Home > William Dampier

Dampier was born near Yeovil. After various seafaring adventures, and leading a semi-piratical life, he was in 1688 marooned on Nicobar Island , but escaped to Acheen , returned to England in 1691.

He captained a voyage of discovery on HMS Roebuck .

He was a crewmember of the pirate ship, the Cygnet, which was beached on the northwest coast of Australia (somewhere near King Sound in Western Australia).

In 1701 he was wrecked upon Ascension Island, from which he was rescued by an East Indiaman. He was afterwards court-martialA court-martial (plural courts-martial is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. They are generally found in all nations with militaries to try members of the military for breaches of military disled for cruelty, and wrote an angry but unconvincing vindication.

He had an unusual degree of influence on figures better known than he is :

• His observations and analysis of natural history helped DarwinCharles Robert Darwin ( February 12, 1809 April 19, 1882) was an English naturalist whose revolutionary theory laid the foundation for both the modern theory of evolution and the principle of common descent by proposing natural selection as a mechanism.'s and Alexander von HumboldtFriedrich Heinrich Alexander, Baron von Humboldt ( September 14, 1769, Berlin May 6, 1859, Berlin), was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt. Introduction Brief description of's development of their theories,
• He made innovations in navigationThis article concerns navigation in the sense of determination of position and direction on the surface of the Earth. See Navigation (disambiguation) for other meanings. There are several traditions of navigation . Polynesian navigation The Polynesian naval technology that were studied by Capt. CookJames Cook ( October 27, 1728 February 14, 1779) was a British explorer and navigator. He made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, in which its main shorelines were discovered. Cook was also a map maker. Introduction Cook was born in Marton in Cleveland, and Adm. Nelson.
• Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe ( 1660 April 21, 1731) was an English writer and journalist, who first gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe''. Biography Born Daniel Foe the son of James Foe, a butcher in the Stoke Newington neighbourhood of London, England, he would la, author of Robinson Crusoe, was reportedly inspired by his account of real-life castaway Alexander Selkirk.
• His reports on breadfruit led to Capt. Bligh's ill-fated voyage.
• He is cited over a thousand times in the Oxford English Dictionary.