The Golden Hinde - A Piece of Maritime History in the Heart of London

The Golden Hinde 

A Piece of Maritime History in the Heart of London

Copyright © Daren Frankish

London has a habit of hiding pieces of history in places where you least expect to find them. Walk through the narrow streets of Bankside, not far from the River Thames, and among the modern buildings you suddenly come across the unmistakable masts and rigging of a 16th-century sailing ship.

This is The Golden Hinde, a full-size reconstruction of the vessel associated with Sir Francis Drake and one of the great maritime stories of the Elizabethan period.

The original ship began life as the Pelican. In 1577, Drake left Plymouth with an expedition that would eventually become one of the most famous voyages in British maritime history. During the journey the vessel was renamed the Golden Hinde, believed to have been in honour of Sir Christopher Hatton, whose coat of arms featured a golden hind.

What followed was an extraordinary voyage.

Drake sailed through the dangerous Strait of Magellan, travelled along the Pacific coast of the Americas and crossed the Pacific and Indian Oceans before eventually returning to England in September 1580.

In doing so, Drake became the first Englishman to complete a circumnavigation of the world, and the Golden Hind became part of British maritime history.

It is important, however, not to romanticise the Elizabethan age completely. Drake remains a controversial historical figure. Alongside his achievements as a navigator and naval commander were his involvement in privateering, colonial expansion and the early English slave trade. Looking at his story today means acknowledging both sides of that history.

A Remarkable Reconstruction

The Golden Hinde that can be seen in London today is not the original vessel.

The present ship was built using traditional methods and launched in 1973. Remarkably, this reconstruction has itself travelled extensively, including completing its own circumnavigation of the world.

Today it sits at St Mary Overie Dock in Bankside, surrounded by a very different London from the one Drake would have known.

And that is part of what makes it such an interesting sight.

From certain angles, the black wooden hull, colourful detailing, towering masts and complicated network of ropes seem almost completely out of place against the surrounding brick, glass and concrete. Yet only a short distance away is the Thames, the river that helped make London one of the world's great trading and maritime cities.

Life on Board

Looking at a sailing ship from the outside does not really prepare you for how confined life aboard one of these vessels could have been.

The decks, cabins, ropes, timber and low internal spaces give a much better impression of the environment sailors would have experienced during voyages lasting months or even years.

There were no modern comforts and very little privacy.

Crews faced disease, poor food, violent weather, accidents and the constant possibility that a voyage might end thousands of miles from home.

Standing beside a reconstruction such as the Golden Hinde puts the scale of those journeys into perspective. The oceans being crossed were enormous, but the ships doing it were surprisingly small.

Navigation was also very different. There were no satellites, electronic charts or instant weather forecasts. Voyages depended upon experience, observation, basic navigational instruments and an understanding of the sea.

It makes the achievement of sailing around the world in the 16th century difficult to comprehend from a modern perspective.

The Golden Hinde and London

There is something particularly appropriate about finding the ship in this part of London.

Bankside has changed beyond recognition over the centuries, but its relationship with the Thames remains. The river once carried ships, goods and people from across the world directly into the city.

The Golden Hinde provides a physical reminder of that period.

It is also quite different from seeing an object behind glass in a conventional museum. A ship has scale. You can walk around it, look upwards through its rigging and appreciate just how much timber, rope and craftsmanship were required to create a vessel capable of crossing an ocean.

For photographers, it is also an interesting subject. The ship changes depending on where you stand. From the bow it can appear surprisingly imposing, while from the surrounding streets the masts and rigging create an unusual contrast with modern London.

More Than a Replica

It would be easy to dismiss the Golden Hinde simply because it is a reconstruction.

That would miss the point.

The original vessel disappeared centuries ago, but this ship provides something photographs, drawings and written descriptions cannot quite reproduce: a sense of physical scale.

It allows us to see the type of environment in which sailors lived and worked and to better understand just how ambitious these early voyages were.

The story behind the Golden Hinde is also complicated. It contains exploration, navigation and extraordinary seamanship, but it belongs to an era of conflict, privateering, empire and exploitation as well.

History is rarely as straightforward as the heroic stories we are sometimes taught.

Sitting quietly in its dock in modern London, surrounded by a city that has changed almost beyond recognition, the Golden Hinde remains a fascinating link with that much earlier world.

By Daren Frankish