Alexander Selkirk

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Statue of Alexander Selkirk in the birthplace of Lower Largo

Alexander Selkirk (actually Selcraig ) (* 1676 in Lower Largo, Fife , Scotland ; † December 13, 1721 on board the ship Weymouth) was a Scottish navigator and adventurer . He is considered the model for Daniel Defoe's character Robinson Crusoe from the novel of the same name as well as for other Robinsonads .

Life

youth

Alexander Selkirk grew up as the youngest and sixth son of a Scottish shoemaker and tannery owner . Little is known about his childhood and youth. He is said to have had a contentious and disobedient disposition. On April 11, 1696, he was summoned to the church assembly for improper behavior in the church.

sailor

From 1695 he went to sea and had contacts with buccaneers early on . Since he often came into conflict with the law because of his propensity for alcohol and fights on land, he hired in 1704 on the English privateer St. George under Captain William Dampier as sailing master in order to evade British jurisdiction. The St. George was escorted by the smaller Cinque Ports under Captain Stradling. Equipped with a letter of piracy from the British Crown, she was supposed to hunt French and Spanish ships off the coast of South America.

Map of the Juan Fernández Islands

When the foray was unsuccessful, Selkirk got into an argument with Dampier and switched to the Cinque Ports . In October 1704 the ships reached today's Juan Fernández Archipelago west of the Chilean coast in the Pacific. They needed new supplies and fresh water.

When they landed on the uninhabited Isla Más a Tierra , it turned out that the hull of the ship was very badly damaged by drilling shells . Selkirk was determined to stay on the island and tried to persuade other shipmates to stay, fearing the ship might sink. When he realized that he was on his own with his opinion, according to an anecdote, he is said to have exclaimed: "I've changed my mind." "But I haven't," replied the captain coolly and let himself be rowed back to the ship. As it turned out, Selkirk had made the right choice, as the ship sank a little later and almost the entire crew drowned.

Robinsonade

Since the island had sufficient drinking water, fruits, fish and seals, and Selkirk showed appropriate skill in the exploitation of these resources, he managed to survive on the island for four years and four months. According to various sources, Selkirk is said to have had the following items of equipment: a musket with gunpowder and bullets, tobacco, flint , additional clothing, an ax, a knife, a kettle and a Bible.

Initially, Selkirk stayed near the beach because he heard strange noises on the island, which he attributed to dangerous animals. During this time he camped in a small cave and ate shellfish . Every day he searched the sea for possible salvation and suffered from loneliness and depression. Perhaps hordes of sea lions mating on the beach were the motivation for him to go into the interior of the island.

His life got a lot better there. A host of new sources of food were available: Juan Fernández goats provided meat and milk; Wild parsnips , radishes and pepper berries offered variety. Rats introduced by seafarers have been a problem. They harassed and bit him at night. But when he tamed feral cats and lived near them, he could sleep peacefully.

Selkirk made exceptional use of what he had brought with him from the ship and what the island later provided him. He built two huts out of allspice trees and used muskets and knives to hunt and eviscerate the goats. When he ran out of gunpowder, he was forced to hunt his prey on foot. This resulted in a serious injury when he stumbled off a cliff and remained unconscious for a day (luckily, his prey intervened in the fall, saving him even more serious injuries).

He read the Bible frequently, which was beneficial to his state of mind and kept him using human language. When his clothes were tattered, he made a new robe out of goatskin, using a nail to sew. When he could no longer use his shoes, his feet became hardened and numb, so that he found new shoes unnecessary. He also forged a new knife from iron barrel rings that had been left on the beach.

Salvation and Later Life

In 1707 he sighted a ship off the coast for the first time. They were hostile Spaniards. They discovered Selkirk and chased him into the island jungle, where they lost his trail. As a British and pirate driver, he faced a fate worse than death if caught.

The long-awaited rescue happened on February 2, 1709. The British ship Duke , a privateer under Captain Woodes Rogers and William Dampier , who only sailed as a navigator this time , anchored off the island, picked up Selkirk and brought him back to civilization . Rogers may have made him his assistant and put him in command of one of his prizes .

In 1712, Woodes Rogers published the book Cruising Voyage , which contained an account of Selkirk's adventures.

Selkirk's rescue, during which he was almost accidentally shot, is detailed in the Duke's log , as is the location of his camp about an hour from the coast.

Back at home, Selkirk continued his original way of life and went to sea again. In 1717 he had returned to his birthplace, Lower Largo, but only stayed a few months. At the age of 41 he met the 16-year-old milkmaid Sophia Bruce and escaped to London with his lover. But within a year he was back at sea. While visiting Plymouth , he married a widowed innkeeper. He was then accused of fraudulent marriage, presumably avoiding a possible trial by hiring again.

Selkirk allegedly died of yellow fever on December 13, 1721 as a lieutenant aboard the British warship Weymouth . He received a seaman's grave off the west coast of Africa.

archeology

In 2005, the archaeologist David Caldwell and the enthusiast Daisuke Takahashi found Selkirk's camp site at a height of 300 meters on the mountainside on a joint excavation expedition. Among the excavation finds was part of a compass that could be assigned to Selkirk. In contrast, the Kiel geoarchaeologists Andreas Mieth and Hans-Rudolf Bork assume that the dwelling attributed to Selkirk is the remains of a Spanish base. Her research in 2011 also suggests that a beach cave where Selkirk is believed to have stayed was most likely blown into the rock by English sailors.

Honors

Memorial plaque for Alexander Selkirk at Selkirk's lookout point on Robinson Crusoe Island

In 1966 the island where Selkirk lived was renamed Robinson Crusoe . A memorial stone there today commemorates his fate. The uninhabited Isla Más Afuera , the westernmost of the Juan Fernández Islands , has since been renamed Alejandro Selkirk in honor of the Scottish navigator . Also the plant genus Selkirkia Hemsl. from the family of Borage Family (Boraginaceae) has been named after him.

literature

  • William Funnell: A Voyage Round the World . W. Botham for J. Knapton, London 1707.
  • Edward Cooke: A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World . B. Lintot and R. Gosling, London 1712.
  • Woodes Rogers: Cruising Voyage round the World: First to the South Seas, thence to the East-Indies, and homewards by the Cape of Good Hope . Andrew Bell, London 1718.
  • Richard Steele: The Englishman , Issue 26, London 1713 (This issue of the magazine contains Steele's article on Selkirk, which Defoe is likely to have given the main impetus).
  • Nikolaus Stingl (ed.): The true Robinson or the rule of providence. Life and adventures of Alexander Selkirk compiled and edited by Nikolaus Stingl. Robinson, Frankfurt / Main 1980. (= Library of Adventure. ) ISBN 3-88592-002-6 .
  • History of shipwrecks or news of the strangest fates and events of the most famous seafarers on their journeys to different parts of the world. Second volume. Vossische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1791. Therein: X. Events of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who was abandoned on the island of Juan Fernandez in 1704: together with the story of an Indian mosquito that stayed on the same island in 1681 (pp. 163–178) .

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Alexander Selkirk  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Lambert, Andrew: In: Documentation: Terra X - The Treasure Island of Robinson Crusoe
  2. Stranded in Paradise in: Der Spiegel
  3. Süddeutsche.de of August 13, 2011: Science in Paradise: Robinson Crusoe Island, Pacific , requested on August 14, 2011
  4. Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - extended edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .