The true story of Robinson Crusoe. Whose adventures are retold in the famous novel? Real Robinson Stories

On February 1, 1709, a miracle happened on the island of Mas a Tierra in the Pacific Ocean. The sailors of the English ship "Duke" found a dirty, goat-stinking savage in skins, who almost forgot human speech, but remembered some of the Bible, sailors' jargon and obscene English. It was the Scot Alexander Selkirk, real prototype Robinson Crusoe, who lived for almost five years on desert island, having managed to establish a life and retaining his mind. How did he end up in this Nowhere in the middle of the ocean? It all started with the fact that Alexander had a terrible character. The character of a true Scot.

How to get rid of a subordinate
if he constantly yells and tries to cripple you?

Alexander Selkirk was born in 1676 in a village on the border of the lowland and highland Scottish clans. We can say that from the very beginning he was unlucky: his father, a tanner and shoemaker, drank heavily and often beat his sons. Those, in turn, themselves from an early age were not fools to drink and fight. Alexander fell not far from the apple tree and grew up to be a real brawler. According to one version, it was because of a fight with his brothers and an attempt to beat his father to death that the young man had to leave his father's house and become a sailor.

His indefatigable character and readiness to get into a fight at any moment were combined with a quick mind and skill in sailor affairs. In general, this made him an ideal candidate for a pirate, and Alexander Selkirk quickly became a buccaneer in the service of His Majesty. In the end, he joined the company of an adventurer, traveler and ardent lover of stuffing the Spaniards with lead by the name of William Damper. The future Robinson showed himself well as a buccaneer: he fought zealously during boarding, quickly worked with his head, beer mug and hands, and advanced in the service.

William Damper, expedition organizer

Dumper trusted Alexander, so he put him in charge of one of his ships, the Sink Ports, which was commanded by Captain Stradling. The idea, as it turned out, was not without meaning, because after one of the fights with the Spaniards, Stradling decided to throw Damper with his adventurous ideas and organize his own maritime enterprise with robbery and violence.

Typical buccaneer of those years

The wrecked ship stopped at the Juan Fernandez archipelago to collect provisions and move on. Alexander Selkirk, who had been arguing furiously with the captain all the way, got involved in a new conflict: Stradling preferred to immediately sail on, and his assistant convinced that the ship would sink if it was not repaired. By the way, he turned out to be right, “Sink Ports” really sank from the very first strong wave, and only a small part of the sailors survived, but only to fall into Spanish captivity.

However, before the crash, the captain preferred to leave the order of the sailor who got him on the island of Mas-a-Tierra. The noisy Scot was left with a boat, a musket, gunpowder, a Bible, a bowler hat and some clothes. The next time he will see living people only after 4 years and 4 months.

Island with anomalous content of Robinsons

The uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra, on which Selkirk ended up, is a very peculiar piece of land. This is not just some kind of rock sticking out of the sea, but a place with its own unique history. Opened in 1574 spanish navigator, a swindler and, as they would say now, a corrupt official and schemer Juan Fernandez. In fact, the archipelago got its name in honor of him. Juan discovered a real gold mine here: a rookery of fur seals, whose fat was then worth a lot of money.

Fernandez needed start-up capital and so he begged Spanish crown finances for the colonization of the island. He was given money, seeds for crops and tools, as well as about half a thousand Indian slaves. The captain brought all this here and immediately abandoned it, and most he used the money to develop his enterprise for the extraction of fat of seals. But it did not work out to create a solid trading empire: on one of the trips, Fernandez caught malaria and died.

What happened to the Indians after that is completely unclear. No traces of their stay were ever found, so there is a possibility that he did not bring anyone here, and all these recorded colonists are simply "dead souls." Theoretically, Fernandez could even throw them overboard along the way as ballast. In history, such cases with too annoying slaves have already happened, and more than once.

But the main thing: the Spanish rogue left here something without which Robinson's life would quickly come to an end. Goats and cats were brought to the island (to catch rats, which were also brought by Europeans).

Now this island is literally called "Robinson's Island".

In addition, Selkirk was not the first to be thrown to the mercy of fate here. Before that, three Dutch volunteers had already tried to survive on the island, and later the Spaniards “forgotten” one Indian servant who managed to live on Mas-a-Tierrai for three years. In 1687, the pirate captain Edward Davis landed here for a couple of years as punishment for nine sailors whom he wanted to teach a lesson for gambling addiction. In general, the history of this island was already filled with Robinsons like no other place in the world. Later, in the 19th century, Mas-a-Tierra would be turned into a prison for political criminals, who would live here in caves in almost primitive conditions. Moreover, two of them will later become presidents of Chile. The island is definitely attractive. interesting stories and non-banal personalities like a magnet.

How to live on a desert island
and observe Scottish customs?

The first thing Alexander Selkirk wanted to do was commit suicide. But at some point, he came to a reasonable conclusion: why shoot a musket at yourself when you can shoot local animals or Stradling (if this dog decides to return). The sailor knew that ships sailed here quite often, and fellow buccaneers periodically swim here in order to replenish water supplies. It seemed that it would only take a few weeks for the British to take him. We already know how long he actually had to wait for the Union Jack on the horizon. Unfortunately for Robinson, the Spaniards just began to actively fight against privateers and almost completely ousted them from this region - now there was especially no one to sail here.

Selkirk could well find traces of human presence here, and goats and cats clearly spoke of the fact that the island was once inhabited by people. At first, he had a hard time, and he did not leave the coast, eating shellfish, turtle eggs and trying to hunt sea ​​lions. Those turned out to be too aggressive and numerous - Alexander seemed to have landed on the lands belonging to the evil pinnipeds natives. He had to escape from their wrath and go deep into the island. There he found that these places were full of unafraid semi-domestic goats. For hundreds of years, they were greatly crushed and decayed, but they were good for meat.

Life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe are largely taken from the life of Selkirk. Unless there was a dog and Friday

Later, Selkirk managed to domesticate some of them, and milk and skins appeared at his disposal. Of these, he managed to sew clothes - the years of life with his father-tanner were not in vain. In addition, we managed to find wild turnips, cabbage and peppers here (most likely, also brought by other Robinsons). In any case, there were not enough domesticated goats, and he had to hunt wild ones. However, the gunpowder supplies ran out, and Selkirk chased animals around the island on his own two feet with a makeshift knife in his hands. He made it by sharpening the metal hoop of one of the barrels that washed ashore. The weapon was lousy, but fearless goats, who did not know predators, were easily given into hands.

Scottish nature showed itself even on a desert island with minimal opportunities for a civilized life. It is not known whether Alexander Selkirk cooked haggis from goat offal (probably yes), but what he did in Scotch was housing. In 2008, archaeologists were able to find traces of two huts built opposite each other by Selkirk.

This was done in the tradition of the Highland shepherds: it is customary to set up not one, but two shacks nearby: for housing and for cooking and storing food. Obviously, this was a necessity where, due to strong wind buildings could instantly burn to the ground (even in this case, the shepherd had at least a roof over his head).

Even feral cats were domesticated - without them, all Selkirk's reserves would have been devoured by greedy and embittered rats. So over the years he has more or less adjusted the way of life and made life here bearable. But loneliness tormented him and, in order not to completely lose his mind, the pirate every day read psalms aloud to his goats and cats. Not that even such a shock could make him a religious person, but there were no other hobbies foreseen here.

All these days, Alexander kept his calendar, marking the days lived. Four years later, it turns out that he got confused and noted for himself a couple of extra months of life on the island - apparently, sometimes, having forgotten, he celebrated the same day twice. When all entertainment is limited to reading the Bible, squeezing wild cats and hunting goats, making such a mistake is easy.

Alexander Selkirk is saved
and Daniel Defoe is the best story of his life

Twice ships sailed past the island and twice it was the damned Spaniards. Even in such a situation, Robinson preferred not to mess with them and hid from the possible eyes of the sailors. Considering how many of them he sent to feed the sea creatures, it was not worth waiting for anything other than execution. Finally, in 1709, after four and a half years of ordeal and hardship, he saw the British flag and heard a familiar speech. Perhaps no Scotsman in history rejoiced so much at the arrival of the English.

It turned out that these were not just regular sailors, but the team of that same adventurer William Damper, which once included Selkirk himself. Some of the pirates might even recognize this man, covered in mud and goatskins, as an old comrade who was remembered for his exuberant temper and highland accent. During the years of loneliness, Robinson almost lost his speech skills. He could speak with difficulty, but his scolding and sailor's dialect once again convinced the saviors that they were facing an experienced British privateer, and not some native.

The “savage” was washed, shaved, made his hero, and Captain Woods Rogers, who was in charge of the expedition, immediately announced Selkirk as the governor of the island “colonized” by him in four years. His subsequent life was full of curious events, but they did not come close in terms of brightness of impressions with this dull hell, in which he almost lost his mind from boredom, bleating goats and monotony.

Saving Private Selkirk

Alexander Selkirk arrived in Britain and for some time became a star of almost national scale: newspapers wrote about him, an idle public was interested in him, and even elite. He received a lot of money for those times - 800 pounds sterling - and could afford to live comfortably. The same Captain Woods Rogers, who saved Selkirk, gave him a considerable place in his bestseller of those times " Trip around the world: the adventures of an English corsair.

Alexander often told his story in pubs, but, of course, not everyone believed him, so the quick-tempered Robinson had to use his fists to prove the truth of his words. For some time he cohabited with a lady of dubious moral character, and later married, but to another - a cheerful widowed innkeeper named Francis Candace.

It can be said that bitter experience taught him nothing, and one day he again became a sailor. The former pirate joined the corsair hunters, although in the professional sense there was little difference - sail and board the Spaniards and French. But you can say otherwise: he was disgusted by the land, and drinking companions in pubs seemed not much more interesting than the goats to whom he read psalms on the island of Mas-a-Tierra. On one of these trips along West Africa Alexander Selkirk died of yellow fever, and his body was buried in the waters near Guinea. Restless and rebellious, he did not want to stay on too stable and boring land, and the sea took him forever.

The business of hunting pirates is not much different from piracy itself.

Most likely, before writing his "Robinson Crusoe" in 1719, Daniel Defoe saw Alexander Selkirk and listened to his story. After all, there were too many details in the novel that fit life on the island. To avoid accusations of plagiarism, Defoe sent his hero to the Caribbean and changed his name. In addition, he combined two stories about the lost on the island of Mas a Tierra: the story of Selkirk and the same Indian who lived there long before him. In Robinson Crusoe, the Indian servant, forgotten by the Spaniards, turned into Friday, so it's a stretch to say that he had his own real prototype.

By the way, in the continuation of the adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Defoe described his wanderings in Siberia, China and South-East Asia. So, for example, in the book the hero spends eight months in Tobolsk, simultaneously studying the customs and life of the Tatars and Cossacks, who seem to the British no less exotic than the tribes of cannibals. It is not hard to guess that these stories have neither slightest relation to Alexander Selkirk and Daniel Defoe, once inspired by the story of a Scottish sailor, just got carried away.

It is widely known that the English writer Daniel Defoe (circa 1660-1731), the author of the novel about Robinson Crusoe, did not invent the story of his hero. The prototype of the latter was a Scottish sailor, boatswain of the English ship "Five Ports" Alexander Selkirk, who lived alone on the island of Masa Tierra for 1580 days, or 4 years and 4 months (from 1705 to 1709)

However, not many people know that A. Selkirk had a predecessor who, more than half a century earlier, managed to live on a barren piece of land off the coast of Peru for 7 long years - from 1540 to 1547. It turned out to be the Spanish sailor Pedro Serrano. This brave man, having shown will, perseverance, courage, defeated death and came out with honor from combat with nature. And it was extremely difficult to do so.

The island on which he landed after a shipwreck was a long 8-kilometer sand bar. There was no vegetation of any kind here, and there was not a drop of fresh water. The dire situation of the sailor was also aggravated by the fact that of the most necessary things at his disposal there were only a knife and the clothes that were on him.

By the way, when A. Selkirk left the ship, there were clothes, a gun, gunpowder, bullets, a knife, a steel, a bowler hat, as well as a compass, a pickaxe and a Bible. In addition, on his island, he did not lack either drinking water or food. The Robinson boatswain ate fish, lobster, goat meat, and even diversified his diet with cabbage, which grew in abundance on Mas-a-Tierra.

Pedro Serrano could only dream of all this. He was tormented by hunger, thirst, at night the cold caused suffering. Although there were a lot of dry algae and fragments of wood around, there was nothing to start a fire with. The sailor was close to despair, as he well understood that he was doomed to starvation. And then one day, already for the umpteenth time examining his "possessions", he noticed turtles climbing along the dry sand to the island.

P. Serrano turned over several of them on his back, then cut the throat of one animal and pressed his dry lips to the wound ... The blood of the reptile quenched his thirst, it was insipid and somewhat reminiscent of fish juice. Turtle meat turned out to be edible, and most importantly, quite nutritious. In the future, Pedro harvested it for the future - cut it into small pieces and dried it in the hot sun.

Animal shells also came in handy. The sailor made vessels out of them, in which he collected heavenly moisture. The poor man was saved.

There were a great many turtles on this piece of land lost in the ocean, but eating their raw meat was disgusting. Fire was needed. Hot food can be cooked on a fire, and the smoke rising to the sky gave hope for salvation. As already mentioned, there was plenty of fuel. Threads from dry clothes could well have served as tinder, a metal knife - flint, but there was not a single stone around. Perhaps they can be found underwater? During a calm sea, a sailor dived to exhaustion near the shore, trying to find at least small stones ...

Finally, he was lucky, and with the help of the found “flint”, a fire blazed with a bright flame. To prevent the rain from extinguishing the fire, obtained with such difficulty, Serrano built a canopy over it from tortoise shells. As it turned out, the animals were useful for all occasions.

Three years have passed. All attempts to attract at least some ship to the island with the smoke of a fire were in vain. Every day, for long hours, Robinson peered into the horizon until his eyes hurt, but the snow-white sails that appeared in the distance invariably “dissolved” in the boundless expanses of the ocean.

One morning during breakfast, the unwitting settler of the island saw a two-legged creature heading towards his hearth. At first, the man did not notice the hermit... but when he saw the overgrown robinson, he screamed and rushed away. Serrano did the same, for he thought that the devil himself had visited him. Without stopping, he shouted at the top of his voice: "Jesus, deliver me from the devil!" Hearing this, the stranger stopped and shouted: “Brother, do not run away from me! I am a Christian, just like you!” Serrano did not stop. Then the stranger began to read a prayer aloud. The sailor turned back. He approached a man dressed in blue pants and a shirt and wrapped his arms around him.

The unknown person said that his ship was wrecked, and he himself, grabbing a piece of the mast, reached the island. Unfortunately, the annals of history have not preserved the name of the second Robinson. Serrano offered everything he had - water, meat, fish, which he now obtained with a harpoon made from a piece of wood tipped with a sharp fish bone.

Now there were two of them, and they lived in friendship and harmony. The household was run jointly: one watched the fire, collected dry algae or wood fragments thrown out by the sea, the other got food. IN free time had long conversations, telling each other about their past lives. But then the topics of conversation were exhausted. People barely exchanged a few phrases. Then followed reproaches, anger, absolute silence. Often, because of grievances on insignificant occasions, even fights arose ...

They broke up. Now everyone hunted turtles, fished, kept fire on their territory of the island. Time passed - and reconciliation came. One of the sailors had the determination to be the first to take a step forward. Tears of shame flowed down their faces, lips trembled, but there was also boundless joy - the joy that they were together again.

And then, finally, a ship approached the island. A boat was lowered into the water, and the sailors unanimously piled on the oars. Approaching the shore, the rowers saw two hairy "fiends" standing on the sand. Frightened, muttering prayers, they immediately turned back. At any moment, the thread of hope for salvation could break...

Serrano and his comrade shouted with all their might: "Come back, we are people!" But the boat was still moving towards the ship. Driven to despair, the Robinsons sang a prayer loudly. The boat turned back to face the sandbar.

With undisguised fear, the sailors examined and felt the shaggy creatures, and then delivered them to the ship, where the companion Pedro Serrano, unable to withstand the excitement, died of a broken heart. The survivor was taken first to Spain, and then to Germany, to show the emperor. To prove his story, Serrano did not cut his hair, and during the trip he, like an exotic beast, was shown to everyone for a certain bribe.

The emperor granted the brave "robinson" great wealth - 4000 ounces (1 ounce = 29.86 g) of gold. Using this gift, the sailor wanted to settle in Peru opposite the island where he spent 7 years, but he died on the way there.

Australian hermit

And are the modern "Robinsons" known, after reading these lines, the reader will ask? Yes, they are known. And the most dramatic was the fate of the Australian hermit James Karol. This happened in 1926. One day, Dr. Korlyand and his friends went hunting in that part of the Green Continent, where the villages of cannibals were still preserved. Having entered into friendly communication with them, the traveler learned that a white man lived nearby. A company of hunters became interested in this "dark-faced" savage and decided to visit him...

Approaching the cave pointed out by the natives, they suddenly heard the growl of the beast. A few minutes later, a shaggy head emerged from her womb. Korlyand ran towards the gorilla-like creature, but as soon as it noticed the alien, it attacked the alien with such force that the hunter fell. The doctor's companions rushed to the rescue and grabbed the furry creature. They tried to speak English, French, German and Dutch, but in response the savage only growled and tried to bite people. He was tied up and only then entered the cave.

To the greatest surprise, they found a thick notebook-diary, which this man-beast kept for a number of years. From the manuscript it turned out that Dr. James Carol lived in a stone dwelling, who 25 years ago killed his wife out of jealousy and ran away from despair and fear, no one knows where. In his diary, he wrote about his experiences in the wilderness, surrounded by dangerous beasts and poisonous animals. Over time, the fugitive turned into a beast. Karol was placed in a sanatorium near Sydney. His further fate is unknown.

Yes, not everyone who was cut off from people managed to remain a person. After all, man is a social being, and the most terrible punishment for him is the oppressive fear of Loneliness.

Bad experience

In 1962, French radio reporter Georges de Connes decided to experience firsthand what Robinson Crusoe had to do on a desert island. For his experiment, he chose the deserted island of Henao in Polynesia, which once served as a place of exile for convicts, and decided to live on it all alone for a year. The reporter took with him a large supply of canned food, medicines, tools, as well as a radio transmitter, which he could use for 5 minutes daily.

The experience ended badly. After a 4-month stay on the island, having lost 15 kg in weight, he was taken to a hospital in the Marquesas Islands. De Kon admitted that he could not stand the loneliness and gave in to mosquitoes and sharks, which did not allow him to fish.

Robinson reluctantly

And here are the circumstances under which the 44-year-old civil aviation pilot Henri Bourdin and his wife José began their Robinsonade. At the end of 1966, they set off on a multi-month journey on their yacht "Singa Betina" from Singapore to their homeland. The storm that broke out severely damaged the fragile ship of sailors, knocked it off course, and after many weeks of drifting, the broken yacht was brought to the shores small island Bathurst is 5D miles north of the Australian port of Darwin.

Travelers were so confident that they would be quickly discovered that they did not bother to worry about food supplies for a long time. They brought only some rice, flour and canned food from the yacht. But days, weeks passed, and the Bourdins realized that they were isolated.

When the provisions ran out, the couple began to eat crabs, lizards, snails. “The island was full of poisonous snakes,” José said. - I was so afraid that they would bite us. We listened to music - we had a portable radio and a transistor tape recorder that survived on the yacht. Bach and Mozart were our true friends. They helped us stay sane." It took a long two months, but the worst was yet to come.

“My husband made a raft from the wreckage of a yacht. We decided to get to the mainland ... ”However, the wood from which it was built quickly swelled and lost its buoyancy. Alone among the endless water desert, without food - only a cauldron with fresh water Slowly, very slowly, they began to sink. It is not clear how miraculously the tree that absorbed moisture could still withstand their weight. So endless hours passed. It seemed to people that death itself had turned its back on them. The spouses still had the remnants of their strength, they stood waist-deep in water, and the raft slowly moved across the ocean ...

Four days passed. José and Henri were still alive. The celestial luminary was declining, a little more, and it would go beyond the horizon. “I looked up,” the woman continued, “and I saw a ship... Mirage? Hallucination? No! It seems that it noticed us, I screamed. My husband had the strength to light a smoke bomb - I don’t know how he managed to keep it dry. The unfortunates were rescued by an Australian patrol boat.

In 1974 four shipwrecked young adventurers spent 42 days on coral reef in the Tasman Sea. Only when the seventh week of their "imprisonment" had gone did the fishing trawler manage to break through the storm and take on board the people completely exhausted by thirst and hunger.

Frivolous travelers defied the elements of the sea, setting off on a small yacht from the New Zealand city of Auckland to the Australian port of Sydney. They had to overcome 1280 miles. As specialists from the sea rescue center in Canberra later stated, it was one of the most unprepared trips. The ocean, however, accepted a daring challenge: 350 miles from east coast The treacherous reef of Middleton was waiting for the yacht in Australia...

This underwater shoal, completely hidden under water during a big wave, has earned the sad reputation of a ship cemetery. Among his victims were a cargo ship with a displacement of 13.5 thousand tons and a fishing schooner, in the wreckage of which would-be Robinsons took refuge from the scorching rays of the sun, wind and rain.

In the same year, members of the crew of an American warship, having landed on Polynesian island Anto-razh in the Cook archipelago, which was listed in the sailing directions as uninhabited, they found there ... Robinson. It turned out to be New Zealander Tom Neal. He said that for the past two years he has been living on this piece of land, having become disillusioned with the "charms of a capitalist society of equal opportunities."

On the island he raised chickens, pigs and pigeons. Together with Neil there was only his faithful dog. On the offer to return home, the hermit answered with a categorical refusal. And when the sailors offered him American newspapers and magazines, he said: “Your world does not interest me!” The path of voluntary loneliness he chose continues to this day.

Concluding the story, it is impossible not to dwell on the amazing fate of another modern robinson- 14-year-old boy Sasha Barash, who lived with his father in the village of one of the Soviet oceanological stations in Primorye.

In 1977, while sailing on the Burun research boat, he was washed overboard. The boy swam to a deserted island. All the wealth of the victim was: worn clothes, a penknife, two large safety pins, a pencil stub, a two-meter piece of nylon cord and sneakers. He ate eggs of seagulls, mussels, edible wild plants. A month later, the boy was rescued by Soviet border guards.

After a safe return, in a conversation with a correspondent of the Pacific Komsomolets newspaper, the young Robinson said: “One evening, for the umpteenth time, I recalled the islands described in the books of Jules Verne and Defoe. I suddenly felt funny. How did these writers think! None of the ways (survival) described in " Mysterious island"and" Robinson Crusoe ", I never came in handy."

And indeed, as we see, each Robinson found own way to survive, each went his own way to salvation.

Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe", or rather its first part, was based just on real events.
The prototype of Robinson was the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the 27-year-old boatswain of the Sankpore ship, which was part of the flotilla under the command of William Dampier, in 1704 went to the shores South America. Hot-tempered and wayward, he constantly came into conflict with the captain of the ship, Stradling. After another quarrel that took place near the island of Mas a Tierra, Selkirk demanded to be dropped off; the captain immediately granted his request. True, later the sailor asked the captain to cancel his order, but he was inexorable, and Selkirk was able to leave the island only after more than four years.

Alexander Selkirk had some things necessary for survival: an ax, a gun, a supply of gunpowder, etc. Suffering from loneliness, Selkirk got used to the island and gradually acquired the necessary survival skills. At first, his diet was meager - he ate shellfish, but over time he got used to it and found feral domestic goats on the island. Once upon a time, people lived here who brought these animals with them, but after they left the island, the goats became wild. He hunted them, thereby adding much-needed meat to his diet. Soon Selkirk tamed them and received milk from them. From vegetable crops, he found wild turnips, cabbage and black pepper, as well as some berries.

Rats were a danger to him, but fortunately for him, wild cats, previously brought by people, also lived on the island. In their company, he could sleep peacefully without fear of rodents. Selkirk built himself two huts out of pimento wood. His gunpowder supplies ran low and he was forced to hunt goats without a gun. While pursuing them, he once became so carried away by his pursuit that he did not notice the cliff from which he fell and lay like that for some time, miraculously surviving.

In order not to forget the English speech, he constantly read the Bible aloud. Not to say that he was a pious person - that's how he heard a human voice. When his clothes began to wear out, he began to use goatskins for them. As the son of a tanner, Selkirk knew well how to dress skins. After his shoes wore out, he did not make himself new ones, because his feet, rough with calluses, allowed him to walk without shoes. He also found old barrel hoops and was able to make something like a knife out of them.

One day, two ships arrived on the island, which turned out to be Spanish, and England and Spain were enemies in those days. Selkirk could have been arrested or even killed, since he was a privateer, and he made the difficult decision for himself to hide from the Spaniards.
Salvation came to him on February 1, 1709. It was the English ship the Duke, with Captain Woodes Rogers, who named Selkirk the governor of the island.

I am sure many of you know about the life of Robinson Crusoe. But few people know that Daniel Defoe described a story that is actually real...

When Alexander Selkirk, a sailor from Scotland, turned 19, he left his family and got into the crew of the Cinque Ports ship, which in the Pacific Ocean in 1703 took part in the corsair raid of the Dampier pirate squadron. Alexander was well treated, so he was appointed assistant captain. And the leadership of the ship after the death of the first captain was taken by Thomas Stradling. He was a rather tough man and treated everyone badly, including Selkirk.

It was too hard for Alexander to be on a ship that went closer to Chile, to the Juan Fernandez archipelago. At this time, he made a conscious decision to leave the ship and stay on one of the islands. Alexander hoped that the British or French would take him sooner or later, so he took with him only what he considered necessary: ​​a knife, an ax, bullets, gunpowder, navigational instruments and a blanket.

Loneliness on the island did not break Selkirk. And his analytical mind helped him survive among wildlife. He built a dwelling for himself, learned to get his own food (hunted marine life, ate plants), tamed wild goats. This went on for a long time. In anticipation of at least some kind of ship, he had to live alone, doing various things necessary for existence (clothing, a calendar, for example). One day he saw a Spanish ship sailing near the shore. But, remembering that England and Spain became rivals, Selkirk decided to hide.

So four years passed. The expedition of Woods Rogers, passing near the island, kindly took Alexander. His appearance, of course, was wild: long hair, a beard that had grown out quite a bit, clothes made of goat skins, he had forgotten human speech, which was restored after a while. Defoe according to the eyewitness Rogers and wrote a novel that is still known. The island where Selkirs lived to this day is called the island of Robinson Crusoe, which attracts many curious tourists.

Daniel Defoe's novel was inspired by Alexander Selkirk. Unlike many Robinsons, who became so by the will of a tragic accident, the 27-year-old boatswain of the Sankpore Selkirk became a victim of his own character.

The very first. Alexander Selkirk

Hot-tempered and wayward, he constantly came into conflict with the captain of the ship, Stradling. After another quarrel that took place near the island of Mas a Tierra, Selkirk demanded to be dropped off. No sooner said than done, the brawler's request was granted. Attempts to return to the ship came to nothing. The disgraced boatswain spent four years on the island. Here he built two huts and an observation post, hunted wild goats. Upon returning home, he talked a lot about his adventures. Selkirk was again drawn to the sea, he entered the Royal Navy with the rank of lieutenant and died on board the royal ship Weymouth from yellow fever.

Today's. Jose Ivan

In early 2014, on the Ebon Atoll, which is part of Marshall Islands in the Pacific, two local residents found a man who, according to him, spent about 16 months at sea. His boat during this trip was wrecked and lost its propeller. It was possible to find out that Jose Ivan and his friend sailed from Mexico in the fall of 2012 and headed for El Salvador. After the accident, they wandered the ocean for a long time, friend Jose died a few months ago. They ate fish, birds, drank rainwater and turtle blood. The found sea robinson now looks appropriate: he has long hair and a beard.

The youngest. imayata

In February 1977, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the girl Imayata went with her friends to fish in the river. While fishing, the boat capsized. The girl did not return home. Everyone believed that Imayata was dead. She was met by chance already in 1983. A twelve-year-old girl who lived alone for more than six years even forgot native language. The parents, who had buried their daughter in their thoughts for a long time, immediately recognized her.

Record holder. Jeremy Beebs

In 1911, during a hurricane in the southern part Pacific Ocean The English schooner Beautiful Bliss sank. Only 14-year-old cabin boy Jeremy Beebs was lucky enough to get to the shore and escape on a desert island. boy in literally Literature saved him - he was very fond of and knew by heart the novel by Daniel Defoe. Beebs kept a wooden calendar, built a hut, learned to hunt, ate fruit and drank coconut milk. While he lived on the island, two world wars took place in the world, the atomic bomb and the personal computer were created. Biebs knew nothing about it. Found it by accident. In 1985, the crew of a German ship unexpectedly discovered a record holder among Robinsons, who had already reached 88 years old, and delivered him to his homeland.

From brokers to Robinsons. David Glashin

What does a person do when he loses 6.5 million dollars as a result of an operation on the stock exchange? There may be many answers, but David Glashin came up with his own version: in 1993, he rented a third of Restoration Island, which is near northeast coast Australia (Australia). According to the terms of the deal, he must settle here fishing And tourism infrastructure. Apparently, David was not going to fulfill the promise. He pays £13,000 a year and leads a hermit life here. David earns money by playing on the stock exchange via the Internet. He grows vegetables and brews his own beer. By court order, he is ordered to leave the island, but Robinson the broker returns to Big world does not want. He lives quite comfortably on the island alone with his dog Quasi.

Dream Island. Brandon Grimshaw

In the early 60s, Brandon went on a business trip to the Seychelles. This working trip changed his life forever - he decided to stay on the uninhabitable island of Moyen. Grimshaw was an entrepreneur and had enough money to secure the legal basis for his recluse. Brandon bought the island and started looking for those who lived here before. His search was crowned with success, he found the Creole Rene Lafortuno. He was so imbued with the history of Grimshaw that he left his wife and children and kept Brandon company. "Robinson and Friday" do not just live on the island, but support nature with all their might, they planted 16,000 trees each, breed turtles and create all conditions for comfortable life birds. To do this, Brandon even brought water to his island. Their efforts were appreciated according to their merits: in 2008 the island acquired the status national park. Today, the history of Grimshaw is widely known and the island is constantly visited by tourists. As a memory of those days when Brandon's hermitage was just beginning, he wrote the book "The Story of a Man and His Island".

In harmony with nature. Masafuni Nagasaki

Once Masafuni Nagasaki was a photographer, worked in the entertainment industry, but the norms set by society disgusted his freedom-loving character. Then he decided to leave the human world. For more than 20 years, Masafuni has been living on the island of Sotobanari, west coast Iriomote Islands, Okinawa Prefecture. Volunteer Robinson feeds on rice, drinks rainwater, which he collects in pots placed throughout the island. Masafuni dresses only once a week, when he has to go by boat for rice to the nearest settlement (an hour's journey across the ocean). His family sends him money. The purpose of his voluntary imprisonment on the island of Nagasaki defines very simply: "Finding a place where you want to die is very important, and I decided to find peace here."