''A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World'' is a 1712 book by Edward Cooke, about a real-life trip around the world in two ships, under the command of

Woodes Rogers Woodes Rogers ( 1679 – 15 July 1732) was an English sea captain, privateer, Atlantic slave trade, slave trader and, from 1718, the first List of colonial heads of the Bahamas, Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of ...

. It is notable for including a firsthand account of castaway

Alexander Selkirk Alexander Selkirk (167613 December 1721) was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island i ...

, whose tale appears to have helped inspire

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

to write ''

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

'' a few years later.

In 1708, two ships set sail from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

under command of Woodes Rogers. These were the ''Duke of Bristol'' and ''Dutchess of Bristol''. These ships circled the world, trading goods from Europe for goods from various places in the "southern ocean", the Atlantic, Pacific, and other seas circling the southern hemisphere. Once the journey was over, sailor Edward Cooke (not to be confused with English Naval Officer Captain Cooke) wrote up an account, in two volumes, that was printed the next year. In it were updated maps, including of the

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

, and '' An Account is given of Mr. Alexander Selkirk'', about a man who had been marooned on the uninhabited island of "Más a Tierra", which was renamed

Robinson Crusoe Island Robinson Crusoe Island ( es, Isla Róbinson Crusoe, ), formerly known as Más a Tierra (), is the second largest of the Juan Fernández Islands, situated 670 km (362 nmi; 416 mi) west of San Antonio, Chile, in the South Pacific Oc ...

in 1966, for four years and it covered his manner of living being adept at hunting, taming wild beasts and making use of the resources available. Selkirk's story is the inspiration for the 1719

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

, ''

''.Severin, Tim - ''In search of Robinson Crusoe'' - New York, Basic Books, 2002 - pp. 23–24 This book also covers other topics of interest. Among these are their own

privateering A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

(pirating), the expedition of ships capturing many other vessels ostensibly from targets of the English crown, and contains early documentation of the Galapagos islands later made famous by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's ''

The Voyage of the Beagle ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' is the title most commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his ''Journal and Remarks'', bringing him considerable fame and respect. This was the third volume of ''The Narrative ...

''. Woodes Rogers wrote his own account, ''A Cruising Voyage Round the World'' since narratives of voyages were popular reading material at the time.

Blackbeard's ''Queen Anne's Revenge''

In 1718, ''

Queen Anne's Revenge ''Queen Anne's Revenge'' was an early-18th-century ship, most famously used as a flagship by Edward Teach, better known by his nickname Blackbeard. Although the date and place of the ship's construction are uncertain, it was originally believed ...

'' — the ship of famous

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

Blackbeard Edward Teach (alternatively spelled Edward Thatch, – 22 November 1718), better known as Blackbeard, was an English Piracy, pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's Thirteen Colonies, North American colon ...

— ran aground on a sandbar at Beaufort Inlet off the coast of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. Ultimately it had to be abandoned and was then lost, only to be rediscovered in 1996. A breech chamber, likely originally associated with a

breech-loading swivel gun A breech-loading swivel gun was a particular type of swivel gun and a small breech-loading cannon invented in the 14th century. It was equipped with a swivel for easy rotation and was loaded by inserting a mug-shaped device called a chamber or bree ...

, was recovered still loaded with powder and

wadding Wadding is a disc of material used in guns to seal gas behind a projectile (a bullet or ball), or to separate the propellant from loosely packed shots. Wadding can be crucial to a gun's efficiency, since any gas that leaks past a projectile as it ...

used to make a seal around a

tampion A tampion or tompion (in the Royal Navy)#refSimmons1812, Simmons, 1812, p. 163. is a wooden plug, or a metal, canvas, rubber, or plastic cover, for the Muzzle (firearm), muzzle of a gun or mortar (weapon), mortar.#refDuane1810, Duane, 1810, p ...

. Part of the wadding consisted of fragments of paper upon which were printed words.Erik Farrell, Kimberly Kenyon, Sarah Watkins-Kenney, Kay Smith, Ruth Brown - "Message in a Breech Block: A Fragmentary Printed Text Recovered from Queen Anne's Revenge." ''The North Carolina Historical Review'', Volume XCV No. 2, April 2018, - pp. 231-248. Experts identified seven scraps of that paper as being pages from Cooke's ''A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World''.

References

{{reflist 1712 books

Contents

Blackbeard's ''Queen Anne's Revenge''

References