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at Plymouth on Sept. 9/10, 1588, with only one of his ships, the “Desire,” and much plunder. On his second American-Pacific venture, undertaken in 1591, his fleet failed to traverse the Strait of Magellan, and Cavendish died trying to get back to England.

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Sir Thomas Cavendish (19 September 1560 – May 1592) was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe. While members of Magellan's, Loaisa's, Drake's, and Loyola's expeditions had preceded Cavendish in circumnavigating the globe, it had not been their intent at the outset. His first trip and successful circumnavigation, made him rich from captured Spanish gold, silk and treasure from the Pacific and the Philippines. His richest prize was the captured 600 ton sailing ship the Manila Galleon Santa Ana (also called Santa Anna). He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England after his return. He later set out for a second raiding and circumnavigation trip, but was not as fortunate and died at sea at the age of 32.

Early life

Cavendish was born in 1560 at Trimley St. Martin near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. His father was William Cavendish; he was a descendant of Roger Cavendish, brother to Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle derive their family name of Cavendish.

When Cavendish was 12 he inherited a fortune from his deceased father William, but after leaving school at age 17, for the next 8 years or so he spent most of it on luxurious living. At the age of 15 he attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University for two years, but did not take a degree. He was a member of the Parliament for Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 1584. He sailed with Sir Richard Grenville to Virginia in 1585 gaining much valuable experience but losing money on his investments. He was a member of Parliament for Wilton, 1586.

First voyage: a successful westbound circumnavigation

By July 1586 Spain and England were in a war which would later culminate with the Spanish Armada and its threatened invasion of England in 1588. Thomas Cavendish determined to follow Sir Francis Drake by raiding the Spanish ports and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe. After getting permission for his proposed raids Cavendish built a larger 120 ton sailing ship, with 18 cannons, named the Desire. He was joined by the 60 ton, 10 cannon, ship Content, and the 40 ton ship Hugh Gallant.

Departure and Atlantic crossing

With his three ships and 123 men he set out from Plymouth, England on 21 July 1586 and reached the Strait of Magellan on 6 January 1587.

He anchored first at the island of Santa Magdalena near present day Punta Arenas, Chile. There, in two hours, they killed and salted two barrels-full of penguins for food. After extensive exploration of the many inlets, labyrinths, and intricate channels of the islands and broken lands of Tierra del Fuego and its environs they emerged from the strait into the Pacific on 24 February and sailed up the coast of South America.

Exploring and raiding off the west coast of South America

There on the Pacific coast he sank or captured 9 Spanish ships and looted several towns of quantities of fresh food, supplies and treasure while intentionally sinking the ship Hugh Gallant to use her crew to replace crew members lost on his other ships.

Capturing a Manila galleon

One of the captured Spanish ships' pilots revealed that a Manila galleon was expected in October or November 1587 and usually stopped at Cape San Lucas on the Baja California peninsula before going on to Acapulco. The Manila galleons were restricted by the Spanish Monarch to one or two ships/year and typically carried all the goods accumulated in the Philippines in a year's worth of trading silver, from the Mints in Peru and Mexico, with the Chinese and others, for spices, silk, gold and other expensive goods. In 1587 there were two Manila galleons: the San Francisco and the Santa Ana. Unfortunately both encountered a typhoon on leaving the Philippines and were wrecked on the coast of Japan. Only the Santa Ana was salvageable and after repairs resumed her voyage.

Upon reaching the Gulf of California in October 1587 Cavendish and his two ships put in at an island above Mazatlan where they careened their ships to clean their bottoms and made general repairs. They had to dig wells for water. They sailed for Cape San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula and set up patrols to see if they could spot the Manila galleon. Early on 4 November 1587 one of Cavendish's lookouts spotted the 600 ton galleon manned with over 200 men. After a several hour chase the English ships overhauled the Santa Ana--which conveniently had no cannons on board to allow more cargo. After several hours of battle during which Cavendish used his cannon to fire ball and grape shot into the galleon while the Spanish tried to fight back with small arms, the Santa Ana, now starting to sink, finally struck her colours and surrendered.

Because of the great disparity in size the Content and Desire had to pick and choose what rich cargo they wanted to transfer to their ships from the much larger Santa Ana. One hundred and ninety Spaniards (including Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624), later explorer of the California coast), and Filipino crewmen, were set ashore with food and some weapons in a location where they had water and food available. Cavendish kept with him two Japanese sailors, three boys from Manila, a Portuguese traveler familiar with China and a Spanish pilot (navigator). They loaded all the gold (about 100 troy pounds or 122,000 pesos worth) and then picked through the silks, damasks, musks (used in perfume manufacture), spices, wines, and ship's supplies for what they could carry. Some in Mexico claimed that the total value of the cargo was about 2,000,000 pesos. After setting fire to the Santa Ana, the Desire and Content sailed away on 17 November 1587 to begin their voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

While burning, the Santa Ana drifted onto the coast where the Spanish survivors extinguished the flames, re-floated the ship and limped into Acapulco.

The Content was never heard from again. The Desire tried to avoid conflict for the rest of her voyage.

Crossing the Pacific Ocean and exploring the islands of South-east Asia

After crossing the Pacific Ocean, Cavendish and the Desire arrived at the island of Guam on 3 January 1588. There he traded iron tools for fresh supplies, water and wood, supplied by the natives. On further landings in the Philippines, Java and other islands he traded some of his captured linen and other goods for fresh supplies, water and wood, and collected information about the Chinese and Japanese coasts. He hoped to use this information to augment existing English knowledge of the area and for a possible second voyage. His crew of about 48 men replaced their worn out clothing and bedding with uniforms made out of silken damask.

Return to England

By 14 May 1588 he reached the coast of Africa and returned home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, stopping at the island of Saint Helena for fresh supplies.

On 9 September 1588 the Desire sailed into the harbor at Plymouth, England. Later she paraded up the River Thames through London, displaying her new sails of blue damask.

Cavendish's first voyage was a huge success both financially and otherwise; Cavendish was only 28. The circumnavigation of the globe had been completed in two years and 49 days, nine months faster than Drake, although, like Drake, Cavendish returned with only one of his ships—the Desire with a crew of about 48 men. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England who was invited to a dinner aboard the Desire. England celebrated both the return of the Desire and the defeat of the Spanish Armada earlier that year.

Second voyage

Cavendish sailed on a second expedition in August 1591, accompanied by the navigator John Davis. They went further south to the Strait of Magellan and then returned to Brazil, where they lost most of the crew in a battle against the Portuguese at the Village of Vitória. One abandoned sailor, Anthony Knivet, later wrote about his adventures in Brazil. Cavendish set off across the Atlantic towards Saint Helena with the remainder of the crew, but died of unknown causes at age 32, possibly off Ascension Island in the South Atlantic in 1592. The last letter of Cavendish, written to his executor a few days before his death, accuses John Davis of being a "villain" who caused the "decay of the whole action". John Davis continued on with Cavendish's crew and ships and discovered the Falkland Islands, before returning to England with most of his crew lost to starvation and illness.

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• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09
• Cavendish, Thomas by Charles Henry Coote
• CAVENDISH, THOMAS (1560–1592), circumnavigator, was born at the ancestral home, Grimston Hall, in the parish of Trimley St. Martin, Suffolk, not far from the port of Harwich. Like many other gentlemen of the period, he took to piracy as a means to recover his squandered patrimony. His first recorded adventure at sea was in a ship of his own in the ‘The viage made by Sir Richard Greenvile for Sir Walter Raleigh in the year 1585’ (Hakluyt, 1599, iii. 251), in order to plant the first unfortunate colony in Virginia. The fleet of seven sail left Plymouth on 9 April in the above year. Sailing by way of the Canaries to the West Indies, they waited at St. Juan de Porto Rico for a fortnight, ostensibly with the object of building a pinnace, but really with a view of annoying the Spaniards, from whom they captured two frigates, one of which contained ‘good and rich fraight, and diuers Spaniards of account,’ whom they ‘ransomed for good round summes,’ which employment was much more congenial to Cavendish than Raleigh's scheme of ‘Westerne planting.’ Proceeding on their course to Isabella in Hispaniola (Hayti), where they landed, they sailed through the Bahamas, and after sighting the mainland of Florida they arrived on 26 June at their anchorage of Wocokon in Virginia. On July 11 Cavendish formed one of a select company who landed with Grenville, and, among others, Thomas Harriott and John White, the artist to the expedition, in order to explore the mainland of what is now known as North Carolina. After having discovered three towns and a great lake, and industriously sown the seeds of future troubles by their lawless conquest of the harmless natives during a period of eight days, they returned to the fleet. On 27 July the fleet removed to Hatoraske (Hatteras inlet); on 25 Aug. Grenville set sail for England, capturing on his way another richly laden Spanish ship, with which he arrived at Plymouth 18 Sept. 1585. That he was accompanied by Cavendish on his return is certain, as the name of the latter is omitted from the list of 108 gentlemen ‘that remained one whole yeere in Virginia’ under Ralph Lane, the first governor of the colony (Hakluyt, 1598, iii. 251–4).
• Immediately after his return to England Cavendish began to prepare on his own account an expedition closely modelled upon that of Sir Francis Drake of eight years before. Of this famous voyage, by which he is best known, there are preserved two accounts: 1. ‘The worthy and famous Voyage of Master Thomas Cavendish, made round about the Globe of the Earth, in the space of two years and less than two months,’ by N. H. (ib. 1589, p. 809). 2. ‘The admirable and prosperous Voyage of the Worshipful Mr. Thomas Cavendish, of Trimley, in the county of Suffolk, esquire, into the South Sea, and from thence round about the circumference of the whole earth; begun in the year of our Lord 1586, and finished 1588. Written by Mr. Francis Pretty, lately of Eye, in Suffolk, a gentleman employed in the same action’ (ib. 1599–1600, iii. 803). The fleet of three ships, manned by 123 hands all told, consisted of the Desire of 140 tons, the Content of 60 tons, and the Hugh Gallant, a barque of 40 tons. Cavendish departed from London 10 June 1586, and, after calling at Harwich, proceeded to Plymouth, whence they sailed 21 July. From internal evidence it may be safely inferred that the first and shorter narrative by N. H. was written under the eye of Cavendish on board the Desire; but the second and more interesting one was partly written by Pretty on board the Hugh Gallant barque before it was sunk near the equator in the Pacific, for want of hands. After an ineffectual skirmish with five large Biscayan ships off Cape Finisterre, five days out from England, Cavendish sailed by the coast of Barbary and the Canaries to Sierra Leone, where he anchored in the harbour 21 Aug. Here his stay of ten days was varied by an attempt to burn the native town and the capture of a sailor of Oporto belonging to a Portuguese ship cast away in the inner harbour. On 6 Sept. he departed from Sierra Leone, and, after a short stay at one of the Cape Verde islands, he shaped his course for South America, reached Cape Frio in Brazil 31 Oct. and anchored the next day under the island of St. Sebastian. Here, in order to refit, take in water and fuel, and to build a new pinnace of 10 tons, he anchored for twenty-three days. On 23 Nov. he set sail towards the Straits of Magellan, discovering on his way (17 Dec.) a fine harbour almost as large as Plymouth, known to this day as Port Desire, so named after his own ship, where he spent Christmas in studying the manners and arts of the Patagonians. Departing from Port Desire 28 Dec., Cavendish went coasting along S.S.W. until 3 Jan. 1587, when he reached the opening of the straits, where he lost an anchor in a great storm which lasted three days. On the 6th he commenced his tortuous passage through the straits. The next day he observed traveling overland towards the River Plate a party of twenty-three poor starved Spaniards, two of whom were women, all that remained of the two unfortunate colonies of four hundred persons planted by Pedro Sarmiento, and starved to death in King Philip's City, built and fortified three years before to command the narrowest part of the straits. On 9 Jan. Cavendish reached the ill-fated city, which he renamed the ‘Town of Famine,’ now known as Port Famine; here during his stay of five days he discovered, buried within the four forts, six pieces of ordnance, which he carried off. Cavendish was only too ‘glad to hasten from this place for the noisome stench and vile sauour wherewith it was infected, through the contagion of the Spaniards' pined and dead carcases’ (N. H.) Near the same spot a rescued Spaniard pointed out the hull of a small barque which was judged to be the John Thomas, probably abandoned by Sir Francis Drake nine years before. On 14 Jan. Cavendish resumed his perilous voyage through the straits, which occupied him more than six weeks; wherein ‘they hazarded their best cables and anchors that we had for to hold, which if they had failed we had been in danger to have been cast away, or at least famished.’ For quite a month, adds Pretty, ‘we fed almost altogether on muscles, and limpets, and birds, or such as we could get on shore, seeking for them every day as the fowls of the air do, where they can find food, in continual rainy weather.’
• On 24 Feb. Cavendish entered the South Sea or Pacific and plied along the coast of Chili until 30 March, when he reached the Bay of Quintero, a little to the N. of Valparaiso; here Hernando, the Spaniard saved from starvation in the straits, upon being landed to parley with three other mounted Spaniards, leaped up behind and rode away with one of them, and doubtless alarmed the Spaniards along the whole seaboard. On 1 April a handful of the three crews was attacked by nearly two hundred horsemen while watering, but the enemy retired with a loss of twenty-five men as against twelve slain of the English. Sailing along the coast from 15 to 23 April, Cavendish, with two of his ships, came athwart the Port of Mormoreno (Monte Moreno), where he landed. He afterwards came to Arica, where he awaited the arrival of the Content, the crew of which had found in a bay fourteen leagues southwards of Arica 300 tons of botizios of wine of Castile buried in the sand, and she laded herself with as many as she could carry. In this place Cavendish burned three barques and a large ship of 100 tons, which last the inhabitants refused to ransom in exchange for English prisoners taken at Quintero. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly roused, for Cavendish intercepted two barques coming from the southward towards Lima, 25 to 27 April; the second, from Santiago, near Quintero, had on board letters of advice for the viceroy concerning Cavendish, which were thrown overboard before they could be secured. The contents were revealed by one of the Spaniards, who, by the order of Cavendish, ‘was tormented with his thumbs in a wrench.’ Among the captured was also found ‘a reasonable pilot for those seas,’ who, according to N. H., was also a Spaniard, but according to Pretty a Greek. From 3 to 5 May the little fleet rode in Pisa bay, near the Chincha islands, now famed for its guano deposits. Sailing forward on 16 and 17 May they captured three large ships, one worth 20,000l., which had the chief merchandise in it. Cavendish filled his ships with as much of this as they could carry and burnt the remainder with the captured ships. On 25 May Cavendish arrived at the island of Puna in the gulf of Guayaquil; here they remained eleven days, hauled the Desire and Content on shore for repairs, sank a large Spanish ship lying at anchor, with all her furniture, and burned the town, out of revenge for an unsuccessful sortie of the Spaniards and natives upon a foraging party wherein forty of the enemy were slain, with the loss of twelve English. Pretty describes the ‘great casique’ of the island, his Spanish wife and treasures, his palace with its chambers decorated with old-world hangings of ‘Cordovan leather gilded all over and painted very rare and rich.’ On 7 June Cavendish set forward for Rio Dolce, near the equator, where he sank the Hugh Gallant for want of men. Five days later they doubled the equinoctial line and continued their course northward until 9 July, when off the coast of Guatemala they captured a ship in ballast piloted by Michael Sancius, a Provençal, who informed Cavendish of a great prize that was on its way from the Philippines. Cavendish burned the ship in ballast, as also a barque which he captured the next day which was sent from Lima to carry warning all along the coast. On 28 July he reached Aguatulco (Guatulco), which town they also spoiled and burned during a stay of five days. Weighing anchor from this place in the night of 2 Aug. he overshot Acapulco, the Mexican port for the arrival and departure of the Spanish fleet for the Philippines, and came on 24 Aug. to Puerto de Natividad, where he landed and captured a mounted mulatto, from whom he took more letters of advice. After setting fire to the town and shipping he proceeded to a small island near Mazatlan, where he anchored to water and refit from 27 Sept. until 9 Oct., when the ships weighed anchor for Cape St. Lucas, the well-known headland of Lower California, which Pretty remarks ‘is very like the Needles at the Isle of Wight.’ Here the Desire and Content were beating up and down the coast from 14 Oct. for a whole month, when, between seven and eight in the morning of 14 Nov., the crews of the two ships were roused by the watch in the maintop of the Desire by the cry of ‘A sail!’ which proved to be no other than the long-expected prize from the Philippines, the Admiral of the South Sea, owned by the king of Spain, the Great St. Anna of 700 tons richly laden. Cavendish captured the ship after an obstinate fight of six hours and brought it into the neighbouring harbour of Aguada Segura, where he proceeded to divide the treasure among his own company and that of the Content, who were inclined to mutiny about their share of the money taken. Besides 22,000 pesos of gold the prize contained 600 tons of the richest merchandise, of which Cavendish could only take forty tons for each of his ships, which were already laden to the full. According to the narrative of N. H., ‘this was one of the richest vessels that ever sailed on the seas; and was able to have made many hundreds wealthy if we had had means to have brought it home.’ Cavendish also took out of the Great St. Anna two youths born in Japan and three boys natives of Manilla, the youngest of whom, about nine years old, afterwards found a home with the Countess of Essex. He also took Nicholas Roderigo, a Portuguese, who had resided in Canton and other parts of China, from whom he probably obtained the large map of China referred to at length by Hakluyt (p. 813), and Thomas de Ersola, a Spanish pilot for the Philippines. On the afternoon of 19 Nov., after having burnt his great prize with its contents to the water's edge, Cavendish joyfully set sail alone towards England, leaving the Content in the road, whose company they never saw afterwards. Cavendish continued his voyage across the Pacific until 3 Jan. 1588, when he sighted the island of Guana (Guajan), one of the Ladrones, where he met with a reception from the natives strikingly similar to that experienced by Magellan on their first discovery in 1521. Eleven days later, falling in with Capo Spirito Santo, on the island of Tadaia (Samar), he commenced his tortuous navigation of the Philippines and Moluccas, so evidently misapprehended by Molyneux in his praiseworthy attempt to track and record it on his famous globe of 1593.
• On 15 Jan., while anchoring off the small island of Capul, at the south end of Luzon, Cavendish was compelled for his own safety to hang the Spanish pilot De Ersola, who, by a secret letter, attempted to betray him into the hands of the authorities at Manilla, then an unwalled town guarded by galleys. On 24 Jan., after making the island of Masbate, he passed between Panama (Panay) and the island of Negroes, and sailing west of Mindanoa, he directed his course S.E. until 8 Feb., when he sighted Batochina (Batchian), one of the Moluccas S. of Gilolo. Here we are met by two geographical puzzles. According to N. H., Cavendish sailed down the Straits of Macassar to the W. of the Celebes, for he writes ‘we ran between Celebes or Batachina and Borneo until the 12th day of February’ (Hakluyt, 1589, p. 812). In consequence, Molyneux in his globe (see infra) assigns the name of Batachina to the Celebes; this error, however, is corrected by Pretty, who writes: ‘On the 14th day of February we fell with eleven or twelve very small islands, lying low and flat. These islands (evidently the Xullas), near the Moluccas, stand in three degrees, 10 minutes to the southward of the line’ (ib. iii. 820). Again, on 28 Feb. N. H. writes: ‘We put through between the Straits of Java major and Java minor and ankered under the south-west part of Java major’ (ib. 1589, p. 812). The identity of Java major with Java proper is undisputed, but the hitherto unsettled questions have been, the identification of the Straits, Java minor, and the anchorage. Professor Arber (English Garner, iv. 125) holds that the Straits were those of Sunda, W. of Java proper. Colonel Yule, however, suggests (Marco Polo, ii. 267) that they were the Straits of Baly, E. of Java, and that the Java minor of Cavendish was the island of Baly. Both these assumptions are, however, disproved by Thos. Fuller, the sailing master of the Desire, who writes: ‘From the W. end of Java minor unto the E. end of Java major the course is W. and by N. and E. and by S. and the distance between them is 18 leagues; in the which course there lieth an island between them, which island (referred to in the margin as Baly) is in length 14 leagues’ (ib. iii. 832). Again he writes: ‘The first day of March wee passed the Straights at the W. head of the island of Java minor (i.e. Lombok), and the 5th day of March we ankered in the bay at the Wester (sic) end of Java maior, where wee watered and had great store of victuals from the town of Polambo’ (ib. p. 834). Pretty adds to the confusion when he writes that the king of that (i.e. the W.) part of the island was ‘Raja Bolamboang,’ who it is to be feared has been confounded with the Raja of Balamboang, whose descendants were to be found at the E. end of Java down to 1788 (cf. Van der Aa). From this it follows that, after passing through the Straits of Lombok with Baly, on the E., Cavendish sailed along the S. coast of Java proper for five days, and that his anchorage for twelve days afterwards was at Paliboam-Ratoe, in Wijnkoopers Bay, under the S.W. end of Java, as stated by all the three narratives of N. H., Pretty, and Fuller. From 11 March and all through April Cavendish traversed the main between Java and Africa, when on 19 March he sighted the long-wished-for Cape of Good Hope. On 8 June he anchored under the island of St. Helena, where he stayed twelve days for refreshment, and was the first to discover it to the English nation. On 20 June he shaped his course for England, where, upon arriving off the Lizard 3 Sept., he was greeted by a Flemish vessel with the news of the overthrow of the Spanish Armada. After encountering a violent storm of four days' duration in the Channel, N. H. closes his narrative thus: ‘On … 10 Sept. 1588, like wearied men, through the favour of the Almighty, we got into Plymouth, where the townsmen received us with all humanity’ (Hakluyt, 1589).
• The fame of Cavendish as the second English circumnavigator of the globe was now almost at its zenith. Popular feeling respecting the voyage and its leader found expression in ballads, the titles only of three of which are preserved to us under their respective entries for publication (3 Nov. 1588): ‘A Ballad of Master Cavendish's Voyage, who by travel compassed the Globe of the World, arriving in England with abundance of treasure’ (14 Nov. 1588); ‘A new Ballad of the famous and honourable coming home of Master Cavendish's Ship the Desire, before the Queen's Maiesty at her Court at Greenwich,’ 12 Nov. 1588, &c. (3 Dec. 1588); ‘Captain Robert's Welcome of good-will to Captain Cavendish.’ This last, however, may have been either a ballad or a broadside (cf. Arber, Reg. Stat. Comp. ii. 505–9). Two of the rarest cartographical records of the voyage are to be found on the terrestrial globe by Molyneux (see supra), and an equally rare map by Jodocus Hondius, who engraved the gores for the globe. Respecting the first Blundeville writes: ‘The voyage as well of Sir F. Drake as of Mr. Th. Candish is set down and showed by help of two lines, the one red … doth show what course Sir Francis observed in all his voyage … the blew line showeth in like manner the voyage of Master Candish.’ A unique example of this globe, the first made in England in 1592, the year of Cavendish's death, is preserved in the library of the Middle Temple. The map of the world in hemispheres, engraved by Hondius in 1597, evidently copied from the globe, is also accompanied by the accounts of Sir F. Drake's voyage, and that of Cavendish by N. H., both translated from Hakluyt (1589) into Dutch. The allusion in one of the ballads to Cavendish's reception by the queen at Greenwich serves somewhat to confirm the tradition that a greater part of his wealth, either inherited or acquired by spoiling the Spaniards, was squandered ‘in gallantry and following the court’ (Biog. Brit.) The tradition also serves to throw some light upon the causes that led him to undertake his last fated voyage, which was evidently meant for a repetition of the previous one in every particular, as proved by the heading of the record preserved to us, which reads, ‘The last Voyage of the worshipfull M. Thomas Candish (sic), esquire, intended for the South sea, the Phillipines, and the coast of China, with three tall ships and two barks. Written by M. J. Jane’ (Hakluyt). The fleet, comprising the Leicester galleon, commanded by Cavendish, the Roebucke, his old ship the Desire, commanded by Captain John Davis of Arctic fame [q. v.], the Black Pinnace, and the Daintie, left Plymouth on 26 Aug. 1591, and sighted the coast of Brazil at St. Salvador (lat. 12° 58′ 16″ S.), or Campos (lat. 21° 36′ 30″ S.), on 29 Nov., where they were becalmed four days. After a feeble attempt to take the town of Santos (lat 23° 55′ 1″ S.) on 24 Jan., he set forward on his voyage, but, owing to the lateness of the season and the unusually bad weather, Cavendish was separated from the rest of his fleet until 18 March, when he rejoined Davis at Port Desire. Two days later they sailed for the Straits of Magellan, where, after many furious storms, they sailed halfway through the straits, and on 21 April 1592 the ships anchored in a cove four leagues W. from Cape Froward, where they remained until 15 May, enduring great hardships, Cavendish all the while being with Davis on board the Desire. It soon became obvious that Cavendish had outlived his reputation as a leader of men; unnerved probably by his own misery and that of his crews, he resolved against their wishes to make for the Cape of Good Hope in his own ship, the Leicester, but being deterred by the sound advice of Davis from attempting ‘so hard an enterprise with so feeble a crew,’ he determined to depart out of the Straits of Magellan, ‘and to return again for Santos in Brazil.’ On 20 May, the fleet being once more off Port Desire about thirty leagues, Cavendish in the night altered his course to seaward, in consequence of which, the Desire and Black Pinnace being lost sight of in the darkness, he never saw Davis afterwards. Cavendish once more made for Brazil. After several disastrous attempts to land at Santos and Espirito Santo, where he was deserted by the Roebucke, he made one last effort to reach St. Helena. He ‘got within two leagues,’ and afterwards sought for an island in 8° S. lat. (evidently Ascension). The last notice of Cavendish in the homeward voyage of the Leicester is his own record of the death of his cousin, John Locke, in 8° N. lat. Cavendish died a few days later, probably of a broken heart. In his last hours he accused Davis of having deserted him, but from all we know of the character of Davis this is not only unjust, but also incredible. Long after the separation of the fleet on 20 May previous, Davis not only returned to Port Desire to seek for Cavendish, but he also made no less than three unsuccessful attempts to sail through the straits down to the end of 1592. Such were the hardships they endured, that out of it crew of seventy-six men who sailed from England two years before, only a 'small remnant' of fifteen lived to return with Davis in misery and weakness so great that they 'could not take in or heave out a saile' of the Desire, which arrived off Bearhaven in Ireland on 11 June 1593, fully a year after the death and burial of Cavendish at sea. For engraved portraits of Cavendish, see Grainger (i. 247).
• [Aa's Aardrijsküdig Woordeboek der Nederlanden, 1840, 2° deel, p. 51; Arbert's English Garner, 4, 125; Arber's Transcript of Registers of Stationers' Company, ii. 505-9: Biog. Brit. c. 1196; Blundeville's Exercises, 1594; Davis's Voyages (Hakluyt Soc.), 1880; Encyclopedia Britannica. art. 'Globe,' Hakluyt, 1589-99, vol. iii.; Holland'a Hero-ologia, p. 89; Lediard's Naval History, 1735, p. 229; Yule's Marco Polo, 2nd ed. 1875; Cal. Carew MSS.; Hist. MSS. Comm. App. 4th Rep. 372; Harl. MS. 268, f. 161.]
• From: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cavendish,_Thomas_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionarynatio50stepgoog#page/n373/mode... _______________________
• CAVENDISH, Thomas (1560-92), of Trimley St. Martin, Suff.
• bap. 19 Sept. 1560, 3rd or 4th but 1st surv. s. of William Cavendish I by Mary, da. of Thomas, 1st Baron Wentworth of Nettlestead. educ. Corpus, Camb. 1576; G. Inn 1577. unm. suc. fa. 1572.
• Offices Held
• Biography
• Cavendish was a friend of Walter Ralegh who, though unlikely to have had any electoral patronage as early as 1584, was a member of the group surrounding the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, who controlled the patronage at Shaftesbury and Wilton.1
• Little is known of Cavendish between 1577 and 1585, when he commanded a ship under Richard Grenville II in the expedition to Virginia. After the voyage Grenville complained of the behaviour of Cavendish, who seems already to have been showing the weakness that caused loss of life on his last voyage. Less than a year after returning from Virginia, Cavendish fitted out a squadron to sail through the Straits of Magellan. Hakluyt’s suggestion that he did this at his own expense is unlikely to be true. His family estates in Suffolk, though of considerable value, were hardly rich enough to finance an expedition of three ships with large crews. Lord Hunsdon (Henry Carey†) has been suggested as one of his patrons, and since Cavendish sailed from Plymouth it is possible that he had some connexion with the Devon adventurers: Ralegh’s influence, though not obvious, might be inferred. Cavendish sailed in July 1586, passed through the Straits in the following January, and carried out a raid on Chile and Peru. Returning to Plymouth at the beginning of September 1588 with only one of the original three ships, the Desire, but with the bulk of his treasure intact, his track must have crossed that of Medina Sidonia, who was on his way back to Santander after the defeat of the Armada. Partly through generosity, partly from extravagance, his booty soon disappeared, a contemporary reporting that ‘although his great wealth was said to have sufficed ... for his whole life, yet he saw the end thereof within very short time’; and one of his relatives later blamed him for ‘dealing in sea-causes, for he thereby overthrew his house and fortunes’.2
• In 1591 he set off again, this time with John Davis and Adrian Gilbert, for the south seas and China, being admitted a free burgess of Southampton just before he sailed. Supplies were short and Cavendish quarrelled with several of his subordinates, behaving in so unbalanced a way that it was thought his mind was becoming deranged. After losing touch with Davis (who searched unavailingly for his leader for some time) Cavendish died at sea in May or June 1592. His will, made at sea, and proved 14 Feb. 1596 by Tristram Gorges, bequeathed the ships to Sir George Carey. Apart from a bequest of 100 marks to one of the Queen’s surgeons, the residue of the property went to Cavendish’s sister Anne. His executor was to see that ‘every adventurer receive proportionably to his adventure.’ Cavendish had his will sealed in a packet and the man who delivered it to Gorges was to receive £40. Cavendish’s last message to Gorges reads: ‘I left none in England whom I loved half as well as yourself. I have no more to say, but take this last farewell, that you have lost the lovingest friend that was lost by any.’ 3
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/ca... __________________________
• Links
• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasCavendish.htm

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Sir Thomas Cavendish (o Candish) (Trimley St. Martin, cerca de Ipswich, condado de Suffolk, 19 de septiembre de 15601​-algún lugar del Atlántico Norte, 1592), conocido como el Navegante («The Navigator»), fue un marino y corsario inglés. Aunque los miembros de las expediciones de Magallanes, Loaisa, Drake y Loyola habían precedido a Cavendish en realizar la circunnavegación, él fue el primer hombre en completarla con ese propósito. Después de su primera circunnavegación, que lo hizo rico gracias al expolio de oro español, emprendió una segunda, pero no fue tan afortunado y murió en el mar, a los 32 años de edad.

Biografía
Cavendish nació en 1560 en Trimley St. Martin, cerca de Ipswich, condado de Suffolk, Inglaterra. Era descendiente de Roger Cavendish, hermano de Sir John Cavendish (c. 1346-1381), de quien los duques de Devonshire y los duques de Newcastle derivaban su nombre familiar de Cavendish. A la edad de 15 años asistió al Corpus Christi College, Universidad de Cambridge, durante dos años, 1575-1577, pero no obtuvo ningún título. Fue miembro del Parlamento por Shaftesbury, Dorset, en 1584. Navegó con sir Richard Grenville a Virginia en 1585. Fue miembro del Parlamento por Wilton, en 1586. Circunnavegó la tierra entre 1586-88. Se embarcó en un segundo viaje alrededor del mundo en 1591 y murió, por causas desconocidas, en el Atlántico Sur en 1592.

Viajes
A los 12 años de edad, Cavendish heredó una fortuna de su difunto padre, pero después de dejar la escuela a los 17 años, la malgastó los siguientes 8 años más o menos en que llevó una vida de grandes lujos. Decidido a hacer una nueva fortuna en el mar, compró el pequeño barco Elizabeth y participó en la expedición de 1585 de sir Richard Grenville a Virginia.

En julio de 1586, Cavendish, decidido a seguir la circunnavegación del globo de Drake, construyó un barco más grande llamado Desire (Deseo). Su pequeña flota partió de Harwich el 27 de junio de 1586 y alcanzó el estrecho de Magallanes el 6 de junio de 1587. Emergieron del estrecho en el Pacífico el 24 de febrero y navegaron por la costa de América del Sur. Las operaciones de los ingleses en aguas chilenas durante el siglo xvi caían dentro del marco de las operaciones de corso, aunque la Corona española consideraba a cualquier navegante que penetraba en el Pacífico como un pirata, y había ordenado a las autoridades locales tratarlos como si lo fueran. A mediados de 1587 arriba al Golfo de Guayaquil para intentar aprovisionar la nave mediante el saqueo de la ciudad de Guayaquil, siendo este repelido por los habitantes de la ciudad. La expedición alcanzó el extremo sur de California, en octubre de 1587. En el camino quemaron tres ciudades españolas y trece naves y visitaron las ruinas de la colonia española de Rey Don Felipe, rescatando al último superviviente que aceptó ser rescatado y la renombraron como Puerto del Hambre (Port Famine). Utilizó algunas bahías chilenas como Algarrobo o El Quisco para guarecerse y reabastecerse.

A principios de noviembre de 1587 Cavendish capturó la Nao de China, el galeón español de 700 toneladas Santa Ana, aguas afuera de la bahía de Cabo San Lucas en el sur de la península de Baja California, que hacía la travesía entre México y Filipinas durante los siglos XVI al XVIII llevando mercancías y tesoros de Asia al Nuevo Mundo. Estas naves eran presas codiciadas ya que transportaban desde Acapulco, plata en barras y en moneda, cochinilla para tintes, semillas, camote, tabaco, garbanzo, chocolate y cacao, sandía, vid e higueras. Desde Manila se enviaban: de China, telas y objetos de seda; del Medio Oriente, alfombras persas; de la India, el algodón; de Japón salían abanicos, cajoneras, arcones, cofres y joyeros laqueados, peines y cascabeles, biombos y porcelanas; de Java y Ceilán, traían especias; de Oriente, lana de camello, cera, marfil labrado o tallado, bejucos para cestas, jade, ámbar, piedras preciosas, madera y corchas de madreperla, fierro, estaño; de China, la pólvora, entre otros. Cavendish saqueó la nave de su valiosa carga, que incluía más de 122.000 dólares de plata, en ese momento el tesoro español más rico a caer en manos de los ingleses. El barco de Cavendish era demasiado pequeño como para llevar todo el tesoro, y no tenía suficientes hombres para hacer navegar el galeón español, por lo que quemó el galeón y lo envió, con el resto del tesoro, al fondo del puerto. Cavendish también capturó a un piloto español, Alonso de Valladolid, que conocía las rutas a través del Pacífico.

Cavendish siguió navegando a través del Pacífico hasta las islas Filipinas, donde aprendió acerca de las costas de China y Japón, conocimientos que esperaba utilizar en un segundo viaje. Cerca de El Cabo, Cavendish encontró a dos aventureros japoneses, de los que sólo se conoce sus nombres de pila, Cristhoper y Cosmas, que lo acompañaron durante sus expediciones, entre 1587 y 1591 y que fueron los primeros japoneses en casi circunnavegar el globo terráqueo. También consiguió un gran mapa de China. El 14 de mayo de 1587 llegó a la costa de África y finalmente el 9 de septiembre de 1588 llegó a Inglaterra, completando la circunnavegación del globo nueve meses más rápido que Drake, pero, como Drake, volviendo con sólo uno de sus barcos, el Desire.

Su viaje fue además un gran éxito económico; Cavendish tenía sólo 28 años. Muchas noticias dicen que más tarde fue nombrado caballero por la reina Isabel I de Inglaterra por sus acciones contra los españoles, aunque sin embargo, el historiador David Judkins dice: «Aunque Isabel le recibió, no le hizo caballero».2​

Cavendish navegó en una segunda expedición en agosto de 1591, a bordo del Leicester, acompañado esta vez por John Davis en el Desire. Alcanzaron el puerto brasileño de Santos, que saquearon. Yendo más hacia el sur hasta el estrecho de Magallanes, el Leicester casi se va a pique. Cavendish regresó entonces a Brasil, donde perdió la mayor parte de su tripulación en una batalla contra los portugueses, en la villa de Vitória, en el estado de Espírito Santo. Siguió a través del Atlántico hacia la isla de Santa Helena con el resto de la tripulación, pero murió, posiblemente aguas afuera de la isla Ascensión. John Davis, continuó su viaje y recorrió las islas Malvinas, antes de regresar a Inglaterra, con la mayor parte de su tripulación perdida por el hambre y las enfermedades.

Thomas Cavendish, Cavendish also spelled Candish   (baptized September 19, 1560, Trimley St. Martin, Suffolk, England—died c. May 1592, in the North Atlantic), English navigator and freebooter, leader of the third circumnavigation of the Earth.

Cavendish accompanied Sir Richard Grenville on his voyage to America (1585) and, upon returning to England, undertook an elaborate imitation of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation. On July 21, 1586, he sailed from Plymouth with 123 men in three vessels. He reached the Patagonian coast of South America, where he discovered Port Desire, now Puerto Deseado, Arg., his only significant contribution to geographical knowledge. After passing through the Strait of Magellan, he attacked Spanish settlements and shipping from South America to Mexico. Among his prizes was the treasure galleon “Santa Ana,” seized off the coast of California (Nov. 14, 1587). After touching the Philippines, the Moluccas, and Java, he rounded the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at Plymouth on Sept. 9/10, 1588, with only one of his ships, the “Desire,” and much plunder. On his second American-Pacific venture, undertaken in 1591, his fleet failed to traverse the Strait of Magellan, and Cavendish died trying to get back to England.

• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/100672/Thomas-Cavendish
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cavendish _________________________

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cavendish

Sir Thomas Cavendish (19 September 1560 – May 1592) was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe. While members of Magellan's, Loaisa's, Drake's, and Loyola's expeditions had preceded Cavendish in circumnavigating the globe, it had not been their intent at the outset. His first trip and successful circumnavigation, made him rich from captured Spanish gold, silk and treasure from the Pacific and the Philippines. His richest prize was the captured 600 ton sailing ship the Manila Galleon Santa Ana (also called Santa Anna). He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England after his return. He later set out for a second raiding and circumnavigation trip, but was not as fortunate and died at sea at the age of 32.

Early life

Cavendish was born in 1560 at Trimley St. Martin near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. His father was William Cavendish; he was a descendant of Roger Cavendish, brother to Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle derive their family name of Cavendish.

When Cavendish was 12 he inherited a fortune from his deceased father William, but after leaving school at age 17, for the next 8 years or so he spent most of it on luxurious living. At the age of 15 he attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University for two years, but did not take a degree. He was a member of the Parliament for Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 1584. He sailed with Sir Richard Grenville to Virginia in 1585 gaining much valuable experience but losing money on his investments. He was a member of Parliament for Wilton, 1586.

First voyage: a successful westbound circumnavigation

By July 1586 Spain and England were in a war which would later culminate with the Spanish Armada and its threatened invasion of England in 1588. Thomas Cavendish determined to follow Sir Francis Drake by raiding the Spanish ports and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe. After getting permission for his proposed raids Cavendish built a larger 120 ton sailing ship, with 18 cannons, named the Desire. He was joined by the 60 ton, 10 cannon, ship Content, and the 40 ton ship Hugh Gallant.

Departure and Atlantic crossing

With his three ships and 123 men he set out from Plymouth, England on 21 July 1586 and reached the Strait of Magellan on 6 January 1587.

He anchored first at the island of Santa Magdalena near present day Punta Arenas, Chile. There, in two hours, they killed and salted two barrels-full of penguins for food. After extensive exploration of the many inlets, labyrinths, and intricate channels of the islands and broken lands of Tierra del Fuego and its environs they emerged from the strait into the Pacific on 24 February and sailed up the coast of South America.

Exploring and raiding off the west coast of South America

There on the Pacific coast he sank or captured 9 Spanish ships and looted several towns of quantities of fresh food, supplies and treasure while intentionally sinking the ship Hugh Gallant to use her crew to replace crew members lost on his other ships.

Capturing a Manila galleon

One of the captured Spanish ships' pilots revealed that a Manila galleon was expected in October or November 1587 and usually stopped at Cape San Lucas on the Baja California peninsula before going on to Acapulco. The Manila galleons were restricted by the Spanish Monarch to one or two ships/year and typically carried all the goods accumulated in the Philippines in a year's worth of trading silver, from the Mints in Peru and Mexico, with the Chinese and others, for spices, silk, gold and other expensive goods. In 1587 there were two Manila galleons: the San Francisco and the Santa Ana. Unfortunately both encountered a typhoon on leaving the Philippines and were wrecked on the coast of Japan. Only the Santa Ana was salvageable and after repairs resumed her voyage.

Upon reaching the Gulf of California in October 1587 Cavendish and his two ships put in at an island above Mazatlan where they careened their ships to clean their bottoms and made general repairs. They had to dig wells for water. They sailed for Cape San Lucas on the Baja Peninsula and set up patrols to see if they could spot the Manila galleon. Early on 4 November 1587 one of Cavendish's lookouts spotted the 600 ton galleon manned with over 200 men. After a several hour chase the English ships overhauled the Santa Ana--which conveniently had no cannons on board to allow more cargo. After several hours of battle during which Cavendish used his cannon to fire ball and grape shot into the galleon while the Spanish tried to fight back with small arms, the Santa Ana, now starting to sink, finally struck her colours and surrendered.

Because of the great disparity in size the Content and Desire had to pick and choose what rich cargo they wanted to transfer to their ships from the much larger Santa Ana. One hundred and ninety Spaniards (including Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548–1624), later explorer of the California coast), and Filipino crewmen, were set ashore with food and some weapons in a location where they had water and food available. Cavendish kept with him two Japanese sailors, three boys from Manila, a Portuguese traveler familiar with China and a Spanish pilot (navigator). They loaded all the gold (about 100 troy pounds or 122,000 pesos worth) and then picked through the silks, damasks, musks (used in perfume manufacture), spices, wines, and ship's supplies for what they could carry. Some in Mexico claimed that the total value of the cargo was about 2,000,000 pesos. After setting fire to the Santa Ana, the Desire and Content sailed away on 17 November 1587 to begin their voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

While burning, the Santa Ana drifted onto the coast where the Spanish survivors extinguished the flames, re-floated the ship and limped into Acapulco.

The Content was never heard from again. The Desire tried to avoid conflict for the rest of her voyage.

Crossing the Pacific Ocean and exploring the islands of South-east Asia

After crossing the Pacific Ocean, Cavendish and the Desire arrived at the island of Guam on 3 January 1588. There he traded iron tools for fresh supplies, water and wood, supplied by the natives. On further landings in the Philippines, Java and other islands he traded some of his captured linen and other goods for fresh supplies, water and wood, and collected information about the Chinese and Japanese coasts. He hoped to use this information to augment existing English knowledge of the area and for a possible second voyage. His crew of about 48 men replaced their worn out clothing and bedding with uniforms made out of silken damask.

Return to England

By 14 May 1588 he reached the coast of Africa and returned home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, stopping at the island of Saint Helena for fresh supplies.

On 9 September 1588 the Desire sailed into the harbor at Plymouth, England. Later she paraded up the River Thames through London, displaying her new sails of blue damask.

Cavendish's first voyage was a huge success both financially and otherwise; Cavendish was only 28. The circumnavigation of the globe had been completed in two years and 49 days, nine months faster than Drake, although, like Drake, Cavendish returned with only one of his ships—the Desire with a crew of about 48 men. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England who was invited to a dinner aboard the Desire. England celebrated both the return of the Desire and the defeat of the Spanish Armada earlier that year.

Second voyage

Cavendish sailed on a second expedition in August 1591, accompanied by the navigator John Davis. They went further south to the Strait of Magellan and then returned to Brazil, where they lost most of the crew in a battle against the Portuguese at the Village of Vitória. One abandoned sailor, Anthony Knivet, later wrote about his adventures in Brazil. Cavendish set off across the Atlantic towards Saint Helena with the remainder of the crew, but died of unknown causes at age 32, possibly off Ascension Island in the South Atlantic in 1592. The last letter of Cavendish, written to his executor a few days before his death, accuses John Davis of being a "villain" who caused the "decay of the whole action". John Davis continued on with Cavendish's crew and ships and discovered the Falkland Islands, before returning to England with most of his crew lost to starvation and illness.

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• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 09
• Cavendish, Thomas by Charles Henry Coote
• CAVENDISH, THOMAS (1560–1592), circumnavigator, was born at the ancestral home, Grimston Hall, in the parish of Trimley St. Martin, Suffolk, not far from the port of Harwich. Like many other gentlemen of the period, he took to piracy as a means to recover his squandered patrimony. His first recorded adventure at sea was in a ship of his own in the ‘The viage made by Sir Richard Greenvile for Sir Walter Raleigh in the year 1585’ (Hakluyt, 1599, iii. 251), in order to plant the first unfortunate colony in Virginia. The fleet of seven sail left Plymouth on 9 April in the above year. Sailing by way of the Canaries to the West Indies, they waited at St. Juan de Porto Rico for a fortnight, ostensibly with the object of building a pinnace, but really with a view of annoying the Spaniards, from whom they captured two frigates, one of which contained ‘good and rich fraight, and diuers Spaniards of account,’ whom they ‘ransomed for good round summes,’ which employment was much more congenial to Cavendish than Raleigh's scheme of ‘Westerne planting.’ Proceeding on their course to Isabella in Hispaniola (Hayti), where they landed, they sailed through the Bahamas, and after sighting the mainland of Florida they arrived on 26 June at their anchorage of Wocokon in Virginia. On July 11 Cavendish formed one of a select company who landed with Grenville, and, among others, Thomas Harriott and John White, the artist to the expedition, in order to explore the mainland of what is now known as North Carolina. After having discovered three towns and a great lake, and industriously sown the seeds of future troubles by their lawless conquest of the harmless natives during a period of eight days, they returned to the fleet. On 27 July the fleet removed to Hatoraske (Hatteras inlet); on 25 Aug. Grenville set sail for England, capturing on his way another richly laden Spanish ship, with which he arrived at Plymouth 18 Sept. 1585. That he was accompanied by Cavendish on his return is certain, as the name of the latter is omitted from the list of 108 gentlemen ‘that remained one whole yeere in Virginia’ under Ralph Lane, the first governor of the colony (Hakluyt, 1598, iii. 251–4).
• Immediately after his return to England Cavendish began to prepare on his own account an expedition closely modelled upon that of Sir Francis Drake of eight years before. Of this famous voyage, by which he is best known, there are preserved two accounts: 1. ‘The worthy and famous Voyage of Master Thomas Cavendish, made round about the Globe of the Earth, in the space of two years and less than two months,’ by N. H. (ib. 1589, p. 809). 2. ‘The admirable and prosperous Voyage of the Worshipful Mr. Thomas Cavendish, of Trimley, in the county of Suffolk, esquire, into the South Sea, and from thence round about the circumference of the whole earth; begun in the year of our Lord 1586, and finished 1588. Written by Mr. Francis Pretty, lately of Eye, in Suffolk, a gentleman employed in the same action’ (ib. 1599–1600, iii. 803). The fleet of three ships, manned by 123 hands all told, consisted of the Desire of 140 tons, the Content of 60 tons, and the Hugh Gallant, a barque of 40 tons. Cavendish departed from London 10 June 1586, and, after calling at Harwich, proceeded to Plymouth, whence they sailed 21 July. From internal evidence it may be safely inferred that the first and shorter narrative by N. H. was written under the eye of Cavendish on board the Desire; but the second and more interesting one was partly written by Pretty on board the Hugh Gallant barque before it was sunk near the equator in the Pacific, for want of hands. After an ineffectual skirmish with five large Biscayan ships off Cape Finisterre, five days out from England, Cavendish sailed by the coast of Barbary and the Canaries to Sierra Leone, where he anchored in the harbour 21 Aug. Here his stay of ten days was varied by an attempt to burn the native town and the capture of a sailor of Oporto belonging to a Portuguese ship cast away in the inner harbour. On 6 Sept. he departed from Sierra Leone, and, after a short stay at one of the Cape Verde islands, he shaped his course for South America, reached Cape Frio in Brazil 31 Oct. and anchored the next day under the island of St. Sebastian. Here, in order to refit, take in water and fuel, and to build a new pinnace of 10 tons, he anchored for twenty-three days. On 23 Nov. he set sail towards the Straits of Magellan, discovering on his way (17 Dec.) a fine harbour almost as large as Plymouth, known to this day as Port Desire, so named after his own ship, where he spent Christmas in studying the manners and arts of the Patagonians. Departing from Port Desire 28 Dec., Cavendish went coasting along S.S.W. until 3 Jan. 1587, when he reached the opening of the straits, where he lost an anchor in a great storm which lasted three days. On the 6th he commenced his tortuous passage through the straits. The next day he observed traveling overland towards the River Plate a party of twenty-three poor starved Spaniards, two of whom were women, all that remained of the two unfortunate colonies of four hundred persons planted by Pedro Sarmiento, and starved to death in King Philip's City, built and fortified three years before to command the narrowest part of the straits. On 9 Jan. Cavendish reached the ill-fated city, which he renamed the ‘Town of Famine,’ now known as Port Famine; here during his stay of five days he discovered, buried within the four forts, six pieces of ordnance, which he carried off. Cavendish was only too ‘glad to hasten from this place for the noisome stench and vile sauour wherewith it was infected, through the contagion of the Spaniards' pined and dead carcases’ (N. H.) Near the same spot a rescued Spaniard pointed out the hull of a small barque which was judged to be the John Thomas, probably abandoned by Sir Francis Drake nine years before. On 14 Jan. Cavendish resumed his perilous voyage through the straits, which occupied him more than six weeks; wherein ‘they hazarded their best cables and anchors that we had for to hold, which if they had failed we had been in danger to have been cast away, or at least famished.’ For quite a month, adds Pretty, ‘we fed almost altogether on muscles, and limpets, and birds, or such as we could get on shore, seeking for them every day as the fowls of the air do, where they can find food, in continual rainy weather.’
• On 24 Feb. Cavendish entered the South Sea or Pacific and plied along the coast of Chili until 30 March, when he reached the Bay of Quintero, a little to the N. of Valparaiso; here Hernando, the Spaniard saved from starvation in the straits, upon being landed to parley with three other mounted Spaniards, leaped up behind and rode away with one of them, and doubtless alarmed the Spaniards along the whole seaboard. On 1 April a handful of the three crews was attacked by nearly two hundred horsemen while watering, but the enemy retired with a loss of twenty-five men as against twelve slain of the English. Sailing along the coast from 15 to 23 April, Cavendish, with two of his ships, came athwart the Port of Mormoreno (Monte Moreno), where he landed. He afterwards came to Arica, where he awaited the arrival of the Content, the crew of which had found in a bay fourteen leagues southwards of Arica 300 tons of botizios of wine of Castile buried in the sand, and she laded herself with as many as she could carry. In this place Cavendish burned three barques and a large ship of 100 tons, which last the inhabitants refused to ransom in exchange for English prisoners taken at Quintero. The Spanish authorities were now thoroughly roused, for Cavendish intercepted two barques coming from the southward towards Lima, 25 to 27 April; the second, from Santiago, near Quintero, had on board letters of advice for the viceroy concerning Cavendish, which were thrown overboard before they could be secured. The contents were revealed by one of the Spaniards, who, by the order of Cavendish, ‘was tormented with his thumbs in a wrench.’ Among the captured was also found ‘a reasonable pilot for those seas,’ who, according to N. H., was also a Spaniard, but according to Pretty a Greek. From 3 to 5 May the little fleet rode in Pisa bay, near the Chincha islands, now famed for its guano deposits. Sailing forward on 16 and 17 May they captured three large ships, one worth 20,000l., which had the chief merchandise in it. Cavendish filled his ships with as much of this as they could carry and burnt the remainder with the captured ships. On 25 May Cavendish arrived at the island of Puna in the gulf of Guayaquil; here they remained eleven days, hauled the Desire and Content on shore for repairs, sank a large Spanish ship lying at anchor, with all her furniture, and burned the town, out of revenge for an unsuccessful sortie of the Spaniards and natives upon a foraging party wherein forty of the enemy were slain, with the loss of twelve English. Pretty describes the ‘great casique’ of the island, his Spanish wife and treasures, his palace with its chambers decorated with old-world hangings of ‘Cordovan leather gilded all over and painted very rare and rich.’ On 7 June Cavendish set forward for Rio Dolce, near the equator, where he sank the Hugh Gallant for want of men. Five days later they doubled the equinoctial line and continued their course northward until 9 July, when off the coast of Guatemala they captured a ship in ballast piloted by Michael Sancius, a Provençal, who informed Cavendish of a great prize that was on its way from the Philippines. Cavendish burned the ship in ballast, as also a barque which he captured the next day which was sent from Lima to carry warning all along the coast. On 28 July he reached Aguatulco (Guatulco), which town they also spoiled and burned during a stay of five days. Weighing anchor from this place in the night of 2 Aug. he overshot Acapulco, the Mexican port for the arrival and departure of the Spanish fleet for the Philippines, and came on 24 Aug. to Puerto de Natividad, where he landed and captured a mounted mulatto, from whom he took more letters of advice. After setting fire to the town and shipping he proceeded to a small island near Mazatlan, where he anchored to water and refit from 27 Sept. until 9 Oct., when the ships weighed anchor for Cape St. Lucas, the well-known headland of Lower California, which Pretty remarks ‘is very like the Needles at the Isle of Wight.’ Here the Desire and Content were beating up and down the coast from 14 Oct. for a whole month, when, between seven and eight in the morning of 14 Nov., the crews of the two ships were roused by the watch in the maintop of the Desire by the cry of ‘A sail!’ which proved to be no other than the long-expected prize from the Philippines, the Admiral of the South Sea, owned by the king of Spain, the Great St. Anna of 700 tons richly laden. Cavendish captured the ship after an obstinate fight of six hours and brought it into the neighbouring harbour of Aguada Segura, where he proceeded to divide the treasure among his own company and that of the Content, who were inclined to mutiny about their share of the money taken. Besides 22,000 pesos of gold the prize contained 600 tons of the richest merchandise, of which Cavendish could only take forty tons for each of his ships, which were already laden to the full. According to the narrative of N. H., ‘this was one of the richest vessels that ever sailed on the seas; and was able to have made many hundreds wealthy if we had had means to have brought it home.’ Cavendish also took out of the Great St. Anna two youths born in Japan and three boys natives of Manilla, the youngest of whom, about nine years old, afterwards found a home with the Countess of Essex. He also took Nicholas Roderigo, a Portuguese, who had resided in Canton and other parts of China, from whom he probably obtained the large map of China referred to at length by Hakluyt (p. 813), and Thomas de Ersola, a Spanish pilot for the Philippines. On the afternoon of 19 Nov., after having burnt his great prize with its contents to the water's edge, Cavendish joyfully set sail alone towards England, leaving the Content in the road, whose company they never saw afterwards. Cavendish continued his voyage across the Pacific until 3 Jan. 1588, when he sighted the island of Guana (Guajan), one of the Ladrones, where he met with a reception from the natives strikingly similar to that experienced by Magellan on their first discovery in 1521. Eleven days later, falling in with Capo Spirito Santo, on the island of Tadaia (Samar), he commenced his tortuous navigation of the Philippines and Moluccas, so evidently misapprehended by Molyneux in his praiseworthy attempt to track and record it on his famous globe of 1593.
• On 15 Jan., while anchoring off the small island of Capul, at the south end of Luzon, Cavendish was compelled for his own safety to hang the Spanish pilot De Ersola, who, by a secret letter, attempted to betray him into the hands of the authorities at Manilla, then an unwalled town guarded by galleys. On 24 Jan., after making the island of Masbate, he passed between Panama (Panay) and the island of Negroes, and sailing west of Mindanoa, he directed his course S.E. until 8 Feb., when he sighted Batochina (Batchian), one of the Moluccas S. of Gilolo. Here we are met by two geographical puzzles. According to N. H., Cavendish sailed down the Straits of Macassar to the W. of the Celebes, for he writes ‘we ran between Celebes or Batachina and Borneo until the 12th day of February’ (Hakluyt, 1589, p. 812). In consequence, Molyneux in his globe (see infra) assigns the name of Batachina to the Celebes; this error, however, is corrected by Pretty, who writes: ‘On the 14th day of February we fell with eleven or twelve very small islands, lying low and flat. These islands (evidently the Xullas), near the Moluccas, stand in three degrees, 10 minutes to the southward of the line’ (ib. iii. 820). Again, on 28 Feb. N. H. writes: ‘We put through between the Straits of Java major and Java minor and ankered under the south-west part of Java major’ (ib. 1589, p. 812). The identity of Java major with Java proper is undisputed, but the hitherto unsettled questions have been, the identification of the Straits, Java minor, and the anchorage. Professor Arber (English Garner, iv. 125) holds that the Straits were those of Sunda, W. of Java proper. Colonel Yule, however, suggests (Marco Polo, ii. 267) that they were the Straits of Baly, E. of Java, and that the Java minor of Cavendish was the island of Baly. Both these assumptions are, however, disproved by Thos. Fuller, the sailing master of the Desire, who writes: ‘From the W. end of Java minor unto the E. end of Java major the course is W. and by N. and E. and by S. and the distance between them is 18 leagues; in the which course there lieth an island between them, which island (referred to in the margin as Baly) is in length 14 leagues’ (ib. iii. 832). Again he writes: ‘The first day of March wee passed the Straights at the W. head of the island of Java minor (i.e. Lombok), and the 5th day of March we ankered in the bay at the Wester (sic) end of Java maior, where wee watered and had great store of victuals from the town of Polambo’ (ib. p. 834). Pretty adds to the confusion when he writes that the king of that (i.e. the W.) part of the island was ‘Raja Bolamboang,’ who it is to be feared has been confounded with the Raja of Balamboang, whose descendants were to be found at the E. end of Java down to 1788 (cf. Van der Aa). From this it follows that, after passing through the Straits of Lombok with Baly, on the E., Cavendish sailed along the S. coast of Java proper for five days, and that his anchorage for twelve days afterwards was at Paliboam-Ratoe, in Wijnkoopers Bay, under the S.W. end of Java, as stated by all the three narratives of N. H., Pretty, and Fuller. From 11 March and all through April Cavendish traversed the main between Java and Africa, when on 19 March he sighted the long-wished-for Cape of Good Hope. On 8 June he anchored under the island of St. Helena, where he stayed twelve days for refreshment, and was the first to discover it to the English nation. On 20 June he shaped his course for England, where, upon arriving off the Lizard 3 Sept., he was greeted by a Flemish vessel with the news of the overthrow of the Spanish Armada. After encountering a violent storm of four days' duration in the Channel, N. H. closes his narrative thus: ‘On … 10 Sept. 1588, like wearied men, through the favour of the Almighty, we got into Plymouth, where the townsmen received us with all humanity’ (Hakluyt, 1589).
• The fame of Cavendish as the second English circumnavigator of the globe was now almost at its zenith. Popular feeling respecting the voyage and its leader found expression in ballads, the titles only of three of which are preserved to us under their respective entries for publication (3 Nov. 1588): ‘A Ballad of Master Cavendish's Voyage, who by travel compassed the Globe of the World, arriving in England with abundance of treasure’ (14 Nov. 1588); ‘A new Ballad of the famous and honourable coming home of Master Cavendish's Ship the Desire, before the Queen's Maiesty at her Court at Greenwich,’ 12 Nov. 1588, &c. (3 Dec. 1588); ‘Captain Robert's Welcome of good-will to Captain Cavendish.’ This last, however, may have been either a ballad or a broadside (cf. Arber, Reg. Stat. Comp. ii. 505–9). Two of the rarest cartographical records of the voyage are to be found on the terrestrial globe by Molyneux (see supra), and an equally rare map by Jodocus Hondius, who engraved the gores for the globe. Respecting the first Blundeville writes: ‘The voyage as well of Sir F. Drake as of Mr. Th. Candish is set down and showed by help of two lines, the one red … doth show what course Sir Francis observed in all his voyage … the blew line showeth in like manner the voyage of Master Candish.’ A unique example of this globe, the first made in England in 1592, the year of Cavendish's death, is preserved in the library of the Middle Temple. The map of the world in hemispheres, engraved by Hondius in 1597, evidently copied from the globe, is also accompanied by the accounts of Sir F. Drake's voyage, and that of Cavendish by N. H., both translated from Hakluyt (1589) into Dutch. The allusion in one of the ballads to Cavendish's reception by the queen at Greenwich serves somewhat to confirm the tradition that a greater part of his wealth, either inherited or acquired by spoiling the Spaniards, was squandered ‘in gallantry and following the court’ (Biog. Brit.) The tradition also serves to throw some light upon the causes that led him to undertake his last fated voyage, which was evidently meant for a repetition of the previous one in every particular, as proved by the heading of the record preserved to us, which reads, ‘The last Voyage of the worshipfull M. Thomas Candish (sic), esquire, intended for the South sea, the Phillipines, and the coast of China, with three tall ships and two barks. Written by M. J. Jane’ (Hakluyt). The fleet, comprising the Leicester galleon, commanded by Cavendish, the Roebucke, his old ship the Desire, commanded by Captain John Davis of Arctic fame [q. v.], the Black Pinnace, and the Daintie, left Plymouth on 26 Aug. 1591, and sighted the coast of Brazil at St. Salvador (lat. 12° 58′ 16″ S.), or Campos (lat. 21° 36′ 30″ S.), on 29 Nov., where they were becalmed four days. After a feeble attempt to take the town of Santos (lat 23° 55′ 1″ S.) on 24 Jan., he set forward on his voyage, but, owing to the lateness of the season and the unusually bad weather, Cavendish was separated from the rest of his fleet until 18 March, when he rejoined Davis at Port Desire. Two days later they sailed for the Straits of Magellan, where, after many furious storms, they sailed halfway through the straits, and on 21 April 1592 the ships anchored in a cove four leagues W. from Cape Froward, where they remained until 15 May, enduring great hardships, Cavendish all the while being with Davis on board the Desire. It soon became obvious that Cavendish had outlived his reputation as a leader of men; unnerved probably by his own misery and that of his crews, he resolved against their wishes to make for the Cape of Good Hope in his own ship, the Leicester, but being deterred by the sound advice of Davis from attempting ‘so hard an enterprise with so feeble a crew,’ he determined to depart out of the Straits of Magellan, ‘and to return again for Santos in Brazil.’ On 20 May, the fleet being once more off Port Desire about thirty leagues, Cavendish in the night altered his course to seaward, in consequence of which, the Desire and Black Pinnace being lost sight of in the darkness, he never saw Davis afterwards. Cavendish once more made for Brazil. After several disastrous attempts to land at Santos and Espirito Santo, where he was deserted by the Roebucke, he made one last effort to reach St. Helena. He ‘got within two leagues,’ and afterwards sought for an island in 8° S. lat. (evidently Ascension). The last notice of Cavendish in the homeward voyage of the Leicester is his own record of the death of his cousin, John Locke, in 8° N. lat. Cavendish died a few days later, probably of a broken heart. In his last hours he accused Davis of having deserted him, but from all we know of the character of Davis this is not only unjust, but also incredible. Long after the separation of the fleet on 20 May previous, Davis not only returned to Port Desire to seek for Cavendish, but he also made no less than three unsuccessful attempts to sail through the straits down to the end of 1592. Such were the hardships they endured, that out of it crew of seventy-six men who sailed from England two years before, only a 'small remnant' of fifteen lived to return with Davis in misery and weakness so great that they 'could not take in or heave out a saile' of the Desire, which arrived off Bearhaven in Ireland on 11 June 1593, fully a year after the death and burial of Cavendish at sea. For engraved portraits of Cavendish, see Grainger (i. 247).
• [Aa's Aardrijsküdig Woordeboek der Nederlanden, 1840, 2° deel, p. 51; Arbert's English Garner, 4, 125; Arber's Transcript of Registers of Stationers' Company, ii. 505-9: Biog. Brit. c. 1196; Blundeville's Exercises, 1594; Davis's Voyages (Hakluyt Soc.), 1880; Encyclopedia Britannica. art. 'Globe,' Hakluyt, 1589-99, vol. iii.; Holland'a Hero-ologia, p. 89; Lediard's Naval History, 1735, p. 229; Yule's Marco Polo, 2nd ed. 1875; Cal. Carew MSS.; Hist. MSS. Comm. App. 4th Rep. 372; Harl. MS. 268, f. 161.]
• From: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cavendish,_Thomas_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionarynatio50stepgoog#page/n373/mode... _______________________
• CAVENDISH, Thomas (1560-92), of Trimley St. Martin, Suff.
• bap. 19 Sept. 1560, 3rd or 4th but 1st surv. s. of William Cavendish I by Mary, da. of Thomas, 1st Baron Wentworth of Nettlestead. educ. Corpus, Camb. 1576; G. Inn 1577. unm. suc. fa. 1572.
• Offices Held
• Biography
• Cavendish was a friend of Walter Ralegh who, though unlikely to have had any electoral patronage as early as 1584, was a member of the group surrounding the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, who controlled the patronage at Shaftesbury and Wilton.1
• Little is known of Cavendish between 1577 and 1585, when he commanded a ship under Richard Grenville II in the expedition to Virginia. After the voyage Grenville complained of the behaviour of Cavendish, who seems already to have been showing the weakness that caused loss of life on his last voyage. Less than a year after returning from Virginia, Cavendish fitted out a squadron to sail through the Straits of Magellan. Hakluyt’s suggestion that he did this at his own expense is unlikely to be true. His family estates in Suffolk, though of considerable value, were hardly rich enough to finance an expedition of three ships with large crews. Lord Hunsdon (Henry Carey†) has been suggested as one of his patrons, and since Cavendish sailed from Plymouth it is possible that he had some connexion with the Devon adventurers: Ralegh’s influence, though not obvious, might be inferred. Cavendish sailed in July 1586, passed through the Straits in the following January, and carried out a raid on Chile and Peru. Returning to Plymouth at the beginning of September 1588 with only one of the original three ships, the Desire, but with the bulk of his treasure intact, his track must have crossed that of Medina Sidonia, who was on his way back to Santander after the defeat of the Armada. Partly through generosity, partly from extravagance, his booty soon disappeared, a contemporary reporting that ‘although his great wealth was said to have sufficed ... for his whole life, yet he saw the end thereof within very short time’; and one of his relatives later blamed him for ‘dealing in sea-causes, for he thereby overthrew his house and fortunes’.2
• In 1591 he set off again, this time with John Davis and Adrian Gilbert, for the south seas and China, being admitted a free burgess of Southampton just before he sailed. Supplies were short and Cavendish quarrelled with several of his subordinates, behaving in so unbalanced a way that it was thought his mind was becoming deranged. After losing touch with Davis (who searched unavailingly for his leader for some time) Cavendish died at sea in May or June 1592. His will, made at sea, and proved 14 Feb. 1596 by Tristram Gorges, bequeathed the ships to Sir George Carey. Apart from a bequest of 100 marks to one of the Queen’s surgeons, the residue of the property went to Cavendish’s sister Anne. His executor was to see that ‘every adventurer receive proportionably to his adventure.’ Cavendish had his will sealed in a packet and the man who delivered it to Gorges was to receive £40. Cavendish’s last message to Gorges reads: ‘I left none in England whom I loved half as well as yourself. I have no more to say, but take this last farewell, that you have lost the lovingest friend that was lost by any.’ 3
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/ca... __________________________
• Links
• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/ThomasCavendish.htm

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