It oughta be a movie: A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, by Diana and Michael Preston
This is a biography of William Dampier, a 17th century buccaneer naturalist who was the first to sail around the world 3 times - mostly trying to capture Spanish treasure galleons, but also leading an official expedition to Australia. He wrote several best-selling books about his adventures that not only inspired fictional works - including “Robinson Crusoe” - but also contained enough useful data to be carried as references by later naturalists like Humbolt and Darwin. I first read it when I was in college and could not believe I’d never heard of this guy before. A pirate who, instead of just carousing in his off time, more often wanders off to observe sea turtles or carefully record how soy sauce is made? That is awesome and a little bit funny, and this book would make a terrific base for a historical adventure film.
The Royal Society of London, the first modern scientific organization, was established in 1662 with the goal to “overcome the mysteries of all the works of nature…for the benefit of human life” and undertake “a universal constant and impartial survey of the whole of creation”. It’s not clear if Dampier was aware of this charter or the Society’s ‘Directions for Seamen Bound for Far Voyages’ when he embarked on his earliest adventures, but he was a natural naturalist. He was boundlessly curious, often undertaking journeys as much to see something new as for any material gain. He was also less superstitious than many of his contemporaries1 and, while not without biases, considerably more objective in his descriptions of foreign people and cultures. Most importantly for science and his future career as an author, he kept careful notes of his observations, sealing his papers in bamboo tubes to protect them from damp.
Dampier’s biggest scientific contribution was probably ‘A Discourse of Trade-Winds, Breezes, Storms, Seasons of the Year, Tides, and Currents’. This included the correct conclusion that currents are different from tides, and that the former are produced by the prevailing winds. He made biological contributions too, such as discussing migration patterns and inventing the term “sub-species”. His books introduced a huge number of words into the English language, from the exotic (“avocado”, “barbecue”, “chopsticks”) to the seemingly obvious (“sea breeze”) but were accessible enough to inspire a boom in demand for more travel and adventure books.
1. He scoffs at the idea of magic being involved in phenomena like St. Elmo’s fire; The Salem witch trials took place in his lifetime!
Adaptation issues:
Properly exploring Dampier as a person would really be key to telling this story. That he was very smart is obvious. In fact, he often too obviously thought he was the cleverest person in the room (or ship) and was not above saying “I told you so”. I picture him coming across a bit like Hugh Laurie’s Dr. House or Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, the kind of guy that makes you think: “OK, you are undeniably amazing, but also a bit of a smug asshole”. Dampier’s tendency to sulk or snap back angrily if people didn’t listen to his clearly sensible opinions did not lend itself well to leadership positions!
However, Dampier dealt better with foreign cultures than one might expect of an Englishman of his era. He almost always found something to admire: the ingenuity and beauty of Chinese inventions and artwork, the sustainable hunting practices of the Caribbean Indians, the sailing skill of the Polynesians, the egalitarian social organization of the Batanese islanders, and so on. Where he saw defects, usually attributed them to social causes (eg. overbearing rulers disincentivizing creative hard work) rather than any intrinsic difference between peoples2. He personally copied things he thought seemed sensible (like bathing regularly as a health-promoting practice in the tropics) and tried to respect local norms (not drinking or eating pork when with Muslim sailors, for instance). That doesn’t mean he was totally free of the prejudices of his time: He doesn’t appear to have questioned slavery as an institution and was consistently baffled by hunter-gatherer societies and why they seem to resist “bettering themselves”. Some of his blind spots and the things he chose not to talk about2 are important. For example, at one point the buccaneer crew he was a part of captured a ship that they re-named “The Batchelor’s Delight” because it was carrying a bunch of female slaves. What happened to them is not addressed by any of the diarists in the fleet and given that at best they would have been sold at the next port - and the name suggests much ickier possibilities - it is obvious why. But if a movie included this episode it should probably give an answer to their fate!
2. The descriptions of Australian Aborigines in his published work were pretty insulting, much more so than in his notes and early drafts. The Prestons speculate he may have been encouraged to sensationalize by the publishers.
On a similar note of things that were not recorded, Dampier’s personal life is a bit of a mystery. We know he married a woman named Judith, but almost immediately ran off to sea for twelve years. They never had children, and he almost never mentions her, except to note that she was handling business back home or his anxiety about the prospect of telling her about yet another planned voyage. While that might be a product of 17th century marriages being primarily a financial arrangement, he’s also unusually reticent in discussing sex or romance compared to his earthy and plain-spoken contemporaries. Rather than salivating over dusky grass-skirted beauties - as many similar accounts would put it - his descriptions are generally brief and non-objectifying. While male-male pairings were common and quietly accepted among the buccaneers (as opposed to being a hanging offense in the navy!), Dampier doesn’t seem to have had any particularly close male companions either3. His most sensual descriptions are given to things like the tastes of tropical fruits or the relief of a cool breeze. There is the option, therefore, to interpret him as asexual without contradicting any established facts, or simply as being more in love with the sea than with any person!
3. Though I suppose you could read into the way he describes “well made” men as often, or more so, as he did aesthetically pleasing women!
In terms of plot, I would start the story in 1697, when Dampier is appointed captain of an expedition to “Terra Australis”. We could see him looking confident, insisting on unlimited discretion and refusing to take the first (unsuitable) ship that is offered. But at the same time, trouble is brewing: his appointed second in command, career navy-man lieutenant George Fisher, declares that a pirate will never change his ways, and that he’s sure that, like Captains Avery or Kidd, Dampier will run off with the king’s ship.
Then it could jump back to 1674, with Dampier as a young man traveling to Jamaica. This episode should be kept brief, but Dampier’s anxieties about getting pressed into indentured servitude, a funny interlude when the doctor’s boy assistant turns out to be his mistress in disguise, and his employer’s ironic opinion that Dampier was “a self-conceited young man and one that understands little or nothing”, and had he “been anything ingenious, he might have been a good [sugar] boiler” are worth including.
Dampier next spends time cutting logwood (source of a valuable dye) with some former buccaneers, but we could probably skip to him becoming a proper pirate. One of their first raids yielded little but a bunch of talking parrots; Dampier was probably the only one who was amused by this! With the help of the local Kuna Indians4, the buccaneers then marched across the Isthmus of Panama to attack the Spanish ports on the Pacific side. Dampier briefly ran into “troubles” (with the law) in Virginia, then joined up with a new crew in 1683 that traveled to Cape Verde, then through the Straight of Magellan and into the “South Sea”. It was on this trip that Dampier saw the Galapagos Islands, and also encountered a Moskito Indian named William who had been accidentally left behind on Juan Fernandez island three years previously5. The buccaneers had all sorts of adventures on both journeys but did not meet with much real success. It would be worth spending some time even on the boring bits, as these can illustrate some features of pirate life viewers might not have imagined. For instance, reading: more than 70% of sailors of the time were at least partially literate. They also killed time with things like mock trials, using a mop for the judge’s wig and speeches defending themselves as modern Robin Hoods or Alexander the Greats.
4. The Kuna had many reasons not to like the Spanish, but the inciting incident as far as “King Golden Cap” was concerned was the kidnapping of his daughter.
5. Dampier remembered this and went ashore to look for him. He records a touching reunion of William with another of their Moskito shipmates. Daniel Defoe later combined William’s story with that of Alexander Selkirk, also picked up by one of Dampier’s crews, as inspiration for ‘Robinson Crusoe’.
The buccaneers stayed a while in Mindanao (now part of the Philippines), with Dampier making notes on the local dance styles, the taste of durians, and the many uses of plantains, before moving on to the mouth of the Mekong and then China. By this point, Dampier was getting tired of his companions and their largely unprofitable voyage and started planning to leave. First, though, they became the first Britons to reach mainland Australia. This proved frustrating, as they were not able to convey to the locals their desire to hire them to help resupply the ship with water6. Dampier finally quit7 when they reached Sumatra. With two other Britons, a Portuguese sailor, and four Sumatran prisoners, he purchased a canoe and set out for the Dutch trading post. The canoe immediately sank, wetting his precious journals, which he anxiously dried out as they made repairs. The newly out-riggered canoe then got caught in a storm, but they made it through. Dampier spent time in Vietnam, too ill to explore as much as usual; met and acquired a Filipino slave named Jeoly (later dubbed “the painted prince” for his full-body tattoos8); worked for the irritating governor of the English trading post at Bencouli9; made the first English-language observation of a zebra in South Africa; and finally returned home in 1691.
6. Dampier noted with admiration how equally the Aborigines shared out food obtained from their harsh land – a practice very much in line with the buccaneer code – though he thought them lacking in curiosity (his favorite virtue).
7. Which was allowed at any time under the buccaneer’s charter, but harder for those seen to have valuable skills such as Dampier – a navigator – or the ship’s doctor (who also wished to go).
8. Dampier hoped
at one point to bring Jeoly to England, put on a show, and use part of the
proceeds to send Jeoly home as a free man...who might then be a good local
business contact! It didn’t end up working out that way for either of them: Someone
else got rich off of sensationalizing the “prince” and Jeoly died within a year
of arriving. In a gruesome detail not mentioned in this book, his skin was
preserved in an Oxford museum. That’s a bit suspicious, though, because he
reportedly died of smallpox – a disease that both disfigures the skin and is
highly contagious!
9. One of Dampier’s tasks involved finding a way to fix a bunch of gunpowder that hadn’t been properly turned, allowing the saltpeter to separate.
Once back in England, Dampier published his first book, which merited three printings in nine months. Royalties didn’t exist back then, so the book itself didn’t make Dampier much money, but it did boost his reputation especially in scientific circles. That brings us back to the start of the movie: Dampier’s expedition to Australia. Things quickly grew increasingly sour between Dampier and Fisher, resulting in Dampier having his second put ashore in chains in Brazil. The crew then continued on their journey, but command seems to have been stressful for Dampier – he was drinking more and exhibiting a more violent temper than before. Meanwhile, Fisher was on his way back to England, stirring up trouble for his former captain. Dampier successfully reached Shark’s Bay in western Australia but, as before, was unable to locate a source of water. On the way back, his ship sank near Ascension Island, but slowly enough that the crew and botanical specimens could be saved. Dampier reached England in 1701, only to be court-martialed on Fisher’s accusations. Most of the charges back and forth were dismissed, but Dampier was ruled not to be fit to command a naval vessel and fined all of his salary for the past 3 years! But he had another book in the works, which again proved a success, and in 1703 was back at sea as a privateer captain, with official permission target was Spanish treasure ships. It was only on one of these later voyages that he finally encountered one of the fabled Manila galleons. Let’s leave Dampier on that successful note as he returns home in 1711, at the age of 59 – his remaining four years were quiet ones, apart from some lawsuits. But a post-log about his lasting intellectual influence would be appropriate, with perhaps an image of a plaque being installed in his home-town church in 1907 – over one town worthy’s objections that Dampier was “a pirate ruffian that ought to have been hung” - that reads:
To the memory of William Dampier
Buccaneer Explorer Hydrographer
…An exact observer of all things in Earth, Sea, and Air
he recorded the knowledge won by years of
danger and hardship in Books of Voyages
and a Discourse of Winds, Tides, and Currents
which Nelson bade his midshipmen to study
and Humbolt praised for Scientific worth
