A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier (Hardcover)

by Diana Preston (Author), Michael Preston (Author) "One day, in September 1683 in the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa, William Dampier lay "obscured" among the scrubby vegetation to..." (more)
Key Phrases: two fat monkeys, would have poisoned them, buccaneer fleet, Royal Society, New Holland, South Seas (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Dampier's adventures and observations ignited the imagination of a generation, but today his name is largely unknown. This exhaustive biography by Diana Preston (Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy; The Boxer Rebellion; etc.) and husband Michael won't make Dampier famous again, but it will give readers a clear understanding of one of the most well-traveled men in history. In the late 1600s, Dampier, an Englishman, circumnavigated the globe three separate times. The authors draw heavily on the books and articles Dampier published about his adventures, and they include the most mundane of details ("The buccaneers sailed on, pausing to bury at sea one of their number, who apparently expired of high fever exacerbated by hiccups brought on by a drinking bout at La Serena"). During his time as a buccaneer, Dampier launched dozens of raids on gold-laden Spanish ships, marched through Panama's jungles and mutinied many times. What distinguished him from an ordinary pirate, as the title indicates, was his sharp eye for observation. He was the first self-made naturalist to visit the Galapagos; his sketches of the region's turtles set the stage for Darwin's future visit. He also drew detailed maps of nearly every place he visited, charts that defined Western Europe's knowledge of the Americas and the South Seas. His theories about how wind patterns affect ocean currents are still used today. Indeed, Dampier's scientific and historical legacy holds up better than his swashbuckling escapades, which, though exciting, hold slightly less novelty. 65 b&w illus., maps.
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From The Washington Post

William Dampier is important today for many of the same reasons that made him fascinating to his 17th- century contemporaries. He was a representative man of his time: master navigator and peerless recorder of winds, currents, coastlines, seasonal weather and even magnetic fluctuation in England's great age of exploration. As another biographer of Dampier, W. Clark Russell, remarked, "No skillfuller body of seamen were ever afloat." Although more mariners of his time than might be expected left journals, maps and other writings, Dampier was but one example of the breed, and hundreds of other men lived out similar stories.

The men who became sailors were younger brothers like Dampier -- or poor, reckless characters greedy for wealth, experience and adventure. Dampier knew some Latin. Perhaps his parents did what they could to prepare him for the clergy or the law, but, orphaned at 16, he was instead apprenticed to a shipmaster. His first trips, which this biography by Diana and Michael Preston omits, along with almost all of his early life, were standard experiences: commercial voyages and then a stint in the navy in the Third Dutch War. Dampier's rambling, opportunistic travels, which had him jumping from ship to ship, experiencing sudden destination changes and enduring deprivation, were all common. After serving in the merchant marine and the navy, he became by turns coastal trader, privateer and outright pirate, and he rose to the leadership of two financed expeditions, one by Bristol speculators.

In his sealed bamboo carriers, Dampier preserved botanical and zoological notes, as was expected of a man in his position. As early as the 1660s, the Royal Society asked mariners to do exactly what Dampier did. Books before his, such as Robert Knox's An Historical Relation of Ceylon (1681), organized their chapters according to the Society's categories of knowledge. In contributing to the evolution of lists of what was to be collected, Dampier helped shape his own, Edmund Halley's and others' scientific expeditions.

There are two problems with this biography. First, it is not well written. Dampier's sea life can be divided neatly by his major voyages, but A Pirate of Exquisite Mind is imbalanced toward his first. The prose is often turgid and far too dependent on A New Voyage Around the World, Dampier's first and least impressive book. His slogs on foot through Central America seem endless and pointless. We are not told that buccaneers were usually trying to establish dependable trading contacts and routes or even settlements in parts of the world beyond the laws of any nation. Dampier's ambitions largely conformed to this economic model, as we see, for example, in his attempts to set up as a logwood trader. He and other privateers were also patriots, disrupting the shipping lines of England's enemies, attempting to intercept shipments of gold that paid for war.

The authors are better at narrating his expedition to Australia and make telling points about the contrasts between the culture of buccaneers, with the rules that had evolved to govern independent men on long voyages in close quarters, and that of the Royal Navy. It is not until the authors introduce another privateer, Woodes Rogers, into the narrative and compare him in some detail to Dampier that they establish a smooth, authoritative voice. Even so, they squash this voyage into 14 pages, although it was Dampier's third around the world and took three years.

The second problem is the portrait of Dampier. The Prestons desperately want him to be first and singular. They repeat "first to . . . ," sometimes correctly, but more often not. For example, they want Dampier to be the first European to reach Australia, but their muddled prose suggests that they are straining to obscure the Dutch explorer Janszoon Tasmen. Almost all of their claims about Dampier as a writer are inaccurate. Voyage literature was enormously popular before he wrote -- he joined the second great outpouring. Books such as Knox's, a reprint of Drake's voyages and Alexander Exquemelin's fascinating Buccaneers of America, which Dampier mentions, may have inspired his accounts, as he surely encountered them all when he arrived in London in 1691. Dampier's dedication to A New Voyage claimed he had "a hearty Zeal for the promotion of useful knowledge" (the motto of the Royal Society). As a privateer, he devoted that zeal to his "Country's advantage."

In the Prestons' hands, however, Dampier emerges as irascible and driven by a hunger for gold. In reality, he was a premier example of his time's embrace of empirical methods and desire to explore the entire globe. He explained one of his changes of ships by noting, "It was not from any dislike to my old Captain but to get some knowledge of the Northern Parts of this Continent of Mexico." The authors also leave out other major aspects of his personality, which are apparent in his four autobiographical books. His religion, for instance, is gone, as is the fascination with forms of government that he shared with his contemporaries (including Knox and Exquemelin) in the time when Englishmen remembered a civil war and a republic, and then saw a hereditary monarch displaced by a foreigner. The authors lose sight of his lively sense of humor, the detail that his interest in zoology seems to have been largely culinary and his ability to make himself unnoticeable when that was appropriate. Yet he could not have survived to age 63 had he not been a master of managing intricate situations and avoiding confrontations. The authors' inattention is especially frustrating since, in nearly every respect, Dampier is that best of biographical subjects -- the representative but exceptional person, one who reveals the indomitable spirit and amazing knowledge of the hundreds of men who lived out the same stories but did not find a publisher.

Reviewed by Paula R. Backscheider

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; 1ST edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802714250
• ISBN-13: 978-0802714251
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #161,433 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dampier's amazing life ably told, June 7, 2004

By	Richard E. Hourula (Berkeley, CA. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

On the heels of her seminal work on the Lusitania, Diana Preston (this time with her husband as co-author) has brought back to life the extraordinary pirate/naturalist William Dampier.
This story would not work as fiction as it would be dismissed as unrealistic. Dampier circumnavigated the world alongside pirates engaged in plundering, raping and killing. During his journeys Dampier found time to record observations of flora and fauna, animals of all descriptions, currents and native peoples. He was also a geographer and surveyor.
It may seem an understatement to say that Dampier was a man ahead of his times. Not only did Dampier take copious notes; he took good ones. Dampier was a dedicated and skilled "reporter". He was the first European to make observations of various animals, plants and places, coining a few words and terms to boot. His sensitivy towards and respect for indigenous people was in sharp contrast to the prevailing racist attitudes common among most 17th century Europeans.
Dampier's travels took him to the Caribbean, Virginia, Central America, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand Indonesia, and the Philippines, just to name a few locales. His pirating days eventually gave way to more legitimate if no less risky adventures, including serving the British navy. It was in his role as central leader of expeditions that we finally see a man who, like the rest of us, is flawed. Dampier became, not surprisingly, a noted author whose observations influenced generations to come, perhaps most notably Captain James Cook and Charles Darwin.
Happily, the Prestons are up to the task of telling Dampier's story. Their account of Dampier's life is richly detailed, paying the proper respect to his scientific discoveries and observations while spinning exciting yarns of pirates at their swashbuckling best. The Prestons make a valuable addition to the growing body of work depicting sea life in days of yore. The harsh and filthy reality of shipboard is laid bare and the reader is treated to an account of a shipboard cure for constipation which will leave one squirming.
This is a thoroughly entertaining story and an important book in understanding both the Age of Exploration and the Englightenment. One eagerly awaits the Preston's next work.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Biography of Exquisite Value, March 24, 2005

By	David Stapleton (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What an odd man.

You have to wonder, what sort of literate man travels around the world (three times) in the late 17th century, sacking towns, cavorting with pirates, capturing merchant ships and then sits down to maintain a journal of flora, fauna, wind patterns, and social customs?

The Prestons have presented us with a narrative biography of this strange man. A man who seemingly mixed equally with pirates, lord of the Admiralty and kissed the hand of the queen. A celebrated author, accomplished navigator, respected naturalist and active enough to board enemy ships or cut logwood. A little more art in his soul and we would acknowledge him as a renaissance man. As expected the book centers on Dampier's life from about 1674 to 1715 when he died; it covers the three trips around the world and his short periods of life in England while writing his books. The authors add a few digressions to cover associated world events, framing Dampier's life and giving perspective to his actions or troubles.

While I disagree with a couple of the authors' statements on piracy (having read my share on the subject), I found their work to be enjoyable reading and worthy of a prominent place in my reference material on piracy.
P-)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Real life Pirate's Tale with lots of Swashbuckling Action, May 19, 2004

By	DANA ISAACSON (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Within these pages is a wealth of compelling information about a fascinating bygone age. William Dampier was a scientist, pioneer and writer whose influence is still being felt today, despite the fact that he is less remembered than many of the other bold thinkers of his time.

Yet what got me the most excited in this book by the Prestons was the in-depth exploration of the pirate world. This book provides riveting insight into a world that previously seemed mythical: the pirates of the Caribbean. The Prestons dramatically show how these swashbuckling societies developed, functioned and crumbled, as well as the economic and political forces that brought about these events.

This is the inspirational story of a man who pushed himself -- striving to go beyond his time's intellectual and geographical limits.