Alexander Selkirk

The story of Robinson Crusoe.

Take it from the story of Alexander Selkirk.

Alone on an island for years, surviving to be rescued.

I told that story here once before in season four.

But he gave his mate's name, Baffin, to the lonely land that lines the northern side of the straits.

Novelists are frequently accused of sensationalism and exaggeration, but if, as tradition seems to suggest, Hudson were still alive seven hundred miles south at the lower end of the bay, straining vain eyes for a sail at sea, like Alexander Selkirk of a later day, with a Button and a Gibbon and a Bylot and a Baffin searching for him with echoing cannon roll and useless call in the north, then the life and death of the old pathfinder are more like a tale from Defoe than a story of real life.

The English merchant adventurers then gave up, possibly for the good reason that they had emptied their purses.

This brings us to the year 1617, with no northwest passage discovered, and very little other reward for the toll of life and heroism during seven years.

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum.

Chapter eleven, consisting of The Islanders at Juan Fernandez Entertained with Yankee Doughnuts; The Beauties of Robinson Crusoe's Realm; The Mountain Monument to Alexander Selkirk; Robinson Crusoe's Cave; A Stroll with the Children of the Island; Westward Ho! with a Friendly Gale; A Month's Free Sailing with the Southern Cross and the Sun for Guides; Sighting the Marquesas; Experience in Reckoning.

The spray being secured, the islanders returned to the coffee and doughnuts, and I was more than flattered when they did not slight my buns, as the Professor had done in the Strait of Magellan.

Between buns and doughnuts there was little difference except in name.

The adults were mostly from the mainland of South America.

One lady there, from Chile, who made a flying jib for the spray, taking her pay in tallow, would be called a belle at Newport.

Blessed island of Juan Fernandez! Why Alexander Selkirk ever left you was more than I could make out.

A large ship which had arrived some time before, on fire, had been stranded at the head of the bay, and as the sea smashed her to pieces on the rocks after the fire was drowned, the islanders picked up the timbers and utilized them in the construction of houses, which naturally presented a ship-like appearance.

The loneliness that starves the heart, tortures the brain, and leaves the mind diseased.

The loneliness that is exemplified in the solitude of Alexander Selkirk.

Robinson Crusoe lived in very truth for me the moment I saw and comprehended that summer isle.

He also is immortal.

No, he wasn't.

That TV programme, it was French, wasn't it? And of course, Robinson Crusoe Is it Selkirk? Is that his name? He was Scottish.

He lived on the other side of the Firth of Forth.

Not the Firth of Fifth.

From the Juan Fernandez Islands, we have this update.

The X-Ray Radio Zero team reports that key expedition equipment has reached Alexander Selkirk in the Juan Fernandez Islands, marking the important step toward the planned early October operations.

I still don't have a hard date yet, by the way.

The team says morale is high after months of planning, especially because reaching the remote island requires careful coordination by sea and on the ground.

There is a lovely pub culture.

There's also, again, if I tie it back to history, Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe.

There is a connection with Kinsale.

So we have a restaurant called the Man Friday.