YEAR 3 HOME

William Dampier

Pirate Or Not?

Mrs Bain posed this question to students in the classroom and to their parents, via a Homework assignment. It certainly generated a lot of discussion and debate. Firstly, here's some of the responses from home:

NO!

He was an explorer.

He began his career as a privateer operating under letters of mark; he then went on to circumnavigate the globe on three separate voyages; he called in and named Dampier, Roebuck Bay and Beagle Bay.

He was an explorer first but was seen on a pirate ship – not that he was one.

He was an explorer and an adventurer, not a pirate

He was an explorer banned from captaining one of Her Majesty’s ships and was employed by a privateering group to captain a ship to explore the south.

He was a fisherman, looking for the best place to live in the world!  Don’t you think he found it?

YES!

He was given permission from the British Admiralty to pirate Spanish ships and return the spoils to England.

He was an explorer who turned into a pirate.

He was a buccaneer!

He sailed with pirates, therefore he is a pirate.

But, they don’t usually name places after pirates, do they?

Well, that's about covered all the bases but what's the difference between a 'pirate' and a 'privateer' or even a 'buccaneer' for that matter? See if this helps...

There doesn't seem to be a difference. Now, we don't like to think of our 'namesake' as a bit of a rogue, but maybe he was. The children formed their own opinion after some research and they needed to cite their reference. Here are some of their replies:

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…a sailor wouldn’t have 40 guns. 

I found this out in a book. (Jack E)

                      

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he stole treasure and killed people.

 I found this information from books. (Sarah)

 
   I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he had a 40 gun ship and that sounds “piratey”. 

I found it out in the books. (Jonty)

               

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he fought the Spanish and the Aborigines. 

 I found it from a book and the Internet. (Macie)

                  

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he was a 'buccaneer' and 'buccaneer' means 'pirate. (Internet)  He had a 40 gun ship. (Book)  He raided other ships and people. (Book).

 (Thomas) 

                   

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he had a 40 gun ship. He raided ships.

I found information from the Internet. (Maddison)

 

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he raided other ships and stole from the Spaniards.  He fought the Spaniards and the Aborigines. 

I found some information from books and some from the computer. (Flynn)    

      

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…everywhere I looked, the information said he was a "buccaneer" and "buccaneer" means "pirate".

I found this information in books and the Internet and on a video. (Luci)

 

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…he had boring jobs and he thought  being a pirate was an adventure.

I found it out in a book. (Jahdal)

 

I think William Dampier was a pirate because…my dad and I looked on the computer. The Internet said that he was a pirate because he robbed other ships to get treasure.

(Lily)

So there you go. We wonder what you think?