William Dampier - The Roebuck Expedition

The Roebuck Expedition

The publication of these diaries as New Voyage Round the World in 1697 was a popular sensation creating interest at the British Admiralty and in 1699 Dampier was given the command of the Roebuck with a commission from the Admiralty (and by inference King William III who had reigned jointly with Queen Mary II before her death in 1694). His mission was to explore the east coast of New Holland, the name given by the Dutch to what is now Australia, and Dampier's intention was to travel there via Cape Horn.

The expedition set out on 14 January 1699, far too late in the season to round the Horn and it approached New Holland via Cape of Good Hope. Following the Dutch routes to the Indies, on 26 July 1699, Dampier reached Dirk Hartog Island at the mouth of what he called Shark Bay in Western Australia. He landed and began producing the first known detailed record of Australian flora and fauna. The images are believed to be by his clerk James Brand. Dampier then followed the coast northeast, reaching the Dampier Archipelago and then Lagrange Bay, just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay all the while recording and collecting specimens, including many shells. From there he bore away north for Timor. Then he sailed east and on 3 December 1699 rounded New Guinea, which he passed to the north. Sailing east, he traced the southeastern coasts of New Hanover, New Ireland and New Britain, charting the Dampier Strait between these islands (now the Bismarck Archipelago) and New Guinea. En route he paused to collect specimens with one stop resulting in a collection of many giant clams.

His ship was rotten and its carpenter apparently inept, so Dampier was forced to abandon his plan to examine the east coast of New Holland while less than a hundred miles from it. In danger of sinking he attempted to make the return voyage to England but Roebuck foundered at Ascension Island on 21 February 1701. While anchored offshore the ship had started to take water, and though sent below to effect repair, the carpenter only made it worse. As a result the ship was run ashore. His crew was marooned there for five weeks before being picked up on 3 April by an East Indiaman and returned home in August 1701.

Although many papers were lost with the Roebuck, Dampier was able to save many new charts of coastlines, and his record of trade winds and currents in the seas around Australia and New Guinea. He also saved a few of his specimens. Roebuck was located in Clarence Bay Ascension Island 2001 by a team from the Western Australian Museum. Because of his widespread effect and partly because so little exists that can now be linked to one of the world's greatest mariners and authors, it has been argued that the remains of his ship and the objects still remaining on the site at Ascension Island – while remaining the property of Britain and managed by Ascension Island – are perhaps best viewed as the shared maritime heritage of those parts of the world first visited or described by Dampier.