Saving Robinson Crusoe's island
Robinson Crusoe Island — formerly Isla Mas a Tierra — was where Fife sailor Alexander Selkirk survived in solitude for more than four years, inspiring Daniel Defoe to write his famous novel. Earlier this year the island was struck by a tsunami that swept away the island's only school. Now those near Selkirk's hometown of Lower Largo are being urged to contribute to the rebuilding effort.
The Alexander Selkirk statue in Lower Largo.
- By Jack McKeown
- Published in the Courier : 26.07.10
- Published online : 31.07.10 @ 12.58pm
In October 1704, fearful the vessel he was on would sink, Alexander Selkirk asked to be put ashore on Mas a Tierra, an uninhabited speck of land 400 miles off the coast of Chile, where he was to spend the next four years and four months alone.
Selkirk always had a knack for getting into trouble, and by the time he was 19 had forged a reputation as a troublemaker throughout the Fife fishing village of Lower Largo.
It came as no surprise when he got into a family fight after his brother tricked him into drinking seawater and he was called before the Kirk Session.
However, to escape punishment he went to sea, where he hoped to make his fortune as a bucaneer off the coast of South America.
At sea he discovered a skill for navigation, and within a few years he was a sailing master on the 90-ton privateer, the Cinque Ports.
However, after several naval battles the ship was in bad shape, but the captain, Thomas Stradling, refused to stop for repairs.
Convinced the ship would sink, Selkirk demanded to be put ashore, and in October 1704 he got his wish and was put off the ship with a few clothes, bedding, a musket, some tools, a bible and tobacco.
He was finally rescued on February 2, 1709, when The Duke, another privateer whose pilot, William Dampier, recognised Selkirk from his time on the Cinque Ports.
Newspaper reports of Selkirk's exploits made him famous, and in 1719 his story was fictionalised in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Selkirk, who died of yellow fever in 1721, is commemorated with a bronze statue outside his former home on Lower Largo's Main Street.
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