Captain Woodes Rogers

LIFE ABOARD A BRITISH PRIVATEER

Being the Journal of CAPTAIN WOODES ROGERS, Master Mariner

With Notes, Illustrations, and fold-out map by
ROBERT C. Leslie



Large Octavo, New Revised Edition, in the publisher's decorated blue cloth boards with a gilt illustration of the "Universal Ring Dyal" to the center of the front board, further dark navy geometric designs to the board, gilt lettering to spine, which shows some fraying to edges and bumping and chipping to top and bottom, dirty and wear and tear to the boards, dark green endpapers, FFE showing some loss, gift inscription dated 1894 to half-title, some foxing and general handling dirt to half-title, fold-out map, and title page but text block is generally clean and bright, pages somewhat yellowed, old book smell, but not musty, A good solid copy without flamboyance, London, Chapman and Hall, 1893.

"The Rogers expedition is arguably the most successful privateering expedition ever to leave England. Rogers' achievement has been recently subject to question, with Glyndwr Williams noting that, 'for many who sailed on the Duke and Dutchess, "The success and Profit of this long and Hazardous Voyage"… turned sour.' Diana Souhami describes Rogers as a man of no particular education who, by the end of the voyage, was uneasy about his share of the prize money, at odds with his fellow captains, bankrupt and desperate. All of this may be true, but should not detract from the remarkable fact that the Rogers expedition was the first circumnavigation by a British fleet since Drake, captured prizes worth more up to that time than any other privateer except Drake, and did so with comparative small loss of life… Above all, and unlike any of his predecessors or followers, Rogers succeeded in bringing home the Manila galleon to the Thames" (Beattie, British Privateering Voyages of the Early 18th Century, 98). The first edition was published in 1889. " Baumann Rare Books


A fascinating title recounting the 1708 - 1711 circumnavigation of the globe by the privateer, Captain Woodes Rogers... The book has seen better days but is still a very solid copy. Quite difficult to find this 19th-century edition-- most copies available are from the 1970s and therefore lack the charm of this battered beauty.

Found by The Wandering Poetess in South Africa.