- Drake’s Drum
Drake’s Drum is a
snare drum that Sir Francis Drake took with him when he circumnavigated the world.cite web |url = http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/drake-s-drum |title = Drake’s Drum |accessdate = April 14 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2008 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = Icons: A Protrait of England |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] Shortly before he died he ordered the drum to be taken toBuckland Abbey , where it still hangs today, and vowed that ifEngland was ever in danger someone was to beat the drum and he would return to defend the country.cite web |url = http://www.paranormality.com/drakes_drum.shtml |title = Drake’s Drum |accessdate = April 14 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2008 |author = John Mount |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = paranormality.com |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] According to legend it can be heard to beat at times when England is at war or significant national event takes place.cite web |url = http://www.xroyvision.com.au/drake/history/drum1.html |title = Drake’s Drum |accessdate = April 14 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2008 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = xroyvision |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ]History
Drake is said to have taken the drum, emblazoned with his
coat of arms , with him on his voyages around the world between 1577 and 1580. It was still with him for his final voyage and as he lay on his death bed off the coast ofPanama in 1596 he ordered the drum returned to England where in times of trouble it should be beaten to recall him from heaven to rescue the country.Following his death the drum was returned to Drake’s family home of
Buckland Abbey inBuckland Monachorum ,Devon where, several times throughout history, people have claimed to have heard the drum beating, including;when theMayflower left Plymouth for America in 1620,whenAdmiral Lord Nelson was made a freeman of Plymouth,whenNapoleon was brought into Plymouth Harbour as a prisoner, and whenWorld War I first began in 1914.Reportedly, on the Royal Oak, a victory drum roll from a drum was heard when the
German navy surrendered in 1918. The ship was then searched twice by the officers and then again by the captain and neither a drum nor a drummer were found on board and eventually the phenomenon was put down to the legendary drum.cite web |url = http://www.xroyvision.com.au/drake/history/drum2.html |title = Drake’s Drum Heard in the German Surrender of 1918 |accessdate = April 14 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2008 |author = |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = xroyvision |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ]In 1938, when Buckland Abbey was partly destroyed by fire, the drum was rescued and taken to safety at
Buckfast Abbey . Plymouth was devastated in the air raids that followed, reminding some of the ancient legend that “If Drake’s Drum should be moved from its rightful home, the city will fall”.cite web |url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/09/a3323909.shtml |title = Drake’s Drum |accessdate = April 14 |accessdaymonth = |accessmonthday = |accessyear = 2008 |author = Ursula Hill |last = |first = |authorlink = |coauthors = |date = |year = |month = |format = |work = |publisher = bbc.co.uk |pages = |language = English |doi = |archiveurl = |archivedate = |quote = ] The drum was returned and the city remained safe for the rest of the war.The drum remains on public display at Buckland Abbey under the care of the National Trust and has most recently been heard in 1940 at the
Dunkirk evacuation duringWorld War II .Cultural impact
The drum has become an icon of
English folklore with its variation of the classicking in the mountain story.Drake’s Drum has been the title and subject of poems by Sir
Henry Newbolt [Louis Untermeyer (ed). "Modern British Poetry",Bartleby.com " [http://www.bartleby.com/103/41.html Drake’s Drum] "] and the Victorian poetNorah M. Holland [ [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/holland/spindrift/drum.html Drake’s Drum] , the page on the website of [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/#A_Section The Celebration of Women Writers] cites as a reference [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/holland/spindrift/spindrift.html Spun-Yarn And Spindrift] . by Norah M. Holland. London & Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1918, p. 88.] .The drum was also mentioned in
Bernard Cornwell ’s 1988 novel Sharpe’s Rifles as analogous to theGonfalon ofSantiago Matamoros that features heavily in the story.Further reading
* See [http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/fran_drake.htm Legendary Dartmoor] for a picture of the drum.
* See [http://www.xroyvision.com.au/drake/history/hist38.html xroyvision.com] for historic articles and another picture of the drum.References
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