A bit on william Dampier
April 10th 2007 07:29
William Dampier is probably the best know or best remembered castaways. He was a great mariner and navigator having several parts of the globe named after him and by being the first Englishman to sail to Terra Australis. He had a wanderlust nature and his first trip to sea took him around the world. It took him twelve years to complete and as part of the circumnavigation (not as a captain) he managed to navigate a native outrigger canoe full of twelve survivors of a shipwreck to what is Malaysia today. From there, not happy to sit and wait for a boat home, he paid a guide a silver coin to take him adventuring to what we now know as Vietnam and he probably was the first Englishman to visit here.
Being a typical naïve traveller he made a name for himself when to the horror of his guide (who did not speak English) Dampier mistook a local funeral pyre for a food stall selling meats and offended the funeral party by offering money for choice parts of the deceased. He and his guide were chased for many miles for that Gaff!
He returned home and was given a commission in the Royal Navy but after several stuff ups he was drummed out. His worst effort was to take a cane to his first lieutenant who was trying to undermine his authority. Instead of marooning the man on an island he had him incarcerated in a jail to be freed when the next English ship came along. He left the lieutenant no money to survive on, just some ship’s stores and his body servant. The Lieutenant eventually got back to England well before Dampier and laid out his revenge through the courts.
He survived another eight hundred mile open boat voyage as navigator and was eventually made a captain of a privateer with two ships to command. It was during his first voyage he was instrumental in leaving Miskito Will to survive on his own on Juan Fernandez island off the coast of Chilli. (More on him later) He was also well known as the Pirate who discovered West Australia. Dampier’s story is disjointed here and I don’t do it any justice except to say it is one of histories most exciting maritime stories. He keeps popping up in the strangest places doing the oddest things. He was a true wanderlust.
More tomorrow.
Being a typical naïve traveller he made a name for himself when to the horror of his guide (who did not speak English) Dampier mistook a local funeral pyre for a food stall selling meats and offended the funeral party by offering money for choice parts of the deceased. He and his guide were chased for many miles for that Gaff!
He returned home and was given a commission in the Royal Navy but after several stuff ups he was drummed out. His worst effort was to take a cane to his first lieutenant who was trying to undermine his authority. Instead of marooning the man on an island he had him incarcerated in a jail to be freed when the next English ship came along. He left the lieutenant no money to survive on, just some ship’s stores and his body servant. The Lieutenant eventually got back to England well before Dampier and laid out his revenge through the courts.
He survived another eight hundred mile open boat voyage as navigator and was eventually made a captain of a privateer with two ships to command. It was during his first voyage he was instrumental in leaving Miskito Will to survive on his own on Juan Fernandez island off the coast of Chilli. (More on him later) He was also well known as the Pirate who discovered West Australia. Dampier’s story is disjointed here and I don’t do it any justice except to say it is one of histories most exciting maritime stories. He keeps popping up in the strangest places doing the oddest things. He was a true wanderlust.
| 33 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
