[1] Derrick served as a sailor in the Royal Navy during the Anglo-Spanish war and under the command of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, he took part in the capture of Cádiz.
After the sack of the city, Derrick was one of 24 sailors sentenced to death by hanging, after they were convicted of committing rapes against local women.
Derrick executed more than 3,000 people in his career, including his pardoner, the Earl of Essex, when he was convicted of treason in 1601.
[5][6] As a nobleman, the Earl of Essex was allowed to choose his own execution method and opted to be beheaded via axe.
[9] The word derrick became an eponym for the frame from which the hangman's noose was supported and through that usage (by analogy) to modern day cranes.