LECTURE: The REAL Robinson Crusoe

We all know the Robinson Crusoe story even if we never read the famous, albeit old and somewhat outdated, 1719 book. It was also a movie. The first interesting thing we learned was that it was falsely narrated as autobiography by Daniel Defoe. Defoe is known to have used at least 198 pen names and at first everyone thought he was Crusoe. It’s a story that tells the adventures of this castaway who survived for 28 years on a deserted island after being shipwrecked. We love these shipwrecked stories, the precursor to my favorite sitcom, Gilligan’s Island. So was there really a Robinson Crusoe? After it was changed to longer say it was an autobiography, this question came up and many think, although Defoe said it is not, it’s based on the life of Alexander Selkirk (and maybe a few others mixed together).

Selkirk was a British sailor (born 1676) who lived alone for 4 years on an island in the South Pacific (was later named Robinson Crusoe Island) after being marooned there by his ship's captain.

At a young age he was arrested on charges related to "unseemly conduct in church" and decided to disappear and enlist as a sailor. In 1704, he became the first mate on the Cinque Ports, one of the ships in the expedition captained by William Dampier. The Captain was authorized to engage in piracy against the enemies of the English crown, in exchange for sharing the spoils with the intention of attacking the Manila Galleon.

In his life he discovered parts of Australia, the island of New Britain and circumnavigated the globe 3 times, the first to accomplish such a feat. However, he had been dismissed from the Royal Navy in 1701 after his ship (HMS Roebuck) sank, so was now a pirate. With the intension of crossing the Pacific Ocean, as they got to Cape Horn, his 2 ships hit a storm (not shocking for those of us that have been there) and was damaged. Once they reached the Pacific Ocean, they attacked a few ships and were not very successful as they had little left and diseases were spreading. Selkirk separated in one ship and set course for the Juan Fernández archipelago (now part of Chile) to replenish its water and supplies. Selkirk insisted the captain repair the ship before they went on or he thought it would sink and was not going to continue. Well the Captain called this mutiny and abandoned Selkirk on the island with a musket, an axe, a knife, a cooking pot, and a Bible. Ironically, a month later, was wrecked and sunk and those that survived including the Captain were captured by Spanish ships and taken to Lima, where they spent four years in harsh captivity. Selkirk ended up faced the lightest fate.

On the island he stayed close to the shore, hoping to spot a ship in the distance, and ate whatever he could find. When the mating season for sealions arrived, the beach began to fill with aggressive males so he went inland. The island had lots of goats (from prior expeditions) and he used them for food and hides. He also built two huts from the wood of the pepper tree.

Although in the novel the character finds a companion (the famous "Friday"), in reality Selkirk was alone the entire time he spent on the island. To entertain himself reading the Bible aloud to hear a human voice, even if it was his own. Only two Spanish ships anchored off the island during Selkirk's stay and he had to hide from them or be captured.

On February 1, 1709, the English privateer Woodes Rogers arrived with his 2 ships, the Duke and the Duchess, off to attack, successfully this time, the same Manila Galleon. Barefoot dressed in goatskins and barely able to speak after 4 years and 4 months he was rescued and the first mate was William Dampier, the one in command of the expedition that had abandoned him. Rogers wrote a best seller book about his adventures, "A Cruising Voyage Round the World" and later the first Governor of the Bahamas, putting an end to piracy in the Caribbean. So, it seems Rogers's book eventually was read by Daniel Defoe, who based his novel "Robinson Crusoe" on it.

When Selkirk was rescued, it took him several months before he could wear shoes again or eat and drink normally. He was later involved in problems due to his drinking. Finally, in 1717 he enlisted in the Royal Navy and died 4 years later on a ship of yellow fever. He seemed to have 2 wives also in his travels.

There are some differences between Crusoe and Selkirk; the former is shipwrecked, not abandoned, and ends up on a deserted island off the east coast of South America, not the west coast. Crusoe survives 27 years and finally gets a companion on Friday, which Selkirk never did in his four years and four months of solitude. Defoe included many details taken from old sailors into the story of Selkirk and created a completely believable tale of human survival. A nearby island was named "Alexander Selkirk Island" (even though Selkirk never set foot on it). Selkirk's adventures thus achieved immortality, though we will always associate them with someone else by another name.もっと詳しく