Published In

Antiquaries Journal

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-25-2026

Subjects

Elizabethan history, colonial archaeology, Sir Francis Drake (c 1540–96) -- California

Abstract

Francis Drake’s journey around the world between 1577 and 1580 is renowned as one of the most famous voyages in history. The circumnavigation was a great achievement for England, but the official story Queen Elizabeth and her Privy Council maintained for nine years was that Drake was a pirate, and that the treasure he captured on the voyage would be returned to Spain. Upon his return, information about the voyage and his route were suppressed and the crew was sworn to secrecy: they were not to reveal where they travelled on ‘pain of death’. Here I present the case that perhaps the most important state secret of all was that the official land claim record falsified the position of Nova Albion, Drake’s claim on the west coast of what is now the United States. Between the draft and the published version, the claim was moved south by several degrees to the northern border of New Spain. It is not likely that the differing latitudes were a scribal or typographic error. The Chinese porcelain sherds once thought to be from vessels in Drake’s cargo that proved he was in the San Francisco Bay area can now be considered artefacts from a later Spanish shipwreck, and Drake’s true ‘fair & good bay’ known as the bay of Nova Albion may be found six degrees further north. This ruse enabled England, by the rules of the time, to claim the lion’s share of uncharted territory north of Spain’s colonial boundary.

Rights

Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited. Copyright © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society of Antiquaries of London

DOI

10.1017/S0003581526100584

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44742

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