And were the crewmen equipped with clothing for withstanding rough and cold weather? This question comes up as I watch a program about Drake’s journey where it was mentioned that they sailed farther South than anybody had before. Was the connection between the weather and both polar regions known or at least theorized back then?
Reading the Wikipedia account of the voyage:
it says he went through the Straits of Magellan and not Drake Passage, so he didn’t go any further south than Magellan.
As far as the clothing, seamen would expect to have to dress warmly no matter where they were sailing, so they’d bring along winter clothing. It’s not always nice and pleasant on the high seas.
I’ll note that Drake chose the worst time to launch his expedition. He first sailed in November and encountered a storm in the English Channel. That required them to fix a couple of the ships, so they didn’t start again until December. But that timing put them in the Patagonian area in June, where they kept encountering storms. If he’d started in summer, the whole enterprise would have gone much smoother.
Magellan sailed in his famous strait in October-November 1520 (so summer in south hemisphere). The Spanish transit between Philippines and Spain was by Mexico or Panama, not by the south of America. Others passed by the Cap of storms of south Africa, with a warmer climate. Drake was the first to sail in winter, so dubious that he was prepared to it.
Can’t find a cite online but the Venerable Bede in the 8th century wrote that the world was a globe, with a hot middle region, temparate middle regions north and south of that, and cold regions at the extremes.
Just because something was known at one point doesn’t mean it would still be known hundreds of years later of course, but European sailors would definitely know that heading into the high latitudes meant cold weather and even frozen harbours - e.g. Sir Hugh Willougby and his Muscovy Company crew had frozen to death on the Kola Peninsula in 1553/4 or thereabouts. So two decades later Drake could be expected to know or at least suspect that heading a long way south would mean extreme cold.