Luke Warde | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1550 |
| Died | c.1592 |
| Allegiance |  England |
| Service/ | Navy Royal |
| Commands held | HMS Bonaventure HMS Tramontana HMS Swallow Admiral of the Narrow Seas |
Admiral Luke Warde (fl. 1588), was an English naval officer who served during the Tudor period. [1]
Warde was with (Sir) Martin Frobisher in his first and second voyages to the north-west, 1576–77. In April 1578 he is mentioned as having brought into Southampton a quantity of goods taken from pirates. In May 1578 he sailed again with Frobisher in his third voyage, being received as an adventurer ‘gratis,’ in consideration of his service. Luke Sound marks a place at which he landed. In December 1581 he was engaged in fitting out HMS Bonaventure, in which in 1582–83 he was vice-admiral under Edward Fenton in the expedition for China, which did not get further than the coast of Brazil during which a Spanish fleet which was sent out to intercept them was defeated at São Vicente. Warde afterwards wrote the account of the voyage which was published by Richard Hakluyt. [2] In 1587–9 he commanded the queen's ship HMS Tramontana against the Spanish armada and in the narrow seas. In 1590, still commanding Tramontana, he was appointed Admiral of the Narrow Seas In 1591 whilst still in his post he changed his flagship to HMS Swallow. His name does not occur in the accounts of any of the numerous expeditions during the rest of the war, so that it is probable that he died shortly after 1591. [3]
Sir Martin Frobisher was an English sailor and privateer who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. He probably sighted Resolution Island near Labrador in north-eastern Canada, before entering Frobisher Bay and landing on present-day Baffin Island. On his second voyage, Frobisher found what he thought was gold ore and carried 200 tons of it home on three ships, where initial assaying determined it to be worth a profit of £5.20 per ton. Encouraged, Frobisher returned to Canada with an even larger fleet and dug several mines around Frobisher Bay. He carried 1,350 tons of the ore back to England, where, after years of smelting, it was realized that the ore was a worthless rock containing the mineral hornblende. As an English privateer, he plundered riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert was an English adventurer, explorer, member of parliament and soldier who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was a pioneer of the English colonial empire in North America and the Plantations of Ireland. He was a maternal half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh and a cousin of Sir Richard Grenville.
Sir John Hawkins was an English naval commander, naval administrator, privateer and slave trader.
John Davis was one of the chief navigators of Queen Elizabeth I of England. He led several voyages to discover the Northwest Passage and served as pilot and captain on both Dutch and English voyages to the East Indies. He discovered the Falkland Islands in August 1592.
Frederick William Beechey was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer.
Admiral Sir Richard Hawkins was a 17th-century English seaman, explorer and privateer. He was the son of Admiral Sir John Hawkins.
Edward Fenton was an English navigator, son of Henry Fenton and Cicely Beaumont and brother of Sir Geoffrey Fenton. He was also a publisher of diaries and journals.
Luke Foxe was an English explorer, born in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, who searched for the Northwest Passage across North America. In 1631, he sailed much of the western Hudson Bay before concluding no such passage was possible. Foxe Basin, Foxe Channel and Foxe Peninsula were named after him.
Robert Wolfall was an Anglican priest who served as chaplain to Martin Frobisher's third expedition to the Arctic. He celebrated the first Anglican Eucharist in what is now Canadian territory in 1578 in Frobisher Bay.
Rear-Admiral Richard Charles Mayne was a Royal Navy officer and explorer, who in later life became a Conservative politician.
John Cleveley the Younger was a British artist and marine painter.
Sir Carew Raleigh or Ralegh was an English naval commander and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1586 and 1622. He was the elder brother of Sir Walter Raleigh.
George Best (1555–1584) was a member of the second and third Martin Frobisher voyages in positions of importance; as Frobisher's lieutenant on the second and as captain of the Anne Francis on the third. In 1578 he published A True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie.
Clement Adams was an English schoolmaster and author, noted for producing an engraving of Sebastian Cabot's map of the world, sometime after 1544.
Michael Lok was an English merchant and traveller, and the principal backer of Sir Martin Frobisher's voyages in search of the Northwest Passage. He was the governor of the failed Cathay Company formed with Frobisher in 1577.
Robert Baker, was an English voyager to Guinea.
The Battle of Flores (1592), also known as Cruising Voyage to the Azores of 1592, or the Capture of the Madre de Deus describes a series of naval engagements that took place from 20 May to 19 August 1592, during the Anglo-Spanish War. The battle was part of an expedition by an English fleet initially led by Sir Walter Raleigh, and then by Martin Frobisher and John Burrough. The expedition involved the capture of a number of Portuguese and Spanish ships including the large Portuguese carrack Madre de Deus, after a long naval battle off the island of Flores in the Azores. The expedition, particularly the capture of the great carrack, was a financial and military success. The rich cargo aboard the carrack, which at the time equaled nearly half the size of the Kingdom of England's royal annual revenue, was subject to mass theft when it arrived in Dartmouth, England, followed by quarrels over the shares of the prize. The expedition had formative consequences for the English both financially and on the future of English exploration.
Rose Lok was an English businesswoman and Protestant exile during the Tudor period. At the age of eighty-four, she wrote an account covering the first part of her life.
John Lok was the son of Sir William Lok, the great-great-great-grandfather of the philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). In 1554 he was captain of a trading voyage to Guinea. An account of his voyage was published in 1572 by Richard Eden.
The Admiral of the Narrow Seas also known as the Admiral for the guard of the Narrow Seas was a senior Royal Navy appointment. The post holder was chiefly responsible for the command of the English navy's Narrow Seas Squadron also known as the Eastern Squadron that operated in the two seas which lay between England and Kingdom of France and England and the Spanish Netherlands later the Dutch Republic from 1412 to 1688. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Command of the Narrow Seas.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Warde, Luke". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.