A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind - The Life of William Dampier; Explorer, Naturalist a
Registered by rem_IGI-172919 on 5/3/2009
1 journaler for this copy...
Full title: A Pirate of Exquisite Mind - The Life of William Dampier; Explorer, Naturalist and Buccaneer
Blurb:
William Dampier is one of England's forgotten heroes. In 1676, he started his career as a poor buccaneer, preying on ships on the Spanish Main. He could easily have ended up on the gallows for piracy. Instead, his sense of adventure and curiosity about the world led him to become the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, and to map the winds and the currents of the world's oceans. He landed in Australia eighty years before Cook and visited the Galapagos Islands one hundred and fifty years before Darwin. He wrote the first bestselling travel books, which inspired Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and enriched the English language with many new words, from 'barbeque' and 'avocado' to 'sub-species'.
Blurb:
William Dampier is one of England's forgotten heroes. In 1676, he started his career as a poor buccaneer, preying on ships on the Spanish Main. He could easily have ended up on the gallows for piracy. Instead, his sense of adventure and curiosity about the world led him to become the first person to circumnavigate the world three times, and to map the winds and the currents of the world's oceans. He landed in Australia eighty years before Cook and visited the Galapagos Islands one hundred and fifty years before Darwin. He wrote the first bestselling travel books, which inspired Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Swift's Gulliver's Travels, and enriched the English language with many new words, from 'barbeque' and 'avocado' to 'sub-species'.
Pretty good book.
Very interesting story about William Dampier, a man I knew nothing about, apart from the fact that there's a town named after him over in Western Australia.
Very interesting story about William Dampier, a man I knew nothing about, apart from the fact that there's a town named after him over in Western Australia.