The privateering expedition which set out in 1719 was a significant and costly affair, supported by major figures in the City of London and linked with the ambitions of the South Sea Company. It was a direct descendant of the Woodes Rogers voyage, for although ten years separate them the expedition took place as soon as opportunity (war with Spain) arose to mount a similar venture. The managing owners used the Woodes Rogers book as their instruction manual, placing a copy in the hands of each of the two captains. It is therefore not surprising that the objectives and preparations closely mirror those of the earlier voyage. Although disastrous for most of the adventurers, the voyage achieved a much greater return for some than has previously been realised. The ‘great noise’ which attended the return to England of George Shelvocke and his remaining crew did much, however, to destroy the enthusiasm for South Sea expeditions generated by Woodes Rogers's successful exploit. As well as the mutinies and deceptions which beset the voyage of George Shelvocke there were also remarkable examples of courage, seamanship and skill – further contribution to the developing picture of the resourceful British mariner which would be purveyed to an admiring public through the subsequent printed accounts.

The expedition is generally named after George Shelvocke, captain of the frigate Speedwell. In the chancery case brought by the investors after the voyage was over, it was called – certainly more correctly – the Clipperton expedition, after John Clipperton, the ‘commander in chief’ and captain of the larger ship Success. Shelvocke owes his promotion by posterity to the fact that he was the first to publish an account of the voyage and possibly also because (as with the Woodes Rogers expedition) one incident – in this case the shooting of an albatross – gave his book wider currency long after the events it described had passed.

The aim of the Clipperton expedition, as with the other two voyages, was to attack the ships and harbours of Spanish South America and, if the opportunity presented, carry off the Manila galleon.