According to this well-researched book, Drake was the ultra-professional pirate, bred to it from an early age in his native Devon, where it had become a burgeoning industry. Later ages saw in him a patron saint of English maritime power and a founder of the Royal Navy, but both claims are doubtful. Drake fought and sailed for money, not for patriotism, fame or religion, and this was perfectly realised by Queen Elizabeth, who used him for her own financial gain. His role in the Armada fighting was rather less than heroic, though his previous raid on Cadiz did much to cripple the Spanish fleet's effectiveness; his other great moment was his circumnavigation of the world and his first raid on Spanish America, whence he returned with rich plunder. Otherwise Drake seems to have been an unscrupulous, acquisitive, hard-fisted adventurer with few loyalties, who was rather unsuited to high command - as the Queen, with her usual shrewdness, soon realised. His final raid on the Spanish Main was a disaster, from which he and his fellow-commander, Sir John Hawkins, did not return alive.