Queen Elizabeth I partly sponsored Sir Francis Drake as the leader of an expedition intended to pass around
South America through the
Strait of Magellan and to explore the coast that lay beyond. The queen's support was advantageous; Drake had official approval to benefit himself and the queen and cause the maximum damage to the
Spaniards. This eventually culminated in the
Anglo–Spanish War. Before setting sail, Drake met the queen face-to-face for the first time and she said to him, "We would gladly be revenged on the King of Spain for divers injuries that we have received." The explicit object was to "find out places meet to have traffic." Drake, however, acted as a
privateer, with unofficial support from Elizabeth. The design of the
Golden Hind was based on the
Spanish built
nao Victoria, On 1 March 1579, now in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador,
Golden Hind challenged and captured the Spanish galleon . This galleon had the largest treasure captured to that date: over 360,000 pesos (equivalent to around £480 million in 2017). The treasure took six days to transship and included 26 tons of silver, half a ton of gold, porcelain, jewellery, coins and jewels. On 26 September 1580, Francis Drake sailed his ship into Plymouth Harbour with 56 of the original crew of 80 left aboard. The ship was unloaded at
Trematon Castle nearby, supervised by the Queen's guards. The final treasure also included six tons of cloves from the
Spice Islands, at the time worth their weight in gold. Over half of the proceeds went to the crown - her share of the treasure came to at least £160,000: "enough to pay off her entire government debt and still have £40,000 left over to invest in a new trading company for the
Levant. Her return, and that of other investors, was more than £47 for every £1 invested, or 4,700%." After Drake's circumnavigation,
Golden Hind was maintained for public exhibition at the dockyard at Deptford, London. The ship remained there from 1580 to around 1650, 45 years after Elizabeth had died, before the ship eventually rotted away and was broken up. In 1668, the keeper of the stores at Deptford, John Davies of Camberwell, had the best remaining timber of
Golden Hind made into a chair now called the
Drake Chair which was presented to the
Bodleian Library at the
University of Oxford, where it remains (with a replica in the Great Hall,
Buckland Abbey, Devon, Drake's home and now maintained by the
National Trust). A table, known as the cupboard, in the
Middle Temple Hall, London is also reputed to have been made from the wood of
Golden Hind. Upon the cupboard is placed the roll of members of Middle Temple, which new members sign when they are called to the Bar. The ship's lantern was hung in the vestibule of Middle Temple Hall, but was destroyed during the Second World War. == Replicas ==