[4] Despite a court-martial for cruelty to one of his crew in an earlier voyage,[5] Dampier was granted command of the two-ship expedition which departed England on 30 April 1703 for the port of Kinsale in Ireland.

[8] While the ships were off the coast of Brazil, an outbreak of scurvy on board Cinque Ports led to the deaths of a number of men,[9] including the captain who was replaced by 21-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Stradling.

[14] Selkirk's suspicions were soon justified, as Cinque Ports foundered near Malpelo Island 400 km (250 mi) from the coast[citation needed] of what is now Colombia; Stradling and the surviving members of his crew were taken prisoner by the Spanish.

[15] An eyewitness account of the last voyage of Cinque Ports was published by William Funnell, an officer on board St George, who went on to circumnavigate the globe after abandoning Dampier in January 1705.

According to a deposition given by Selkirk on 18 July 1712, Dampier's failure to advise the owners to have Cinque Ports and St George covered in protective wood sheathing had resulted in "the loss of both ships, for they perished by being worm eaten.