John Hawkins

John Hawkins made his name in the 1560s as the first English merchant to profit from the Triangle Trade, buying enslaved Africans and selling them to Spanish colonies in the West Indies. By 1588 he had risen to Treasurer of the Navy and become the chief architect of the Elizabethan fleet, redesigning ships to be faster, more manoeuvrable, and heavier-armed. He fought as Vice-Admiral in the defeat of the Spanish Armada and was knighted for it. Years later, after the Spanish captured his son Richard, Hawkins and his cousin Francis Drake raised a fleet to strike back in the West Indies. He died a…