Drake's Drum

A story says Francis Drake, dying off Panama in January 1596, told his men to send his drum home to be beaten in England's hour of need.

Wikipedia's biography of Francis Drake gives the date of his death as 28 January 1596. He was about 56, died of dysentery, and was anchored off the coast of Portobelo, Panama, after an attack on Panama had failed. The English fleet withdrew afterwards.

The drum story comes from other sources. Wikipedia's article on the drum says the drum bore his coat of arms and went with him on the circumnavigation of 1577 to 1580, then on his final voyage. On his deathbed he reportedly ordered it returned to England, to be beaten in times of trouble so that he would come back from heaven to rescue the country. Historic UK says the order was to take it to his home, Buckland Abbey in Devon, and that it is generally believed to have been among 13 drums brought back from that voyage.

Icy Sedgwick relays a different view from Susan Jackson: Drake was gravely ill at the end, and relatives may have treated his feverish rambling as an order and fixed on the drum. Drake's own descendants placed it at Buckland Abbey, where it has been displayed since the eighteenth century.