BVI Stamps Depict Drake's World Voyage

By Giorgio Migliavacca

Sir Francis Drake has received quite a few philatelic tributes by the BVI post office; these include a 1980 set of four stamps and a large souvenir sheet, and several stamps of the late 1960s and early 1970s featuring Drake's ships. Additionally the 40c. denomination of the 1974 "Historical Figures" set features the famous discoverer.

Now, the British Virgin Islands Postal Authorities have decided to commemorate the 420th Anniversary of Drake's World Voyage with a sheetlet of 12 stamps and one miniature sheet. These were issued on 13 December 1997 and are on sale at the BVI Philatelic Bureau, General Post Office, Road Town.

The twelve stamps featured in the sheetlet depict Francis Drake, his coat of arms, Queen Elizabeth I, a 16th century compass rose, Drake's astrolabe, the Golden Hind beakhead, and Drake's ships - Christopher & Marigold, Golden Hind, Swan, Cacafuego, Elizabeth, and Maria. Information on the ships and the itinerary of Drake's Voyage is given on the margins of the picturesque sheetlet which features a map of Drake's Voyage enclosed by a rococo frame. The $2 miniature sheet depicts a modern ship named "Sir Francis Drake" plying BVI waters.

Drake sailed through BVI waters in 1568 as a young captain at the service of John Hawkins, an English seaman involved in trading African slaves. In 1585 Drake crossed Virgin Islands' waters with a cargo of gold; he returned in 1595 during his last voyage to the West Indies in the company of Hawkins. By the end of the 1500s Drake had made at least four voyages to the West Indies, but new documentation is suggesting that he may have made as many as eight voyages to this part of the world. Drake has been described by scholars as a seaman who had "intimate knowledge" of the Caribbean and the shores of the Spanish Main.