Lyon

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Occurrences

Lyon

Additional Notes

Lion/Red Lion/Lyon (fl. 1585-1587); ; The Lion, also known occasionally as the Red Lion, was a 100 ton vessel of Chichester, captained and owned (at least in part) by the merchant-adventurer and privateer George Raymond. She sailed in the 1585 Roanoke Voyage and was among those separated from Grenville and the Tiger when the squadron was scattered early in the voyage off the ‘Bay of Portingal.’ Though a great deal of the narrative concerning the actions of the vessels of the fleet following the storm (besides the Tiger) is largely composed of intelligent speculation, it is thought that the Lion, following separation from the rest of the squadron, fought a French ship off Jamaica, apparently winning the battle but not capturing the vessel. Soon after she was forced onto the Jamaican shore by a storm and, by the time she made it back to sea, her crew was pressed for food. In response, Raymond somewhat callously marooned twenty soldiers in Jamaica. The stranded Englishmen evidently split up into two groups, half of whom disappeared, and of the other half only two survived to be rescued and interrogated by the Spanish, the other nine dying of hunger. The Lion, meanwhile, had set off for the coast of Virginia to find Grenville; shortly thereafter, on 17 June, it is recorded that Raymond put thirty-two more men ashore at Croatan, a rather impolite detail left out of some of the more public reports of the voyage. The Lion finally rejoined Grenville’s company between 6 and 11 July, and the other vessels evidently showed up as well around the same time. Though the specific details of when, where and how the fleet was brought back together are hazy, Quinn suggests that it is most likely that the Lion, the Roebuck, the Dorothy, and the second pinnace all reached the area around Roanoke before Grenville and the Tiger. On 21 July the Lion sailed with the fleet to Port Ferndinando and Hatarask Harbor. Later in the voyage, sometime after 25 August (when the Tiger left for England), it seems that the Lion met up with Bernard Drake, commanding the Golden Royal, near Newfoundland, where, operating out of Virginia, the two formed an organized assault on both Spanish shipping and the French fishing fleets, capturing several ships en route from Brazil and the West Indies, securing significant cargoes of gold, ivory, sugar, and wine, as well as a number of French fishing vessels. This minor expedition underscores the theory that the English settlements in Virginia were initially intended to be used as a base of operations for privateering expeditions. Evidently Raymond did quite well in his privateering exploits and both he and Raleigh gathered significant profits from the venture. Quinn notes that Raleigh’s 1586 attempted relief voyage to the Roanoke settlement (which failed due to being set to sea too late in the year) was made by a ship that, though not specifically named, was of the same tonnage as the Lion, suggesting that, since Raleigh already owned the Lion, the ship referenced could very possibly have been her. Additionally, the 1587 Roanoke settlement voyage under John White was conducted in part on a vessel called the Lion, which is likely, though not certainly, one and the same as the Red Lion of Chichester mentioned above. This Lion, captained by John White and piloted by Simon Fernandez, left Plymouth with the rest of the expedition on 8 May, 1587. White and Fernandez evidently did not get along well, and much tension is reported throughout the voyage, with White, in his account, repeatedly accusing Fernandez of putting the expedition at unnecessary risk. The Lion sailed to Dominica, passing through St Croix and Tallaboa Bay, where the vessels anchored on 28 June to take in water. She then left Puerto Rico sailing near the north of Hispaniola and finally, after much clashing of personalities between White and Fernandez, reached Port Ferdinando on the 22nd of July. After this the Lion was evidently anchored offshore while the settlers built and explored. The next that is heard is that the Lion was forced to cut her cables and push away from shore when a storm rolled through on 21 August, coming back to port on the 27th. It was around this time that the settlers had persuaded John White to return to England to urge the sending of supply ships, and so the Lion and the fly-boat left on the 27th just as soon as they had returned to pick up the crew, the fly-boat and White. These two vessels stayed together until they neared the Azores at which time they parted ways, Fernandez taking the Lion privateering and White taking the somewhat damaged fly-boat back to England. Again, the Lion of the 1585 voyage and the Lion of the 1587 voyage are likely the same vessel, as continuity of purpose in Raleigh’s expeditions would seem to make sense here. However, since Lion was a common name for ships of the period, this is largely conjecture and not certainty.;
Works Cited: ; ; The Roanoke Voyages, 1584-1590: Volumes I, ed. David Beers Quinn (London: Hakluyt Society, 1955): 25, 121, 158-9, 164-5, 171-2, 176, 179-80, 241, 465, 477, 498, 500, 505, 516, 531-2, 547, 597.; ; Andrews, Kenneth R. Elizabethan Privateering: English Privateering During the Spanish War: 1585-1603 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1964): 92. ;

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