Woodes Rogers, who has turned to privateering as a means of recouping losses against the French, had been approached in late 1707, by William Dampier, a navigator and friend of Rogers' father, who had proposed a privateering expedition against the Spanish.

This was a desperate move on the part of Captain Dampier to save his career.

Dampier had recently returned from leading a two-ship privateering expedition into the Pacific, which had culminated in a series of mutinies before both ships finally sank, due to Dampier's error in not having the hulls properly cleaned of worms before leaving port.

Rogers, unaware of this, had agreed.

Financing is provided by many in the Bristol community, with the support of Rogers' father in law.

Commanding two frigates, the Duke and the Duchess, and captaining the first, Rogers will spend three years circumnavigating the globe.

The ships departs Bristol, with Dampier is aboard as Rogers' sailing master, on August 1, 1708.

The eldest son and heir of Woods Rogers, a successful merchant captain, Woodes had spent part of his childhood in Poole, England, where he likely attended the local school; his father, who owned shares in many ships, was often away nine months of the year with the Newfoundland fishing fleet.

Sometime between 1690 and 1696, Captain Rogers had moved his family to Bristol.

Woodes had apprenticed to Bristol mariner John Yeamans to learn the profession of a sailor in November 1697 at eighteen, which was somewhat old to be starting a seven-year apprenticeship.

His biographer, Brian Little, suggests that this might have been a way for the newcomers to become entrenched in Bristol maritime society, as well as making it possible for Woodes Rogers to become a freeman, or voting citizen, of the city.

Little also suggests that it is likely that Rogers gained his maritime experience with Yeamans' ship on the Newfoundland fleet. (Little, Brian (1960). Crusoe's Captain Odhams Press.)

Completing his apprenticeship in November 1704, the following January Rogers had married Sarah Whetstone, daughter of Rear Admiral Sir William Whetstone, who is a neighbor and close family friend; Woodes becomes a freeman of Bristol because of his marriage into the prominent Whetstone family.

Captain Rogers died in 1706 at sea, leaving his ships and business to his son Woodes.

Between 1706 and 1708, Woodes and Sarah Rogers have a son and two daughters.

The War of the Spanish Succession had started in 1702, during which England's main maritime foes are France and Spain, and a number of Bristol ships have been given letters of marque, allowing them to strike against enemy shipping.

At least four vessels in which Rogers has an ownership interest have been granted the letters.

One, the Whetstone Galley, named for Rogers' father in law, had received the letters before being sent to Africa to begin a voyage in the slave trade.

It had not reached Africa, but was captured by the French.

Rogers has suffered other losses against the French, although he does not record their extent in his book.