Who was an English sea captain and privateer of the Elizabethan era, carrying out the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition and claiming California for the English? A: Francis Drake
West Country men The West Country men were a group of wealthy individuals in Elizabethan England who advocated the English colonisation of Ireland, attacks on the Spanish Empire and overseas colonial expansion. The group included Humphrey Gilbert, Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Richard Grenville and Ralph Lane. Several of these prominent figures originated in the far southwest of Britain known as the Westcountry, particularly associated with the sea ports of Devon including Plymouth.
HMS Grenville (1754) HMS "Grenville, was a schooner built in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and originally named Sally". The ship was purchased and renamed "Grenville" by England on 7 August 1763 in Newfoundland. From 1763 to 1767 English surveyor and explorer James Cook was commander of "Grenville", his first independent command. Each summer season he used the ship to survey the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, making detailed maps. The following year, 1768, he began his first circumnavigation of the world.