Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
What is interesting is that Dampier here proposes an east-about
circumnavigation. If he had carried his plans into effect he would
have achieved something truly remarkable and changed the history
of long-distance sailing. As it was, another seventy-six years were to
pass before the globe was successfully circumnavigated from west to
east.
The voyage Dampier
did
make was a fiasco. He set out in Janu-
ary 1699 in command of the twenty-one gun
Roebuck
and he
did
suc-
cessfully reach Western Australia. But by then the whole enterprise
had begun to fall apart for a variety of reasons. The ship was not up
to a long voyage. The crew were decimated by scurvy. Some of the
officers were mutinous and Dampier, who had learned his seaman-
ship among pirates, lacked the qualities of a naval commander. The
voyage ended in chaos and recriminations. The
Roebuck
turned for
home and got as far as Ascension before having to be scuttled. Back
in England, in 1702, Dampier faced a court martial for over-harsh
discipline. He was found guilty and declared 'not a fit person to be
employed as commander of any of his majesty's ships'.
The prohibition was scarcely serious, for within ten months
Dampier was preparing to put to sea as captain of the privateer
St George,
having also under his command the
Cinque Ports.
Once
again quarrels soon broke out between Dampier and his subordin-
ates. Charges of drunkenness, brutality and cowardice were levelled
against Dampier. Such dissensions were common on privateering/
piratical voyages and, since the only account to survive is one hostile
to Dampier, it is difficult to know how much truth there is in the cri-
ticisms. The voyage was a failure and
sauve qui peut
was the motive
of all the officers called to account by the Admiralty on their return.
What is clear is that Dampier and Captain Stradling who took over
the
Cinque Ports
when her captain died off Brazil did not see eye to
eye. As soon as the ships rounded the Horn they separated. The
St
George
was involved in several indeterminate actions along the coast
