ABSTRACT
Richard Hakluyt was a man of vision who saw his country's future prosperity in overseas trade and colonization. There are a number of official documents, orders, sailing instructions and indeed a great mass of material there is no room to consider but perhaps enough has been said to show that a most instructive and indeed an entertaining nautical dictionary could be extracted from Hakluyt's volumes. The Principall navigations of 1589 had its less important voyages curtailed in the second edition and much interesting routine nautical matter excised. But all the same it is surprising how many of Hakluyt's nautical terms are still used at sea. It is interesting to consider the nautical flavour that Sir Walter Ralegh gives so successfully to his expert journalistic handling of the last fight of the Revenge. Sir Francis Drake seems to have been loath to let Hakluyt have adequate logbooks of his exploits.
