Description
Book SynopsisWilliam Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research.
Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world''s oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier''s notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe.
A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much ''blew it'' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his exquisite refinement of mind. A classic example
Trade Review
Lively... extraordinary life - an unlikely combination of plundering and pioneering achievements in natural history and exploration * The Sunday Times *
Gripping and well-researched... An impressive achievement * Guardian *
This long overdue biography wonderfully brings to life one of the most important explorers of the seventeenth century -- Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea
This eloquently enthusiastic biography, besides charting Dampier's astonishing achievements, offers fascinating information about his times * The Age, Melbourne *
