Captain William Keeling (1577 – 19 September 1619), of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, was a British sea captain. He commanded the ''Susanna'' on the second East India Company voyage in 1604. During this voyage his crew was reduced to fourteen men and one of the ships vanished. On the third voyage he commanded the '' Red Dragon'' and the ''Hector'' in 1607. During this voyage he met with an ambassador from the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1608 at Bantam at the west end of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

. He discovered the

Cocos (Keeling) Islands ) , anthem = "''Advance Australia Fair''" , song_type = , song = , image_map = Australia on the globe (Cocos (Keeling) Islands special) (Southeast Asia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands , map_caption = ...

in 1609 as he was going home from Banda to England. On his return, King

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

appointed Keeling a Groom of the Chamber, and in c. 1618 he was named Captain of Cowes Castle on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

, where he died in 1620.Alan & Veronica Palmer, ''Who's Who in Shakespeare's England''
Retrieved 29 May 2015 A fragment of Keeling's diary survives, in which he allegedly details his crew's shipboard performances of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

'' (off the coast of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

, 5 September 1607, and at

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’ ...

, 31 March 1608) and of '' Richard II'' (Sierra Leone, 30 September 1607). For a time after its discovery, the fragment was suspected of being a forgery, but it subsequently became generally accepted as genuine, though recent scholarship has reverted to the view that it is almost certainly a forgery by

John Payne Collier John Payne Collier (11 January 1789, London – 17 September 1883, Maidenhead) was an English Shakespearean critic and forger. Reporter and solicitor His father, John Dyer Collier (1762–1825), was a successful journalist, and his connection ...

.Bernice W. Kliman in 'At Sea about Hamlet at Sea: A Detective Story', Shakespeare Quarterly 62 (2011); Jonathan Bate, Society of Antiquaries lecture on 2012 British Museum exhibition, 'Shakespeare: Staging the World', https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY6wTq8_Wkk

References

External links

The Diary Junction Blog
1577 births 1620 deaths British East India Company people English explorers 16th-century English people 17th-century English people {{Cocos-stub