John Hawkins

This was followed by a hospital in 1592 and another in 1594 the Hospital of Sir John Hawkins Knight in Chatham. Admiral Sir John Hawkins (also spelled as Hawkyns) (1532 – 12 November 1595) was an English shipbuilder naval administrator and commander merchant navigator and slave trader. The Spanish Armada

John Hawkins' innovative measures made the new English ships fast and highly manoeuvrable.

As treasurer (1577) and controller (1589) of the Royal Navy he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588. Despite the exploits of Lok and Towerson John Hawkins of Plymouth is often considered to be the pioneer of the British slave trade because he was the first to run the Triangular trade making a profit at every stop. The first Englishman recorded to have taken slaves from Africa was John Lok a London trader who in 1555 brought five slaves from Guinea.