Hawkins Street

Tucked away in the Vogeltown area of New Plymouth is a group of streets named after great British seafarers.

John Hawkins (1532-1595) is one of those. Well known in the Elizabethan court, he came to note, initially, by forming a syndicate of wealthy businessmen to invest in the slave trade.

He then led three voyages, setting up the triangular trade between England, Africa and the West Indies. Not content with normal commerce, he also managed to hijack several Portuguese slave-trading vessels. His acts brought huge returns to the investors and meant the Queen turned a blind eye to his piracy, even renting him a vessel for the second voyage.

As a consequence, he is now infamously remembered as the pioneer of the English slave trade. He is also attributed as being the first to bring potatoes and tobacco to England on those early slaving voyages.

His swashbuckling career changed to one of political intrigue and espionage in 1570. He pretended to be part of the Ridolfi plot to betray Queen Elizabeth. Gaining the confidence of the Spanish Ambassador, he foiled the plot and learned about the proposed Spanish invasion of England. This earned him a place in Parliament in 1572.

In 1578 he was appointed Treasurer of the Royal Navy, upsetting a few vested interests with his reforms. But his greatest contribution was changing the design of the warships, making them faster and more manoeuvrable. Certainly, it was a huge factor in the English beating the Spanish in 1588 and won him a knighthood.

On balance I think he can be heralded as a great seafarer and naval architect. The blot on his character associated with slavery was highlighted in June 2006 when a descendant, Andrew Hawkins, publicly apologised for his ancestor's actions.

Fittingly, he died at sea in 1595 on a treasure-hunting voyage with his cousin Sir Francis Drake.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.