The story that inspired Robinson Crusoe - Alexander Selkirk was was marooned alone on an island off Chile for 5 years. Fascinating, although Selkirk himself does not seem to have been a very nice fellow. I had no idea that Defoe's book is considered one of the first novels in English.

Amusingly enough, the actual island Selkirk lived on (then known as Isla Más a Tierra) is now called "Robinson Crusoe's Island" (Isla Robinson Crusoe) and another nearby island (Isla Más Afuera, which Selkirk probably never visited) has been renamed "Selkirk's Island" (Isla Alejandro Selkirk). Guess which name has more pull as a tourist draw??

I read this for the 2015 version of kiwiinengland's Around the World Reading Challenge.

Reserved for booklady331's Non-Fiction VBB (round 2).

Claimed from booklady331's Non-Fiction VBB and headed for Utah!

I'll count this controlled release for Firegirl's 4 Elements challenge and Secretariat's Oh, the Places We Can Go challenge.

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Thanks for sending this book from the nonfiction VBB. This one piqued my interest because one of my ancestors traveled from New York by ship around Cape Horn to San Francisco in the 1840's. I remember hearing the story which included a stop at Selkirk's Island and that Selkirk was the basis for Robinson Crusoe. Looking forward to reading this!

I had heard of Selkirk's Island ever since I was young and my father told me stories about the Ship Brooklyn which sailed from Brooklyn Harbor, New York, and traveled south across the Atlantic equator, around Cape Horn, stopping at the Juan Fernández Islands (Selkirk's Island), then to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), finally docking in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) on July 29, 1846. This ship carried Mormon pioneers including some of my ancestors who later settled in Utah. I always remember my father talking about its stop at the island that was the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe after a long sea voyage around Cape Horn.

I found this narrative of Selkirk to be very compelling reading. "Alexander Selkirk (1676 – 1721) was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean. He survived that ordeal, but succumbed to tropical illness years later while serving aboard HMS Weymouth off West Africa. Selkirk was an unruly youth, and joined buccaneering voyages to the South Pacific during the War of the Spanish Succession. One such expedition was on Cinque Ports, captained by Thomas Stradling under the overall command of William Dampier. Stradling's ship stopped to resupply at the uninhabited Juan Fernández Islands, and Selkirk judged correctly that the craft was unseaworthy and asked to be left there. By the time he was eventually rescued by English privateer Woodes Rogers, in company with Dampier, Selkirk had become adept at hunting and making use of the resources that he found on the island. His story of survival was widely publicized after his return to England, becoming a source of inspiration for writer Daniel Defoe's fictional character Robinson Crusoe."

Souhami's narrative tells not only the story of Selkirk but also provides a very good history of the times including England's use of privateers/pirates in it's war against Spain and France. Selkirk was mainly after riches and glory and cared nothing for others. He actually married two women who fought over his legacy after he died. The time he spent on The Island was also very interesting including his ability to make clothes using goat hides (which Defoe used in Robinson Crusoe), and his other uses for the goats which Defoe did not use in his novel.

Although many believe that Selkirk was Defoe's main inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, I have read that others do not believe this is so. A National Geographic article contends that there were several different stories known by Defoe that contributed to his Crusoe and that there were many differences between the fictional Crusoe and what happened to Selkirk. In any event, I now need to read Robinson Crusoe, another classic that I have neglected!

Off to labmomnm in New Mexico...selected from the NF VBB. Enjoy!

Arrived - thank-you!

This was very interesting, although the back-story about Dampier was a bit of a shock. I knew of him from natural history/biology reading, but I don't recall anything about what he a creep he was. The sections of the book about him ended up being more engrossing for me than the Selkirk story, which was unexpected - I tend to be in the "Enough back story, get to the subject" camp but was fine with non-Selkirk-stuff in this book.
Poor goats.