19 Facts About Thomas Cavendish

Sir Thomas Cavendish was an English explorer and a privateer known as "The Navigator" because he was the first who deliberately tried to emulate Sir Francis Drake and raid the Spanish towns and ships in the Pacific and return by circumnavigating the globe.

Thomas Cavendish was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England after his return.

Thomas Cavendish later set out for a second raiding and circumnavigation trip but was not as fortunate and died at sea at the age of 31.

Thomas Cavendish was born in 1560 at Trimley St Martin near Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

Thomas Cavendish's father was William Cavendish, 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.

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When Thomas Cavendish was 12 he inherited a fortune from his father's estate.

Thomas Cavendish was a Member of Parliament for Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 1584.

Thomas Cavendish was a member of Parliament for Wilton, 1586.

Thomas Cavendish determined to follow Sir Francis Drake by raiding the Spanish ports and ships in the Pacific and circumnavigating the globe.

Thomas Cavendish was joined by the sixty ton, ten gun, ship Content, and the forty ton ship Hugh Gallant.

Thomas Cavendish anchored first at the island of Santa Magdalena near Punta Arenas, in the Strait of Magellan.

Thomas Cavendish kept with him two Japanese sailors, three boys from Manila, a Portuguese traveller familiar with China and a Spanish pilot .

Thomas Cavendish hoped to use this information to augment existing English knowledge of the area and for a possible second voyage.

Thomas Cavendish attacked Arevalo, the capital of the Spanish settlement in Iloilo at the time in 1587 with the raid giving the town the distinction of being the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines to be attacked by a British pirate.

Thomas Cavendish's first voyage was a huge success both financially and otherwise; Thomas Cavendish was not yet 28 at his return.

The circumnavigation of the globe had been completed in two years and 49 days, nine months faster than Drake, although, like Drake, Thomas Cavendish returned with only one of his ships—the Desire with a crew of about 48 men.

Thomas Cavendish was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I of England, who was invited to a dinner aboard the Desire.

Thomas Cavendish set off across the Atlantic towards Saint Helena with the remainder of the crew, but died of unknown causes at age 31, possibly off Ascension Island in the South Atlantic in 1592.

The last letter of Thomas Cavendish, written to his executor a few days before his death, accuses John Davis of being a "villain" who caused the "decay of the whole action".