The Devil's Mariner: A Life of William Dampier, Pirate and Explorer, 1651-1715
Book Details
Author(s)Gill, Anton
PublisherMichael Joseph
ISBN / ASIN0718141148
ISBN-139780718141141
AvailabilityIn Stock.
Sales Rank3,717,910
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Without doubt one of the great English heroes, William Dampier, pirate and explorer, was born in 1651. Yet, his humble origins, his association with pirates, and the elusiveness of his own character have conspired to keep his story relatively unknown to all but those with a special interest in the sea.
A Faustian Dampier would have sold his soul to the devil to satisfy his thirst for travel. His destiny led him to sail with the toughest and most ruthless buccaneers in order to see and learn more of the world, even reaching Australia - the first Englishman to do so. On the one hand he shared the feckless existence of the freebooters; on the other, he was driven by a spirit of inexhaustible curiosity - a curiosity which would lead him to become a celebrity in an age whose preoccupations reflected his own.
Dampier was free of many of the superstitions that beset exploration in Sir Walter Raleigh's day, but he had few of the technical advantages enjoyed by Captain James Cook. At a time when Britain was consolidating her position in the world, his unique contribution to the sciences of navigation, geography and hydrography confirms him as one of the most important figures in the history of exploration.
It was Dampier who, without the aid of a chronometer, helped develop precise mapping of the seas, and charted winds and currents so accurately that his findings were still being used well into this century. No explorer of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries sailed without copies of his books; Dampier paved the way for the exploration and consequent expansion on which the British Empire was founded.
In this first modern and comprehensive biography, Anton Gill uncovers the truth behind the life of this secretive and contradictory man, charting his successes and failures and his impact on the modern world.
A Faustian Dampier would have sold his soul to the devil to satisfy his thirst for travel. His destiny led him to sail with the toughest and most ruthless buccaneers in order to see and learn more of the world, even reaching Australia - the first Englishman to do so. On the one hand he shared the feckless existence of the freebooters; on the other, he was driven by a spirit of inexhaustible curiosity - a curiosity which would lead him to become a celebrity in an age whose preoccupations reflected his own.
Dampier was free of many of the superstitions that beset exploration in Sir Walter Raleigh's day, but he had few of the technical advantages enjoyed by Captain James Cook. At a time when Britain was consolidating her position in the world, his unique contribution to the sciences of navigation, geography and hydrography confirms him as one of the most important figures in the history of exploration.
It was Dampier who, without the aid of a chronometer, helped develop precise mapping of the seas, and charted winds and currents so accurately that his findings were still being used well into this century. No explorer of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries sailed without copies of his books; Dampier paved the way for the exploration and consequent expansion on which the British Empire was founded.
In this first modern and comprehensive biography, Anton Gill uncovers the truth behind the life of this secretive and contradictory man, charting his successes and failures and his impact on the modern world.
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