born August 1651, East Coker, Somerset, Eng.
died March 1715, London
English buccaneer and explorer.
In his early years he engaged in piracy, chiefly along the western coast of South America and in the Pacific. In 1697 he published a popular book, A New Voyage Round the World . In 1699–1701 he explored the coasts of Australia, New Guinea, and New Britain for the British Admiralty. He was court-martialed for his cruelty but later led a privateering expedition to the South Seas (1703–07). He was a keen observer of natural phenomena; one of his ship's logs contains the earliest known European description of a typhoon.