William Falconer William Falconer ( 1732 – 1769 ) was a Scottish poet . Falconer was the son of a barber in Edinburgh , where he was born , became a sailor , and was thus thoroughly competent to describe the management of the storm-tossed vessel , the career and fate of which are described in his poem , The Shipwreck ( 1762 ) , a work of genuine , though unequal , talent . The efforts which Falconer made to improve the poem in the successive ed. which followed the first were not entirely successful . The work gained for him the patronage of the Duke of York , through whose influence he obtained the position of purser on various warships . Falconer was one of the three survivors of a trading ship on voyage from Alexandria to Venice and in 1751 he wrote and published a poem on the death of Frederick , Prince of Wales . He had also contributed poems to the Gentleman 's Magazine . The poem The Shipwreck was dedicated to the then rear-admiral Duke of York where the poem states : From regions where Peruvian billows roar , To the bleak coasts of savage Labrador . Falconer was a midshipman on the Royal George for s short period of time and then in 1763 became purser of the frigate Glory aboard which he wrote the political satire Demagogue . In 1767 he was purser of the Swiftsure . In 1769 he published The Universal Marine Dictionary . Falconer was purser on the frigate Aurora when it was lost after rounding the Cape of Good Hope on a voyage when it left from London on Septemebr 20 , 1769 . External links Biography References The Poetical Works of Beattie , Blair and Falconer by the Rev. George Gilfillan Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador ] This article incorporates public domain text from : Cousin , John William ( 1910 ) . A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature . London , J.M. Dent & sons ; New York , E.P. Dutton .  This article about a Scottish writer , poet or playwright is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature | Scottish writer stubs | 1732 births | 1769 deaths | Scottish poets In other languages : Deutsch | Français 