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TheSea Dogs were a group of Englishprivateers authorised byQueen Elizabeth I to raidEngland's enemies, whether they were formally at war with them or not. Active from 1560 until Elizabeth's death in 1603, the Sea Dogs primarily attackedSpanish targets both on land and at sea, particularly during theAnglo-Spanish War.
"Sea Dogs" was an informal name bestowed upon Englishprivateers who were authorised byQueen Elizabeth I to raidEngland's enemies, even during times of peace. Carryingletters of marque issued by theEnglish Crown, the Sea Dogs frequently attacked both enemy shipping at sea and enemy outposts on land. The issuing of letters of marque was originally done to compensate for the numerical inferiority of theTudor navy in comparison to itsSpanish counterpart; as England lacked a standing navy which was powerful enough to challenge the Spanish Navy head on, the Sea Dogs served as a way to attack Spanish ships during times of peace. In their infancy the Members of the Sea Dogs, includingSir John Hawkins andSir Francis Drake, had engaged in illicitslave trading withSpanish colonies in the Americas.[1][2] The Spanish retaliated by defeating an English flotilla atSan Juan de Ulúa in 1568. This was remembered by Englishmen, especially Drake, as an egregious example of Spanish treachery. Drake would not pursue trading and slaving but would, instead, dedicate himself to attacking Spanish possessions wherever he found them.[3]
Many of the 'Sea Dogs' later fought against theSpanish Armada enterprise against England in 1588 with SirFrancis Drake notably taking a prominent role in its defeat. Many would also become prominent in the English Navy, some of whom were later promoted to high ranks.
The Privateers took part in highly lucrativejoint stock expeditions to raid the Spanish Main. English courtiers provided money for their own expeditions as well as others, and even Elizabeth herself would make investments. Most ventures however were mostly organized by the powerful London merchantJohn Watts who had the backing of most of the English court including Elizabeth. In the three years after the Spanish Armada was defeated, more than 300 prizes were taken from the Spanish with a declared total value of well over £400,000.[4]
Davis led several voyages to discover theNorthwest Passage and served as pilot and captain on both Dutch and English voyages to theEast Indies. He discovered theFalkland Islands in August 1592.
Drake was one of the most successful Sea Dogs of all time. As captain ofGolden Hind, he served in the Tudor navy from 1563 to 1596 and rose to the rank ofVice-Admiral. Drake was trained from a young age for a career at sea by his cousin, fellow Sea DogSir John Hawkins. Following the defeat at San Juan de Ulúa, Drake set on anexpedition in 1572 to Panama, which was successful, netting some £20,000. Drake followed this with another even bolder expedition starting in 1577, and eventually became the first Englishman tocircumnavigate the world, and returned in 1580. Drake had a huge range of coverage, raiding up the Spanish on the Pacific Coast all the way up to modern daySan Francisco, and captured a rich Spanish galleon. In addition to his commandeering of ships, Drake would sail into ports in the Caribbean to put ransoms on cities, after which he would begin burning the city down until he received payment. Drake was awarded a knighthood in 1581.
After taking part against the Spanish Armada in 1588, Drake took part in the unsuccessfulEnglish Armada the following year. He thus fell out of favour, and was not given command of another naval expedition until 1595, his last to the Spanish Main. This too was a failure and became sick, eventually dying of disease after failing to takePuerto Rico,Panama, and other targets in theSpanish Main.
Frobisher was aseaman andprivateer who made three voyages to theNew World looking for theNorthwest Passage. As a privateer, he plundered riches from French ships. He was knighted for his service in repelling theSpanish Armada in 1588.
Gilbert was educated atEton College and theUniversity of Oxford, and involved in the firstPlantations of Ireland during theTudor conquest. He was the first to establish the English colonial empire in North America when he took possession of Newfoundland forQueen Elizabeth I on 5 August 1583. He was a maternal half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville.
Grenville waslord of the manors ofStowe, Cornwall andBideford, Devon. He subsequently participated in theplantations of Ireland specifically the Munster plantations, theEnglish colonisation of the Americas and the repulse of theSpanish Armada. In 1591, Grenville died at thebattle of Flores fighting against an overwhelmingly larger Spanish fleet near theAzores. He and his crew on board the galleonRevenge fought against the 53-strong Spanish fleet to allow the other English ships to escape.
John Hawkins was born into a wealthy family where his father was a sea captain. Hawkins initially sailed with his father on trading trips, but by 1562 he turned toslave trading by using his fleet of three ships led byJesus of Lübeck to abduct 400 Africans from modern-dayGuinea and sell them in theSpanish West Indies. He engaged in slave trading for about five years, making three voyages toSierra Leone and Guinea and selling 1,200–1,400 enslaved Africans to Spanish colonists in the Americas. He eventually served asTreasurer of the Navy and promoted several reforms. His final expedition was with Drake to the Spanish Main in 1595 which was a failure. Hawkins died not long after Drake, on November 12, 1595, on San Juan near Puerto Rico.[5]
Richard Hawkins took part in the Spanish Armada in 1588 and the English Armada the following year. In 1593 he purchased thegalleonDainty and used by Hawkins in his expeditions for the West Indies, the Spanish Main and the South Seas.
Hawkins plunderedValparaíso in 1594, but was trapped by two Spanish ships in the Bay of San Mateo, at the mouth of theEsmeraldas river. Hawkins wasforced to surrenderDainty and ended up in Spanish captivity until 1602. One of his achievements was proving the benefits of citrus for curingscurvy. Hawkins was knighted in 1603.
Raleigh was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, he received a title that allowed him to claim any land that he discovered in the name of England. During an expedition to the New World, he founded the colony ofRoanoke, which later vanished. Raleigh became infatuated with the idea of a "city of gold" hidden somewhere in South America and set out onan expedition to find it. In the process the English plundered the Spanish settlement of Trinidad. Raleigh successfully navigated the river and its inlets, penetrating some 400 miles (640 km) into theGuiana highlands, even repelling a Spanish attack. Raleigh would, however, exaggerate the wealth found there upon his return to England publishing his adventure under the title ofThe Discovery of rich and beautiful empire of Guiana.[6]
Clifford made a number of expeditions, and a few did yield profit – his first being theAzores Voyage in 1589. Others failed however due to bad weather and his 1591 voyage ended in defeat withSpanish galleys off Berlengas. Cumberland with Sir Walter Raleigh and Martin Frobisher combined financial strength and force that led to the most successful English naval expedition of the war. OffFlores island in 1592, the English fleetcaptured a large Portuguese carrack, theMadre de Deus, and outwitted a Spanish fleet led byAlonso de Bazán. The expedition's reward equalled nearly half the size of the Kingdom of England's royal annual revenue and yielded Elizabeth a 20-fold return on her investment.[7] These riches gave the English an excited enthusiasm to engage in this opulent commerce.[8]
Cumberland's last expedition in 1598 to the Caribbean led to thecapture of San Juan, and had succeeded where Drake had failed.
In 1595,Amyas Preston andGeorge Somers supported Raleigh's expedition to El Dorado withan expedition to South America too. This successful raid was notable for a daring overland assault that saw the capture of the town ofCaracas.
Lancaster had been a trader to Portugal before the war. He served in the fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, serving under Francis Drake. Afterwards he sought to seek trade elsewhere, and in 1591 went on an expedition to the East Indies which was a disaster. Lancaster ended up having to stay onPenang island off theMalay Peninsula for nearly four months before the restless crew of the fleet demanded to return. They finally reached home in 1594 with only 25 men left.
In 1595 an expedition financed by John Watts toPortuguese Brazil led by Lancaster saw thecapture and plunder ofRecife andOlinda – which was highly profitable for both.[9]
Lancaster was given command of theEast India Company's first fleet (which sailed from Torbay on 22 April 1600. The voyage was a huge success, the fleet established the first Companyfactory atBantan inJava, the first of its kind, and a commercial mission dispatched to theMoluccas (Spice Islands). Lancaster also seized and looted a large rich Portuguesegalleon offPenang. He returned on 11 September 1603 and was rewarded with aknighthood from the newly crownedJames I as a result of the expedition's success both in trade and diplomacy.
By far the most successful Sea Dog wasChristopher Newport.[10] Newport set out in 1590 to raid the Spanish West Indies, and inthe ensuing fight saw the defeat of an armed Spanish convoy but lost his right arm in the process. Despite this, Newport continued privateering – theblockade of Western Cuba in 1591 saw ten Spanish ships including two galleons were captured, making a 200 per cent profit, from which Queen Elizabeth and the Lord High admiral, Charles Howard took half of. The blockade was one of the most successful English expeditions to the Spanish Main during the war.
Newport followed that withanother successful expedition to Hispaniola and theBay of Honduras the following year.[11] Newport struck atTobasco in 1599, and in the last raid of the war heplundered Puerto Caballos in 1603.[6] By this time, Newport had raided the Spanish Main more times than Drake had.[12]
By the end of the war, the Sea Dogs had devastated the Spanish private merchant marine. Spanish prizes were taken at an attritional rate; nearly 1,000 were captured by the war's end, and there was on average a declared value of approximately £100,000–£200,000 for every year of the war.
Watts eventually saw a significant return from his investments alone, and as a result of his power became one of the founders of theEast India Company, being elected its governor in 1601. He was later described to Philip III as "the greatest pirate that has ever been in this kingdom".[13]
Once Elizabeth died in 1603, one year prior to the conclusion of the war, many former Sea Dogs either joined theDutch cause orsought employment in theBarbary States, becomingcorsairs attacking European merchant shipping.[14]
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