Woodes Rogers Woodes Rogers ( " ca . " 1679 – 15 July 1732 ) was an English sea captain , privateer , and , later , the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas . He is known as the captain of the vessel that rescued the marooned Alexander Selkirk , whose plight is generally believed to have inspired Daniel Defoe ' s " Robinson Crusoe " . Rogers came from an affluent seafaring family , grew up in Poole and Bristol , and served a marine apprenticeship to a Bristol sea captain . His father , who held shares in many ships , died when Rogers was in his mid - twenties , leaving Rogers in control of the family shipping business . In 1707 , Rogers was approached by Captain William Dampier , who sought support for a privateering voyage against the Spanish , with whom the British were at war . Rogers led the expedition , which consisted of two well - armed ships , the " Duke " and the " Duchess " , and was the captain of the " Duke " . In three years , Rogers and his men went around the world , capturing several ships in the Pacific Ocean . En route , the expedition rescued Selkirk , finding him on Juan Fernandez Island on 1 February 1709 . When the expedition returned to England in October 1711 , Rogers had circumnavigated the globe , while retaining his original ships and most of his men , and the investors in the expedition doubled their money . While the expedition made Rogers a national hero , his brother was killed and Rogers was badly wounded in fights in the Pacific . On his return , he was successfully sued by his crew on the ground they had not received their fair share of the expedition profits , and Rogers was forced into bankruptcy . He wrote of his maritime experiences in a book " A Cruising Voyage Round the World " , which sold well , in part due to public fascination at Selkirk ' s rescue . Rogers was twice appointed Governor of the Bahamas , where he succeeded in warding off threats from the Spanish , and in ridding the colony of pirates . However , his first term as governor was financially ruinous , and on his return to England , he was imprisoned for debt . During his second term as governor , Rogers died in Nassau at the age of about 53 . Early life . Woodes Rogers was the eldest son and heir of Woods Rogers , a successful merchant captain . Woodes Rogers spent part of his childhood in Poole , England , where he likely attended the local school ; his father , who owned shares in many ships , was often away nine months of the year with the Newfoundland fishing fleet . Sometime between 1690 and 1696 , Captain Rogers moved his family to Bristol . In November 1697 , Woodes Rogers was apprenticed to Bristol mariner John Yeamans , to learn the profession of a sailor . At 18 , Rogers was somewhat old to be starting a seven - year apprenticeship . His biographer , Brian Little , suggests that this might have been a way for the newcomers to become part of Bristol maritime society , as well as making it possible for Woodes Rogers to become a freeman , or voting citizen , of the city . Little also suggests that it is likely that Rogers gained his maritime experience with Yeamans ' ship on the Newfoundland fleet . Rogers completed his apprenticeship in November 1704 . Marriage and family . The following January Rogers married Sarah Whetstone , daughter of Rear Admiral Sir William Whetstone , who was a neighbour and close family friend . Rogers became a freeman of Bristol because of his marriage into the prominent Whetstone family . In 1706 , Captain Rogers died at sea , leaving his ships and business to his son Woodes . Between 1706 and the end of 1708 , Woodes and Sarah Rogers had a son and two daughters . Privateering expedition . Preparation and the early voyage . The War of the Spanish Succession started in 1702 , during which England ' s main maritime foes were France and Spain , and a number of Bristol ships were given letters of marque , allowing them to strike against enemy shipping . At least four vessels in which Rogers had an ownership interest were granted the letters . One , the " Whetstone Galley " , named for Rogers ' father in law , received the letters before being sent to Africa to begin a voyage in the slave trade . It did not reach Africa , but was captured by the French . Rogers suffered other losses against the French , although he does not record their extent in his book . He turned to privateer ing as a means of recouping these losses . In late 1707 , Rogers was approached by William Dampier , a navigator and friend of Rogers ' father , who proposed a privateering expedition against the Spanish . This was a desperate move on the part of Captain Dampier to save his career . Dampier had recently returned from leading a two - ship privateering expedition into the Pacific , which culminated in a series of mutinies before both ships finally sank due to Dampier ' s error in not having the hulls properly cleaned of worms before leaving port . Unaware of this , Rogers agreed . Financing was provided by many in the Bristol community , including Thomas Dover who would become president of the voyage council , and Rogers ' father in law . Commanding two frigates , the " Duke " and the " Duchess " , and captaining the first , Rogers spent three years circumnavigating the globe . The ships departed Bristol on 1 August 1708 . Dampier was aboard as Rogers ' sailing master . Rogers encountered various problems along the way . Forty of the Bristol crew deserted or were dismissed , and he spent a month in Ireland recruiting replacements and having the vessels prepared for sea . Many crew members were Dutch , Danish , or other foreigners . Some of the crew mutinied after Rogers refused to let them plunder a neutral Swedish vessel . When the mutiny was put down , he had the leader flogged , put in irons , and sent to England aboard another ship . The less culpable mutineers were given lighter punishments , such as reduced rations . The ships intended to force the chilly Drake Passage off the tip of South America , but expedition leaders soon realised that they were short of warm clothing and alcohol , which was then believed to warm those exposed to cold . Considering the latter the more important problem , the expedition made a stop at Tenerife to stock up on the local wine , and later sewed the ships ' blankets into cold weather gear . The ships experienced a difficult inter - oceanic passage ; they were forced to almost 62° South latitude , which , according to Rogers , " for ought we know is the furthest that any one has yet been to the southward " . At their furthest south , they were closer to as - yet - undiscovered Antarctica than to South America . Rescue of Selkirk and raids on the Spanish . Rogers stocked his ships with limes to fend off scurvy , a practice not universally accepted at that time . After reaching the Pacific Ocean , the ships ' provisions of limes were exhausted and seven men died of the vitamin deficiency disease . Dampier was able to guide the ships to little - known Juan Fernandez Island to replenish supplies of fresh produce . On 1 February 1709 , as they neared the island , the sailors spotted a fire ashore and feared that it might be a shore party from a Spanish vessel . The next morning Rogers sent a party ashore and discovered that the fire was from Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk , who had been stranded there four years previously . Selkirk was to become the inspiration for the classic novel " Robinson Crusoe " , written by Rogers ' friend , Daniel Defoe . According to Rogers ' journal , Rogers found Selkirk to be " wild - looking " and " wearing goatskins " , noting , " He had with him his clothes and bedding , with a firelock , some powder , bullets and tobacco , a hatchet , a knife , a kettle , a Bible and books . " If Selkirk , who had been part of the ship ' s crew that abandoned Dampier after losing confidence in his leadership , was reluctant to join the expedition because of the presence of his old commodore , he showed no sign of it . Selkirk served as a mate aboard the " Duke " , and was later given command of one of the prize ship s taken by the expedition . After leaving Juan Fernandez on 14 February 1709 , the expedition captured and looted a number of small vessels , and launched an attack on the town of Guayaquil , today located in Ecuador . When Rogers attempted to negotiate with the governor , the townsfolk secreted their valuables . Rogers was able to get a modest ransom for the town , but some crew members were so dissatisfied that they dug up the recently dead hoping to find items of value . This led to sickness on board ship , of which six men died . The expedition lost contact with one of the captured ships , which was under the command of Simon Hatley . The other vessels searched for Hatley ' s ship , but to no avail — Hatley and his men were captured by the Spanish . On a subsequent voyage to the Pacific , Hatley would emulate Selkirk by becoming the centre of an event which would be immortalised in literature . His ship beset by storms , Hatley shot an albatross in the hope of better winds , an episode memorialised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge . The crew of the vessels became increasingly discontented , and Rogers and his officers feared another mutiny . This tension was dispelled by the expedition ' s capture of a rich prize off the coast of Mexico : the Spanish vessel " Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño " . Rogers sustained a wound to the face in the battle . While the " Duke " and " Duchess " were successful in capturing that vessel , they failed to capture the " Encarnación " companion , a well - armed galleon named the " Nuestra Señora de Begoña " , which made its escape after damaging both vessels . Rogers only reluctantly agreed to giving the inexperienced Captain Dover command of the " Encarnación " , a decision that may have been eased by naming Selkirk as its sailing master . The privateers , accompanied by their two prizes , limped across the Pacific Ocean . The expedition was able to resupply at Guam , which , though governed by the Spanish , extended a cordial welcome to the privateers . Homeward voyage . The ships then went to the neutral Dutch port of Batavia in what is now Indonesia , where Rogers underwent surgery to remove a musket ball from the roof of his mouth , and the expedition disposed of the less seaworthy of the two Spanish prizes . Dealing with the Dutch there constituted a violation of the British East India Company ' s monopoly . When the ships finally dropped anchor in the Thames River on 14 October 1711 , a legal battle ensued , with the investors paying the East India Company £6 , 000 ( about £ at today ' s values ) as settlement for their claim for breach of monopoly , about four percent of what Rogers brought back . The investors approximately doubled their money , while Rogers gained £1 , 600 ( now worth perhaps £ ) from a voyage which disfigured him and cost him his brother , who was killed in a battle in the Pacific . The money was probably less than he could have made at home , and was entirely absorbed by the debts his family had incurred in his absence . However , the long voyage and the capture of the Spanish ship made Rogers a national hero . Rogers was the first Englishman , in circumnavigating the globe , to have his original ships and most of his crew survive . After his voyage , he wrote an account of it , titled " A Cruising Voyage Round the World " . While Edward Cooke , an officer aboard the " Duchess " , also wrote a book , and beat Rogers to print by several months , Rogers ' book was much more successful , with many readers fascinated by the account of Selkirk ' s rescue , which Cooke had slighted . Among those interested in Selkirk ' s adventure was Daniel Defoe , who appears to have read about it , and fictionalised the story as " Robinson Crusoe " . While Rogers ' book enjoyed financial success , it had a practical purpose — to aid British navigators and possible colonists . Much of Rogers ' introduction is devoted to advocacy for the South Seas trade . Rogers notes that had there been a British colony in the South Seas , he would not have had to worry about food supplies for his crew . A third of Rogers ' book is devoted to detailed descriptions of the places that he explored , with special emphasis on " such < nowiki > [ places ] < / nowiki > as may be of most use for enlarging our trade " . He describes the area of the River Plate in detail because it lay " within the limits of the South Sea Company " , whose schemes had not yet burst into financial scandal . Rogers ' book was carried by such South Pacific navigators as Admiral George Anson and privateering captains John Clipperton and George Shelvocke . Governor and later life . Financial difficulties and the Bahamas proposal . Rogers encountered financial problems on his return . Sir William Whetstone had died , and Rogers , having failed to recoup his business losses through privateering , was forced to sell his Bristol home to support his family . He was successfully sued by a group of over 200 of his crew , who stated that they had not received their fair share of the expedition profits . The profits from his book were not enough to overcome these setbacks , and he was forced into bankruptcy . His wife gave birth to their fourth child a year after his return — a boy who died in infancy — and Woodes and Sarah Rogers soon permanently separated . Rogers decided the way out of his financial difficulty was to lead another expedition , this time against pirates . In 1713 , Rogers led what was ostensibly an expedition to purchase slaves in Madagascar and take them to the Dutch East Indies , this time with the permission of the British East India Company . However , Rogers ' secondary purpose was to gather details on the pirates of Madagascar , hoping to destroy or reform them , and colonise Madagascar on a future trip . Rogers collected information regarding pirates and their vessels near the island . Finding that a large number of the pirates had gone native , he persuaded many of them to sign a petition to Queen Anne asking her for clemency . While Rogers ' expedition was profitable , when it returned to London in 1715 , the British East India Company vetoed the idea of a colonial expedition to Madagascar , believing a colony was a greater threat to its monopoly than a few pirates . Accordingly , Rogers turned his sights from Madagascar to the West Indies . His connections included several of the advisers to the new king , George I , who had succeeded Queen Anne in 1714 , and Rogers was able to forge an agreement for a company to manage the Bahamas , which were infested with pirates , in exchange for a share of the colony ' s profits . At the time , according to the Governor of Bermuda , the Bahamas were " without any face or form of Government " and the colony was a " sink or nest of infamous rascals " . Until Rogers obtained his commission , the islands had been nominally governed by absentee Lords Proprietor , who did little except appoint a new , powerless governor when the position fell vacant . Under the agreement that underlaid Rogers ' commission , the Lords Proprietor leased their rights for a token sum to Rogers ' company for twenty - one years . On 5 January 1718 , a proclamation was issued announcing clemency for all piratical offences , provided that those seeking what became known as the " King ' s Pardon " surrendered not later than 5 September 1718 . Colonial governors and deputy governors were authorised to grant the pardon . Rogers was officially appointed " Captain General and Governor in Chief " by George I on 6 January 1718 . He did not leave immediately for his new bailiwick , but spent several months preparing the expedition , which included seven ships , 100 soldiers , 130 colonists , and supplies ranging from food for the expedition members and ships ' crews to religious pamphlets to give to the pirates , whom Rogers believed would respond to spiritual teachings . On 22 April 1718 , the expedition , accompanied by three Royal Navy vessels , sailed out of the Thames . First term . The expedition arrived on 22 July 1718 , surprising and trapping a ship commanded by pirate Charles Vane . After negotiations failed , Vane used a captured French vessel as a fireship in an attempt to ram the naval vessels . The attempt failed , but the naval vessels were forced out of the west end of Nassau harbour , giving Vane ' s crew an opportunity to raid the town and secure the best local pilot . Vane and his men then escaped in a small sloop via the harbour ' s narrow east entrance . The pirates had evaded the trap , but Nassau and New Providence Island were in Rogers ' hands . At the time , the island ' s population consisted of about two hundred former pirates and several hundred fugitives who had escaped from nearby Spanish colonies . Rogers organised a government , granted the King ' s Pardon to those former pirates on the island who had not yet accepted it , and started to rebuild the island ' s fortifications , which had fallen into decrepitude under pirate domination . However , less than a month into his residence on New Providence , Rogers was faced with a double threat : Vane wrote , threatening to join with Edward Teach ( better known as Blackbeard ) to retake the island , and Rogers learned that the Spanish also planned to drive the British out of the Bahamas . Rogers ' expedition suffered further setbacks . An unidentified disease killed almost a hundred of his expedition members , while leaving the long - term residents nearly untouched . Two of the three navy vessels , having no orders to remain , left for New York . Ships sent to Havana to conciliate the Spanish governor there never arrived , their crew revolting and becoming pirates mid - voyage . Finally , the third naval vessel left in mid - September , its commander promising to return in three weeks — a promise he had no intention of keeping . Work on rebuilding the island ' s fortifications proceeded slowly , with the locals showing a disinclination to work . On 14 September 1718 , Rogers received word that Vane was at Green Turtle Cay near Abaco , about north of Nassau . Some of the pardoned pirates on New Providence took boats to join Vane , and Rogers decided to send two ex - pirate captains , Benjamin Hornigold and John Cockram , with a crew to gather intelligence , and , if possible , to bring Vane to battle . As the weeks passed , and hopes of their return dimmed , Rogers declared martial law and set all inhabitants to work on rebuilding the island ' s fortifications . Finally , the former pirates returned . They had failed to find an opportunity to kill Vane or bring him to battle , but had captured one ship and a number of pirate captives . Captain Hornigold was then sent to recapture the ships and crews who had gone pirate en route to Havana . He returned with ten prisoners and three corpses . On 9 December 1718 , Rogers brought the ten men captured by Hornigold to trial . Nine were convicted , and Rogers had eight hanged three days later , reprieving the ninth on hearing he was of good family . One of the condemned , Thomas Morris , quipped as he climbed the gallows , " We have a good governor , but a harsh one . " The executions so cowed the populace that when , shortly after Christmas , several residents plotted to overthrow Rogers and restore the island to piracy , the conspirators attracted little support . Rogers had them flogged , then released as harmless . On 16 March 1719 Rogers learned that Spain and Britain were at war again . He redoubled his efforts to repair the island ' s fortifications , buying vital supplies on credit in the hope of later being reimbursed by the expedition ' s investors . The Spanish sent an invasion fleet against Nassau in May , but when the fleet ' s commodore learned that the French ( now Britain ' s ally ) had captured Pensacola , he directed the fleet there instead . This gave Rogers time to continue to fortify and supply New Providence , and it was not until 24 February 1720 that a Spanish fleet arrived . Wary of Rogers ' defences , the Spanish landed troops on Paradise Island ( then known as Hog Island ) , which shelters Nassau ' s harbour . They were driven off by Rogers ' troops . The year 1720 brought an end to external threats to Rogers ' rule . With Spain and Britain at peace again , the Spanish made no further move against the Bahamas . Vane never returned , having been shipwrecked and captured in the Bay Islands — a year later , he was hanged in Jamaica . This did not end Rogers ' problems as governor . Overextended from financing New Providence ' s defences , he received no assistance from Britain , and merchants refused to give him further credit . His health suffered , and he spent six weeks in Charleston , South Carolina , hoping to recuperate . Instead , he was wounded in a duel with Captain John Hildesley of HMS " Flamborough " ( 1707 ) , a duel caused by disputes between the two on New Providence . Troubled by the lack of support and communication from London , Rogers set sail for Britain in March 1721 . He arrived three months later to find that a new governor had been appointed , and his company had been liquidated . Personally liable for the obligations he had contracted at Nassau , he was imprisoned for debt . Activities in England , second term and death . With both the government and his former partners refusing to honour his debts , Rogers was released from debtor ' s prison only when his creditors took pity on him and absolved him of his debts . Even so , Rogers wrote that he was " perplexed with the melancholy prospect of < nowiki > [ his ] < / nowiki > affairs " . In 1722 or 1723 , Rogers was approached by a man writing a history of piracy , and supplied him with information . The resulting work , " A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates " , published under the pseudonym Captain Charles Johnson , was an enormous hit on both sides of the Atlantic , and catapulted Rogers for the second time to the status of a national hero . With public attention focused on him again , Rogers was successful in 1726 in petitioning the king for financial redress . Not only did King George I grant him a pension , retroactive to 1721 , but the king ' s son and successor , George II , reappointed him as governor on 22 October 1728 . The Bahamas did not come under external threat during Rogers ' second term , but the reappointed governor had difficulties . Still seeking to bolster the island ' s defences , Rogers sought imposition of a local tax . The assembly , which had been instituted in Rogers ' absence , objected , and Rogers responded by dissolving it . The governmental battle exhausted Rogers , who again went to Charleston in early 1731 in an attempt to recover his health . Though he returned in July 1731 , he never truly regained his health , and died in Nassau on 15 July 1732 . A harbour - side street in Nassau is named for Rogers . " Piracy expelled , commerce restored " remained the motto of the Bahamas until the islands gained independence in 1973 . References . Other