Cinque Ports (1703 ship)

History
England
Name:	Cinque Ports
Fate:	Sank, 1704
General characteristics
Tons burthen:	130 bm
Length:	172 ft (52 m)
Beam:	33 ft (10 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Complement:	63
Armament:	16 guns

Cinque Ports was an English ship whose sailing master was Alexander Selkirk, generally accepted as a model for the fictional Robinson Crusoe. The ship was part of a 1703 expedition commanded by William Dampier, who captained an accompanying ship, the 26-gun St George with a complement of 120 men.

When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701, English privateers were recruited to act against French and Spanish interests. Despite a court-martial for cruelty to one of his crew in an earlier voyage, Dampier was granted command of the two-ship expedition which departed England on 30 April 1703 for the port of Kinsale in Ireland.

William Dampier's original companions dropped out of the scheme and a new agreement was made with Captain Charles Pickering of Cinque Ports. Cinque Ports was fitted out with 16 guns and a crew of 63. The two ships left Kinsale on 11 September 1703 with the intention of attacking Spanish galleons returning from Buenos Aires. When this plan fell through the privateers decided to make for the South Sea by way of Cape Horn. While the ships were off the coast of Brazil an outbreak of scurvy on board Cinque Ports led to the death of a number of men, including the captain who was replaced by 21-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Stradling.

After rounding the Horn and cruising up the South American coast as far as Panama, capturing several Spanish ships on the way, the two captains decided to separate. Captain Stradling stopped at one of the islands of the Juan Fernández Archipelago off the Chilean coast in September 1704 to resupply. There was a dispute between Stradling and Alexander Selkirk regarding Cinque Ports' seaworthiness, and Selkirk impetuously chose to be put ashore on the uninhabited island.

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Wikipedia