author
Sir Richard Hawkins
d. 1622
An Elizabethan seaman with a taste for danger, he sailed with England’s most famous naval figures and later wrote one of the liveliest firsthand accounts of long-distance voyaging in his age. His story mixes exploration, privateering, captivity, and hard-earned practical knowledge of life at sea.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born around 1562, Sir Richard Hawkins was the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins and grew up in the world of ships, naval war, and ocean travel. He served in major English expeditions in the late 1500s, including campaigns associated with Francis Drake, and became known as a sailor, explorer, and privateer in the closing years of the Elizabethan era.
He is especially remembered for his voyage to the South Sea in the 1590s. That expedition ended badly for him in military terms: after fighting the Spanish off the Pacific coast of South America, he was captured and spent years imprisoned in Spain. The experience gave him a wide view of seafaring life, from navigation and combat to diet, illness, weather, and the daily realities of a ship at sea.
His lasting reputation rests largely on The Observations of Sir Richard Hawkins, Knight, in his Voyage into the South Sea, published in 1622, the year of his death. The book is valued not only as an adventure narrative but also as a vivid, practical record of Elizabethan seamanship, making him interesting today both as a man of action and as a sharp observer of the maritime world.