The year was 1575, Queen Elizabeth I summoned an experienced sailor named Francis Drake to a meeting deeply shrouded in secrecy. Details regarding this meeting were kept from the public eye for many years, until well after Francis Drake's death. This meeting was so secret that the Queen specifically ordered Drake to keep this secret even from one of her most trusted advisors, Lord Treasurer Burghley. The queen ordered that none of those involved discuss the details with anyone, under penalty of death. Bawlf, the author of The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, provides an in-depth account of what happened on that mysterious voyage, as well as the preceding events and aftermath. The 400-page book chronicles the life and death of English sailor, explorer, adventurer, privateer and future knight, Sir Francis Drake. By highlighting Drake's greatest achievements at sea, Bawlf manages to capture the image of a compassionate yet stern captain, respected by his shipmates and loved by all of England. In addition to the approval he earned from his queen and his country, Drake was also infamous in Spain as a privateer who specifically preyed on Spanish merchant fleets in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific. The Spanish would not hesitate to consider Drake a pirate. Bawlf uses his experience spent on the ocean, traveling up and down the northwest coast of North America from Alaska to San Francisco, as well as his love of maritime history to lend credence to his unique perspective. His training also serves to provide the reader with a particular writing style to shed new light on the journey that remained secret, almost to everyone, until well after the death of Francis Drake, which occurred in 1596. The book is divided into ... half of the paper ...and cataloged on a page that lists all his citations and sources. All of these are neatly organized in the "Notes" and "Bibliography" sections. This book left me with a newfound admiration and curiosity for Sir Francis Drake. A man commonly seen by Spaniards as a pirate who treated his captors with such respect that he paid them would not deserve such a title. However, the political climate of the time led to propaganda by the Spanish and cover-ups by the English. Whether you admire or despise Sir Francis Drake, it is difficult to doubt how worldly he was and to underestimate his contributions to the maritime cartography of the northwestern North American continent, even if the details written in his journals have since been lost and have failed to come to light. first came to light only after his death. Works Cited The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake