Homeward Bound

A four-month stay there allowed them to sell the Marquis, and the remaining three ships left Batavia on 12 October. 

After another extended visit at the Cape of Good Hope (29 December 1710 to 5 April 1711), the expedition reached the Texel on 23 July, but it was another two and a half months before they finally dropped anchor in the Thames. 

Much of this delay was due to legal threats by the East India Company, though Rogers had been careful to avoid trading at Batavia. 

Still, Rogers and his crews were back in England in October 1711, having survived lengthy spells on short rations, extreme weather and treacherous sailing conditions, mutinies, and hard-fought battles on land and sea.

Most significantly, they had managed to circumnavigate the globe in the vessels they departed in with most of the original crew alive.

While Rogers might have done better without his Council, his voyage stands out as exceptionally well conducted and grossed nearly £150,000. 

A third of that went to the ships’ companies as prize money, and half of the owners’ portion went on expenses, but the voyage's backers doubled their money, and the expedition generated a wave of public interest. 

Encouraged by his friends, Rogers recast rather than rewrote his journal as A Cruising Voyage Round the World (1712).

Legal and Financial Difficulties

© Ian Hughes 2017