On 1 August 1708, Captain Woodes Rogers sailed out of Bristol on what would become a three-year voyage around the world. The expedition was composed of two frigates, the Duke and the Duchess, and its primary purpose was not to explore but to make money as privateers: essentially, they were government-sanctioned pirate ships that could attack countries England was at war with but not the ships of neutral or friendly countries.

The Duke and Duchess were after Spanish ships and the place to find them was the Pacific. Privateer is basically composed of extracts from the book Captain Woodes Rogers wrote of his voyage, with brief explanatory notes by the editor and, as such, it does an excellent job of bringing the world of early-18th century seamanship to life. Captain Rogers has to deal with mutinies, outbreaks of scurvy when the ships run out of limes (Rogers was unusual at the time for realising that scurvy was caused by a lack of fresh food and took limes with him on the voyage but a long period at sea led to their supplies running out), sailing further south than anyone had done before, capturing a rich Spanish prize, being shot in the mouth in the capture, enduring surgery to remove the trapped musket ball, and eventually returning home with both ships and most of his original crew. It was a personal triumph for Rogers but he probably lost money on the venture.

Perhaps the most noteworthy episode in his voyage was landing on the isolated Juan Fernandez Island to find a shipwrecked sailor, Alexander Selkirk, there. Selkirk had been marooned on the island for four years. Among the many people to read Rogers’ account of Selkirk’s rescue was Daniel Defoe, who used Selkirk as the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.

It’s a short book but it packs a lot of incident into brief length.