William Dampier (Author of Piracy, Turtles and Flying Foxes)

William Dampier鈥檚 Followers (9)

William Dampier

Born

East Coker, Somerset, England

Genre

Travel

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William Dampier (1651 - 1715) was an English pirate, explorer and navigator who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He has also been described as Australia's first natural historian, as well as one of the most important British explorers of the period between Sir Walter Raleigh and James Cook.

Dampier was the son of a Somerset farmer. He sailed to Newfoundland and the East Indies while still a boy and took part in the Third Dutch War. After a brief sojourn in Jamaica as undermanager of a plantation, he joined the buccaneers of the Caribbean in Capt. Morgan's heyday. In 1686 Capt. Swan of the Cygnet, in which Dampier was sailing, decided to seek William Dampier (1651 - 1715) was an English pirate, explorer and navigator who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He has also been described as Australia's first natural historian, as well as one of the most important British explorers of the period between Sir Walter Raleigh and James Cook.

Dampier was the son of a Somerset farmer. He sailed to Newfoundland and the East Indies while still a boy and took part in the Third Dutch War. After a brief sojourn in Jamaica as undermanager of a plantation, he joined the buccaneers of the Caribbean in Capt. Morgan's heyday. In 1686 Capt. Swan of the Cygnet, in which Dampier was sailing, decided to seek prizes in the Pacific before returning to England. After spending 6 months in the Philippines, Swan's crew seized the ship and cruised in Far Eastern waters between China and Australia. Dampier accordingly spent the summer of 1688 at King Sound in Western Australia. After being marooned on one of the Nicobar Islands, he traveled by native canoe to Sumatra and served as a gunner at Bencoelen before returning to England.

Dampier recorded details of his amazing adventures along with navigational data in a diary on which he based A New Voyage round the World and Voyages and Descriptions. Impressed with his work, the English Admiralty commissioned him with the rank of captain to command an expedition to explore the Australian coastline. He reached Shark Bay, Western Australia, in August 1699, and using Tasman's charts, he sailed up the coast for a month seeking an estuary. After revictualing at Timor, he proceeded along the north coast of New Guinea and discovered New Britain but abandoned plans to explore the east coast of Australia because his ship, the H. M. S. Roebuck, was in poor condition. On the way home, the Roebuck was lost off Ascension Island, and the crew were rescued by returning East India men.

A court-martial in 1702 found Dampier unfit to command a naval vessel. During the next 4 years he led an unsuccessful privateering expedition in the South Seas. Between 1708 and 1711 he again sailed around the world as pilot for Capt. Woodes Rogers, a privateer sponsored by Bristol merchants. Dampier died in London in March 1715 before receiving his share of the expedition's spoils.

Further Reading
An account of Dampier which notes both his achievements and defects is Christopher Lloyd, William Dampier (1966). See also Clennell Wilkinson, Dampier: Explorer and Buccaneer (1929).

Excerpted from (Encyclopedia of World Biography 2004)

*There seems to be some doubt as to whether it was 1651 or 1652 - various generally reliable sources contradict each other. ...more

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Average rating: 3.49 · 266 ratings · 33 reviews · 131 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Piracy, Turtles and Flying Foxes by William Dampier, Henry Walter Bates 3.13 avg rating — 111 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Memoirs of a Buccaneer: Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, 1697 3.91 avg rating — 85 ratings — published 1697 — 70 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland 3.83 avg rating — 18 ratings — published 2005 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Buccaneer Explorer: William Dampier's Voyages by William Dampier, Gerald Norris (Editor) 3.40 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2005 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	M峄檛 chuy岷縩 du h脿nh 膽岷縩膼脿ng Ngo脿i n膬m 1688 by William Dampier (T谩c gi岷�), Hoang Anh Tuan (D峄媍h gi岷�), Nguy峄卬 V膬n Kim (Hi峄噓膽铆nh) 3.71 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2007	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Complete Works of William Dampier: Containing Particular Descriptions of Life in the Torrid Zone at the Dawn of Modern Science and at the ... of Exploration, and the Golden Age of Piracy 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2014 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Voyages and Discoveries (Argonaut Press, #11) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1931 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	鬲丕乇賷禺毓賱賲 by William Dampier, 毓亘丿丕賱丨爻蹖賳丌匕乇賳诏 (賲鬲乇噩賲) 2.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2007	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A New Voyage Round the World: Annotated by William Dampier, Matt Albers (Foreword) 3.50 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Australian Exploration Anthology: Texts from William Dampier, Capt. Cook, Matthew Flinders, John McDouall Stuart, John McKinlay, William Wills by William Dampier, James Cook, Matthew Flinders it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by William Dampier (?)

“Great discoveries are made accidentally less often than the populace likes to think.

(Commenting on how an accident led to the discovery of X-rays)”
― William Cecil Dampier, A Shorter History of Science

tags: accidents, discoveries, 谤枚苍迟驳别苍, science, wilhelm-conrad-谤枚苍迟驳别苍, wilhelm-谤枚苍迟驳别苍, x-ray

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William Dampier

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