This is the Captain’s cabin, the only private quarters on our ship. You can see a simple bed and a chest for storing navigational equipment. Privacy was hard to come by on a 16th century ship, and cabins like this were occupied by the most senior member of the ship’s crew, either a captain or master, and sometimes their immediate family.
During the circumnavigation of The Golden Hinde, Drake shared a small, private cabin with his brother, Thomas. In this cabin he stored his personal effects, equipment, several of his favourite smelling salts and books including Pedro Medina’s Art of Navigation and Foxes book of Martyrs. The latter, which detailed the sufferings of protestants under the Catholic church, was a favourite of Drake’s, who was a fervent Protestant. He took great pleasure in reading from it to Catholic Spanish mariners who were captured during the voyage.
Thomas Drake was, reportedly, a master painter and cartographer who kept a detailed record of coastlines, plants and animals during the voyage. Spanish prisoners who saw his work later told the Spanish Inquisition that his depictions were so accurate, they posed a threat to Spanish supremacy in the New World - such knowledge would surely give England the upper hand. Sadly, all of Thomas’ work is lost to history – it was likely destroyed in a fire at Whitehall Palace.