The quest for Drake’s coffin
Has there ever been an expedition to find Sir Francis Drake’s coffin? Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-96), victor over the Spanish armada in 1588, is one of england’s greatest naval heroes.
He was the first englishman to circumnavigate the globe, between 1577 and 1580, and was the scourge of Spain in its ambitions to dominate the world.
in 1595, Drake was given joint command, with Sir John Hawkins, of an expedition to the West indies. But the two quarrelled and the squadron made slow progress, allowing the Spanish to prepare.
Sir John died off San Juan de Puerto rico, which the fleet was powerless to capture. Two weeks later, just off Panama, Drake died of dysentery aboard his flagship, Defiance. He was buried at sea in full armour and a lead casket so the Spanish could not take his body as a trophy.
in 2011, an expedition set out to find the coffin. it was led by Pat croce — a former president of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team and owner of a pirate museum — and i ncluded experts from Britain, France, australia, Panama and colombia using special ocean-scanning technology.
The expedition focused on locating two ships, the elizabeth and the Delight, scuttled shortly after Drake’s death, in the belief that the coffin might be nearby.
The team found the ships, but not the coffin, and the ships were not salvaged as they are now officially the property of Panama.
Looking for Drake’ s grave is controversial; many feel he should be allowed to rest in peace.
Our Ministry of Defence says: ‘There is no historical or scientific reason why Drake should be raised or removed. We have received no official request to move him and see no reason why he should be disturbed.’
Proponents of the search point to Drake’s will, which states: ‘i bequeath my soule to almightie God, my onelie maker and redeemer, and my bodie to the earth to be buried and entombed.’
Henry Taylor, Southampton.
QUESTION
In the early 19th century, there was a great scandal involving the Bishop of Clogher. What is the story? THE bishop’s title dated from 1111 and took its name from the village of clogher in co. Tyrone, northern ireland.
The scandal involved Percy Jocelyn (17641843), the bishop from 1820 to 1822. He was the third son of robert Jocelyn, first earl of roden, whose family estates were in castlewellan, co. Down, by his wife Lady anne Hamilton, and graduated with a Ba from Trinity college Dublin.
He then held several ecclesiastical posts before becoming Bishop of clogher in 1820. Before his final appointment, he was not entirely new to scandal. in 1811, James Byrne, coachman to the Bishop’s brother John, accused the Bishop of an ‘unnatural crime’. clogher denied it and prosecuted Byrne for libel.
Byrne was tried, convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, preceded by three floggings. These were so brutal Byrne withdrew his accusation before the third could be administered.
On July 19, 1822, the Bishop, ‘6ft tall, stout, with powdered hair, sallow complexion and pointed nose, dressed in his clerical garb’, was found in an indecent act with John Moverley, a young soldier, in a back room of the White Lion public house, in Haymarket, Westminster.
The landlord and his son assembled six witnesses while they went to call a watchman. The entire assembly then burst into the back parlour, where both offenders had their trousers round their ankles.
The Bishop and the soldier were dragged through the streets. as they passed the gates of carlton Palace they were severely beaten and had their clothes torn to pieces by the crowd. Both were l ocked in cells in St James’s watch house in Vine Street for their own safety.
Jocelyn and Moverley were released on bail, provided by the earl of roden and others. But Jocelyn skipped bail and sailed for Paris. The newspapers railed against the offering of bail to a man who earned at least £20,000 a year and could easily afford the ‘trifling sum’ of £1,000. Worse, before escaping, he sold valuables from the episcopal palace, leaving it ‘as a naked ruin’.
after spending his ill-gotten wealth, Jocelyn is thought to have made his way to edinburgh, where he worked as a butler under an assumed name.
He was declared deposed in his absence by the Metropolitan court of armagh in October 1822 for ‘the crimes of immorality, incontinence, Sodomitical practices, habits and propensities, and neglect of his spiritual, judicial, and ministerial duties’.
Jocelyn was the most senior British churchman to be involved in a public homosexual scandal in the 19th century.
it became a subject of satire and popular ribaldry, resulting in numerous illustrated satirical cartoons, pamphlets and limericks.
charles Manners-Sutton, archbishop of canterbury, recorded that the scandal was so great, that in the days afterwards ‘it was not safe for a bishop to show himself in the streets of London’.
Peter Barrington, London W7.
QUESTION
Apart from being there, was there any planned French military involvement for the D-Day operations of June 1944, covert or otherwise? FurTHer to the earlier answer, the most direct involvement was the landing under capitaine de corvette Philippe kieffer of the 177 men of the 1er Bataillon de Fusiliers Marins commandos (kieffer’s commandos) on Sword beach at 7.31am.
Formed in 1942, this unit eventually became part of no 4 commando of the 1st Special Service Brigade.
The film The Longest Day shows a sequence of this unit attacking the casino de riva-Bella. kieffer and his men fought very hard at this site and went on later in the day to join the 6th airborne Division at the Pegasus Bridge at about 4.30pm.
kieffer was wounded twice and 27 of his men were killed. The unit continued to fight until the war’s end and became the naval commandos of the French navy, still wearing the green beret and their bronze shield badge. Many other French men were involved that day, as aircrew, sailors, soldiers and civilians, but it would appear kieffer’s commandos were the first French troops to land on the invasion beaches.
mick Field, maidstone, Kent.