In Memorium:
One of the most elegant of the remaining tall ships, this historic 165' top-sail schooner rounded Cape Horn many times under sail alone.
Continuing the rich tradition of sailing, as seen above at TheBight on one of its many BVI cruises, the Sir Francis Drake will be remembered fondly by it's shipmates.

All the passengers and crew disembarked the ship just prior to the hurricane in St. Martin (French side). The ship was tied to a huge commercial ship mooring buoy in Marigot Bay, where it was attached with 15 lines and both anchors. Another tall ship was similarly moored at an adjacent buoy and it also has disappeared. The eye actually passed over the area at least twice and we think both ships broke lose during the second or third pass. We had a location from our EPIRB somewhere west of St. Martin/Anguilla, and the Coast Guard found a life raft which was determined to have been from the DRAKE, but nothing else. It may have sunk in about 1200 feet of water - won't even be a good dive site.

Biography: (found on FaceBook)

The beautiful three-masted schooner, Sir Francis Drake, was originally christened the Landkirchen (Land Church) in 1917, having been launched in that year on the River Weser in Germany. For the first years of her life, she sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and around Cape Horn, carrying manufactured goods to Chile and returning to Germany with copper ore. Each round trip took approximately 12 months (5-6 months each direction). In all, she sailed around Cape Horn 20 times, under sail power only, as she did not carry an engine until one was finally installed in1930.

All the early written records of the ship were destroyed in early 1945 during Allied bombing of Germany. Contemporary legal documents, beginning in December of 1945, indicate the Landkirchen was sold at an Allied war auction as a war prize. She remained under German ownershsip and operated as a cargo ship until 1979, at which time the vessel went into a two-year re-fit. She came out of re-fit as the Godewind (Good Wind) having been purchased by a German physician. The Godewind operated as a day-sailer out of Martinique, French West Indies.

In 1988 the Godewind was purchased by Bryan C Petley and a German business partner and was renamed the Sir Franics Drake. Additional refurbishing was performed by the new owner to bring her up to a capacity of 30 passengers. She carried Equatorial Guinea registry.

The Sir Francis Drake operated seven-day cruises in the beautiful British Virgin Islands and other exciting Caribbean itineraries until she was lost to Hurricane Lenny in 1999 near St. Martin.