Selkirk, Alexander

The early years

Alexander Selcraig was born in the fishing village of Lower Largo, in Fife County, Scotland, United Kingdom into a family of shoemaker John Selcraig. Father wanted Alexander to continue his work, but the young man dreamed of wandering around and in August 1695 he ran away from home, returning home only in 1701 . Where Selkreig disappeared for 6 years is not known for certain, perhaps he joined the Buccaneers in the Caribbean .

William Dampier Expedition

In 1703, the 27-year-old Selkreig was appointed boatswain of the Sank Por ship, which was part of the flotilla under the command of William Dampier and, thanks to a record in the ship's logbook, transformed from Selkreig to Selkirk. In 1704, the expedition went to the shores of South America . Hot-tempered and wayward, he constantly came into conflict with Lieutenant Thomas Stradling. After another quarrel that occurred near the island of Mas-a-Tierra , Selkirk demanded that he be dropped off; the captain immediately granted his request. Later, the sailor asked the captain to cancel his order, but he was implacable, and Selkirk could leave the island only more than four years later on one of the ships of the Woods Rogers expedition.

Returning in 1711 to his hometown of Largo, Selkirk at first lived quietly; He visited pubs where he talked about his adventures. Judging by the memoirs of his contemporaries, he was a good storyteller. So, in 1713, Sir Richard Steele noted in the Englishman magazine that “it is very interesting to listen to him, he thinks soberly and very vividly describes the soul’s presence at different stages of such long loneliness”.

Further Life

However, Selkirk could not get used to the new situation. He entered the Royal Navy with the rank of lieutenant and died aboard the Weymouth vessel. According to the records of the ship's magazine, death occurred at 8 pm on December 13, 1721; the cause was probably yellow fever . Selkirk was buried at sea off the coast of West Africa .

Island Life

Alexander Selkirk had things necessary for survival ： a gun, a supply of gunpowder and bullets for it, an ax, a knife, a flint, a cauldron, a couple of pounds of tobacco, a chest, navigational instruments, a Bible, other spiritual books and treatises on navigation. Suffering from loneliness, Selkirk got used to the island and gradually acquired the necessary survival skills. At first, his diet was poor - he ate shellfish , but eventually got accustomed and found feral domestic goats on the island. Once the Spanish colonists lived here, bringing these animals with them, but after they left the island, the goats went wild. He hunted them, thereby adding meat so necessary for him to his diet. Soon Selkirk tamed them and received milk from them. Also on the island inhabited by sea lions, seals, turtles, numerous birds. From plant crops, he found wild turnips, cabbage and black pepper , as well as some berries.

Rats were a danger to him, but luckily, wild cats that had previously been brought by people lived on the island. In their company, he could sleep peacefully without fear of rodents. At first, Selkirk lived in a cave, but then he built himself two huts from a tree of medicinal pimenta and an observation post, from where he observed the ocean horizon .

When the supply of gunpowder came to an end, Selkirk was forced to hunt goats without a gun, running after them at great speed. In pursuit of one of them, he once became so carried away by his pursuit that he did not notice the precipice, into which he fell, having lost consciousness for a while. When he awoke, Selkirk discovered under him the body of a chased goat, which became a kind of “shock absorber”. After some time in a cliff, he returned to one of his huts, in which he lay there for another 10 days, not having the strength to stand up.

In order not to forget the English language, he constantly read the Bible aloud. Not to say that he was a devout person - so he heard a human voice. When his clothes began to wear out, he began to use goat skins for her. As the son of a tanner , Selkirk knew well how to make skins. Instead of a needle, he used a nail. After his shoes were worn out, he did not make new ones, because his legs, hardened by corns, allowed him to walk without shoes. He also found old hoops from barrels and was able to make them look like a knife, and he made the goblet out of a coconut shell.

Once two ships arrived on the island, which turned out to be Spanish, and England and Spain at that time were enemies (there was a war for the Spanish inheritance ). The Spaniards attacked Selkirk and he was forced to hide in a tree deep in the island.

Salvation came to him on February 1, 1709. It was the English ship “Duke”, with Captain Woods Rogers , who called Selkirk the governor of the island.

The life of Robinson Crusoe in the Defoe novel of the same name was more colorful and eventful. After many years of solitude, the hermit managed to make a friend for himself, which did not happen to Selkirk. Alexander did not meet the bloodthirsty cannibal Indians, as described in the book.

The island Alexander-Selkirk located near the Robinson Crusoe Island was named directly in honor of the sailor. In 2008, scientists of the British Society of Post-Medieval Archeology discovered the site of Alexander Selkirk ^[1] . The finds of archaeologists suggest that, being on the island, the sailor built two huts near the stream and an observation post from which it was possible to see passing ships. A pair of navigation instruments from the beginning of the 18th century, which are believed to belong to Selkirk, were also found there: the ship's captain, who discovered the Scotsman, mentioned that some mathematical tools were also lifted aboard.

In the hometown of Alexander Selkirk, Lower Largo, the house where Selkirk was born was preserved. In the house you can see a couple of pistols belonging to Selkirk and a goblet made by him on the island from coconut shells. Also in his hometown is a monument to the sailor.

• Who was the prototype of Robinson Crusoe?
• The report of the Russian tourist who visited the island in 2013. It eliminates many inaccuracies, distorted facts on the topic, found in abundance on the network.