Bed & Breakfast in Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is most famous for its naval connections. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Martin Frobisher embarked on their great voyages from here.

Sir Walter Raleigh, knighted in 1585 by Queen Elizabeth, was born in either 1552 or 1554 and grew up in East Budleigh, near Budleigh Salterton, Devon.

Raleigh set sail many times from Plymouth in search of colonizing the New World of America with other famous explorers including Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Humphrey Gilbert.

Sir Martin Frobisher was famous for his voyages, all from Plymouth, to Labrador and Greenland and attempts to discover a North-West passage. He discovered and named Frobisher Bay in Canada in 1576.

Many ships sailed from Plymouth to battle against the French in the Hundred Years' war.

In 1572, Sir Walter Drake sailed from Plymouth with John Oxenham to Nombre de Dios and became the first Englishmen to discover the Pacific Ocean.

Other famous explorers and voyagers who set sail from Plymouth include:

• The Pilgrim Fathers in The Mayflower in 1620 on their way to America
• James Cook, in 1722, on his 3 year voyage around the world
• Sir Francis Chichester, in Gypsy Moth, who sailed single-handed around the world in 1966

Perhaps the best known tale of Plymouth, is the story behind Drake who insisted on completing his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe before setting out in 1588 to defeat the Spanish Armada.

Folklore has it that the real reason Drake insisted on completing his game of bowls was simply down to his expert knowledge of the tides and wind conditions on the day which would have made an earlier sailing pointless!