Drake's Drum
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Drake's Drum is a drum once owned by Sir Francis Drake. The drum was with Drake when he circumnavigated the world and when he died of dysentery off Panama in 1596. The worn drum, with Drake's coat of arms painted on one side, is currently located in the Drake, Naval and West Country Folk Museum at Buckland Abbey in Buckland Monachorum near Yelverton, Devon, England, Drake's former home and now a site owned by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
A legend surrounds Drake's Drum: it is claimed that it can be heard at times when England is at war or significant national event takes place. For example, some said they heard the drum when Britain's greatest naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, was made a freeman of Plymouth. The most recent occasions on which the drum roll was said to have been heard were during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, and the Falklands War in 1982.
An extract from the poem "Drake's Drum" by Sir Henry Newbolt:
- "Take my drum to England, hang et by the shore,
- Strike et when your powder's runnin' low;
- If the Dons sight Devon, I'll quit the port o' Heaven,
- An' drum them up the Channel as we drummed them long ago."[1]
A similarly-named poem was written by the Victorian poet Norah M. Holland.[2]
