Dampier's Voyages In Life

Dampier's Voyages In Life

Dampier’s Voyages in Life

This paper will give us an idea of how William Dampier described himself as a naturalist, buccaneer, and pirate. It will also explain what his motivations were towards his actions, and how these actions compare to those people we have discussed in past readings. Many men have circumnavigated the world, but no one did it like him, his books took knowledge to another level and that knowledge was used in the future by really well known people as Darwin who said that 1“ Dampier’s grasp of migration and efforts to relate animals and plants from different countries have anticipated nineteenth century biogeography and zoogeography. His books were used for different people as a survival guide when times were difficult for people navigating the seas, and exploring new places. He was a bad commander, but a great navigator, his reputation was gained after clapping his lieutenant in irons

1 Norris, Gerald (2005) Buccaneer explorer, William Dampier’s Voyages, Page xviii, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge.
for three months. The court said 2“Not a fit person to be employed as commander of any of Her Majesty’s ships,” but he didn’t quit after that, he kept looking for opportunities to explore the world.   There is no one to compare his accomplishments with, but if a couple of his actions are taking separately, we could compare him to captain Kidd.   His actions have left evidence that he was not a sedentary person, and he had to keep moving in order to feel comfortable with his life.

Dampier sees himself as a naturalist more than anything else, since his young age his notes said everything, detailing every movement and characteristics of crabs, birds, crocodiles, etc. His love for nature took him to several new places, and as I said before he couldn’t stay in a place for too long, he wanted to keep exploring, finding new species, fruits, and people.   As he said in one of his voyages 3“The object of this mission is to meet with...