Marooned Part 5

Author's Note.

Writing Selkirk's Story and the Island Today I came upon Selkirk's story about twenty years ago. In a used-book store in New York I found a copy of The Fabulous Originals: Lives of Extraordinary People Who Inspired Memorable Characters in Fiction. The book was written by Irving Wallace and published in 1955.

In the chapter t.i.tled "The Real Robinson Crusoe," Wallace wrote about the Scottish seaman marooned on Juan Fernandez in 1704, how he survived, and his rescue four years and four months later. The story was fascinating, and I began to look for more books about Alexander Selkirk and his strange adventure.

Woodes Rogers, John Howell, and Richard Steele, all mentioned in Wallace's account, became the primary sources of information about him. Rogers and Steele knew Selkirk personally; Howell, a century after Selkirk's death, recorded family stories about his boyhood and later years.

Rogers's A Cruising Voyage Round the World, published in London in 1712, was reprinted in 1970 and can be found in bookstores today.

An unexpected discovery-luck, really-led me to Howell's The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, published in Scotland in 1829. My town library was skeptical about finding a book so old but nevertheless agreed to search for it.

Amazingly, it was found within a week. The University of Minnesota's Wilson Library in Minneapolis, about thirty-five miles from my home, had an original copy.

The librarian in the hushed rare books room carried the worn volume in two hands and set it gently on the table before me. There I read about the Selcraigs-for some unknown reason, Selkirk changed his last name before boarding the Cinque Ports-who lived in a seacoast village in Scotland some 300 years ago. I was surprised to read that family life for the Selcraigs was not all that different from family life today.

Although I couldn't locate the December 13, 1713, issue of The Englishman-the paper was published for only three years-I found excerpts from Steele's talks with Selkirk in Wallace's book and in other sources listed in the Selected Bibliography. The British Library-the national library of Great Britain-would be a likely place to start a search for the original 1713 issue.

The primary sources mentioned above-Rogers, Howell, and Steele-told Selkirk's story. Rogers wrote about the marooned mariner's days on Juan Fernandez, his role in the capture of the Manila galleon, and his celebrity in London. Howell told of his return home to Largo, his inability to fit into village life, and his decision to leave parents and family for the last time. Steele interviewed the former castaway about his island home and his yearning to return there.

Irving Wallace in The Fabulous Originals provided an overview of Selkirk's life and showed how his marooning on Juan Fernandez provided Daniel Defoe with the basis for his famous novel, Robinson Crusoe.

The last book I read was especially helpful. A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier by Diana and Michael Preston, published in 2004, tells how seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mariners sailed the unexplored South Pacific Ocean, and provides a colorful background to Selkirk's adventures.

To become acquainted with Selkirk and his life and times, I read twenty-three books, some all the way through, others only in part.

Most of the books came from or through my local public library. Those not in the library's collection were borrowed from other libraries.

Librarians are always most helpful in research of this kind. Their suggestions often led to sources of information I would otherwise have never known about.

Juan Fernandez has changed much since Selkirk's day.

About 1966 the government of Chile changed the name from Juan Fernandez to Robinson Crusoe Island. It was hoped the name change would attract more tourists to the island. A second island a hundred miles to the west was renamed Alejendro [Alexander] Selkirk Island, although Selkirk never visited it.

Five hundred people today live on Robinson Crusoe, but Alejendro Selkirk is uninhabited, except for fishermen who spend summer months there harvesting lobsters. The lobsters on both islands are smaller today than the three-footers Selkirk caught.

San Juan Bautista on c.u.mberland Bay (the Great Bay of Selkirk's day) is a village of modest homes with yards lush with roses, sunflowers, and geraniums. Visitors find a post office, three small hotels, shops selling Crusoe and Selkirk souvenirs, but no hospital, pharmacy, or bank-or taxes. Most men on the island leave early each morning to tend lobster traps in the bay.

TV arrived on Robinson Crusoe in 1986 and telephones in 1993. A monthly supply boat from Valparaiso, Chile-360 miles due east on "the continent," as South America is called-brings fresh vegetables, building supplies, and gas for fis.h.i.+ng boats and for the few cars on the island.

In summer the boat also delivers supplies to Alejendro Selkirk Island and picks up live lobsters for restaurants on the mainland.

About 120 students are enrolled in Robinson Crusoe's only school, kindergarten through eighth grade. Ninth-grade students attend school in Valparaiso. A Chilean naval s.h.i.+p transports the boys and girls in March and returns them to the island at Christmas.

Most of the island today is a Chilean national park. Sixty percent of its plants-among them 20 species of ferns and 131 kinds of moss-are found nowhere else in the world. Rare birds include the brick-red firecrown hummingbird.

Sheep, cows, and goats graze hillsides now cleared of the forests where Selkirk once roamed. El Yunque-"the anvil"-rises above the village. At 3,002 feet, the summit is often hidden by clouds.

To visit the island requires a three-hour flight from Santiago, Chile. The plane lands on a red-dirt airstrip-the only flat stretch on the mountainous island. Visitors then travel for six miles by boat to San Juan Bautista.

Wooden signs along paths direct visitors to Selkirk's cave and to Selkirk's Lookout, the high ridge where the marooned mariner watched for s.h.i.+ps, and to the tablet left by H.M.S. Topaze in 1863. Seals still bask on rocky beaches below steep cliffs fronting the bay.

Glossary.

barnacle A sh.e.l.lfish that attaches itself to objects underwater, such as rocks, whales, or a s.h.i.+p's bottom.

bilge The curved inside bottom of a s.h.i.+p's hull. (See hull.) boarding ax A handle with a blade similar to that of today's ax, used as a weapon when boarding a merchant vessel and also to cut lines supporting sails to disable the s.h.i.+p.

bow The front end of a boat or s.h.i.+p.

capstan A thick rotating drum for winding up a rope or chain attached to an anchor.

careen To heel or tip a boat or s.h.i.+p on its side to clean or repair the outer hull.

cutla.s.s A short, heavy sword with a slightly curved blade and a single cutting edge.

Drake, Sir Francis English admiral, navigator, and pirate who sailed around the world, 157780.

farthing A coin in use in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, worth about one-quarter of a penny.

flintlock A firearm-usually a musket-that has a piece of flint striking against steel to produce sparks. The sparks ignite gunpowder in the musket's barrel, which drives a bullet through the barrel. (See musket.) galleon A large Spanish sailing vessel of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, used as a fighting s.h.i.+p or a merchant s.h.i.+p.

grappling hook Three or more curved pieces of metal, shaped like fishhooks, attached to a line thrown from an attacking s.h.i.+p to grasp the railing of a merchant s.h.i.+p to draw that s.h.i.+p close to the attacker.

hull The basic outer frame of a s.h.i.+p that supports decks, masts, and sails.

longboat A service boat; the longest boat carried on the deck of a sailing s.h.i.+p, powered by two or more oarsmen when lowered into the water.

mariner A sailor, a seaman.

maroon To put ash.o.r.e and abandon a person on a deserted island by way of punishment.

mast A long upright pole-originally the trunk of a tree shorn of branches-that supports a s.h.i.+p's sails, yardarms, rigging, etc. Most sailing s.h.i.+ps in Selkirk's day had two masts.

mate The ranking first, second, or third officer on a s.h.i.+p, under the captain.

merchantman A trading s.h.i.+p; a s.h.i.+p carrying cargo. Also called a merchant s.h.i.+p.

musket A heavy gun with a long barrel introduced in the sixteenth century; the forerunner of the modern rifle. (See flintlock.) oak.u.m Loose strands obtained by untwisting and picking apart old ropes, used to pack between planks of wooden s.h.i.+ps.

Peru Current A cold Pacific Ocean current flowing north along the coasts of Chile and Peru. Also called the Humboldt Current.

pirate An outlaw in an armed s.h.i.+p unlawfully attacking merchant s.h.i.+ps of all countries and ransacking coastal towns. Also called a buccaneer.

pitch A dark, tarry substance used to waterproof seams between planks on wooden s.h.i.+ps.

pound English unit of currency.

powder barrel A container filled with gunpowder. It was fastened to the side rigging of a pirate s.h.i.+p or privateer, the fuse lighted, and the barrel released to explode on the deck of an adjoining s.h.i.+p.

privateer A merchant s.h.i.+p, privately owned, fitted with guns, and commissioned by a government to attack enemy merchantmen in wartime. (During the Revolutionary War 1,600 American privateers captured 1,000 British merchantmen.) sailing master The second or third officer after the captain; often the navigator who steers the s.h.i.+p between ports.

scurvy A disease caused by lack of vitamin C in the diet. Victims suffer bleeding gums, loose teeth, weakness of limbs, and internal bleeding. Often fatal when untreated.

spygla.s.s A small telescope.

stern The rear end of a boat or s.h.i.+p.

teredo worm A worm equipped with two small-toothed sh.e.l.ls on its head. It burrows into oak timbers on a s.h.i.+p's hull, threatening a s.h.i.+p's safety. Also called s.h.i.+pworm.

tiller A horizonal bar or lever attached to the rudder of a small boat for steering the boat.

War of the Spanish Succession A war, 17011714, in which England, Austria, and the Netherlands fought Spain, France, and Prussia in a dispute over who should become king after Spain's Charles II died.

yard, yardarm A long wooden pole attached crosswise from a mast to support a sail.

Selected Bibliography.

Backscheider, Paula R. Daniel Defoe: His Life. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

Botting, Douglas, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. The Pirates. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1978.

National Geographic Society. Islands Lost in Time. Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.: The National Geographic Society, 1997.

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1965.

Howell, John. The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk. Edinburgh, Scotland: Oliver & Boyd, 1829.

MacLiesh, Fleming, and Martin L. Krieger. The Privateers: A Raiding Voyage on the Great South Sea. New York: Random House, 1962.

Preston, Diana, and Michael Preston. A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier. New York: Walker & Company, 2004.

Quennell, Peter. "The Man Who Was Robinson Crusoe." In Conde Nast Traveler, May 1990.

Rogers, Woodes. A Cruising Voyage Round the World. New York: Dover Publications, 1970.

Schurz, William. The Manila Galleon. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1939.

Simmons, James. "Alexander Selkirk: The Monarch of Juan Fernandez Island." In Oceans, March 1982.

Souhami, Diana. Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe. New York: Harcourt, 2001.

Wallace, Irving. The Fabulous Originals: Lives of Extraordinary People Who Inspired Memorable Characters in Fiction. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955.