Creator Dampier William 1651-1715

Date 1701

A map showing the route of English explorer-pirate, William Dampier in 1699-1701. The first Englishmen to visit Australia, Dampier circumnavigated the world three times. He published books of his maritime adventures which captured the imagination of the British public. The Admiralty was sufficiently impressed to hire his services to explore Australia 70 years before Cook was sent on a similar mission. Dampier's reputation for ruthless pirating, which included years of raiding Spanish ships and ports around the Americas, was presumably overlooked in favour of his extraordinary navigational abilities. He was given command of the naval gun ship the Roebuck, but was courtmarshalled for cruelty upon his return. His heroic yarns gave rise to Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe - one of Dampier's actual crew members who was dumped on a remote island for four years for dissent. Coleridge wrote Rime of the Ancient Mariner about Dampier's encounter with an albatross, and he is mentioned in Swift's Gulliver's Travels. He is also credited with publishing the first recipes for mango chutney and guacamole.

Source: Library of Congress, Washington