Roebuck Under William Dampier's Command
After a period of relative obscurity, in July 1698, Roebuck was place under the command of William Dampier. The anomalous appointment of a former privateer and buccaneer to the command of one of His Majesty King William's ships is explained by Dampier’s growing reputation as he travelled widely and exhibited the famous tattoed Prince Jeoly and his mother who were purchased on his first circumnavigation and who had been described in a Folio Broadsheet in England of 1691-2 as a 'just wonder of the age' This popular fame translated into instant recognition amongst academics, seafarers, politicians and royalty subsequent to the publication of his sensational 'New Voyage Round the World' in 1697. Dampier's fame and influence at the time and his reputation amongst royalty and powerful men such as the famous naval administrator Samuel Pepys is perhaps best illustrated by following quote from the diarist John Evelyn on 16 August 1698: ‘I dined with Mr Pepys, where was Captain Dampier, who had been a famous buccaneer, had brought hither the painted prince Job, and printed a relation of his very strange adventure…He was now going abroad again by the King’s encouragement, who furnished a ship of 290 tons. He seemed a more modest man than one would imagine by relation of the crew he had associated with’. Roebuck, the naval ship referred to in this quote was a replacement for the Jolly Prize which Dampier found totally unsuited for his plans to search for Terra Australis and to examine the then uncharted eastern coast of New Holland via Cape Horn, a notoriously difficult and dangerous route.
Read more about this topic: HMS Roebuck (1690)
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