William Dampier

This article is about the explorer. For the scientist, see William Cecil Dampier.

William Dampier
William Dampier: buccaneer, navigator and explorer
Born	5 September 1651 East Coker, Somerset, England
Died	8 March 1715 (1715-03-09) (aged 63) London, England
Nationality	English
Occupation	Explorer
Known for	Exploring and mapping Australia Circumnavigation

William Dampier born 5 September 1651 at Hymerford House in East Coker, Somerset, England; died 8 March 1715 in London, England) was an English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer. He was the first Englishman to explore or map parts of New Holland (Australia) and New Guinea and was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times.

Diana and Michael Preston, in A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, describe him as the greatest nautical explorer-adventurer, British or otherwise, between the Elizabethans (notably Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh) and James Cook. He has been described by natural scientist Alex George, as "the first natural historian of Australia".

Early life

Dampier first sailed as a teenager, crossing the Atlantic to Newfoundland on a merchant ship, and a second merchant voyage brought him to Java. He joined the Royal Navy in 1673 and took part in the two battles of Schooneveld in June of that year. His service was cut short by a catastrophic illness, and he returned to England for several months of recuperation. For the next several years he tried his hand at various careers, including plantation managing (in Jamaica) and logging (in Mexico), before he joined another sailing expedition.

First circumnavigation

Map from "A New Voyage Round the World", published in 1697 by William Dampier, the English sea captain, naturalist, and occasional buccaneer. The Miskito coast is marked with a star. Dampier and his associate, the surgeon and buccaneer Lionel Wafer describe the Miskito peoples in the period 1690-1700. These tribal groups, often mixed with runaway slaves, formed a distinct culture in the coastal region, sometimes forming alliances with pirates against Spanish authorities in the 16th-18th centuries.

In 1679 Dampier crewed with buccaneer Captain Bartholomew Sharp on the Spanish Main of Central America, twice visiting the Bay of Campeche. This led to his first circumnavigation: in 1679 he accompanied a raid across the Isthmus of Darién in Panama and captured Spanish ships on the Pacific coast of that isthmus; the pirates then raided Spanish settlements in Peru before returning to the Caribbean.

Dampier made his way to Virginia, where in 1683 he engaged with the privateer John Cooke or Cook. Cooke entered the Pacific via Cape Horn and spent a year raiding Spanish possessions in Peru, the Galápagos Islands, and Mexico. This expedition collected buccaneers and ships as it went along, at one time having a fleet of ten vessels. Cooke died in Mexico, and a new leader, Edward Davis, was elected captain by the crew. Dampier transferred to Captain Charles Swan's ship, the privateer Cygnet, and on 31 March 1686 they set out across the Pacific to raid the East Indies, calling at Guam and Mindanao. Leaving Swan and 36 others behind, the rest of the privateers sailed to Manila, Poulo Condor, China, the Spice Islands, and New Holland (Australia).

New Spanish archival evidence discovered by Fabio Lopez Lazaro proves that Dampier not only crewed with this pirate company while in Asia but also captained one of the ships they captured off the Philippine Islands in 1687. In his later autobiographical accounts, Dampier naturally tried to conceal his early role as a pirate leader. The new archival evidence, however, leaves no room to doubt that he is the ruthless and cruel "Captain Bel" described by a Spanish captive named Alonso Ramirez in a book published in Mexico City in 1690. Ramirez's important eyewitness account of the 1687-88 Asian leg of Dampier's voyage, long considered a novel, has now been proven to be historical.

On 5 January 1688 Cygnet was beached on the northwest coast of Australia, near King Sound. While the ship was being careened Dampier made notes on the fauna and flora and the indigenous peoples he found there. Later that year, by agreement, he and two shipmates were marooned on one of the Nicobar Islands. They obtained a small canoe which they modified after first capsizing and then after surviving a great storm called at "Acheen" (Aceh) in Sumatra. After further adventures Dampier returned to England in 1691 via the Cape of Good Hope, penniless but in possession of his journals. He also had as a source of income the famous painted (tattoed) Prince Jeoly and his mother, who he had purchased as slaves and subsequently exhibited in London thereby also coming to be better known while his book was being printed.

The Roebuck expedition

See also: HMS Roebuck (1690)

Map of the area charted in HMS Roebuck in 1699

The publication of these diaries as New Voyage Round the World in 1697 was a popular sensation creating interest at the British Admiralty and in 1699 Dampier was given the command of the Roebuck with a commission from the Admiralty (and by inference King William III who had reigned jointly with Queen Mary II before her death in 1694). His mission was to explore the east coast of New Holland, the name given by the Dutch to what is now Australia, and Dampier's intention was to travel there via Cape Horn.

The expedition set out on 14 January 1699, far too late in the season to round the Horn and it approached New Holland via Cape of Good Hope. Following the Dutch routes to the Indies, on 26 July 1699, Dampier reached Dirk Hartog Island at the mouth of what he called Shark Bay in Western Australia. He landed and began producing the first known detailed record of Australian flora and fauna. The images are believed to be by his clerk James Brand. Dampier then followed the coast northeast, reaching the Dampier Archipelago and then Lagrange Bay, just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay all the while recording and collecting specimens, including many shells. From there he bore away north for Timor. Then he sailed east and on 3 December 1699 rounded New Guinea, which he passed to the north. Sailing east, he traced the southeastern coasts of New Hanover, New Ireland and New Britain, charting the Dampier Strait between these islands (now the Bismarck Archipelago) and New Guinea. En route he paused to collect specimens with one stop resulting in a collection of many giant clams.

His ship was rotten and its carpenter apparently inept, so Dampier was forced to abandon his plan to examine the east coast of New Holland while less than a hundred miles from it. In danger of sinking he attempted to make the return voyage to England but Roebuck foundered at Ascension Island on 21 February 1701. While anchored offshore the ship had started to take water, and though sent below to effect repair, the carpenter only made it worse. As a result the ship was run ashore. His crew was marooned there for five weeks before being picked up on 3 April by an East Indiaman and returned home in August 1701.

Although many papers were lost with the Roebuck, Dampier was able to save many new charts of coastlines, and his record of trade winds and currents in the seas around Australia and New Guinea. He also saved a few of his specimens. Roebuck was located in Clarence Bay Ascension Island 2001 by a team from the Western Australian Museum. Because of his widespread effect and partly because so little exists that can now be linked to one of the world's greatest mariners and authors, it has been argued that the remains of his ship and the objects still remaining on the site at Ascension Island – while remaining the property of Britain and managed by Ascension Island – are perhaps best viewed as the shared maritime heritage of those parts of the world first visited or described by Dampier.

On his return Dampier was court-martialled for cruelty. On the outward voyage Dampier had crewman George Fisher removed from the ship and jailed in Brazil. Fisher returned to England and complained about his treatment to the Admiralty. Dampier wrote an angry vindication of his conduct, but he was found guilty, docked his pay for the voyage, and dismissed from the Royal Navy.

Second circumnavigation

He wrote an account of the 1699–1701 expedition, A Voyage to New Holland and returned to privateering.

The War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701 and English privateers were being readied to assist against French and Spanish interests. Dampier was appointed commander of the 26-gun government ship St George, with a crew of 120 men. They were joined by the 16-gun galleon Cinque Ports (63 men) and sailed on 30 April 1703.

En-route they unsuccessfully engaged a French ship but captured three small Spaniard ships and one vessel of 550 tons.

The Cinque Ports separated from the St George on the Pacific coast of the Americas and, after putting Alexander Selkirk ashore alone on an island for complaining about its seaworthiness, sank a month later.

Third circumnavigation

Dampier was engaged in 1708 by the privateer Woodes Rogers as sailing master on the Duke. This voyage was more successful: Selkirk was rescued on 2 February 1709, and the expedition amassed nearly £200,000 (over £20,000,000 in 2009) of profit. However, Dampier died in London on 8 March 1715 before he received his share.

Influence

Dampier influenced several figures better known than he:

• His observations and analysis of natural history helped Charles Darwin's and Alexander von Humboldt's development of their theories,
• He made innovations in navigation technology that were studied by James Cook and Horatio Nelson.
• Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, was inspired by accounts of real-life castaway Alexander Selkirk, a crew-member on Dampier's voyages.
• His reports on breadfruit led to William Bligh's ill-fated voyage in HMS Bounty.
• He is cited over a thousand times in the Oxford English Dictionary notably on words such as 'barbecue', 'avocado', 'chopsticks' and 'sub-species'. That is not to say he coined the words, but his use of them in his writings is the first known example in English.
• His travel journals depicting Panama influenced the undertaking of the ill-fated Darien Scheme, leading to the Act of Union of 1707.
• His notes on the fauna and flora of northwestern Australia were studied by naturalist and scientist Joseph Banks, who made further studies during the first voyage with Captain James Cook. This helped lead to the naming of and colonization of Botany Bay and the founding of modern Australia.
• He is mentioned in the Gabriel García Márquez short story The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship.
• Jonathan Swift explicitly mentions Dampier in his Gulliver's Travels as a mariner comparable to Lemuel Gulliver.
• He is believed to have influenced the writing of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".

Honours

The port of Dampier and the Dampier Archipelago, both in Western Australia, are named in honour of William Dampier.

In 1966 and 1985 he was honoured by Australia Post issuing a postage stamp depicting his portrait.

Works

• A New Voyage Round the World, (1697)
• Voyages and Descriptions, (1699)
• A Supplement of the Voyage Round the World
• The Campeachy Voyages
• A Discourse of Winds
• A Voyage to New Holland, (Part 1 1703, Part 2 1709)

A public house in Middle Street, Yeovil, Somerset, UK, is named in his honour; it is part of the Wetherspoon chain.

Further reading

• Diana and Michael Preston, A Pirate of Exquisite Mind
• Anton Gill, The Devil's Mariner: A Life of William Dampier, Pirate And Explorer, 1651-1715 (1997)
• Riccardo Capoferro, Frontiere del racconto. Letteratura di viaggio e romanzo in Inghilterra, 1690-1750, Meltemi, 2007.
• Woodes Rogers, Cruising Voyage Round the World, 1712.
• Clennell Wilkinson, William Dampier, John Lane at the Bodley Head, 1929.
• Fabio Lopez Lazaro. The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramirez: The True Adventures of a Spanish American with 17th Century Pirates. University of Texas Press, 2011.
• McCarthy, M., 2004, HM Ship Roebuck (1690–1701): Global Maritime Heritage? The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 33. (2): 330-337.
• Mitchell, Adrian, Dampier's Monkey: The South Seas Voyages of William Dampier, Wakefield Press, 2010. ISBN 9781862547599
• Gerald Norris (editor), Buccaneer Explorer William Dampier's Voyages, ISBN 1843831414

External links

• The Pirate Who Collected Plants - Smithsonian Ocean Portal
• Works by William Dampier at Project Gutenberg
• A Voyage to New Holland at Project Gutenberg
• A Continuation of a Voyage to New Holland at Project Gutenberg

• Works by William Dampier: facsimile scans at Early Canadiana Online, originals held by the National Library of Canada.
  • A new voyage round the world
  • Voyages and descriptions
  • A voyage to New Holland
  • A continuation of a voyage to New-Holland
• Dampier Bibliography from the Human and Cartographic History of the Galápagos Islands
  • A New Voyage Round the World (HTML version)
• J. Bach, 'Dampier, William (1651 - 1715)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, pp 277–278.
• http://wamuseum.com.au/collections/maritime/march/treasures/damp_main.html
• Sabina Murray, Full Circle Thrice in 'Tales of the New World', Black Cat, NY, 2011, pp 162-191.