Julie Miller, age 13, of High Point, North Carolina, for her question:

What sort of ship did Drake sail against the Armada?

Of all the great mariners who sailed the seas in olden times, none is more worthy of fame than the rather shortish, red bearded captain, Francis Drake. He was the hero of England and even respected by his Spanish foes. Perhaps his own favorite ship. was the Judith, for this was the first one he captained at the age of 22. But to England and her Queen, Elizabeth I, Drake's most famous ship was the Golden Hind.

In 1580, Queen Elizabeth Tudor decreed that Drake's Golden Hind be left to rest in port and preserved as a national monument. At the same time she dubbed her captain Sir Francis Drake. The hero was the first British mariner to circumnavigate the globe in a single voyage and the Golden Hind was the first British ship. The famous event occurred eight years before the Spanish Armada set sail to conquer England.

Drake was born in 1545 and his family was related to some of England's greatest seamen. These were the great days when England realized that her destiny was linked with the sea and Elizabeth Tudor held her seamen in high regard. Young Drake was educated by his famous navigator uncle, Sir John Hawkins, and a mariner's career was his only ambition. At 18, he went to sea as a purser. Four years later, he captained his first ship, The Judith, and fought valiantly with Hawkins in the Gulf of Mexico. The burning ambition of Philip II of Catholic Spain was to conquer Protestant England. Elizabeth Tudor, her bold mariners and her people were determined to remain free. This was the leading drama of Drake and his times.

For years, England played a game of harassment, striking Philip's ships on the Spanish Main, between the Old World and the New. With the Queen's approval, Hawkins and others outfitted private ships, privateers, to capture Spanish ships and treasure. The Spanish galleons were huge, very tall ships. The privateers were small ships of 120 to 400 tons, fast and well armed. Their seamen used their Spanish adventures to plan better ones.

In the early 1580 's, Philip started to build his Invincible Armada to invade and conquer England. Elizabeth Tudor chose Hawkins to design the most suitable ships to go against the mighty galleons. The models were smallish, 400 toppers, low in the water, fast and maneuverable and armed  fierce warships. The famous four were  The Revenge and The Dreadnaught, The Swiftshore and The Foresight. When the Armada struck in 1588, Drake was one of the four commanders of the English forces    and took to sea in one of these ships.

It took them a week to rout the Invincible Armada, in one of England's greatest naval victories. Most of the credit went to Drake, who planned the strategy    though squalling gales lent a helping hand. The Spanish expected both sides to fire their cannons, close in and fight things out on deck. Drake chose to keep his distance, firing long range cannon into the tall galleons    and stay on the windward side. These and other tricky maneuvers baffled the Spanish. Wild winds blew them north around Scotland and Ireland, wrecking many galleons and driving others ashore    while Drake and his ships sailed safely back to Plymouth harbor.