Memoirs of a Buccaneer: Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, 1697

by William Dampier

It was William Dampier's passion to see the world that turned him into a buccaneer. He possessed remarkable powers of observation and analysis, and his life as a seventeenth-century navigator aboard pirate and privateering ships is brilliantly detailed in his journal. Throughout his travels of Central and South America and the East Indies, Dampier provides riveting accounts of sea battles against Spanish treasure ships, as well as pirate life, lore, and customs. Originally published in 1697 as the New Voyage, his journal became an instant success, and has been read ever since as one of the greatest travel and adventure accounts ever written.
But Memoirs of a Buccaneer is far more than historical adventure. Dampier was a man of intelligence and education with a strong naturalist's urge, and his book quickly became a vital source of information on the geology, biology, zoology, and peoples of the lands he visited. His descriptions of the West Indian manatee, booby birds, cacao, and mangrove trees—flora and fauna never before heard of in England and the Continent—are incredibly accurate. His notes on the produce of Guam and Mindanao—coconuts, vanilla beans, bananas, breadfruit, and more—exerted a powerful influence on Britain's explorations and colonizations. And his depictions of Central America's Mosquito Indians and the natives of Mindanao proved to be highly reliable.
The influence of this classic book on the work of later travelers is incalculable, leading writers such as Defoe, Swift, and Coleridge to borrow both facts and literary style from it. It continues to inspire readers today.

Genres: Travel, History, Nonfiction, Classics, Nautical, Adventure, Biography

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1697

About the author

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 http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Wil... (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.

Reviews

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways it's hard to imagine this book as a bestseller of the seventeenth century. It chronicles the day-to-day life of an English buccaneer with a naturalist's bent. There's lots of sailing from island to island, crew squabbles, ordinary everyday routine - and, suddenly, occasionally, the outright exotic happens. However, I didn't feel it got genuinely interesting until the buccaneers arrived at Mindanao where political intrigue and cultural observations started to be rich and complex, instead of a hurried passing description.

Parking this passage here for future reference:

Other dangers did not come upon me with such a leisurely and dreadful Solemnity. A sudden Skirmish or Engagement, or so, was nothing when one’s Blood was up, and pushed forwards with eager Expectations. But here I had a lingering View of approaching Death, and little or no hopes of escaping it. And I must confess that my Courage, which I had hitherto kept up, failed me here, and I made very sad reflections on my former Life, looking back in Horror and Detestation on Actions which before I disliked, but no trembled at the remembrance of. I had long before this repented of that roving Course of Life, but never with such concern as now. I also called to mind the many miraculous Acts of God’s Providence towards me in the whole Course of my Life, of which kind I believe few Men have met with the like. For all these I returned Thanks in a peculiar Manner, and once more desired God’s Assistance, composing my Mind as well as I could in the Hopes of it, and, as the Event showed I was not disappointed of my Hopes.
18th May 1688, after leaving Australia in March.

[Todd Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tough read. However, it was the catalyst to attract Darwin into being a naturalist. The pirate and buccaneer was an exhaustive observer. He develops these journaled narratives on the people, cultures, diets, ecologies, and interactions in his travels in the late 1600s. He provides a time capsule of the state of the communities near the sea and the Dutch, French, Chinese, and English impacts.

[محمد الزهراني · Rating 2 out of 5]

أبحر القبطان "وليام دامبير" على متن سفينة سيجنت فى ( 1688-1689). قام خلال رحلته بجمع عينات من النباتات واحتفظ برسوم توضيحيَّة للحيوانات والنباتات في أنابيب من الخيزران مختومة بالشمع حتى لا يصلها الماء. وبعد شهرين من الاكتشافات والبحث عن المياة العذبة بدون جدوى، كانت آرائه غير إيجابيَّة وخرج بانطباعات سيَّئة عن الأبروجينيين هناك، وذكر في كتابه ( رحلة جديدة حول العالم):
" سُكان هذا البلد هم أفقر الناس في العالم، وبغض النظر عن أشكالهم البشريَّة إلا أنهم لا يختلفون إلا قليلاً عن الوحوش، مظاهرهم بشعة وغير سارة، وقاماتهم طويلة وضخمة ولا يحملون أي سمة رشيقة في وجوههم "
" أُنوفهم كبيرة وأفواههم واسعة ولهم شفاه مُمتلئة، والأسنان الأماميَّة من الفك العلوي مفقودة في الرجال والنساء، والأطفال .. وليس لهم لِحى . شعورهم سوداء مُجعَّدة تشبه شعور الزنوج . قصيرة وليست ناعمة وطويلة مثل شعور الهنود. لون جلودهم و سائر أجسادهم أسود فحميَّ مثل زُنوج غينيا. لا يلبسون سوى قطعة صغيرة من لِحاء الشجر الخفيف، يلفونها بحزامٍ حول خُصورهم ويغطون عريَّهم ببعض العشب أو بعض الأغصان الخضراء الصغيرة المليئة بأوراق الشجر. ليس لديهم منازل، ينامون في العراء دون أي غطاء.. الأرض سريرهم والسماء قُبتهم .
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#ترجمتي

[? · Rating 5 out of 5]

A common man who went in search of adventure.

[Kay Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just didn't like it, it wasn't my cup of tea so I'm going to give it to my step mom for her birthday gift since she likes reading too

[Ronen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't actually finish it, I had trouble relating to it and had trouble following the account. More maps could have been useful.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any sea voyage, long stretches of the doldrums broken up by some interesting landfalls...