Sir Francis Drake statue. Sir Francis Drake was an Elizabethan explorer or navigator who circumnavigated the world from 1577 to 1580 in a ship called the Golden Hind. In 1588, as a Vice Admiral of the English fleet, he was notably involved in the naval action against the Spanish Amada. The bronze statue, created by Sir Joseph Boehm and erected in 1883, was raised in Tavistock, Drakes' birthplace. A copy was also made and erected on Plymouth Hoe where Drake was reputed to have been playing bowls when the Amada was sighted. Photographed in Tavistock, Devon UK.