PLYMOUTH 's predominantly bland and modern face belies its great historic role as a naval base, a role assured in the sixteenth century by the patronage of such national heroes as John Hawkins and Francis Drake. It was from here that the latter sailed to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588, and 32 years later the port was the last embarkation point for the Pilgrim Fathers, whose New Plymouth colony became the nucleus for the English settlement of North America. The sustained prominence... [More]