Sir Walter Raleigh - Royal Naval College - Greenwich, Great Britain.
N 51° 28.981 W 000° 00.518
30U E 707695 N 5707784
Statue of Sir Walter Raleigh, Sea Captain and maritime explorer. Located at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, Great Britain.
Waymark Code: WMFH42
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 10/20/2012
Views: 16
Sir Walter Raleigh (1554 – 29 October 1618) was a British aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and maratime explorer. He is also well known for popularising potatoes and tobacco in Britain.
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"Raleigh established a colony in North America, which he called Virginia, in order to flatter Elizabeth, England’s virgin queen, but never set foot there himself. He had tobacco and potatoes sent from his new colony. The potatoes were planted in his estate in Ireland, making him the first British potato planter. He also became the first British smoker, using a long pipe with the tobacco in bowl. On one occasion when he was indulging in his new found nicotine habit, his manservant, believing him to be ablaze, threw a bucket of water over him, in a mistaken attempt to save his master’s life.
In 1595, Raleigh led an expedition to what we now call Guyana, in South America, sailing up the Orinoco River through the Spanish colonial empire. He described the expedition in his book The Discoverie of Guiana. Stories told by Indians had convinced him of Eldorado, a fabulous city of gold in the interior of South America. He did locate some gold, but not on the scale he had been led to believe. In 1596 he led an expedition against the Spanish city of Cádiz, and was rear admiral on an expedition to the Azores, part of Spanish territory.
When King James I of England, James VI of Scots, came to the throne in 1603, Raleigh’s enemies conspired to bring him down. He was accused of plotting against the king, convicted on the basis of perjured evidence and, once more, sent to the Tower. In 1616, he was released but not pardoned, after promising to lead an expedition to find gold in the Americas." (
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