A Cruising Voyage Around the World

In the early eighteenth century a charismatic English sea captain set out on a daring cruise around the globe, driven by the age‑old belief that “English ships visited every coast.” Born into a prominent Bristol merchant family and linked by marriage to an admiral, he combines the swagger of a privateer with the precision of a seasoned navigator. His journals record the relentless trade winds, the ferocious surprise of African rivers, and the vivid customs of the peoples he meets, painting a portrait of a world still largely unknown to his countrymen.

The voyage soon takes a dramatic turn when the captain discovers a solitary castaway on the remote Juan Fernandez islands, a man whose tale of survival would later spark Daniel Defoe’s famous novel. Alongside this rescue, his daring capture of a Spanish galleon and his later role as a colonial governor reveal a man equally comfortable with sword and statecraft. Listeners will be drawn into the sights, sounds, and sea‑sprayed emotions of an era when the ocean was the very heart of English ambition.