Five real Robinsons who know everything about life on a desert island (6 photos). Modern Robinson Crusoe from Australia (11 photos)

Once David Glashin lived in Sydney, worked as a broker and made good money, but in 1987 he lost a huge amount on the fall of the stock index. In 1993, together with a girlfriend and a child, a man rented a small uninhabited island off the coast of Australia. His loved ones soon returned to civilization, but Glashin remained. For 20 years, he has adapted to life on the island, made himself a house from an outpost during the Second World War and lives all alone: ​​his only companion is the dog Kwazi.


On October 19, 1987, Black Monday (known as Black Tuesday in Australia), the Dow fell 508 points. It cost Glashin roughly $7.25 million. He recalls: “The next few years were extremely difficult. My wife lost a lot of money and blamed me for it. By and large, our family broke up in 1991.” Courts pressed on Glashin, by 1993 he had lost most his condition and was looking for a way out.

Later that year, he met a Zimbabwean woman who was recently divorced. As Glashin says, they felt about the same, therefore, having learned from a friend about the opportunity to rent inexpensively wild island on the northeast coast of Australia, the couple jumped at the opportunity and settled into a small shack on the beach.

Glashin leased a third of the 1.53 hectare island for 43 years. To do this, he and a partner created the company Restoration Island Priory Ltd. The fee is 13 thousand pounds per year (at the rate of February 13, 2017 - 78 thousand rubles per month).

“It didn't last long,” Glashin says of life with a girlfriend. “She couldn’t handle it, it was too hard for her.” After the woman left, "Robinson" grew a beard and stopped wearing shirts.

Thanks to solar panels on the roof of the house, the islander has electricity, so he gets on the Internet, works on the stock exchange (especially praises investment in uranium), and can buy everything he needs on the mainland: an hour by boat to go there.

True, a man makes these trips infrequently: on the island he extracts coconuts, catches fish and crabs, and also grows fruits and vegetables himself and makes beer. Live in uninhabited place taught him simple survival skills: "If you don't learn this, you'll die here pretty soon."

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, one cannot help but 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.

The exciting adventures of the protagonist of Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" have long become classics. But history knows many cases when people got alone on uninhabited islands, and everything turned out to be much more prosaic than in an adventure novel. How real "Robinsons" managed to survive in extreme conditions - further in the review.

Alexander Selkirk

Once, after another skirmish, the boatswain began to exclaim that he was landed on nearest island, because he cannot bear the whole crew. The captain with great satisfaction did what the sailor so hastily asked for. When Selkirk was escorted to the coast of Mas a Tierra, he would have been glad to apologize, but it was already too late.

Fortunately for Selkirk, colonists once lived on the island. As they left, they abandoned the cats and goats, which had already run wild. The boatswain managed to re-domesticate animals, thereby providing himself with food.

After 4 years and 4 months, a ship under the British flag "Duke" landed on the shores of the island. The Selkirk was brought back to Scotland. There, the former sailor became a real celebrity. Reporters vying with each other interviewed him, simple onlookers over a glass of alcohol with their mouths open listened wonderful story salvation. One such listener was the writer Daniel Defoe, who based his novel about Robinson Crusoe on the adventures of the sailor Selkirk.

Pavel Vavilov

A month and three days lasted Vavilov's survival in the Arctic on a desert island. When food supplies were already running out, Vavilov managed to attract the attention of the Sakko ship passing by. The stoker was rescued.

Sergei Lisitsyn

If in famous novel about Robinson Crusoe main character turns out to be on a tropical island, then in the case of Lisitsyn, it happened in a much colder climate.

For seven months the unfortunate hussar was alone. Then, after another storm, he found a man lying on the shore. The rescued man introduced himself as Vasily and said that the ship he was on had leaked. Everyone sailed away, but he was forgotten. To the delight of Lisitsyn, there were cattle and small cattle on the ship.

At the same time, the Chinese began to more actively raid the Amur region, so Russian warships began to arrive there. One of them discovered "Russian Robinsons". Isolation lasted 7 months.

Gerald Kingsland and Lucy Irvine

Sometimes it happens that people consciously refuse the benefits of civilization and go to a desert island. This is exactly what journalist Gerald Kingsland did in the early 1980s. It was a kind of social experiment in which it was necessary to hold out whole year. Kingsland advertised looking for a partner. Lucy Irwin agreed to go with him. The experiment took place in 1982. The couple arranged a fictitious marriage in order to go to the island, which was located between Australia and New Guinea, without delays at the border.

As it turned out, the newly-made spouses had little in common. Moreover, they constantly quarreled on domestic grounds. A few months later, a severe drought led to the fact that voluntary hermits were without fresh water. They were rescued by natives from a neighboring island.

Upon arrival in the UK, Kingsland and Irvine immediately filed for divorce. Each of them wrote a book, outlining personal experience stay on a desert island. Literary works became bestsellers, and films were made based on them.

Englishman Brendon Grimshaw earned the nickname of the modern day Robinson because

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 over 20 years, Masafuni has lived on Sotobanari Island, off the west coast of Iriomote Island, 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."

The story of the island hermits on Robinson Crusoe (whose prototype is the son of a Scottish shoemaker, Selkirk, a drunkard and rowdy) does not end there. What do others, including modern Robinsons, do, who are they and how do they live?

Australian Downshifting: David Glashin
Once David Glashin was a stock broker, had his own business and a mansion in Sydney. But in 1987, he went bankrupt on a large investment and lost almost all of his money. Disappointed in his former life, he decided to leave the world of people and go to paradise - not in heaven, but quite on earth, on Renaissance Island, which is not far from the northeast coast of Australia.

Former Australian entrepreneur and stockbroker David Glashin became a recluse on a desert island
The island was uninhabited, and Glashin leased it, promising the authorities to turn the place into a tourist resort. He moved here in 1993, taking with him dishes, furniture, a refrigerator and a laptop. And also - a spouse, a child and a dog named Kwazi. The first, however, did not enjoy the wild life for long and soon fled to the continent with the child. But the dog remained faithful to the end.

Even with a minimum of improvised means, if desired, you can achieve very, very much
Glashin's voluntary exile continues to this day. I must say that the hermit still has not lost touch with civilization (on the roof of his house there are solar panels, so Glashin cannot live without electricity), uses the Internet and even earns money on the stock exchange. This allows him to shop for big land, although he, of course, receives most of the diet on the island: coconuts - on wild palm trees, fish - in the ocean, vegetables - from his garden. And he makes it himself - they say, quite tasty.

According to Glashin, the island changed him a lot.
Robinson's cloudless existence is overshadowed only by his unfulfilled obligations, which is why the authorities have been trying to evict him from the island for 16 years in a row. However, Glashin intends to live in paradise until the end of his days, and he, of course, does not need a tourist health resort here.

David goes on the Internet, mainly to check the dating, on which he left a request that he is looking for his Friday for life on a secluded island. He even sent a photo with a mannequin so that the girls understood his desperate situation. Many responded, but no one dared to keep him company.

One way or another, he is satisfied with life and wants to live on this island until the end of his days.

Back to the Ancestors: Masafumi Nagasaki
This modern Robinson hails from the Country rising sun abandoned the benefits of civilization a little more than completely, leaving himself only a tent, some of the dishes and yes plastic bottles. His island Sotobanari (which translates as "island in the distance") is located south of Japan and quite close to Taiwan. The area of ​​the island is a little more than a kilometer, it is surrounded by dangerous currents, and there are no sources of fresh water here. But there are no people either. Only Nagasaki lives here with his pet crow.

The Japanese island of Sotobanari, part of Okinawa Prefecture, is surrounded by dangerous currents and has no sources of fresh water. It is considered uninhabited, even fishermen are rare guests here
A successful photographer from the world of show business suddenly dropped everything and moved to the island. It was in 1992. Today Masafumi is 79 years old. The hermit has a lot to do: in the morning, obligatory bathing, then exercises, cooking, cleaning and washing dishes. All things must be done before sunset - then the attack of tropical insects will begin. It doesn't seem to be a lot of work if you live in a warm apartment somewhere in Voronezh. But on a wild island, every little thing turns into exhausting work. The main problem of Nagasaki is typhoons. Once such a hurricane destroyed all the trees on the island, and Masafumi had to roast in the sun for a whole year, not being able to hide in the shade - except perhaps under his canopy.

“Somewhere in the second year of my stay here, the island was covered by a typhoon. For about a year there was no shade at all, and I just roasted in the sun. I almost decided that this place is uninhabitable, ”says the hermit
Once a week, a man goes to the nearest settlement (on neighboring island) for your favorite rice balls and drinking water(Money is sent to him monthly by his brother). And Masafumi hates these days the most, because he has to wear clothes - on his island he walks completely naked, not counting the slippers on his feet and a towel on his head - protection from the scorching sun. However, Nagasaki is absolutely happy and intends to end his life here. “I decided that this is the place for me, this is where I will die,” he says.

“I don't do what society tells me to do, but I follow the laws of nature. These laws cannot be overcome, so you just have to obey them. That's what I learned when I came here. Walking naked is against the laws of normal society, but here, on the island, it's the only way, it's like a uniform. If you get dressed, you feel out of place here. ”

“Before, I really didn’t think about how important it is to choose a place for your departure from this world. You can, of course, die in a hospital or at home surrounded by family. But you know, to die here, surrounded by such nature - can there be anything better than this?

Alone in the Arctic: Ada Blackjack
Well, when hermitage is a voluntary matter. You are a man. And you were thrown into the tropics. What about a forced “vacation” in the Arctic?

In August 1921, a Canadian scientific expedition went to Wrangel Island (in Chukchi Umkilir, which means "polar bear island"), located in the Northern Arctic Ocean. The island, as today, belonged to our country, but in those days Canada had views of it. The main task of the polar explorers was to conquer impregnable island and founding a Canadian colony on it.

The hunting went very badly, food was sorely lacking. Unable to endure such a life, in January 1923, three polar explorers - Crawford, Maurer and Halle - went to the mainland for help. Nobody else saw them. And in April, Knight died of scurvy. Ada was left alone. She was accompanied by a cat named Vic.

The expedition consisted of four men: Allan Crawford (leader), Milton Galle, Fred Maurer and Lorne Knight, as well as a woman - Ada Blackjack. She was not a professional polar explorer, like the rest of the team, but she was an Eskimo. The 25-year-old was supposed to help prepare food for the team members and arrange life. In such dangerous journey she ventured to go to earn money for the treatment of her son, who had tuberculosis. Two of her children (and her husband) had already died at that time, she wanted to save the life of the third, although she had to give the boy to an orphanage during the trip.

Other than a salary and a few hundred dollars for the furs Ada made on the island, the woman made no profit from the trip, despite the publication of several books and articles about her history.
At first, everything went well - people had a supply of food and guns for hunting. Replenishment of provisions was expected next summer, but due to poor ice conditions, the arriving ship was never able to approach the island. The same thing happened a couple of months later. The hunting went very badly, food was sorely lacking. Unable to endure such a life, in January 1923, three polar explorers - Crawford, Maurer and Halle - went to the mainland for help. Nobody else saw them. And in April, Knight died of scurvy. Ada was left alone. She was accompanied by a cat named Vic.

Ada did not know how to hunt, but the dying Knight told her how to do it, and the woman hunted foxes, ducks and seals. She also kept a diary and read the Bible. In August 1923, a ship moored to Wrangel Island. Severely malnourished, Ada, who had spent five months all alone, was rescued. With the proceeds from the expedition (in addition, Ada kept the skins of the foxes killed by her and then sold them), the woman cured her sick son. And then she gave birth to another child, returned to Alaska, where she died at the age of 85.

A book has been written about Ada (“Ada Blackjack: The True Story of a Survivor in the Arctic” by Jennifer Niven; not translated into Russian), but for some reason not a single film has been made yet.

Hostage of the Sea: Jose Salvador Alvarenga
On January 30, 2014, Amy Libokmeto and Russell Lakedrick, the owners of a home in a deserted place in the Marshall Islands, were frightened by a heartbreaking scream. Running out into the street, they saw an overgrown man in torn underwear. In his hand he held . The man continued to shout in an unfamiliar language, and then fell to his knees and repeated only one word: "Jose, José."

the hosts of the house gave him something to eat, watching how he devoured food: like a wolf - without raising his head. Amy, Russell, and the other islanders didn't understand him, as he spoke Spanish and local population- in English and Micronesian dialects. The situation was saved by a Norwegian anthropology student who had an internship here - he partly knew Spanish. And this is what the man told him.

His name is José Alvarenga. He's 37 years old. He is a fisherman and worked in one of the villages on west coast Mexico. November 17, 2012 he went to sea with a partner named Ezequiel Cordoba. A day later, the motor on their boat broke down, and then they got into a storm. There was no means of navigation on the simple boat (except for the walkie-talkie, which broke down almost immediately), so all they had to do was wait. The fishermen did not even have food with them, apart from a few sandwiches and a couple of bottles of water. And there were no oars. Meanwhile, they were washed out into the open ocean.

The sailor's revelations cannot be called too detailed - he partially lost his memory. But even these data suggest that the history of mankind has not yet known anything like this.
Until the radio broke down, Jose managed to inform his superiors that they were in trouble. They were looking for them for a couple of days, and then, citing fog and bad weather, they waved their hand. Men fished with their bare hands and ate raw. But most often came across seabirds that landed on the edge of the boat. To quench their thirst, they accumulated rainwater, but for the most part they drank the blood of dead animals, and also ... their own urine. Jose's partner was sick of such food, he ate less and less every day, and slept more and more. One day he just didn't wake up. According to Jose, for several days he kept Ezequiel's corpse in the boat in the hope that they would be found, and then threw it into the water. It was then that Jose had thoughts of suicide, but he resisted. Several times he saw ships passing by, and once they even noticed him, waved to him, and then sailed away.

Jose does not yet know what he will do next, but he is sure of two things: he will remain in Garita Palmer until old age and will never go to sea again
The story of José, who spent 14 months in open ocean in an old boat without oars, food and water, having traveled 10,000 km, was so incredible that not everyone believed in it. But later research (including a lie detector test) showed that the man is still telling the truth. At home (it turned out that although Jose worked illegally in Mexico, he was originally from El Salvador) he was met by the whole city. But the relatives of the deceased partner sued, claiming that Jose ate Cordoba. Alvarenga, of course, denies this.