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Sir John Hawkins Biography

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HAWKINS, or HAWKYNS, Sir John (1532–95). An English naval commander, the son of William Hawkins, a merchant and sea captain of Plymouth, who had made several voyages to America. He was born at Plymouth. He followed the sea from an early age, and by 1561 had made several voyages as far as the Canaries. In 1562, with influential backing, he sailed from England with three ships, secured a cargo of 300 negroes on the coast of Sierra Leone, and then crossed the Atlantic to the West Indies, where he forced the Spaniards to take slaves in exchange for hides, spices, sugar, and ginger. He himself returned to England, but sent two shiploads of merchandise to Spain, where they were seized and the cargoes confiscated. This loss did not deter him from fitting out another expedition on a larger scale in 1564, in which the Earl of Pembroke and Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester, were among his partners, and in which Queen Elizabeth herself was interested to the extent of lending him her ship Jesus. With four vessels he sailed to the African coast, where his cargoes of negroes were obtained only after hard fighting. After a show of arms at Burburata, Venezuela, and at Río de la Hacha, a "satisfactory trade was opened" and his negroes at length disposed of. Sailing northward, Hawkins relieved the French colony of Laudonnière, on St. John's River, Fla., leaving them provisions and a small ship, and thence sailed homeward. The voyage was exceedingly profitable for all the partners, and Hawkins was granted a coat of arms for his skill. The protests of the Spanish were so great at this threat to their trade monopoly that it was not until 1567 that the Queen would consent to let Hawkins undertake another voyage. Then, indeed, she showed her favor so far as again to lend him the Jesus, quite likely becoming thereby a partner in the enterprise. On October 2 the little fleet of six ships, one of which, the Judith, was commanded by Francis Drake (q.v.), a kinsman of Hawkins, set sail from Plymouth. Following the course of his previous voyages, Hawkins sailed first to Sierra Leone, where about 500 negroes were obtained, and where some Portuguese merchantmen were plundered and more than 70,000 pieces of gold secured from them. Again force had to be used before the Spanish in the West Indies would trade with them. A large part of his cargo was disposed of at Río de la Hacha, Cartagena, and other ports, and they had turned their prows towards home, when, according to Hawkins's account, a storm drove them into the harbor of San Juan de Lua (Vera Cruz) on the coast of Mexico. There, on September 17, a day after they had entered the port, they were beset by a Spanish fleet of 13 ships. After three days' negotiation a peaceful agreement was arrived at, and the Spanish fleet entered the harbor. The truce was short-lived, however, and on the 24th a conflict was precipitated. Hawkins defended his ships stubbornly, but the odds against him were overwhelming. The Jesus was disabled, and Hawkins transferred himself to the Mission, one of his smaller ships, in which he finally escaped to sea. The Judith, with Drake in command, was the only other English ship that got away from the harbor. After this disastrous voyage Hawkins remained in England for some years, was elected to Parliament in 1572, and in 1573 was made Treasurer and Comptroller of the Royal Navy. His practical experience as a navigator enabled him to bring about a number of important improvements in the rigging and construction of the ships of the navy; and in spite of charges of dishonesty in contract work the navy was made more efficient than it had ever been before. In 1588 he took part as a rear admiral in the defeat of the Spanish Armada, personally commanding the Victory, and winning knighthood for his bravery in action. In 1595 he accompanied Sir Francis Drake in an unsuccessful expedition to the West Indies in search of Spanish treasure and died at sea off Porto Rico the 12th of November. He was one of the founders, with Drake, of the fund for disabled seamen known as "the chest at Chatham," and in 1592 built the Sir John Hawkyns Hospital at Chatham.