William Dampier

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W Clark Russell. William Dampier

William Dampier

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.—THE BUCCANEERS—NAVIGATION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY—FEATURES OF THE VOCATIONAL LIFE OF THE EARLY MARINER

CHAPTER II.—1652-1681—DAMPIER'S EARLY LIFE—CAMPECHÉ—HE JOINS THE BUCCANEERS

CHAPTER III.—1681-1691—DAMPIER'S FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD*

CHAPTER IV.—1699-1701—THE VOYAGE OF THE "ROEBUCK." *

CHAPTER V.—1702-1706-7—THE VOYAGE OF THE "ST. GEORGE"

CHAPTER VI.—1708-1711—THE VOYAGE WITH WOODES ROGERS *

CHAPTER VII.—CONCLUSION

THE END

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W Clark Russell

Published by Good Press, 2021

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Such was the scientific equipment of a man bound on a Polar voyage in the year 1632. It is not to be supposed that such mariners as Dampier and his buccaneering associates went half as well furnished. Indeed their poverty in this direction was so great that one may read here and there of their employing their leisure on shipboard in making quadrants to replace those which were lost or worn out. Their Norie, Raper, and Nautical Almanac in one was the crude Speculum Nauticum of Wagener, made English by Anthony Ashley in 1588, and universally known by the seamen in those days as Waggoner.* Sir Thomas Browne, writing in 1664 to his son Thomas, a naval officer, says, "Waggoner you will not be without, which will teach the particular coasts, depths of roades, and how the land riseth upon the several points of the compass." It will not be supposed that Waggoner's instructions were very trustworthy. The art of surveying was scarcely understood; charts even in Dampier's time were absurdly ill-digested, and portions of the world are barely recognisable in the grotesque tracings. Therefore it happened that the early mariner was forced to depend upon his own judgment and experience to a degree scarce realisable in these days of exact science and matured inventions. He hardly understood what was signified by the variation of the compass, and there was very little outside the Pole Star that was not doubtful. But happily for him there was no obligation of hurry. There was no managing owner to worry him. Prompt despatch was no condition of the charter-party. His was the day of ambling, and he was happy if he could confirm with his lead and log-line the reckonings he arrived at with his forestaff.

[* The buccaneers had "Waggoners" of their own. One was compiled by Basil Ringrose, who called it the South Sea Waggoner (circa 1682). Another by Captain Hack, the author of a History of the Buccaneers, was published in or about 1690.]

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