Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712)

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1. A Cruising Voyage Round the World is a single-volume octavo voyage narrative first printed at London in 1712 for the booksellers A. Bell and B. Lintot, written up from his shipboard journal by Woodes Rogers, commander of a two-ship expedition fitted out by Bristol merchants that cruised under letters of marque against Spanish and French shipping in the War of the Spanish Succession and returned by way of a circumnavigation; it is a separate work from Edward Cooke's rival account of the same voyage and from Daniel Defoe's novel of 1719. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, "A Cruising Voyage Round the World" (London, printed for A. Bell and B. Lintot, 1712), described in the catalogue of Bauman Rare Books, item 108586, for the London imprint, the printers, the octavo format, the five folding maps and the Selkirk element of the title (Confirmed); the same work digitised at the Internet Archive, item cruisingvoyagero00roge_0, in the Seafarers' Library reprint of 1928, for the text itself (Confirmed); Edward Cooke, "A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World... by the Ships Duke and Dutchess of Bristol" (1712), Internet Archive item voyagetosouthsea02cook, for the separate rival account (Confirmed)
2. The voyage was fitted out by a syndicate of Bristol merchants, among them Thomas Goldney, to whom with fourteen others Rogers dedicated his book as his surviving owners. It was made by two private men of war, the Duke of about 320 tons, 30 guns and 117 men under Woodes Rogers, and the Dutchess of about 260 tons, 26 guns and 108 men under Stephen Courtney, with Edward Cooke as her second captain. Thomas Dover, a doctor of physick, sailed as second captain of the Duke and President of the ship's council, and the buccaneer and hydrographer William Dampier as pilot for the South Seas. They weighed from King road near Bristol at about four in the afternoon of 1 August 1708 and came to an anchor at Erith in the Thames on 14 October 1711. The command of the Dutchess is not open on the printed journal, which gives her to Courtney and makes Cooke her second captain; the popular attribution of the command to Cooke is an error. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Period narrative, the commander's printed journal: Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World: Begun August 1. 1708. and Finished October 14. 1711 (London, 1712), read in the Seafarers' Library reprint edited by G. E. Manwaring (London, 1928) on the Internet Archive. The dedication runs "To the Worthy Gentlemen my surviving Owners, the Worshipful Christopher Shuter Esq., Sir John Hawkins Kt., John Romsey Esq; Capt. Philip Freake, Mr. James Hollidge, Francis Rogers, Thomas Goldney, Thomas Clements, Thomas Contes, John Corsely, John Duckinfield, Richard Hawksworth, William Saunders, John Grant, Laurence Hollister, and Daniel Hickman, Merchants in Bristol." The first entry runs "1708. August 2. Yesterday about four in the Afternoon we weigh'd from King road near Bristol, on board the Duke frigate, whereof Capt. Woodes Rogers was Commander, in Consortship with the Dutches, Capt. Stephen Courtney Commander; both private Men of War... the Duke Burden about 320 Tuns, having 30 Guns and 117 Men; and the Dutches Burden about 260 Tuns by Measure, 26 Guns and 108 Men." The lists of officers give "Thomas Dover, a Doctor of Physick, second Captain, President of our Council, and Captain of the Marines", "William Dampier, Pilot for the South-Seas, who had been already three times there, and twice round the World", and, for the Dutchess, "Stephen Courtney, Captain, a Mariner; Edward Cook, second Captain". The last entry runs "Octob. 14. This Day at 11 of the Clock, we and our Consort and Prize got up to Erith, where we came to an Anchor, which ends our long and fatiguing Voyage"
3. The book is a chronological journal of the whole circumnavigation, covering the rounding of Cape Horn into the Pacific, the call at the Juan Fernandez islands where Alexander Selkirk was taken off in early 1709 after more than four years alone, the cruise along the Pacific coast of Spanish America, the taking of Puna and of Guayaquil for ransom, the pursuit of the Manila galleons off the coast of Mexico or California, the crossing to Guam and the East Indies and the homeward leg by the Cape of Good Hope. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: Woodes Rogers, "A Cruising Voyage Round the World" (London, 1712), Seafarers' Library reprint digitised at the Internet Archive, item cruisingvoyagero00roge_0, for the narrative itself and the Selkirk episode (Confirmed); the title-page transcription of the 1712 first edition in HathiTrust record 001270963, which advertises the taking of Puna and Guiaquil, the Acapulco ship and other prizes, Selkirk's four years and four months alone on an island and a brief description of the countries in the ship's course noted for trade, with maps of the coast from the best Spanish manuscript draughts (Confirmed); the catalogue of Bauman Rare Books, item 108586, cited only for the imprint, the printers, the octavo format, the five folding maps and the Selkirk element of the title (Confirmed)
4. The narrative is good evidence for the mechanics of sea raiding under commission, including letters of marque, the shipboard council and its votes, the disciplining of crews, the sharing of plunder, the handling of prizes and prisoners and the ransoming of towns, but Rogers wrote as an interested party accounting to his investors and defending his conduct, the printed journal smooths the venture's quarrels over command, prisoners and profit, and Edward Cooke's independent account of 1712 diverges from it in detail. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narratives: Woodes Rogers, "A Cruising Voyage Round the World" (London, 1712), Internet Archive item cruisingvoyagero00roge_0, read as a commander's self-presenting account written for his backers (Probable); Edward Cooke, "A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World... by the Ships Duke and Dutchess of Bristol" (1712), Internet Archive item voyagetosouthsea02cook, as the independent officer's account against which Rogers is to be checked (Confirmed for its existence and independence, Probable for its divergences)
5. The author of the 1712 narrative, Woodes Rogers, was afterwards appointed to the government of the Bahamas by royal commission and arrived at Nassau on 26 July 1718 to put down the pirate haven there. He reported that he met with little opposition coming in, that Charles Vane, who commanded the pirates, fled the next morning with about ninety men in a sloop wearing the black flag, and that on 27 July he landed, took possession of the fort and read His Majesty's commission before his officers, soldiers and about 300 of the people found there, who received him under arms and readily surrendered. He administered the King's Act of Grace, and by 4 November complained that above a hundred men who had accepted it at that place were out pirating again. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. State papers: Governor Woodes Rogers to the Council of Trade and Plantations, Nassau on Providence, 31 October 1718, Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 30, 1717-1718, ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1930), no. 737, read on British History Online: "Pursuant to my Instructions I take leave to acquaint your Lordships, I arriv'd in this port 26th July in company with the men of warr ordered to assist me. I met with little opposition in coming in"; "by one Charles Vane who command'd the pirates and at ours and H.M.S. the Milford's near approach the next morning they finding it impossible to escape us, he with about 90 men fled away in a sloop wearing the black flag"; "On the 27th I landed and took possession of the fort, where I read H.M. Commission in the presence of my officers, soldiers and about 300 of the people found here, who received me under armes and readily surrendered"; and "above 100 men that accepted H.M. Act of Grace in this place are now out pirating again"
6. The 1712 first edition survives in numerous institutional and private copies and carries maps and, in complete copies, folding plates; a second edition of 1718, printed for Andrew Bell and Bernard Lintot, survives and is digitised in the Internet Archive's eighteenth-century collection, though no English Short Title Catalogue number for it has been taken here; and the Seafarers' Library reissue was published in 1928 by Cassell and Company of London, Toronto, Melbourne and Sydney and is freely readable in the Internet Archive scan digitised in 2016 from a University of Pretoria copy, with full-text, EPUB and PDF derivatives, no English Short Title Catalogue citation number or shelfmark having been taken for the 1712 imprint. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Digitised copies, library catalogue and antiquarian trade description: Woodes Rogers, "A Cruising Voyage Round the World," Seafarers' Library reprint (London and New York, Longmans, Green and Co., 1928), digitised at the Internet Archive, item cruisingvoyagero00roge_0, scanned from University of Pretoria Library Services, OCLC 1042982708, for the reprint and the free digital text (Confirmed); the Internet Archive eighteenth-century collection, item bim_eighteenth-century_a-cruising-voyage-round-_rogers-woodes_1718, "A cruising voyage round the world... With maps. By Captain Woodes Rogers. 1718", a complete copy of the second edition from the eighteenth-century microfilm set derived from the English Short Title Catalogue (Confirmed); the catalogue of Bauman Rare Books, item 108586, for the description of the 1712 first edition, its octavo format and its five folding maps (Probable); the lot descriptions of Forum Auctions, sale 1002, lot 352, and Dominic Winter Auctioneers, lot 80 (lot ref 347081), each describing a second edition printed for Andrew Bell and Bernard Lintot, 1718, carried as trade description only and with no sale date taken here (Probable); the English Short Title Catalogue, British Library, from which no citation number has been taken for this record