Early Life
Born in East Coker, Somerset and educated at King's School, Bruton, Dampier sailed on two merchant voyages to Newfoundland and Java, before joining the Royal Navy in 1673, taking part in the two battles of Schooneveld in June of that year. His service was cut short by a catastrophic illness, and he returned to England for several months of recuperation. For the next several years he tried his hand at various careers, including plantation managing (in Jamaica) and logging (in Mexico), before he joined another sailing expedition.
Read more about this topic: William Dampier
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“We realize that we are laggards from the past century, still living in what Marx kindly calls ‘the idiocy of rural life,’ and we know that our rural life is like that of the past, not like that of much of the present.”
—For the State of Vermont, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)