English navigator William Dampier (1652—1715), the first person to circumnavigate the globe three times, spent his early life in Somerset.
Dampier spent two years among Yucatan's logwood cutters, then crossed the Isthmus of Darien and ravaged the coast as far south as Juan Fernandez with a band of buccaneers (1679.- 1682). After a brief spell in Virginia, he joined another buccaneering expedition (1683 - 1691). That brought him back onto the South American coast, then crossed the Pacific, touching the Philippines, China and Australia.
After being stranded in the Nicobar Islands, he travelled to England via Aceh (1688 -1691). When his Voyage round the World (1697) became a best-seller, he gained Admiralty support for a voyage to the South Seas (1699—1700). That took him back to Australia's northwest coast, New Guinea and New Britain. He was court-martialled after losing his almost unseaworthy vessel off Ascension Island on the return voyage.
Dampier was a better pilot than commander and made two more voyages to the Pacific (1703 - 1707 and 1708-11) but died in debt four years after returning from the fourth voyage. The date and circumstances of his death are unknown.