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 William Drake Francis William Drake Francis William Drake (1724 – 1788/9) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, rising to the rank of vice-admiral of the red. Not much is known of Francis William's early life. He was born in Buckland Monachorum, Devon in 1724 and was baptized on 22 August that year. He was the third son, and the second surviving son, of Anne Heathcote and Sir Francis Henry Drake. This line of Drakes descended from the brother of Elizabethan naval hero