The book of the Russian historian, marine writer introduces the reader to the biography of the most famous English corsair and naval commander, the first English navigator around the world. A contemporary and favorite of Queen Elizabeth I Tudor, her "iron pirate" and business partner, knighted for his feats of arms, Drake was able to rise from the lower ranks of the hierarchy of British society to the rank of admiral, played an outstanding role in saving the fatherland from the invasion of the Spanish Invincible Armada in 1588, became a national hero of England. The biography was written on the basis of a large number of foreign sources, which makes it possible not only to present a bright, contradictory image of the protagonist of the story, but also to plunge into the daily life of Elizabethan sailors who challenged the largest empire of that time - the world empire of the Spanish Habsburgs, in which "the sun never set."