Journal
of
The Drake Exploration Society
Issue 1 June 1997
The Drake Broadside is the journal of - The Drake Exploration Society, published annually. These pages display the content of the first issue, dated June 1997, as a sample of the benefits of joining the Society and because it contains Drake's will which has never been published. Members receive one 8,000 word Broadside every January to mark Drake's death and a newsletter in June.
A unique organisation founded in 1996, 400 years after the death of Sir Francis Drake. The aims of the Society are to perpetuate Drake’s memory through: research, fieldwork, lectures and publications.
The journal was aptly christened The Drake Broadside by Susan Jackson.
Broadsheet was an Elizabethan information sheet. It could have carried a cartoon, poem, ballad or a straight forward account. It was nicknamed Broadside because it usually contained a hard hitting message: a "potent shot."
More commonly known, a broadside was an Elizabethan battle tactic invented by Sir Francis, whereby a ship came line astern, crossed the "T" and presented all the guns along her one side to the enemy. This tactic was used by the Royal Navy until 1962. It is now only used on ceremonial occasions because "broadside on" is not suitable for launching missiles.
