Drake in popular culture

In the Jennings series of novels, the fictional Linbury Court Preparatory School has a house named after Drake, to which the main characters, Jennings and Darbishire, belong.

Drake's anti-Spanish exploits were loosely the basis for Warner Brother's production of the 1940 film The Sea Hawk starring Errol Flynn as the dashing fictional Captain Geoffery Thorpe, who also was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I during the film.

There was a 1962 NBC television series based on him, titled Sir Francis Drake.

A popular legend holds that if England is ever in peril, beating Drake's Drum will cause Sir Francis return to save the country. This is a variation of the sleeping hero folktale.

Drake's exploits were extolled by the patriotic Victorian poet Sir Henry Newbolt in the poem Drake's Drum. A similarly-named poem was written by the late Victorian poetess Norah M. Holland.

During his circumnavigation of the globe, Drake left a plate upon leaving his landing place on the west coast of North America, claiming the land for England. In the 1930s, it appeared that Drake's plate had been found near San Francisco. Forty years later, scientists confirmed that the plate was a hoax, as had been suspected. Later information attributed the hoax to E Clampus Vitus.

There is a high school named for Drake in San Anselmo, California.

A major east-west road in Marin County, California is named Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. It connects Point San Quentin on San Francisco Bay with Point Reyes and Drakes Bay. Each end is near a site considered by some to be Drake's landing place.

One of the four houses of British public school Churcher's College is named for Drake, as is one of the six houses of Hong Kong secondary school Sha Tin College.

Though England considers him a hero, Spaniards regard him as a cruel and bloodthirsty pirate who used to sack defenseless Spanish harbors. Drake, or Draco ("Dragon") to give his Spanish name, was used as a bogeyman for centuries after his "vicious" raids.

On the Advance Wars video game series, there is a CO named Drake, whose strength point is naval combat.

On the popular reality show Survivor: Pearl Islands, one of the tribes was named Drake.

The Clive Cussler novel Inca Gold involves a search for Drakes treasure.