A pirate of exquisite mind : explorer, naturalist, and buccaneer : the life of William Dampier / Diana & Michael Preston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Preston, Diana, 1952-

Contributor:

Preston, Michael, 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dampier, William, 1651-1715.

Dampier, William.

Explorers--Great Britain--Biography.

Explorers.

Hydrologists.

Great Britain.

Hydrologists--Great Britain--Biography.

Naturalists--Great Britain--Biography.

Naturalists.

Voyages around the world.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

ix, 372 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Walker & Company, 2004.

Summary:

Charles Darwin called his books "a mine of information" and took them aboard the Beagle. Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe used his experiences as inspiration in writing Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. Captain James Cook depended on his observations while voyaging around the world, and Admiral Nelson urged all his officers to study his books. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him a genius and "a man of exquisite mind." In the history of exploration, few have ventured farther or achieved more than Englishman William Dampier (1651-1715). Yet, whereas the exploits of Magellan, Cook, Shackleton, and a host of legendary explorers have been widely chronicled, those of Dampier have been virtually invisible for more than a century -- an omission that Diana and Michael Preston have redressed in this vivid, compelling life story.

At a time when surviving a voyage across the Pacific was cause for celebration, Dampier journeyed three times around the world, sailing more than 200,000 miles in his lifetime and witnessing people, places, and phenomena no European had seen. As a young man he spent several years in the swashbuckling company of buccaneers in the Caribbean and Pacific, learning to survive in their bloodthirsty, uncertain world, before setting off on his first journey around the globe -- a many-year odyssey, much of it spent in the theretofore mysterious Pacific and Southeast Asia. Later, his best-selling books about his experiences were a sensation; the vividness of his prose and accuracy of his descriptions put armchair readers in the midst of unknown worlds and introduced many words into the English language, including barbecue, chopsticks, and kumquat. Over time, Dampier's observations and insights influenced generations of scientists, explorers, and writers.

Dampier's powers of observation were astonishing. He was the first to deduce that winds cause currents and the first to produce wind maps across the world, surpassing even the work of Edmund Halley. His insights on land were equally astute: For example, he introduced the concept of the "sub-species" that Darwin later built into his theory of evolution, and his description of the breadfruit was the impetus for Captain Bligh's voyage on the Bounty. Dampier reached Australia eighty years before Cook, and he later led the first formal expedition of science and discovery back to Australia. So influential was Dampier that today he has more than one thousand entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. To trace Dampier's colorful life, the Prestons followed his footsteps around the world; interweaving Dampier's colorful prose into their narrative, they bring the same immediacy of his life and times as Dampier brought to his own reading public. A Pirate of Exquisite Mind restores William Dampier to his rightful place in history, as one of the pioneers who shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Contents:

Part I. The Adventurer

I "A Self-Conceited Young Man" 21

II "A Great Prospect of Getting Money Here" 32

III "To Seek a Subsistence" 44

IV "A Door to the South Seas" 52

Part II. The Buccaneer

V "That Sacred Hunger of Gold" 65

VI "Two Fat Monkeys" 81

VII The Bachelor's Delight 96

VIII The Enchanted Islands 108

IX "We Ran for It" 121

Part III. The Traveler

X "You Would Have Poisoned Them" 137

XI "As White as Milk and as Soft as Cream" 147

XII "This Mad Crew" 159

XIII "New-Gotten Liberty" 172

XIV "Our Little Ark" 182

XV Gut Rot and Gunpowder 190

XVI The Painted Prince 203

Part IV. The Celebrity

XVII The Rover's Return 215

XVIII "Good Copy" 229

XIX "Dampier's Voyage Takes so Wonderfully" 242

XX Kiss My Arse 250

XXI Shark's Bay 265

XXII "A Flame of Fire" 275

XXIII "Not a Fit Person" 284

Part V. The Ancient Mariner

XIV "Brandy Enough" 301

XV The Manila Galleon at Last 309.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [337]-354) and index.

ISBN:

0802714250

OCLC:

53075943