Born 1660; died 1742.
This many-sided character was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. Many years afterwards, in 1721, the Royal College of Physicians made him a licentiate. For many years Dover practised as a physician at Bristol, until the year 1708, when he sailed from Bristol as "second captain" to Captain Woodes Rogers, with the
Duke and the
Duchess, two privateer ships fitted out for a South Sea cruise by some Bristol merchants. Dover had no knowledge whatever of navigation, but, having a considerable share in the adventure, he insisted on being given a command. Sailing round the Horn, the two ships arrived, on the night of February 1st, 1709, off the Island of Juan Fernandez, where they observed a light. Next morning Dover went ashore in a boat, to find and rescue the solitary inhabitant of the island, Alexander Selkirk, the original of Robinson Crusoe. Sailing north, a Spanish ship was taken and rechristened the
Bachelor, and Dover was put in command of her. He sacked Guayaquil in April, 1709, many of the crew contracting plague from sleeping in a church where some bodies had recently been buried. Dover undertook to treat the sick with most heroic measures, bleeding each sick man and drawing off 100 ounces of blood.
He also took the famous
Acapulco ship, with a booty worth more than a million pounds sterling. Dover returned to Bristol in October, 1711, with a prize of great value, after sailing round the world.
Giving up piracy, he settled in practice in London, seeing his patients daily at the Jerusalem Coffee-house in Cecil Street, Strand. He wrote a book called "The Ancient Physician's Legacy to His Country," which ran into seven or eight editions, in which he strongly recommended the administration of large doses of quicksilver for almost every malady that man is subject to. This book won him the nickname of the "Quicksilver Doctor." He invented a diaphoretic powder containing ipecacuanha and opium, which is used to this day, and is still known as Dover's powder.
Dover died at the age of 82, in the year 1742, and should always be remembered for having invented Dover's powders, commanded a company of Marines, rescued Alexander Selkirk, written a most extraordinary medical book, and for having been a successful pirate captain.
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