John Hawkins

For the biographer of Dr. Samuel Johnson, see Sir John Hawkins.

Sir John Hawkins (also spelled as John Hawkyns) (Plymouth 1532 – November 12 1595) was an English shipbuilder, merchant, navigator, and slave trader.

John was the son of William Hawkins the elder, by Joan Trelawny. William was a confidant of Henry VIII of England and one of the principal sea captains of England.

John Hawkins was probably the first major English slave trader, although some point to John Lok in 1553.

First voyage

His first voyage, of 1562, led three small ships to the Sierra Leone coast in order to capture slaves. He left Africa with a cargo of around 300, having seized them from the Portuguese. Despite having two ships seized by the Spanish authorities, he sold the slaves in Santo Domingo and thus made a profit for his London investors. His voyage caused the Spanish to ban all English ships from trading in their West Indies colonies.

Second voyage

In 1564, Queen Elizabeth I rented him the huge old 700-tonne ship Jesus of Lubeck, and he set forth on his second voyage along with three small ships. This was a longer and more extensive voyage than the first. In conducting several inept slave-raids, he alienated the Portuguese who were used to dealing peacefully with local leaders for slaves. The Portuguese then misled him about the presence of gold at Bymba, which he disastrously attacked. Giving up the idea of raiding, he later canoed up river south of Tagrin (Cape Tagrin) where the expedition purchased slaves from local leaders. The expedition again proved a financial success, although he had to force the Spanish colonies to trade with him at gunpoint.

Third voyage

His third voyage was in 1567. Hawkins again traded for slaves with local leaders, and also augmented his cargo by capturing the Portuguese slave ship Madre de Dios (Grace of God) and its human cargo. He took about 400 slaves across the Atlantic on the third trip. At Vera Cruz he was chanced upon by a strong Spanish force that was bringing the new viceroy to the colony there. Only two of the English ships escaped destruction, and Hawkins' voyage home was a miserable one.

Although his first three voyages were semi-piratical enterprises, Queen Elizabeth I was in need of money and England saw pirates as fighting England's battles at their own cost and risk.

Hawkins would write about the details of his third voyage in An Alliance to Raid for Slaves. Specifically he comments on how trading and raiding were closely related in the English slave trade and how European success in the slave trade directly depended on African allies who were willing to cooperate.

1570-1587

Hawkins pretended to be part of the Ridolfi plot to betray Queen Elizabeth in 1571. He offered his services to the Spanish, in order to obtain the release of prisoners and to discover plans for the proposed Spanish invasion of England.

His help in foiling the plot was rewarded, and in 1571 Hawkins entered Parliament to become an MP. He also became Treasurer and comptroller of the Royal Navy (1573 - 1589).

His Navy financial reforms upset many who had vested interests - principally Baker and Pett - and these concocted a Royal Commission on Fraud against him in 1583. But he was found innocent.

John Hawkins was determined that his navy, as well as having the best fleet of ships in the world, would also have the best quality of seamen, and so petitioned and won a pay increase for sailors, arguing that a smaller number of well motivated better paid men would achieve substantially more than a larger group of disinterested men.

Hawkins made important improvements in ship construction and rigging, he is less well known for his inventiveness as a shipwright, but it was his idea to add to the caulker's work by the finishing touch of sheathing the underside of his ships with a skin of nailed elm planks sealed with a combination of pitch and hair smeared over the bottom timbers, as a protection against the worms which would attack a ship in tropical seas. Hawkins also introduced detachable topmasts that could be hoisted and used in good weather and stowed in heavy seas. Masts were more forward, and sails flatter. His ships were longer and the forecastle and sterncastle were greatly reduced in size.

The Spanish Armada

Hawkins innovative measures made the new English ships fast and highly manoeuverable. In 1588 they were tested against the Spanish Armada. Hawkins was the Rear Admiral, one of three main commanders of the English fleet against the Armada, alongside Francis Drake and Martin Frobisher. Hawkins’ flagship was Victory. It is possible that Hawkins organised the fire-ship attacks at Calais. For his role in the great sea battle, Hawkins was knighted.

After the defeat of the Armada, Hawkins urged the seizure of Philip II's colonial treasure, in order to stop Spain re-arming. In 1589, Hawkins sailed with former apprentice Francis Drake in a massive military operation (the Drake-Norris Expedition) with one of its goals being to try to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet. The voyage failed, but the idea led many other English pirates to make similar attempts.

In 1590 Drake and Hawkins founded a charity for the relief of sick and elderly mariners. This was followed by a hospital in 1592 and another in 1594, the Sir John Hawkins’ Hospital. The charity continues today.

Potatoes and tobacco

Potatoes were first imported to England in either 1563 or 1565 (sources differ) by Hawkins.

Some scholars suggest it was John Hawkins who introduced tobacco into England. Some accounts say this was in 1569, others in 1564. The latter is more likely, since he mentions "Ltobaccoj" (meaning tobacco) in his journals of the second voyage.

Death

In 1595 he accompanied his cousin on a treasure-hunting voyage to the West Indies, during which he fell sick and died at sea off Puerto Rico.

He was succeeded by his son Sir Richard Hawkins, and his great apprentice and protégé, Francis Drake.

Hawkins came to the public's attention again in June 2006, almost four and a half centuries after his death, when his descendant Andrew Hawkins publicly apologised for his ancestor's actions in the slave trade. ^*

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