Dampier, orphaned at the age of 16, voyaged to Newfoundland and later sailed to the East Indies and the Gulf of Mexico. Between 1678 and 1691 he was engaged in piracy, chiefly along the west coast of South America and in the Pacific. On one voyage he reached Australia (1688), probably the north coast near Melville Island. He found nothing to plunder, however, and took a dislike to the people and their customs.

Little is known of his life for the next 10 years, until he was appointed to command of the Roebuck to explore for the British Admiralty. He sailed from England on Jan. 14, 1699, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Shark Bay off western Australia on July 26. After exploring the coast northward to what was thereafter called Dampier Archipelago, he went on to New Guinea and, passing around the north of the island, reached New Britain. With a deteriorating ship and a discontented crew, he then continued to Batavia, Java (now Jakarta, Indon.), for repairs and provisions. He sailed for England on Oct. 17, 1700, but, by the time he reached the South Atlantic off Ascension Island on February 22, the dangerously leaking Roebuck had to be abandoned. The crew remained on the island until April 3, when they were picked up by a convoy of homeward-bound warships and East Indiamen. After returning to England, Dampier made two more voyages as a privateer, capturing booty worth about £200,000 on the second venture. His popular book, A New Voyage Round the World, was published in 1697. One of his ship's logs contains the earliest known European description of a typhoon.