Summary of Sam Kean's The Icepick Surgeon

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Dampier was a brilliant scientist and navigator, but he was also a pirate. He took to sea after being orphaned at age fourteen, visiting Java and Newfoundland before an unhappy stint in the navy. He eventually settled in the Bay of Campeche in eastern Mexico and made his living cutting logwood.

#2 Dampier’s preoccupation with wind and weather was born out of his experience as a buccaneer. Buccaneers were a distinct class of pirates, and their home governments scorned them as much as their enemies did. They had no permission to raid anyone.

#3 Dampier joined the Jamaica pirates as a navigator, and the subsequent voyage was a rambling adventure. They started off raiding cities in Panama, then sailed up to Virginia, where Dampier was arrested for unknown reasons. They then went to the Pacific coast of South America.

#4 Dampier’s travels took him to many different countries, and he took advantage of his time on the open sea to study winds and currents. He became a first-class navigator. He eventually returned to London in 1691, after having promised his new wife he’d be back in twelve months.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822543393

IRB Media

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Insights on Sam Kean's The Icepick Surgeon

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Dampier was a brilliant scientist and navigator, but he was also a pirate. He took to sea after being orphaned at age fourteen, visiting Java and Newfoundland before an unhappy stint in the navy. He eventually settled in the Bay of Campeche in eastern Mexico and made his living cutting logwood.

#2

Dampier’s preoccupation with wind and weather was born out of his experience as a buccaneer. Buccaneers were a distinct class of pirates, and their home governments scorned them as much as their enemies did. They had no permission to raid anyone.

#3

Dampier joined the Jamaica pirates as a navigator, and the subsequent voyage was a rambling adventure. They started off raiding cities in Panama, then sailed up to Virginia, where Dampier was arrested for unknown reasons. They then went to the Pacific coast of South America.

#4

Dampier’s travels took him to many different countries, and he took advantage of his time on the open sea to study winds and currents. He became a first-class navigator. He eventually returned to London in 1691, after having promised his new wife he’d be back in twelve months.

#5

After his stint in Sumatra, Dampier began organizing his field notes into a travelogue. His journals had suffered water damage on several occasions, but the effort paid off. A New Voyage Round the World was a smash hit, with some of the liveliest passages on natural history and anthropology ever written.

#6

Dampier’s books launched the genre of travel writing, and he was invited to lecture at the prestigious Royal Society in London. He also dined with several eminent statesmen.

#7

Dampier’s second book was published in 1699. He had made very little money from the first one, in part because copyright laws didn’t exist then. He still needed to earn a living somehow. The president of the Royal Society introduced Dampier to the First Lord of the Admiralty, who offered him the chance to captain his own ship and lead an expedition to New Holland.

#8

The crew of the Roebuck spent the next few weeks observing dingoes, sea serpents, humpback whales, and more.