Circumnavigation traveling west from Europe, in 1521, Magellan reached a region of Southeast Asia (in the Malay Archipelago), which he had reached on previous voyages traveling east. Magellan thereby achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history. In 1577, Elizabeth I sent Francis Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. Drake set out from Plymouth, England in November 1577, aboard "Pelican", which Drake renamed "Golden Hind" mid-voyage. In September 1578, he passed through the southern tip of South America, named Drake Passage, which connects the southwestern
Speedwell (1577 ship) bottom of the bay. "Speedwell" is also mentioned several times in battle-action scenes in the historical fiction novel, "Armada: A Novel", written by Charles Gidley Wheeler and published in 1987. Speedwell (1577 ship) Speedwell was a 60-ton pinnace that, along with "Mayflower", transported the Pilgrims and was the smaller of the two ships. A vessel of the same name and size traveled to the New World seventeen years prior as the flagship of the first expedition of Martin Pring. "Speedwell" was built in 1577, under the name "Swiftsure", as part of English preparations for war against Spain. She participated in