A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind: The Life Of William Dampier by Diana Preston and Michael Preston
William Dampier 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. Not only a pirate, he was the first to map the winds and currents of the world’s oceans; lead the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia – 80 years before Cook; write about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier’s notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: His book, A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD, was an instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 and is 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 Cruising Voyage Round the World by Captain Woodes Rogers. With Introduction and Notes by G.E.Manwaring. Woodes Rogers (c. 1679 – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain and privateer and, later, the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of the vessel that rescued marooned Alexander Selkirk, whose plight is generally believed to have inspired Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Rogers came from an affluent seafaring family, grew up in Poole and Bristol, and served a marine apprenticeship to a Bristol sea captain. His father held shares in many ships, but he died when Rogers was in his mid-twenties, leaving Rogers in control of the family shipping business. In 1707, Rogers was approached by Captain William Dampier, who sought support for a privateering voyage against the Spanish, with whom the British were at war.…
Whether you’re a Master, Commander or Pirate of the Caribbean, this is the vessel for you. From the earliest canoes to today’s sophisticated ocean-going giants, Christopher Columbus to Ellen MacArthur, witness the drama, the splendour and excitement of Ship’s story above and below the waves, through centuries of exploration, endeavour and conflict. Produced in association with the National Maritime Museum.
The story of pirates and privateers was actually a tale of legalities and illegalities, separated by a thin statutory line marking those on one side as criminals and the other side as heroes worthy of reward. The illegal and universally condemned acts of maritime piracy and the legal and nationally praised acts of maritime privateering are the basis for this book. Nearly two hundred legal issues are identified among more than a hundred trials of pirates and prize ships seized by privateers, across several centuries of American and British history. These range from the intention to turn pirate, pirates as witnesses, common versus civil law piracy, trying foreign pirates, and special proofs for convicting women, physician, child, indigent, and Black pirates to the use of letters of marque and reprisals versus privateering commissions, condemning or acquitting neutral ships and cargo, the impact of fraudulent ship’s papers, the law of nations versus municipal law, and flying false colors during an attack.…
This harrowing tale traces Kidd’s voyages in the 1690s from his home near Wall Street to Whitehall Palace in London, from the ports of the Caribbean to a secret pirate paradise off Madagascar. Author Richard Zacks, during his research, also unearthed the story of a long forgotten rogue named Robert Culliford, who dogged Kidd and led Kidd’s crew to mutiny not once but twice. The lives of Kidd and Culliford play out like an unscripted duel: one man would hang in the harbor, the other would walk away with the treasure. Filled with superb writing and impeccable research,