The Naval Pioneers of Australia and Walter Jeffery

printed a relation of his very strange adventure and his observations. He was now going abroad again by the King's encouragement, wh

that the maps hitherto extant were all false as to the Pacific Sea, which he makes on the south

n Evelyn on Au

te enough history has already been written; but we cannot omit a short account o

l till I came of years fit for a trade. But upon the death of my mother they who had the disposal of me took other measures, and, having removed me from the Latin sc

the death of that commander at the end of the Dutch war in 1673. Soon after he made a voyage to the West Indies; then began an adventurous life-ashore

ippines, Celebes, Timor, New Holland, and the Nicobar Islands. Here Dampier left his ship and worked his way to England, which he reached in 1691. (The Cygnet was afterwards lost off Madagascar.) He had brought home with him from

6·50 S. About three leagues to the eastward of this point there is a pretty deep bay, with abundance of islands in it, and a very; good pla

Buccaneer Archipelago. The bay in which Dampier anchored is still called Cygnet Bay, and it is situated in the north-west corner of King's Sound, of which "that p

whom he saw, and who were, he says, "the most miserable people in the world. The Hodmadods" (Hottentots) "of Monomatapa, though a nasty people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these." He gives an accurate description of the

bly because there were no Spaniards to fight and no prizes to be made, endeavoured to persuade his companions to shape their next course for some port where was a

voyage of the ex-buccaneer to the South Seas, although of small importance to geographers, is notewo

t be out of place to give some account of the navy at that time. When James II. abdicated in 1688, according to Pepys, the royal navy was made up of 173 ships of

t so good a friend to the service as his predecessor, and anything but a sailor, like the fourth William, did not altogether neglect it. In the Introduction to James' Naval History we are told that between the years 1689 and 1697 the navy lost by capt

of 290 tons. Dampier has left very little description of his ship, but it is not difficult to picture her, for by this time the rati

. This was her war complement; but Dampier himself tells us that he "sailed from the Downs early on Saturday, January 14th, 1699,

n. The largest sixth-rate was 199 tons, 18 guns, and 85 men. So from these particulars we can take it as correct that the Roebuck in 1699 was a sixth-rate. It is worth remembering that in Cavendish's second expedition to the South Sea, in 1591, there was a ship called the Roebuck, commanded by John Davis, a

rds of prey went out of fashion, and they were distinguished by the weight of the shot fired. James, quoting from Sir William Monson's Naval

s. B

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non

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yal 8-1/2

8 600

entine 7 55

annon 7 4

n 6-3/4 40

tro 6 400

5-1/2 450

k 5 400

erin 4 34

lverin 4 3

1/2 1400

3-1/2 1

-1/2 660

2 500

1-1/2 400

1 300

ainces, musketoons, blunderbusses, pi

nsidering the peaceful service she was upon, were pro

he ships of a couple of centuries ago. A lion rampant decorates the stem, set as it remained till early in the present century (the galley prow had gone with Charles I.); the hull looked not a whit more clumsy than that of an old north-country

ending from either end of the ship to the waist. A good deal of superfluous ornament had by this time been done away with, although there was plenty of it so late as 1689. Charnock describes a man-of-war of that date. After the Restoration, ships grew apace in grandeur in and out. Inboard they were painted a dull red (this was, it is said

a writer of about Dampier's time, who also tells us that ships then had awnings, and that "gla

nd jib were not yet, but the sprit-topsail had just gone out. The ship when rigged and fitted ready for sea probably cost King William's Admiralty

d ten years' study of the subject, the present writers are compelled to draw upon Commander Robinson for many details. With the aid of this work and fro

he published an account of his travels, and dedicated it to the President of the Royal Society, the Hon. Charles Mountague, who, appreciating the author's zeal and his intelligent public spirit, recommended him to the patronage of the Earl of Oxford, then Principal Lord of the Admiralty. Dampier's dedication has nothing of the fulsome flattery and beggi

and none of the other officers held commissions. The peaceful mission of the Roebuck justifies us in concluding that Dampier held the King's commission as a lieutenant commanding, and he was probably given a lieutenant to take charge in case o

ut they were disbanded nine years later. It was not until 1703 that

ht aft under the long poop, and the other officers at the same end of the ship in canvas-partitioned cabins, the fore part of her one living deck being occupied by the crew. There was probably a mess-room under the po

wts. q

a wine gallon p

1 lb. per

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pints per we

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6 oz. per

" 12 " "

ron-bound c

f three eight

de to condense water. Beer took the place of all forms

ly it may be assumed that Dampier's sailors wore petticoats and breeches, grey kersey jackets, woollen stockings and low-heeled shoes, and worsted, canvas, or leather caps. Canvas, leather, and coarse cloth were the principal materials, and tin buttons and coloured thread the most ornamental part, of the costume.

on having the socket plugged with oakum, a fact which tells more than could a volume of how seamen were then cared for. It was the days of the press and of the advance-note system, which prevailed well into the present century, and those seamen who went with Dampier of their o

f by his forefathers. When the Calliope steamed out of Apia Harbour in the hurricane of March, 1889, the youngest grimy coal-trimmer, whose sole duty it was to silently shovel coal, even though his last moment came to him while doing it, never once asked if the ship

the word was given to jump as the ship heeled over-recent instances quoted merely because they occur to the writers' minds, for there are any number of others. Such cases illustrate forcibly this truth: we have, by careful training of the modern sa

d the line, and he was in continual fear of some sickness arising because they were too lazy to shift themselves, but w

les, and have gone away from me, many of them discovering already an intention to return to England, and some of them declaring openly that they would go no further onwards than Brazil. I altered my course, therefore, and stood away from Bahio de todos los Santos, or the Bay of All Saints, where I hoped to have the governor

ount of his voyage, and the commander and his officers were all on bad terms with each other, which

reat importance, judged by the standard of such work to-day; but, with the state of nau

olland, what charts, what instruments, what scient

e sailing, and the measurement of a degree on the meridian were introduced. Hadley's quadrant came thirty years after Dampier, who must have used Davis' instrument, then about ninety years old. Davis' work on navigation, with Wright's chart showing the northern extremity of Australia, and Addison's Arithmetical Navigation (1625) were, no doubt

its being made a firm, continued land, only with some openings like the mouths of rivers, I found the soundings also different from what the line of his course shows them, and generally shallower than he makes them, which inclines me to think that he came not so near the shore as his line shows, and so had deeper soundings, and could not so well distinguish

spent fourteen years before that date trading in the Dutch East Indies. These documents are all that have been found, and a diligent search of geographers still leaves undiscovered Tasman's original narrative. The 1688 copies were probably known to Dampier when he sailed in the Roebuck, and he was, likely enough, supplied with specially made duplicates by the naval authorities. In 1697 a translation of a French book was published in England by John Dunton, of the Poultry, London, wi

on that his men caught and ate, among other things, many sharks, including one eleven feet long, and says Dampier, "Our men eat them very savorilly." He gives us, too, a description of the kangaroo, the first introduction of that animal to civilization. Says t

ace

the river of that name. Its chief town is Carnarvon, situated at the mouth of the

he chief town of the north province of the colony. From here he continued his course north till he reached Roebuck Bay, a few leagues to the south of the scene of his first visit, and where is now the

d named New Britain, now a German colonial possession, spent some weeks upon the New Guinea coast, and then returned to Timor, whence he began his voyage home. Off Ascension the Roebuck sprang a

coveries already enumerated, made others, and the frequent appearance

akes it for granted that he never married, at any rate during his sea career. Dampier himself tells us he was married, and gives us a very good idea of when, but he so seldom, after once getting to work upon his narrative, gives us a glimpse of himself that it is easily understood how Mr. R

t when he set out upon his career as an explorer the search for a land where gold could be easily got without fighting for it was his main motive. He himself tells us so, but we think that he might have been a greater man if his mind had been capable

itten after his return

in me to expect to escape the censure of all, or to hope for better treatment than far worthier persons have met with before me. But this satisfaction I am sure of having, that the things themselves in the discovery of which I have been employed are most worthy of our diligent search and inquiry, being the various and wonderful works

and in his dedication of his book to th

as my unhappiness in my late expedition in the Roebuck, which foundered through perfect age near the island of Ascension. I suffered extr

this voyage in April, 1703, first having the honour of a presentation by the Lord High Admiral to the new Queen (Anne). It is well known that the voyage was a failure, and how Dampier, in command of the St. George, quarrelled with Funnel, in comm

rom his pilot, Captain Dampier, how the man had been left upon the island more than four years before f

reet, St. Stephen's, London, some time in 1715. The will does not mention the value of his property, but he could not have died rich, and was probably not only poor, but, to ju