Your Plant Press or Your Life: William Dampier, Pirate and Plant Collector

by Carol Ann McCormick Curatrix, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium

The farther we went, the more knowledge and experience I should get, which was the main thing that I regarded. — William Dampier

Recently I was cataloging vascular plant specimens curated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) and found a specimen collected at “Black Butt Creek, near Lane Cove River, Killara” in Lane Cove National Park, New South Wales, Australia [NCU accession # 650546] by retired United States Forest Service Botanist David M. Danley. Aside from the amusing place name, the scientific name of the plant, Dampiera stricta, caught my eye. Seeing that genus brought to mind a conversation I had several months ago with Herbarium Associate Bruce Sorrie who mentioned he was reading a book about pirate and plant collector William Dampier. In honor of Talk Like A Pirate Day, celebrated this year on Saturday, September 19th, I decided to learn more about William Dampier. Was he really a pirate? Was he really a plant collector? Which herbaria curate his specimens? Does the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium have any specimens collected by Dampier? Can I get away with writing the rest of this article in Pirate?

First the basics. “Born into a Somerset farming family at East Coker, [William Dampier] was baptised on 5 September 1651. While still a boy he was orphaned, but was cared for by relations, who gave him a sound education and eventually apprenticed him to a Weymouth Shipmaster with whom he visited Newfoundland [Canada] and Java [Indonesia]. After service with the Royal Navy against the Netherlands in 1673, he went to the West Indies as assistant manager on a Jamaican sugar plantation. Finding the work uncongenial, he joined logwood-cutters in Campeche, Mexico [on the Yucatan Peninsula], where he had begun to establish himself when the hurricane of 1676 destroyed his business.”1 It’s already clear to me that Dampier, age 25 — with only sail boats, horses, and his own feet as means of travel — was far more well-traveled than I was at age 25!

After the failure of his business in the Yucatan, Dampier expanded his business horizons to include buccaneering. “English settlers occupying Jamaica began to spread the name buccaneers with the meaning of pirates. The name became universally adopted later in 1684 when the first English translation of Alexandre Exquemelin’s book The Buccaneers of America was published. Viewed from London, buccaneering was a budget way to wage war on England’s rival, Spain. The English crown licensed buccaneers with letters of marque, legalising their operations in return for a share of their profits. The buccaneers were invited by Jamaica’s Governor Thomas Modyford to base ships at Port Royal. The buccaneers robbed Spanish shipping and colonies, and returned to Port Royal with their plunder, making the city the most prosperous in the Caribbean. There were even Royal Navy officers sent to lead the buccaneers, such as Christopher Myngs.”2

Between 1679 and 1691 Dampier sailed around the globe. “Reaching Mexico in March 1686, he threw in his lot with Captain Charles Swan, who proposed crossing to the East Indies… They arrived at the Philippines in June and stayed there for six months, during which time Captain Swan, fêted by local chieftains, subsided into sybaritic lethargy. Dampier and others finally stole his ship and, abandoning any pretence of being privateers, who solely attacked England’s foes, turned to straightforward piracy. Their progress through the Philippines and Indonesia, with a fruitless excursion to the arid north-west coast of Australia, roved increasingly aimless, and in the spring of 1688 Dampier parted from them on the island of Great Nicobar [between Sumatra and India]… He returned in England in September 1691 at the age of forty, after an absence of twelve years, having, in multiple stages, circumnavigated the globe.”1

He went on to circumnavigate the Earth twice more in his lifetime. “William Dampier is the most remarkable seaman that England produced in the century and a half between Francis Drake and Captain Cook. He circumnavigated the world three times — twice more than Drake or Cook. He commanded the first government-funded voyage of discovery to investigate matters of geography and science.”1

Dampier authored several books which made him famous during his lifetime. “[In 1697] his first book, A New Voyage Round the World, which he must have spent much time assembling, was printed. It became an instant success, running to four editions in two years… A New Voyage brought Dampier to the attention of the Royal Society, founded in 1662 to promote scientific research and foster inquiry into the natural world … Then, despite his buccaneering past and inexperience of naval command, the Admiralty appointed him leader of an exploring voyage to Australia, still largely uncharted and known as New Holland. Meanwhile he produced his second book, Voyages and Descriptions, comprising three parts: A Supplement of the Voyage Round the World, The Campeachy Voyages and A Discourse of Winds… [Dampier’s ship] the Roebuck reached its destination [Australia] in July 1699. The object of the mission was ‘to meet with some fruitful lands… productive of any of the rich fruits, drugs or spices (perhaps minerals also, etc.) that are in the other parts of the Torrid Zone’, and to make a survey of the coast, investigate whatever might seem ‘beneficial for navigation, trade or settlement’. Little of this was achieved; during a mere five weeks in Australian waters nothing was discovered, and scarcely anything charted. Running out of provisions, Dampier went to the island of Timor, some 500 miles north, then cruised round New Guinea for five months.”1

It’s not entirely accurate to say “nothing was collected.” The Fielding-Druce Herbarium (OXF) of the University of Oxford curates plant specimens Dampier collected in 1699 and thereafter.

“William Dampier (1652-1715) collected plant specimens at two sites along the north-west coast of western Australia in 1699 and some of those specimens are still in existence in English herbaria. In the Fielding-Druce Herbarium of the University of Oxford there’s a specimen of the moss Leucobryum candidum, collected by Dampier, and labelled “New Holland”, an old name for Australia. If Dampier did collect this specimen from Australia, it would be the first bryophyte specimen collected from Australia. It would also be an unusual point on the distribution map for Leucobryum candidum.

There is some doubt as to exactly where Dampier collected, but he appears to have done so at Shark Bay and further north in the Dampier Archipelago. He also landed further north at La Grange Bay, south of Broome, but appears not to have collected any plants there, though he did refer to some he saw. From La Grange Bay he sailed to Timor without again landing in Australia.

Both Shark Bay and the Dampier Archipelago are harsh, arid areas though with some differences in geology and rainfall patterns. At La Grange Bay the dunes of the Great Sandy Desert meet the sea and it is an area of mangroves and salt flats.

The Kimberley region begins about 100 kilometres north of La Grange Bay and experiences a distinct wet season between December and March. There are sinkholes in the coastal limestones of the Kimberley area and the area also supports pockets of dense vine thicket vegetation behind the coastal dunes. That area is a more likely habitat for Leucobrym candidum than any of Shark Bay, the Dampier Archipelago and La Grange Bay – but Dampier did not come ashore in the Kimberley. That Leucobryum is found in wooded areas and has been recorded in the Northern Territory a little to the east of the Western Australian Kimberley but has still not been collected in Western Australia since Dampier’s time. The species does occur in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as other parts of Asia and Australasia. Given the nature of Dampier’s landing sites in Western Australia and the habitat preferences of the moss it is very unlikely that Dampier collected it in Australia. He probably did so later during his voyage in Timor or New Guinea. There is a parallel with Dampier’s supposed Australian collection of the flowering plant Casuarina equisetifolia. The species grows along the Northern Territory coast and also in Timor and Papua New Guinea. None of Dampier’s Australian landings included the areas in which that Casuarina is known and it has been inferred that he collected the Casuarina also in Timor or New Guinea.”3

You can view Dampier’s specimens curated by the Fielding-Druce Herbarium by entering “Dampier” in the “Collectors” field on the left side of the search page. As with the moss and tree specimens discussed in the previous paragraphs, it’s difficult to discern on Dampier’s specimens where and when they were collected.

Among Dampier’s specimens curated by OXF I noted Dampiera incana. “Hoary Dampiera” was named in Dampier’s honor by Robert Brown in 1810. It is an herb endemic to sand dunes, flats and plains western Australia. The short, matted hairs covering the leaves prevent moisture loss and give the plant its gray appearance.4,5 I took some time this week to catalog specimens of Dampiera which NCU curates: D. wellsiana, D. triloba, D. rosmarinifolia, D. marifolia, D. lanceolata, D. linearis, D. hederacea, D. fasciculata, D. eriocephala, and D. diversifolia. Quite a few of these specimens came to NCU as a result of the efforts of Josephine Tilden who sponsored the “Josephine E. Tilden, South Pacific Plants, Second Series, 1934-35” — but that is a story for another newsletter article!

Dampier has not only plants named in his honor, but also a plethora of geographical features, animals, and even a minor planet bear his name.6,7,8,9 Dampier Peninsula is part of Dampierland, a bioregion in Western Australia; Rakiroa (also called Mount Dampier) is New Zealand’s third highest peak; Dampier Strait in Papua New Guinea is named for the first European mariner to sail across it. In 1990 Eric Walter Elst (1936-2022) of of the Royal Observatory of Belgium named a minor planet between Mars and Jupiter in Dampier’s honor. I find it very fitting that the Royal Navy named a ship the HMS Dampier. From 1948 to 1968 the crew carried out oceanographic and hydrographic surveys in the Java Seas, where Dampier himself had sailed.10

Closer to my experience (and stomach), Dampier is credited with bringing the first recipe for guacamole to the English-speaking world. In Dampier’s own words, “The avacado pear tree [ Persea americana ] is as big as most pear trees, and is commonly pretty high; the skin or bark is black, and pretty smooth; the leaves large, of an oval shape, and the fruit as big as a large lemon. It is of a green colour till it is ripe, and then it is a little yellowish. They are seldom fit to eat until they have been gathered two or three days; then they become soft, and the skin or rind will peel off. The substance in the inside is green, or a little yellowish, and as soft as butter… ’tis usually mixed with sugar and lime-juice, and beaten together in a plate; and this is an excellent dish. The ordinary way is to eat it with a little salt and a roasted plantain; and thus a man that’s hungry may make a good meal of it. It is very wholesome eaten any way. It is reported that this fruit provokes lust.”1 I diverted down an etymological trail and discovered that the English word “avacado” is derived from the Spanish word for the fruit, aguacate, which is in turn derived from the Nahuatl [Aztec] word for the fruit, āhuacatl . It seems that the Aztec used āhuacatl as a euphemism for testicles, and thus Dampier’s association of the fruit with lust.11

Dampier’s final voyage left Bristol, England in August 1708. “There were two ships, the Duke (320 tons, thirty guns) and Dutchess (260 tons, twenty-six guns)… The combined crews amounted to 330. [The commander of the expedition was Woodes Rogers, who would go on to become the Governor of the Bahamas.] Dampier sailed with Rogers in the Duke , whose second-in-command was one of the principal backers, Dr. Thomas Dover. An immensely successful Bristol physician, he was the inventor of Dover’s Powder, a palliative abracadabra consisting of ipecac and opium, the addictive properties of which secured him a healthy income. (The Italian army was still using it during the Second World War.) The Dutchess was captained by Stephen Courtney, a gentleman-adventurer, also an investor, but a proficient officer. The nature of the expedition was unlike anything Dampier had experienced, not least in the morning and evening prayers conducted for the ship’s company… Their ultimate goal was to capture, in sixteen month’s time, the same [Spanish] Manila-Acapulco treasure ship that had so easily eluded Dampier [on his second voyage]. Meanwhile they intended picking up anything that presented itself en route. This secondary aim was fruitfully realized, but the most memorable episode during the outward passage was the unplanned rescue on 2 February 1709 at Juan Fernandez [a remote volcanic archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean] of Alexander Selkirk, who had marooned himself there four years and four months earlier. [Alexander Selkirk was the inspiration for Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe.] Learning that Dampier was on the Duke [Selkirk] very nearly decided to remain ‘out of humanity’s reach’ and had to be coaxed aboard. Ten months later Dampier piloted the Duke to the precise point where he had met the Manila galleon five years before. In due time the great ship arrived and was engaged and overcome after ferocious fighting. This prize, the Nuestra Senora de la Encarnacion y Desengano , surpassed all expectation. Every barrel, bale and crate was crammed with riches: gold, silver, uncut diamonds, rubies, Chinese porcelain, beautiful painted fans, musk, cinnamon, stains, damasks, taffetas, chintz… At fifty-eight, and age reached by few buccaneers, Dampier had finally achieved his dream the getting of wealth… Setting out for home, Dampier gave further evidence of his navigational skills by piloting the ships 6,000 miles across the Pacific direct to the tiny island of Guam, which he had not visited since 1686. They went on to the Philippines and Java, round the Cape of Good Hope, then revictualled at St. Helena and Acension before anchoring in the Thames on 14 October 1711. Dampier had circumnavigated the world for a third time, and this time at a profit. At the age of sixty he allowed himself to retire on his shore of the loot — a respectable 1,500 pounds. In a house in Coleman Street, just east of Moorgate in the City of London, he was looked after by his cousin Grace until his death three and a half years later in March 1715. It is not known where he was buried.”1

I recommend to your reading Gerald Norris’ Buccaneer Explorer: William Dampier’s Voyages. Most of the book is excerpts from Dampier’s own books — first rate travelogue, acute observations of plants and animals, and commentaries on his companions and the people and places he encountered. Joseph Shipman sums up William Dampier well. “In many ways William Dampier was born half a century too early. His intense inborn curiosity, his capacity for detail, his sharp comprehension and intelligence, and above all his ability to express himself simply and clearly in English of considerable style would have won him a place in the distinguished company of explorer-scientists who followed him [Captain James Cook, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace, and Robert FitzRoy]. He has his own niche, but it is a lonely one.”12

To circumnavigate back to my first paragraph, was Dampier really a pirate? Yes, though not for his entire career. I’d classify him as a pirate when opportunity or necessity presented itself. Was he really a plant collector? Most certainly. Which herbaria curate his specimens? Most are curated by the Fielding-Druce Herbarium of Oxford University (OXF), though apparently the holotype of Dampiera incana is curated by the Natural History Museum in London [accession BM001041517]. While Dampier’s books teem with descriptions and drawings of animals, it seems he did not collect any for purposes other than eating. He was very fond of turtle soup and turtle meat, and describes at great length the turtles or tortoises available for study and table. Does the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium have any specimens collected by Dampier? Arrgh, no matey, but we do curate plant specimens named in his honor.

Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day on 19 September, and hoist a glass to pirate and plant collector William Dampier.

Books written by William Dampier A New Voyage Round the World (1697) Voyages and Descriptions (1699) A Voyage to New Holland, &c. in the Year 1699 (1703) A Supplement of the Voyage Round the World (1705) The Campeachy Voyages (1705) Captain Dampier’s Vindication (1707) A Discourse of Winds (1709)

SOURCES: 1. Norris, Gerald. 2005. Buccaneer Explorer: William Dampier’s Voyages. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge UK.

2. Wikipedia contributors, “Buccaneer,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buccaneer&oldid=1338460829 (accessed August 15, 2026).

3. Lepp, Heino. 2008. Case Studies: Dampier’s Leucobryum. Australian Bryophytes, Friends of the Australian National Botanic Garrdens. https://www.anbg.gov.au/bryophyte/case-studies/dampiers-leucobryum.html

4. Wikipedia contributors, “Dampiera incana,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dampiera_incana&oldid=1238708865 (accessed August 16, 2026).

5. POWO (2026). “Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; https://powo.science.kew.org/ Retrieved 16 August 2026.”

6. Wikipedia contributors, “William Dampier,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_Dampier&oldid=1368702431 (accessed August 27, 2026).

7. Retrieved August 27, 2026, from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) on-line database, www.itis.gov . Tachyspiza higaster dampieri (bird); Dampierosa daruma (fish); Paguristes dampierensis, Michelea dapieri, and Gebiacantha dampieri (crustaceans); Megachile dampieri and Lasioglossum dampieri (insects); Bauchania dampiera (mite); Hedgpethia dampieri (sea spider)

8. Passing of Eric Elst, Former Astronomer of the Observatory. Royal Obaservatory of Belgium. https://www.astro.oma.be/en/passing-of-eric-elst-former-astronomer-of-the-observatory/ retrieved on 27 August 2026.

9. Wikipedia contributors, “Meanings of minor-planet names: 14001–15000,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Meanings_of_minor-planet_names:_14001%E2%80%9315000&oldid=1367069863 (accessed August 27, 2026).

10. Wikipedia contributors, “HMS Dampier,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HMS_Dampier&oldid=1345246455 (accessed August 27, 2026).

11. Wikipedia contributors, “Avocado,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Avocado&oldid=1370579304 (accessed August 27, 2026).

12. Shipman, Joseph C. 1962. William Dampier: Seaman – Scientist. University of Kansas Publications, Library Series 15.

13. Moses, Tim. 2006. The Pirate Translator. Pirate Monkeyness. https://pirate.monkeyness.com/translate accessed on 27 August 2026.