The Real Robinson Crusoe

Have you read Robinson Crusoe? Then you mustshould pass nearby. So he kept a sharp lookout.
have felt the pain and misery of a man forsakenBut the two ships that did come to the island for
on a lonely island. And the odds he faced againstfresh water belonged to Spain, then an enemy of
the onslaught of the inclement nature and how heEngland. So Selkirk hid himself from them, fearing
won in the end must have stirred your heart.that if found by the Spaniards, he would face a
But however fascinating Robinson Crusoe mightfate more terrible than his exile.
sound, he was but a fictional character. In factRescue and Fame
there really was a man who endured andFour years and four months passed before
suffered probably more than the fictionalSelkirk's hope was realized at last on 2 February
character he inspired.1709. Selkirk was rescued by the ship Duke
That man was Alexander Selkirk.captained by none other than William Dampier
The son of a Scotsman tanner, Alexander Selkirkwith whose ship Selkirk had started the fateful
is said to have been an unruly youth. His indecentvoyage.
behavior in the local church earned him displeasureWhen Selkirk at last reached England he became
of the village elders. He escaped their wrath byinstantly famous.
running away to seaDaniel Defoe fashioned his famous Robinson
The Lonely OrdealCrusoe on Selkirk's adventures.
As a seaman Selkirk had joined the buccaneerWilliam Cowper immortalized him by his poem The
expeditions to the South Seas And in 1703 heSolitude Of Alexander Selkirk, which gave rise to
was on the galley Cinque Ports as a sailing masterthe common phrase, "monarch of all I survey".
serving under Thomas Stradling. His voyage wasFamous journalists interviewed Selkirk and wrote
a part of the expedition of famed privateer andabout him in popular newspapers.
explorer William Dampier who commanded St.The Final Voyage
George.After his return Selkirk is said to have married a
Selkirk was of rebellious nature which did not gowidowed innkeeper but he was not content to
well with Capt Thomas Stradling. A disagreementlive a homely life for long. In March 1717 he again
between the two so enraged Stradling that hewent off to sea. He was serving as a lieutenant
left Alexander Selkirk on an island of theon board the Royal ship Weymouth when he died
uninhabited archipelago Juan Fernandez in 1704.at sea on December 13, 1721. He was buried at
Incredible Struggle For Survivalsea off the west coast of Africa.
Stranded on the unfriendly island, Selkirk faced aBut the saga of Selkirk hasn't ended.
bleak future. He had no food and his meagerOn the New Year's day of 1966 the island where
belongings included only a musket, gunpowder,Selkirk had lived was named Robinson Crusoe
carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible and someIsland while the westernmost island of the Juan
clothing. A less intrepid man may have perished inFernandez Archipelago was named Alejandro
such circumstances, but Selkirk proved highlySelkirk Island. A statue of Selkirk donated by a
resourceful in the face of the most arduousdescendant of the Selkirk family was unveiled
situation he faced.outside his original house on 11 December 1885.
With his musket he hunted wild animals. He usedThe memory of Alexander Selkirk is never to
the carpentry tools to build a hut and fashionedfade. It is a reminder of how a man with an
clothing from the hides of the animals he hadindomitable spirit can face the most daunting
killed. Selkirk's only hope of escape from thischallenges and still come out a winner.
dreary island was that sooner or later some ship