This article is about the British ship. For the mythological creature see Golden Hind (mythology).

Replica of the Golden Hind

The Golden Hind was a ship best known for its global circumnavigation between 1577 and 1580, captained by Sir Francis Drake. It was originally known as the Pelican and was renamed in mid-voyage 1577 by Drake as he prepared to enter the Straits of Magellan. He rechristened the ship the Golden Hind in a politic gesture, to compliment his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose armorial crest was a golden hind (in heraldry a "hind" is a doe).

A modern replica of the same ship was launched in 1973 and has travelled more than 140,000 miles. Like the original, it circumnavigated the world. Since the 1990s it has been berthed at St Mary Overie's Dock, in Bankside, Southwark, London, close to Southwark Cathedral. There are organised visits from schools, where children can dress up as pirates, and get living history lessons about Elizabethan naval history. The Domesday Book mentions "the tideway where ships are moored" and this is probably what is now called "Mary Overie Dock". Southwark Cathedral used to be known as "The Cathedral church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie".

External links

• Golden Hinde museum
• Ships of the World: an historical encyclopedia: The Golden Hind