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Sir Thomas Cavendish (or Candish) (1555-1592) was born in Trimley St. Martin near Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He was a descendant of Roger Cavendish, brother to Sir John Cavendish from whom the Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Newcastle derive their family name of Cavendish.
Thomas Cavendish was known as "the Navigator". He shared in Sir Richard Grenville's expedition to Virginia in 1585, and had circumnavigated the world not long after Francis Drake.
In 1586 he sailed with three ships for the Pacific where he burned three Spanish towns and thirteen ships. In 1587 he visited the ruins of the failed Spanish settlement of Rey Don Felipe and renamed it Port Famine.
He seized the Santa Anna off Acapulco. He returned via the Cape of Good Hope to England with only one of his ships, the Desire, in 1588, after which Queen Elizabeth I knighted him.
A second expedition in 1591 onboard the Lester brought him to the Brazil harbour port of Santos, which he looted. Further going south to the Strait of Magellan, his ship nearly foundered. Cavendish then went back to Brazil were he lost most of his crew in a battle against the Portuguese. He crossed the Atlantic towards Saint Helena with the remains of the ship, but died off Ascension Island.
Trivia
- Cavendish was accompanied by two Japanese adventurers, only known through their Christian names, Christopher and Cosmas, during his expeditions between 1587 and 1591.
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English explorers | Privateers | English pirates | Natives of Suffolk | 1555 births | 1592 deaths
"Thomas Cavendish"