Drake, Sir Francis BrE AmE
(1540–96) an English sailor and ↑ explorer , who was the first Englishman to sail around the world, and was one of the leaders of the English navy when it defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. There is a story that Drake was very calm when he was first told that the ships of the Spanish Armada were coming, and completed the game of BOWLS that he was playing before leaving to fight.