The Golden Hind was the first English vessel to circumnavigate the globe under the command of Sir Francis Drake (the very first to navigate the globe was the Portuguese sailor, Ferdinand Magellan under the Spanish flag in 1519). Drake’s command sailed from Plymouth, England on 13 December 1577 with 180 men and five ships (Pelican, Elizabeth, Marigold, Swan & Christopher). After reaching Brazil, on April 5th, the Pelican, Marigold and Elizabeth continued the voyage on April 17th abandoning the other ships. As they entered the Strait of Magellan Drake rechristened his ship, the Pelican as the Golden Hind. The ship was named for Drake’s patron, Sir Christopher Hatton whose armorial crest was a gold hind (a heraldic term for a doe). Drake was the first to fly the English flag in the Pacific on 9 September, 1578. It is believed that Drake anchored just north of San Francisco on 17 June, 1579. The voyage ended on 26 Sep 1580. It took 2 years, 10 months and 18 days and covered 9,700 miles. 59 of the original 180 crew survived to return to England. Drake was knighted on the deck of the Golden Hind by Elizabeth I on 4 April, 1581. Drake went as vice admiral of the English fleet during their victory of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The Golden Hind was displayed in dry dock and remained on public view until the 1660’s.

A full scale replica was built in Appledore, Devon UK and launched in 1973. It has traveled more than 140,000 miles, more than 5 times around the globe. Like it’s namesake, the replica has circumnavigated the globe. Since 1996 is berthed in dry-dock at St. Mary’s Overie’s Dock in Bankside, Southwark, England.

If you travel to London, it’s well worth the visit. You can also visit just down the river the HMS Belfast. Unfortunately, down the Thames in Greenwich is the burnt out hulk of the Cutty Sark. Fortunately, a full scale restoration project is under way and hopefully by 2010 the ship will be restored to her glory.

This is a great website for the location of all ship replicas worldwide:
http://pages.zoom.co.uk/leveridge/replicas.html#H

The info above was sourced from ask.com, wikipedia.com and bestscalemodels.com.