Operation Drake Operation Drake Operation Drake (1978–1980) was a round-the-world voyage with the participation of young people from many countries. The voyage was centred on the brigantine Eye of the Wind. She left Plymouth in October 1978 and returned to London two years later, in December 1980. Named after Sir Francis Drake, who had circumnavigated the world four hundred years before on the Golden Hind. Operation Drake was divided up onto 9 ocean and 1 land based phases, each lasting about 3 months. On each phase, a number of Young Explorers, youngsters aged between seventeen and twenty-four, who were selected from countries
Francis Drake were to become the Queen's secrets of the Realm, and Drake and the other participants of his voyages on the pain of death sworn to their secrecy; she intended to keep Drake's activities away from the eyes of rival Spain. Drake presented the Queen with a jewel token commemorating the circumnavigation. Taken as a prize off the Pacific coast of Mexico, it was made of enamelled gold and bore an African diamond and a ship with an ebony hull. For her part, the Queen gave Drake a jewel with her portrait, an unusual gift to bestow upon a commoner, and