William Dampier
| William Dampier | |
|---|---|
| Birthday | |
| Birthplace | East Coker, Somerset, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | |
| Known for | Exploring and mapping Australia, Circumnavigation |
Dampier, William
(dăm`pēr), 1651–1715, English explorer, buccaneer, hydrographer, and naturalist. He fought (1673) in the Dutch War, managed a plantation in Jamaica (1674), and then worked with logwood cutters in Honduras (1675–78). After taking part in a buccaneering expedition against Spanish America (1679–81), he sailed from Virginia in 1683 on a piratical voyage along the coast of Africa, across the Atlantic, and around Cape Horn to prey on Spanish cities on the west coast of South America. The party split up, and Dampier joined a group that crossed to the Philippines. Dampier was marooned (probably voluntarily) in the Nicobar Islands. After many hardships, he returned to England in 1691. He published a widely read account of his experiences in A New Voyage round the World (1697), supplemented by Voyages and Descriptions (1699), which included Discourse of Trade-Winds, a masterly treatise on hydrography.Dampier was made a naval officer and commanded an expedition (1699–1701) to Australia, New Guinea, and New Britain (which he discovered to be an island and named). Other discoveries included Dampier Archipelago and Dampier Strait. His vessel, the Roebuck, finally foundered off Ascension island. Dampier subsequently commanded an unsuccessful privateering expedition (1703–7) in the course of which Alexander SelkirkSelkirk, Alexander
, 1676–1721, Scottish sailor whose adventures suggested to Daniel Defoe the story of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In 1704, as a sailing master, Selkirk quarreled with the captain of his ship in the Juan Fernández islands and asked to be put
..... Click the link for more information. was voluntarily marooned. Dampier's account was published in his Voyage to New Holland (Part I, 1703; Part II, 1709). Though an excellent hydrographer and navigator, he proved an incompetent commander, guilty of drunkenness and overbearing conduct. He was also pilot to Woodes RogersRogers, Woodes,
1679?–1732, British privateer and colonial administrator. A romantic figure, Rogers plundered (1708–9) Spanish commerce in the Pacific and rescued Alexander Selkirk from the Juan Fernández islands.
..... Click the link for more information. on a voyage around the world (1708–11). Dampier had a wide-ranging impact on future generations: his navigational methods influenced both Captain James Cook and Admiral Horatio Nelson, while his scientific observations effected the theories of both Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin.
Bibliography
See editions of Dampier's writings by J. Masefield (1906) and Sir Albert Gray (1927, repr. 1968); biographies by J. Shipman (1962), C. Lloyd (1966), and D. and M. Preston (2004).
Dampier, William
Born June 1652. in East Coker, England; died March 1715 in London. English explorer and pirate.
Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times. He spent several years on the island of Tortuga (north of Haiti) in the West Indies (the main base of pirates in the Atlantic). He took part in raids on Spanish cities and settlements on the shores of America. He sailed to the shores of northwest Australia, where he discovered a group of islands (the Dampier Archipelago) and many small islands. He compiled descriptions and maps of the southern regions of the Pacific Ocean. Several islands and gulfs in the southwest part of the Pacific Ocean and in the Malay Archipelago are named after Dampier.
WORKS
A New Voyage Round the World, vols. 1–3. London, 1697–1709.REFERENCES
Svet, la. M. Istoriia otkrytiia i issledovaniia Avstralii i Okeanii. Moscow, 1966.Bonner, W. H. Captain William Dampier, Buccaneer-Author. London. 1934.