A New Voyage Round the World by William Dampier
The pirate and adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, and took notes wherever he went. This is his frank, vivid account of his buccaneering sea voyages around the world, from the Caribbean to the Pacific and East Indies. Filled with accounts of raids, escapes, wrecks and storms, it also contains precise observations of people, places, animals and food (including the first English accounts of guacamole, mango chutney and chopsticks). A bestseller on publication, this unique record of the colonial age influenced Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and consequently the whole of English literature.
Pages: 512
Published: 2020 (first published 1697)
ISBN: 978-0241413289
Pirates are often viewed a being lawless bunch in need of a strong, authoritative captain figure to keep them in line, but, in fact, they operated under their own strict set of rules, which were often deemed sacred to them. This set rules, commonly known as the Articles of Agreement or the Pirate Code determined everything on board a pirate vessel from the distribution of booty to the allotting of punishments. Overall, pirates were fairly democratic, but the punishments for breaking the agreed upon articles could often be severe. Articles that applied to all were a necessary measure to maintain the cohesion of the crew, many of whom had previously been subjected to the dictatorial methods of merchant and naval captains, so it was important that the crew agreed on what the Articles should cover together with the captain. In contrast, privateer vessels usually had their own charters, assigning larger shares to the officers and owners of the ship and what was left to the rest of the crew, although they sometimes contained points similar to those in the Pirate Code.…
The story of our navy is nothing less than the story of Britain, our culture and our empire. Much more than a parade of admirals and their battles, this is the story of how an insignificant island nation conquered the world’s oceans to become its greatest trading empire. Yet, as Ben Wilson shows, there was nothing inevitable about this rise to maritime domination, nor was it ever an easy path.