California Albion

Cape Arago, Oregon

Sir Francis Drake 1540-1596
Circumnavigator and Admiral

The Devon privateer took his flotilla from Plymouth Harbor August 5, 1577 bound for the river plate. He raided Spanish shipping and treasure houses around South America, including Valparaiso, Peru and Acapulco roads. June 5, 1579 the renamed 78 foot Golden Hind was sailing with a consort toward a “Northwest Passage” home contrary winds forced the treasure laden ships landward. They first sighted the American coast at this latitude.

Drake dropped behind this headland to escape gale winds anchoring in a “bad bay…, the best roade we could for the present meete with” near south cove.

Through the “vile thicke and stinking fogges” Drake described what seemed to be “a low plaine land, and clad, and covered woth snowe.” So were the Oregon dunes also reported by Captain Cook 199 years later.

Frustrated in his Northern passage, Drake turned south to careen at California. He then sailed west via the Moluccas around the Cape of Good Hope, the first English sailor to span the globe.

Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake in 1581. Seven years later he fought the Spanish Armada from Ushant to Plymouth to Northern Scotland.

Placed by the Oregon Historical Society and State Parks, August 5, 1977.

View from the cliffside of Cape Arago, Oregon. There is a good amount of fog on the right side of the image and over the water before the cape.

Whale Cove/Depoe Bay, Oregon

Many scholars and hobbyists believe that Drake landed in Whale Cove. They often site the inconsistent coordinates given by Drake, the topography, and the indigenous traditions that seem similar to the account given by Francis Fletcher, Drake’s chaplain on the Golden Hinde.