Doctor Dee (Raymond Huntley) entertains Elizabeth and her court with some magic tricks. Mendoza's man, Don Pedro steals all Dee's papers and he is forced to make a false astrology chart so the superstitious Queen refuses to allow Drake to sail to Ostend where some Spanish ships are holed up and rescue some English prisoners on them as well as liberating the captured cargo. Drake has to get the papers back for Dee before he can sail.

Drake tries to persuade Elizabeth to let him raid Santo Domingo (now capital of the island, Dominican Republic) where the fort is not yet fully armed and is loaded with gold. Elizabeth refuses, as she does not want to upset Spain. Meanwhile, her emissary, Lord Westbrook (Patrick Holt) is imprisoned at the fort. Drake decides to bring in Sir Richard Bosanquet (Richard Pearson) banker, to finance a mission behind Elizabeth's back, to Santo Domingo knowing that if he succeeds, Elizabeth will forgive him but if he fails, she will behead him.

A favourite of the Queen and a young fool, Lord Oakeshott (played by a bearded David McCallum) turns into an even worse lovesick young fool. Held by a Countess (Delphi Lawrence) in a prison in Calais, Ambassador Mendoza in his slimy way threatens the Queen that King Phillip will have the French execute Oakeshott unless Drake (or "El Drako", the English Dragon of the title) is hung. It is up to Drake to release Oakeshott, despite Mendoza and Oakeshott's efforts to stop him doing so.

Elizabeth sends her godson, Jack Harrington (Michael Anderson Jr.) on a mission as an emissary to deliver a message to an ambassador in Portugal (Clive Morton) not knowing that the Spanish have just invaded Portugal. Drake and Jack find themselves in a tavern full of Spanish soldiers where the ambassador is held captive. There was a point early in the story where it was shown that the ship's crew lived on very poor food. In the sword fight near the end, the ship's cook (Victor Maddern) is seen grabbing all the Spanish food he could to take back to the ship. There were two models used to show Royal residences of the time.

Drake takes provisions to the 500 men in the Dutch garrison at Blankenberg who are keeping the Spanish at bay. After a disastrous first trip, Drake returns to find out that there are only 13 men (from the original 35) defending the garrison and Sir Miles (Laurence Naismith) has been pocketing the money.

King Phillip II (Zia Mohyeddin) 15-year-old son, Carlos (Joseph Cuby) is due to marry Mariella of Naples (Francesca Annis) to ally Italy with Spain. Mariella is a young girl who is horrified with the very nasty brat, Carlos who even his father has contempt for. Help is on hand in the form of Drake who is sent as the Queen's emissary to the wedding. To make sure Drake is safe, the Duke of Cordova (John Arnatt) is a "guest" of Elizabeth in England and Cordova knows many of Phillip's invasion plans for England so Drake is safe in his enemy's hands. However, Cordova has bribed his way free and has now returned to Spain meaning Drake is now in great danger.

Sir Martin Amyas (Neil McCallum), a young inventor has made a flame thrower to clear weeds from gardens but the Queen sees its potential as a weapon of war which can burn the Spanish fleet and orders him to make more flame throwers for English ships. Amyas is an idealist and is horrified that his invention could be used to kill people. That night a friar persuades Amyas to run away but the friar turns out to a Spaniard, Count Julio (William Lucas) who plans to deliver him and his invention to Spain.

Roger Delgado as the villain again, but here he is Governor, Don Frederico Martinez di Acuna of Villa Real, King Phillip's viceroy to Santa Marta. He drugs guest John Hawkins (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) and frames him for theft, threatening to cut off his hand and hang him if Drake does not give up the Golden Hind as ransom for his life. However Drake has a plan.

The Golden Hind is in urgent need of supplies so they put into Tobago where Drake finds that the locals and British prisoners are being used as slave labour to mine gold for Spain. Drake works on a plan to release them unaware that Agila (Mark Eden) plans to betray him to the Spaniards.

Producer Anthony Bushell plays Tom Doughty in this episode. Old friend of Drake, Doughty and two other businessmen finance a voyage by Drake to get spices from Egypt. A long way from home, Drake reveals that his real purpose is to sail around Tierra Del Fuego and up the coast of Chile where there will be Spanish treasure ships. The businessmen don't like this and Doughty pushes a number of Drake's men to mutiny against him and take over the ship.

John Drake, Sir Francis's nephew, joins Thomas Stukeley's (Kieron Moore) expedition to colonise America. However, the hardships are too much for the small number of colonists and, with the badgering of Richard Flavel (Andrew Keir), the colonists decide to use a captured Spanish ship and head for England leaving Stukeley to fend for himself.

The episode also stars Susan Hampshire as Celia, Charles Hill as the Spanish Admiral, Walter Randall as the Spanish Captain and Frederick Rawlings as the Indian Chief.

The Spanish troops in the Netherlands (who they are at war with) near mutiny, as they have not been paid in a long time. Spain is running short on gold so borrow some from merchants in Venice who charge very high rates and they get Elizabeth's promise that the treasure ship will not be plundered by English ships on the way to the Netherlands. Elizabeth knows this money must not arrive to reinforce Spain in Northern Europe so tells Drake that no ENGLISH ship must attack them and Drake notes the emphasis. The episode's title refers to people who use rowing boats to scrounge what they can at sea.

It is said that everyone has a double and so does Drake in the form of Hugh Graveney (also played by Terence Morgan) who uses a sister ship of the Golden Hind to pretend to be Drake so he can scare Spanish ships into surrendering then loot them and kill the people on board. Caught by the Spanish, Mendoza sees this as a chance to blacken Drake's name by having Graveney attack a Dutch ship as Drake (the Dutch are necessary allies as they keep the Spanish busy in the Netherlands so they cannot invade England). Mendoza returns to court and demands Drake be hanged for his murderous attacks on a Spanish and a Dutch ship, supported by a Dutch captain who recognised Drake.

The Spanish invade Portugal May 1580 and imprison the Portuguese leaders in Castle Ortega. Elizabeth asks Drake to release the most important of these, Gazio (Patrick Troughton) so while his ship lies nearby, Drake enters the Spanish fortress alone to secure his release.

There is a sea battle in which Drake takes treasure from a Spanish ship. He finds out that it is to be stolen so with Diego, he is disguised and goes undercover to find out who wants to steal it. There are more fights, an ambush and Johnny Factotum (Philip Guard) turns out to be William Shakespeare.

Elizabeth is in love with Alençon, son of Catherine de' Medici (Queen of France) to the horror of her Court. He has to return to France where his mother guesses what is going on and puts him in the Bastille as she does not like the idea of him marrying Elizabeth either. Drake is sent to bring him back to England.

The Spanish want to invade England overland but the small area of Ravenstein (in Holland) stands in their way. Elizabeth sends Drake to bring the Duchess (Mary Merrall) back to England so the Spanish cannot use her to threaten her people to stop resisting them. Drake joins a group of players run by Joos Maartens (Ferdy Mayne) to accomplish the task.

The Golden Hind comes across a rowing boat full of gypsies and takes them aboard. Led by Pastora (Eileen Way who played a number of evil hags), the small group cause trouble on the Golden Hind, even trying to sink it.

An English goldsmith (Adam Forrester played by Robin Hughes) with loyalty to Spain gives Elizabeth false information so Drake will not attack a treasure ship necessary to help finance the Spanish Armada.

Before Europeans started taking slaves from Africa, Africans took slaves from Europe. In such a raid, a relative of Elizabeth and his family are taken from Wales to the slave markets at Tripoli. The Queen sends Drake on the hopeless mission of trying to rescue him but all is not as bad as it seems. Crewman Martin was a slave there for two years before escaping with the help of a Spaniard, Don Miguel Cervantes (Nigel Davenport). Drake finds him still helping slaves and Cervantes talks of writing a book called Don Quixote one day.

Drake is held prisoner by a sadistic Governor (Barry Morse) and after a failed escape attempt ends up in front of a firing squad.