The ship in which Drake sailed round the world (_The Golden Hind_), when it became unfit for service, was laid up near the “Mast Dock” at Deptford, where it remained for a long series of years an object of curiosity and wonder. Hentzner, in 1598, says he saw here the ship of that noble pirate, Francis Drake. From a passage in one of Ben Jonson’s plays it appears to have become a resort for holiday people, the cabin being then converted into a banqueting house. Drake’s ship at Deptford is spoken of as one of the “sights” in some verses prefixed to the redoubtable Tom Coryat’s _Crudities_, 1611. When the young Duke of Saxe-Weimar saw the ship in 1613, but very little remained of it. It was then lying by the river-side in shallow water, in a dock; the lower part only was left, the upper part being all gone, for almost everybody who went there, and especially sailors, were in the habit of carrying off some portion of it. Philipott, _History of Kent_, 1659, says that in a very short time nothing was left of her. And in Moryson’s _Itinerary_, 1617, it is noticed as follows—“Not farre from hence (Deptford), upon the shore, lie the broken ribs of the ship in which Sir Francis Drake sailed round the world, reserved for a monument of that great action.” A chair, made out of the wood, is to be seen in the gallery of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Let us take a contemporary poet, to see how Drake’s own generation was affected by his exploits:— “Awake, each Muse, awake! Not one I need, but all To sing of Francis Drake And his companions tall. One Muse may chance do well, Where little is to tell; But nine are all too few To tell what he did do, His friends and soldiers all. Drake was made generall By sea and eke by land, And Christopher Carlisle Did next unto him stand. Brave Winter too, was there, And Captain Fourbisher, And Knowles, and many mo, Did all together go To lend a helping hand. Three thousand Volunteers Were numbered with the rest, And sailors, as appears, To guide them to the West, To quell the Spaniard’s pride, Which could not be denied; But which could not be seene By our most noble Queene And stomach’d with the best. In more than twenty ships They sailed from the port. In speed they did eclipse, And took St. Jago’s fort: It was a glorious day, Before they came away, The day of our Queen’s birth, They kept with joy and mirth In well beseeming sort. Santo Domingo next They took and also spoiled. The Spaniard he was vext To be so easy foiled. No force could them resist; They did as they list. The Spaniards bought the town, And paid the ducats down For which they long had toiled.