5 days in the life of a robinson on the island. Robinsons involuntarily: stories of real people who ended up on uninhabited islands

March 18, 2014, 21:46

I think everyone knows and many people love the book by Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe. But does everyone know who became the prototype of the protagonist of this book?

Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721) - Scottish sailor who spent 4 years and 4 months (in 1704-1709) on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra, which is part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, located in the Pacific Ocean, 640 kilometers from the coast of Chile. It was this man who served as the prototype of the literary hero of the novel.

Alexander came to the island not after a shipwreck, but of his own free will. In 1704, after another skirmish with the captain of the ship, on which Selkirk, being a member of the team (boatswain), went on a predatory expedition, usual for that time, with the aim of capturing and robbing Spanish ships, he decided to leave the ship, which by that time was already pretty worn out and gave a leak.

Selkirk chose to commit himself to fate on a deserted island than to remain on a dilapidated ship under the command of a hostile captain. In his heart, he hoped that he would not have to stay on the island for a long time. After all, ships often came here for fresh water. In the meantime, in order not to die of hunger, it was necessary to take care of food - food supplies were left to him only for one day. And besides, he took with him: a flintlock gun, a pound of gunpowder, bullets and flint, clothes and linen, tobacco, an ax, a knife, a cauldron, he did not even forget the Bible.

In total, Alexander Selkirk spent 4 years and 4 months on the island, and was rescued in January 1709. But only on October 14, 1711, he returned to England, and 8 years later Daniel Defoe wrote the book "The Life and Amazing Adventures of the Sailor Robinson Crusoe", which has been read all over the world for almost three centuries.

Spanish sailor Pedro Serrano 1540 - 1547:

In 1540, a Spanish galleon was wrecked off the coast of Peru. The only survivor was the sailor Pedro Serrano. His salvation was a small piece of land on which there was no water and the only vegetation was dry algae. Also, there was not a single stone on the sandy spit, and in order to get fire, the sailor had to search the seabed and get a few small pebbles. The only thing you could eat in this place - turtles. After three years of loneliness, fate gave Serrano a companion - a sailor from a ship that was wrecked off the coast of this island. So together these two lived on the island for another 4 years, until they were rescued by sailors passing by the ship.

English sailor Daniel Foss (late 18th century):

This tragic story began with the fact that the ship "Negotiator", which hunted in northern seas on seals, collided with an iceberg and sank. 21 crew members managed to lower the boat and escape. After 1.5 months of wandering on the waves, only two survived. The boat was washed ashore, and Foss lost his last comrade. He lived on the island for five years, eating only seals, and rainwater saved him from thirst. After this long time, the poor fellow was noticed on a passing ship, but it was impossible to approach the island. Then, seizing his oar, the optimistic sailor threw himself into the water and swam to the ship.

Four Russian sailors (approximately 1742-1749):

A ship with a crew of 14 people fell into an ice trap near one of the islands of the eastern Svalbard. It made no sense to stay on the ship, and the sailors decided to land on the island and spend the winter here. From the previous wintering on the island, a wooden hut should have been preserved. The scouts sent to the island discovered it and stayed overnight, and in the morning they hurried to the shore, but to their horror there was no ship - the storm raged all night and the ship, most likely, either crashed or was carried away to the open sea.

People ate half-baked meat obtained on the hunt, because. were forced to save precious fuel for heating the hut. After seven long years, when only three survived - one of the sailors Verigin died of scurvy - a ship belonging to a rich merchant approached the island, and he returned them to their homeland. The sailors took with them all their savings, bear and deer skins, fox skins, etc. in September 1749, the Pomors returned to Arkhangelsk.

This story formed the basis of two books - the first (1766) by the French scientist Pierre Leroy, the second by the American writer David Roberts.

dutch sailor (name not known):

In 1748, the English captain Mawson discovered human remains and a diary on one of the gloomy islands of the Ascension archipelago, which told the sad story of a Dutch sailor accused of a terrible crime and left on this island. At that time, the island was far from sea routes and was uninhabited.

The convict was left with some equipment and weapons, which were useless, because. forgot to leave gunpowder. The sailor at first ate birds, which he knocked down with stones and turtles. Instead of water, he chewed shellfish. Later, the Dutchman found water, but it was located far from the place where he got his livelihood. Every time, languishing from the heat, he carried water in bowlers. These journeys took him a whole day, and it all ended with the fact that the source that gave him water dried up, and the man slowly died of thirst and hunger. Plus, he was tormented by remorse and hallucinations appeared, which made his end even more terrible.

Vavilov Pavel Ivanovich, sailor of the Arctic fleet (1942):

On August 24, 1942, the icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov" left the city of Dikson, carrying out a voyage with equipment and personnel for a new polar station on Severnaya Zemlya. The next day, near Beluga Island in the Kara Sea, a Soviet icebreaker met the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer. A battle broke out between the ships, the Sibiryakov was sunk, and the surviving part of the crew was taken prisoner by the enemy. Fireman Pavel Vavilov was the only survivor who managed to escape capture.

After the ship went under water, most of the sailors were drawn into the resulting water funnel, Pavel Vavilov was lucky to grab hold of the wooden remains of the ship and stay on the surface. With the last of his strength, he was able to get out on an empty lifeboat and was able to get to the uninhabited island of Belukha. In the boat, the sailor found food, matches, an ax, a loaded revolver, fished out a sleeping bag and a bag of clothes from the water. There was a lighthouse on the island, in which Vavilov found refuge.

According to various sources, Pavel Ivanovich Vavilov spent 34 to 37 days on a polar rocky island. Passing steamers did not notice the sailor, hoping to wave his jersey on the shore. However, when the food was almost over and frosts were approaching, he was noticed from the Sakko steamer passing by and a seaplane was sent for the sailor.

In history, another polar robinsonade is known, this time single-handedly committed by a Russian hunter Yakov Minkov who lived on Bering Island (from the Commander Islands group) in the Pacific Ocean for seven whole years.

It happened in 1805, when the navigator Potapov left him in a yurt for
this island to protect fox pelts caught during the fishing season. The schooner was to return here in a few days. Weeks, months passed, and she was still gone. However, deprived of the most necessary things, Minkov did not lose his presence of mind: his ingenuity and ingenuity saved him. Nearby was a river rich in fish. To provide himself with food, Minkov made
hook and started fishing. Fire was made with flint. Only in 1812, Yakov Minkova took off a passing by from a deserted island.
schooner.

And in 1983 in the jungle of the famous Indonesian island
Sumatra, on the banks of the river South Sarmat, hunters accidentally met
12 year old girl Imayatu who lived here alone from above
six years old. In February 1977, she went with her friends to fish on the river.
ku did not return. Everyone believed that Imayata died when the boat with the unlucky fishermen capsized.

The girl went wild, forgot native language but happy parents her immediately
did know. It is interesting that they found the girl just 20 km from her native
villages. This is probably the youngest of the known modern Robinsons.

A few examples of "voluntary Robinsons":

1. Japanese pensioner Masafumi Nagasaki has been living alone on the island of Sotobanari (Okinawa) for 20 years without a source of fresh water. Once the Japanese worked as a photographer, then he fully experienced the dark side of the entertainment industry. He says he wanted to get away from all this once and for all.

2. David Glashin and his dog Quasi are the only residents on tiny Recovery Island near Cape York. Glashin, 65, is a former businessman who traded laptop bags about 2 decades ago after the stock market crash in 1987. His first marriage, from which he has two daughters, ended at the same time. The former CEO of the company considers the loss of his entire fortune one of the best things that happened in his life.

Glashin moved to the island in 1993. He improved the island somewhat, but it still remains a "wild" place. I liked its simplicity and remoteness Russell Crowe and Daniel Spencer who stopped there to spend their honeymoon.

Apart from occasional visits by tourists and passing yachts, he admits he gets lonely in his little paradise, which is why the now divorced father of three puts up ads looking for a woman who loves a quiet and lonely life, without any neighbors.

3. The unusual experience of Swiss snowboarder Xavier Rosset - he decided to try to survive on a deserted island in the south Pacific Ocean for ten months, with only the essentials. The island with an area of ​​60 km2 lies 1600 km from New Zealand, with an active volcano, a rocky coast 20 meters wide and a large crater lake. There are many wild boars on the island and the vegetation is so dense that it is impossible to pass without a machete.

A machete, a knife, a first aid kit, and equipment to upload new videos to his site weekly are all that is in his backpack.
Rosset says the lonely island project combines his dream of adventure with a strong belief in being able to live in harmony with nature without harming it. “It's really important for me to show that I can live 300 days without polluting the environment. But mostly I will do it because it's great to make your dreams come true."

4. A mechanic from Munich, disappointed in life, decided to settle on a small island in the South China Sea, renting the island for 99 years. Friedrich Texter was able to rent this island for as much as 99 years for the amount he paid for the rent of his apartment per year, namely 6,000 German marks. Friedrich settled in a small hut made of bamboo. His clothes are all quite simple, which is made from various pieces of fabric. On the islet, Texter has a mini-farm for chickens, numbering about five dozen birds. He grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. All the food he easily suffices for a good existence. By the way, the space owned by Friedrich Texter reaches approximately 5 square kilometers, which includes only the jungle, sand and rocks.

Most importantly, the temperature here is constantly sunny and warm, it does not fall below 22 degrees. Sometimes this inhabitant of the island gives special signals thanks to mirrors and some friends from Palawan sail to him. Texter is constantly trading. He sells personally grown food, and buys the most necessary things for his existence.

Thank you all for your attention!

Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" is one of the most popular and books read in the world. In many languages, even a new word "robinson" has appeared, which means a person who lives away from other people. But stories about how someone gets on a desert island and spends several years there all alone happened in real life. Sometimes the adventures of non-fictional Robinsons are even more incredible than the plot of Robinson Crusoe. Here are some of them.

Story one
The most famous non-fictional Robinson

The most famous non-fictional Robinson in the world was named Alexander Selkirk. It was his memoirs that became the basis of Daniel Defoe's novel, and it was his adventures that are described in Robinson Crusoe - though not exactly the same, but in a slightly modified form.

Selkirk was a Scot and served as boatswain on the pirate galley Sank Port. Because of a quarrel with the captain, he had to leave the ship to the small deserted island of Mas-a-Tierra in the Pacific Ocean. This happened in May 1704.

The sailor built himself a hut from logs and leaves, learned to make fire by rubbing one piece of wood against another, and even managed to tame wild goats, which other travelers brought to Mas a Tierra many years ago. He ate meat of sea turtles, fish and fruits, sewed clothes from goatskins.

Alexander Selkirk had to spend more than four years on a desert island. On February 2, 1709, two English warships "Duke" and "Duchess" moored to the shore. What was the surprise of the captains and sailors when a man with a thick beard, dressed in a goatskin and who had almost forgotten how to speak, came out to meet them. Selkirk was taken on board the Duke, and after a long voyage, only in 1712 did he finally manage to return to his homeland.

Real story and the plot of the novel are very different. Robinson Crusoe spent 28 years on the island, and Alexander Selkirk - only 4. In a fictional story, the hero of the book had a savage friend Friday, but in reality Selkirk spent all the years on the island completely alone. And another interesting difference is that Defoe in his novel described a completely different island, which is located several thousand kilometers from Mas-a-Tierra (and in 1966 Mas-a-Tierra was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island) - in another ocean and even in another hemisphere!

The uninhabited island described in the novel "Robinson Crusoe" was placed by Daniel Defoe not far from the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean Sea. The author took the nature of the southern Caribbean islands as the basis for the descriptions of his uninhabited island.

A real island Robinson Crusoe is not tropical at all and is located much further south. This island now belongs to Chile and is located 700 kilometers west of the coast South America. The climate here is mild, but not as hot as in Caribbean Islands. The flat part of the island is mainly covered with meadows, and the mountainous part is covered with forest.

Robinson Crusoe Island (former Mas-a-Tierra), where Alexander Selkirk lived for 4 years

Story two
Robinson on the sandbar

This story took place a century and a half earlier than Alexander Selkirk's Robinsonade, but approximately in the same part of the Pacific Ocean.

Spanish sailor Pedro Serrano was the only survivor of a shipwreck that occurred in 1540 off the coast of Peru. Pedro's new home was an uninhabited island, which is just a narrow sandy strip 8 kilometers long.

The island was completely deserted and lifeless; there was not even fresh water here. So the unfortunate sailor would have died, if not for the sea turtles - the only guests of the island. With turtle meat dried in the sun, Pedro was able to satisfy his hunger, and from turtle shells he made bowls to collect rainwater.

Pedro Serrano hunts turtles (illustration for the book)

Pedro Serrano was able to get the fire with the help of stones, for which he had to dive into the sea many times. There were no stones on the island itself, they were found only at the bottom of the ocean.

By burning dry algae and tree debris brought by the waves, the sailor could cook food and keep warm at night.

So 3 years have passed. And then something amazing happened - another person suddenly appeared on the island, also a survivor of the shipwreck. His name, unfortunately, has not been preserved due to the prescription of events.

Together, the Robinsons spent another 7 years on the island, until they were finally picked up by a passing ship.

The island where Robinson Pedro Serrano looked something like this

Story three
Robinson among the seals

Our next hero was called Daniel Foss. He was an American and traveled on a ship called the Negotiator in the South Pacific. But it so happened that on November 25, 1809, the “Negotiant” collided with an iceberg and sank, and only Daniel Foss managed to escape and get to the nearest island. The island, as in the story of Pedro Serrano, turned out to be completely deserted, but not sandy, but rocky. The only inhabitants of the island were numerous seals. The poor Robinson had to eat their meat for several years. And he quenched his thirst with rainwater, which accumulated in the stone recesses of the island.

The only wooden object on the island was an old oar brought here by the waves. On this oar, Foss made notches so as not to get confused in the count of days, and at the same time, in small, small letters, cut out notes about his stay on the island.

From seal skins, Foss was able to sew warm clothes for himself, and from stones he built a solid house with walls about a meter thick. Robinson also built a stone pillar 10 meters high. Every day Foss climbed on it and peered into the distance, looking for a rescue ship. Only after 3 years on the island did he manage to see a sail in the distance, which soon disappeared over the horizon. This case gave our hero a little hope, because if one ship passed nearby, then others may well pass.

Luck smiled at Fost only two more years later. A man swinging an oar was spotted from a passing ship, but the ship was unable to get close to the island because of the dangerous rocky shoals. Then Robinson, risking his life, independently swam to the ship and was finally saved.

This is what the rocky shores of the island looked like, where Daniel Foss spent 5 long years

Story four
Russian northern robinson

Russia also had its own Robinsons. One of them was the hunter Yakov Minkov, who managed to live alone on Bering Island (one of the Commander Islands, not far from Kamchatka) for seven whole years. Unfortunately, we do not know very much about this man and the details of his Robinsonade.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Yakov Minkov, along with other hunters, sailed on a fishing vessel along northern islands. The main task of the voyage was to hunt foxes (these animals with very valuable fur are found only in the far north). In 1805, the captain of a fishing vessel landed a hunter on Bering Island “to guard the caught fishery” and promised to return for him in two months.

But the ship went off course and could not find a way back, and the poor hunter had to survive all alone on a northern island with a harsh climate. He lived in a small fishing hut left by someone, fished, built himself warm clothes and shoes from the skins of arctic foxes and fur seals.

It was especially difficult during the long and frosty northern winters. Yakov Minkov built himself a yurt for wintering. It happened that it was completely covered with snow during snowstorms.

Despite all the difficulties, the northern robinson managed to survive, wait for the schooner passing by the island and escape. In 1812, Yakov Minkov finally returned home.

Bering Island, where Russian hunter Yakov Minkov spent 7 years

Story five
Volunteer Robinson

Survival alone on a desert island is voluntary. One of the most famous voluntary Robinsons in the world was the New Zealander Tom Neal.

In 1957, he settled on the deserted coral island of Suvorov in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps you will immediately ask, where did the island come from, named after the Russian commander? Everything is very simple - the Russian traveler Mikhail Lazarev discovered Suvorov Island (he also discovered Antarctica), who traveled on a ship called "Suvorov".

Tom Neal is well prepared for life on the island. He took with him a large supply of fuel, matches, blankets, soap, brought with him cereal seeds. He also brought chickens and pigs with him to the island. Robinson's lunch menu was complemented by fish, sea turtle eggs, and the nuts of numerous coconut trees.

In 1960, an American ship unexpectedly arrived on Suvorov Island. Tom Neal was not at all happy to meet people. “I am very saddened, gentlemen, that I was not warned of your arrival in advance. I apologize for my suit,” he mockingly replied to the American sailors. Tom Neal even refused American newspapers and magazines offered to him. "Your world doesn't interest me at all," he declared.

In 1966, after 9 years of Robinsonade, Tom Neal came to his homeland for a short time to publish his book "An Island for Yourself" (here you can read it), and in 1967 he returned to Suvorov Island again.

And only in 1977, the already quite elderly Tom Neal left his island forever and moved to the mainland.

Suvorov Island from a bird's eye view

Book by Tom Neil "Alone on the Island"

After the appearance of Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe", the name from the title of the book quickly became a household name. Robinson began to be called anyone who, on his own initiative or by the will of fate, was away from people.

Sometimes the adventures of the most famous non-fictional Robinsons turn out to be even more interesting than the stories about hermits described in books.

Alexander Selkirk - the prototype of Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe, when writing the novel Robinson Crusoe, used the memoirs of the Scot Alexander Selkirk. The story of the unfortunate traveler is indeed similar to the events described in the novel, but there are still a number of significant differences.

Being the boatswain of a pirate ship, Selkirk fell into disfavor with the captain in May 1704. The consequences of the quarrel was the landing of a sailor on the deserted island of Mas-a-Tierra, which is located in the Pacific Ocean, and where Friday was not even heard of a friend. Despite the difficult living conditions, Alexander was able to achieve some success during his stay on the island.

For example, tame wild goats. It was in the company of these horned ones that English ships found him in 1709, and already in 1712 Selkirk managed to return home. The editors of the site recall that Defoe had Robinson's stay on the island for 28 years.

Traveler Daniel Foss

The skin and meat of the seal were able to save another hero of the "Robinsonade" - the American traveler Daniel Foss, whose cruise on the ship "Negotiant" ended with a collision with a huge iceberg. He was the only passenger on the ship who managed to escape by sailing to the rocky island in 1809.

This piece of land was deserted, and there was nothing here but a rookery for seals. An ordinary wooden oar helped the hero to survive, which was washed to the shore of the island by waves. The hero was waving it like a flag when he was seen from a passing ship 5 years later. Moreover, Daniel got to him by swimming, because the captain was afraid to land the ship on a rocky bottom.

Volunteer Robinson – Tom Neal

He also knows the history of voluntary Robinsons. Suvorov Coral Island sheltered Tom Neal in 1957. Unlike his predecessors, the hermit hero had everything he needed with him: food, hygiene products, pets, and even fuel.

In addition, the island was rich in its tropical gifts. When, after 3 years, Tom's stay in paradise was violated by the Americans, he did not even want to hear anything about the world of people. Nevertheless, in 1966, Tom made a short foray into civilization to publish his memoirs and earn money.

With the book "Island for myself" he returned to the island. His inspiration lasted another 10 years, after which Tom Neal left an uninhabited piece of land and went to live out his life in his native New Zealand.

The Magic of Defoe's Book

It is not known how much Daniel Defoe's book was involved in the shipwreck of the schooner "Beautiful Bliss" in 1911, but the fact that it helped Jeremy Beebs survive is certain. A 14-year-old teenager was able to escape on a piece of land in the Pacific Ocean.

He learned his knowledge of calendar keeping, hunting and primitive architecture from a book about Robinson Crusoe, and fresh fruits and coconut milk helped to maintain health until old age. Only in 1985, at the age of 88, he found himself on a German ship that happened to pass by.

The story about the famous hermit from the book by Daniel Defoe is reflected in the cinema. In 2000, the film Cast Away starring Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks was released.

Alexey Khimkov - Russian "Robinson"

Under the leadership of helmsman Alexei Khimkov, the merchant ship went fishing in 1743. In search of walruses near the island of Svalbard, the ship got stuck in arctic ice. A team of several hunters, led by the captain himself, went to land, where they discovered a hut. They took few supplies, as they planned to return to the ship the next day. However, fate decreed otherwise: in one night, the ice, along with the wind, carried the ship to the open sea, where it soon sank.

Khimkov had no choice but to insulate the discovered building for wintering. Rifle cartridges did not last long, but with the help of handy items, the brave team made homemade bows and spears. This was enough to hunt deer and bears. The island was also rich in small game and fish, and salt was mined straight from sea water.

Unfortunately, it was not hunger or cold that lay in wait for them, but ordinary scurvy. In conditions of lack of vital vitamins, one in four died five years later. Another year and a half passed before, in the summer of 1749, a passing ship led by Commander Kornilov noticed the wild Robinsons.

News of the surviving hunters eventually reached Count Shuvalov himself, who was listed at the royal court. It was he who instructed the French citizen Le Roy to write a book about the misadventures of Khimkov called "The Adventures of Four Russian Sailors Brought to the Island of Svalbard by a Storm", which was subsequently published in several languages ​​in different countries peace. We invite you to learn the stories of the most famous travelers.
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According to Daniel Defoe's novel, Robinson Crusoe returned to England on June 10 after 28 years on a desert island. Site columnist Alexei Baikov tells the stories of real Robinsonades.

Robinson Crusoe aka Captain Blood

It is generally accepted that Alexander Selkirk was the prototype of the protagonist of Defoe's novel. This fact now seems to be well known and indisputable. Just wake up any high school student who read at least something, and ask - "what was the name of Robinson Crusoe?" and he, without hesitation, will answer - "Selkirk!". Because it says so in the preface to the book.

Only now, when comparing the adventures of the book Robinson with the history of the Robinsonade of the real Selkirk, a number of inconsistencies immediately come to light. We will talk about them a little later, but for now it’s worth immediately dispelling any theories and saying that for fiction this is in the order of things. Especially for the adventure, written in the century before last, when it was impossible to say a lot about it directly. Yes, and without any politics, transform life real person many authors were simply not interested in entertaining reading, and in some particularly difficult cases, this was also fraught with a lawsuit.

It was much easier to "collect" your character from several real people and spice up fictional circumstances with hints that allowed the understanding public to guess what it was really about. For example, Dumas hid in the story about Milady and diamond pendants a hint of the famous "necklace scam", which, according to Mirabeau, became a prologue to the French Revolution. And so did many fiction writers before and after him.

So, as of today, at least three claim to be the prototype of Robinson Crusoe: actually Alexander Selkirk, Henry Pitman and the Portuguese Fernao Lopez. Let's start with the second one, in order to at the same time explain where Captain Blood suddenly came from in this story from a completely different book.

An unremarkable English doctor, Henry Pitman, once went to visit his mother in the small town of Sanford, in South Lancashire. It happened just in 1685, when James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and part-time bastard of Charles II, landed in the port of Lyme, Dorset, to lead all those dissatisfied with the accession to the English throne of "papist" James Stuart. Pitman joined the rebels not because he was an adherent of the idea of ​​"good old england", but rather out of curiosity and suggesting that someone "might need his services." The services were really needed - the young doctor was quickly noticed by Monmouth himself and appointed as his personal surgeon.

The uprising did not last even a year. On July 4, at Sedgemoor, the royal troops utterly defeated Monmouth's army, which consisted mainly of farmers and philistines armed with scythes, sickles, and other pickaxes. Dressed in a peasant dress, the duke tried to bury himself in a roadside ditch, but was taken out and hanged. In the meantime, they got him out of there, the royal troops carefully combed the surroundings in search of not only the scattered rebels, but also those who could provide them with at least some help. Pitman was still lucky - he was captured and tried, and many others, less fortunate, were killed on the spot on the mere suspicion that they had shared at least a piece of bread with one of Monmouth's supporters.

From this moment, the story of Peter Blood, known to us, actually begins. According to one of the points adopted after the defeat of the "Bloody Asis" uprising, the healing of the rebels was equated with participation in the uprising. And all the participants, in fact, were supposed to have one and a half meters of state-owned rope for their brother. But here, again, fortunately for the real Pitman and the fictional Blood, a small financial hole was discovered near the crown, so they decided to sell everyone who had not yet been hanged into slavery in the West Indies. At that time - quite a common practice, similar to Stalin's sentence "10 years without the right to correspondence."

Further, everything again coincides to the letter. A batch of "convict slaves" was taken to Barbados, where Pitman was bought by planter Robert Bishop (Sabatini readers sigh again at the abundance of coincidences). The former doctor categorically did not like chopping and carrying sugar cane. He tried to protest, for which he was mercilessly beaten with whips, and then subjected to the most terrible punishment for tropical latitudes - he was put up for a day in stocks under the scorching sun. After resting, Pitman firmly decided it was time to run. He secretly bought a boat from a local carpenter and, together with nine comrades, choosing a darker night, sailed away to nowhere.

This is where the life of Peter Blood ends, and the story of Robinson Crusoe, which interests us, begins. Finally, we can recall that the navigator on the Arabella was named Jeremy Peet. The hint is quite obvious.

Well, in reality, Pitman's boat got into a storm. It is not clear what they were counting on at all - apparently that they would be picked up quite quickly by a French, Dutch or pirate ship. But the sea judged otherwise. All the passengers of the boat died, except for Pitman, who was thrown onto the uninhabited island of Salt Tortuga off the coast of Venezuela. There he settled down, and even found his Friday - an Indian, recaptured by him from Spanish corsairs who accidentally swam to the island. In 1689, he nevertheless returned to England, was amnestied and published the book "The Tale of the Great Sufferings and Amazing Adventures of the Surgeon Henry Pitman". She came out 30 years before the first publication of the novel by Daniel Defoe. They were most likely old buddies, given that the author of Robinson Crusoe also took part in the Monmouth Mutiny, but somehow got away with it.

Alexander Selkirk himself

With "Robinson No. 2" sorted out, it's time to say a few words about No. 1. Alexander Selkirk was a pirate, that is, excuse me, a corsair or a privateer, as you like. The only difference was that while some plundered in the Caribbean at their own peril and risk, while others did the same, having an official patent in their pocket, and even crowned persons invested in organizing their expeditions. It was on such a ship to a certain captain Thomas Straidling that 19-year-old Alexander Selkreg was hired.

Yes, yes, no typo, that's what his real name sounded like. Just before boarding the ship, he changed her because of a quarrel with his father and brother. With the Selkregs, the obnoxious temper seems to have been a family heirloom, passed down through the male line. At sea, this trait of his manifested itself in full breadth, and in a year the new ship's carpenter so got the captain of Straidling and the whole crew that, while staying on the island of Mas-a-Tierra off the coast of Chile, they decided to get rid of him.

In fact, landing on a desert island among the pirates was considered a more brutal alternative to the famous "walk on the plank." As a rule, such a punishment was assigned to the members of the team guilty of the mutiny, well, or to the captain in the event that the mutiny turned out to be successful. The island was selected as far as possible from busy sea routes and preferably without sources of fresh water. Those sentenced to disembarkation on the road were given a gentleman's set: some food, a flask of water and a pistol with one bullet in the barrel. The hint is more than transparent - you could drink and eat everything, and then carry out the death sentence on your own, or die painfully from hunger and thirst. Eduard Tich, nicknamed Blackbeard, acted even more cheerfully with the characters of the famous song "Fifteen people on a dead man's chest" by handing them a bottle of rum instead of water. Strong liquor in the heat causes an acute thirst, and Dead Man's Chest is the name of a small rock in the group of British Virgin Islands completely devoid of any vegetation. So the song, in general, is not far from the truth.

Illustration by Igor Ilyinsky for the book "Robinson Crusoe"

But Selkirk was not a rebel, and all his fault was only that he did not know how to get along with people. Apparently, therefore, they did not give him a “suicide kit”, but everything necessary for survival: a musket with a supply of gunpowder and bullets, a blanket, a knife, an ax, a spyglass, tobacco and a Bible.

Having all this, a hereditary carpenter could easily equip his Robinson life. Bypassing the island, he discovered an abandoned Spanish fort, where he found a small supply of gunpowder hidden just in case. Wild goats, brought by the same Spaniards, peacefully grazed in the surrounding forests. It became clear that starvation certainly did not threaten him. Selkirk's problems were of a different sort.

Since Mas-a-Tierra was the first to be discovered by the Spaniards, it was their ships that most often passed by the island, stopping here to replenish fresh water. Meeting with them did not bode well for the sailor expelled from the British corsair ship. With a high degree of probability, Selkirk could immediately, without unnecessary ceremonies, be hung on a yardarm, or they could have been "thrown" to the nearest colony to be judged and sold into slavery there. That is why the real Robinson, unlike the book one, was far from happy with every potential savior, and when he saw a sail on the horizon, he did not make a fire to heaven, but rather tried to hide in the jungle as best he could.

After 4 years and 4 months, luck finally smiled at him in the face of the British privateer "Duke" who accidentally landed on the island, commanded by Woods Rogers - the prototype of the governor of the same name from the TV series "Black Sails". He graciously treated Selkirk, cut his hair, changed clothes, fed him and returned him to England, where he suddenly became a national celebrity and also published a book about his adventures. True, he did not succeed in sitting at home - as a true sailor, he died on board the ship, and his body rested somewhere off the coast West Africa. The island of Mas a Tierra in 1966, the Chilean authorities renamed the island of Robinson Crusoe.

Poor poor Lopez

Robinson candidate No. 3 was discovered relatively recently by the Portuguese explorer Fernanda Durao Ferreira. In her opinion, Defoe was inspired by the adventures of Fernao Lopez, set out in the marine chronicles of the 16th century. Like Selkirk, Lopez became a reluctant Robinson - he was a soldier in the Portuguese colonial contingent in India and went over to the side of the enemy during the siege of Goa. When military luck changed once again and the troops of Admiral Albuquerque nevertheless recaptured the city from Yusuf Adil Shah, the defector was taken prisoner, his right hand, ears and nose were cut off, and on the way back they landed St. Helena, where Napoleon ended his days 300 years later.

There he spent the next few years, settled down and even got himself a Friday - a Javanese thrown out by a storm. And as a pet, he had a trained rooster that followed him everywhere like a dog. During this time to St. Ships repeatedly pestered Elena, but Lopez categorically did not want to go out to people. When they finally found him, for a long time he refused to even talk to his saviors, but instead mumbled "Oh, poor, unfortunate Lopez." So, there are still parallels with Defoe's hero - he also constantly repeated to himself under his breath, "I am a poor, unfortunate Robinson."

Illustration by Igor Ilyinsky for the book "Robinson Crusoe"

In the end, Lopez was persuaded to board the ship. There he was put in order, fed and taken to Portugal, where he had already managed to become something of a legend. He was offered forgiveness from the king and a full indulgence from the Pope, as well as a life sentence in any of the monasteries, but he chose to return to the island, where he died in 1545.

Robinsons and Robinsons

If someone one day gathers strength and writes a complete history of survivalists on uninhabited islands, then her reader may get the impression that there were no uninhabited islands in the oceans in principle. On every piece of land the size of a football field, at least someone once lived, And these are only the famous Robinsons, that is, those few lucky ones who, in the end, were found and saved. There were much more of those who remained on their island, they will be lucky to return to history, perhaps by pure chance, if tourists or archaeologists suddenly stumble upon their remains. But the list of survivors and rescued is impressive in itself - what amazing personalities they were and how non-trivial were the circumstances due to which they eventually ended up on a desert island. It was far from always possible for an ordinary person to find the strength in himself so that, finding himself in a practically hopeless situation, not to break down and literally force himself to survive, against all odds. We can say that these people were "preparing" to become Robinsons from childhood, without knowing it themselves.

Marguerite de la Roque - Robinson for love

Young and inexperienced girl I just wanted to see the world - women from the noble class in those days had such happiness very rarely. When, in 1542, either her own or cousin Jean-Francois de la Roque de Roberval was appointed governor of New France (Canada), Marguerite begged him to take her with him. Well, along the way, it turned out that absolute power and going beyond the boundaries of civilization can corrupt a person beyond recognition and turn him into a real monster.

On board the ship, Margarita began an affair with one of the crew members. When everything was discovered, Jean-Francois was furious at such an attempt on family honor and ordered his sister to be landed on the deserted Demon Island off the coast of Quebec. According to other sources, her lover was ordered to land, and she followed him voluntarily along with her maid.

Illustration by Igor Ilyinsky for the book "Robinson Crusoe"

As soon as they managed to somehow rebuild and explain to the wolves and bears with the help of muskets that they were no longer welcome in this part of the island, it turned out that Margarita was pregnant. Her child died almost immediately after birth, then a maid followed him into the other world and, finally, her lover. Marguerite de la Roque was left alone on Demon Island. Since practically nothing edible grew there, she had to learn to shoot and hunt in order to feed herself. In 1544, Basque fishermen accidentally brought there by a storm discovered Margarita and brought her home. She was immediately granted an audience with Queen Margherita of Navarre, who recorded her story for her collection Heptameron, thanks to which this story has survived to this day.

"Pomeranian Robinsons"

In 1743, the merchant Eremey Okladnikov from the city of Mezen, Arkhangelsk province, equipped a koch at his own expense, hired a team and sent them to hunt whales near the island of Svalbard. The basis for the expedition was to serve as the Starotinsky camp located on the shore, consisting of three huts and a bathhouse - St. John's wort from all over the Russian North stopped there.

At the time of exit from the neck White Sea, flying a strong northwest knocked Koch off course and carried him to the shore of Little Brown Island to the east of Svalbard, where the ship was frozen solid in the ice. This land was well known to the Pomors, and the feeder Alexei Khimkov also knew that not so long ago, St. John's wort from Arkhangelsk had visited here, who seemed to be going to spend the winter and cut down a hut for this. Four people were sent to search for her: the feeder himself, sailors Fyodor Verigin and Stepan Sharapov, and a 15-year-old boy named Ivan. The reconnaissance was successful - the hut was in its place and its previous inhabitants even managed to put down the stove. There they spent the night, and in the morning, returning to the shore, the scouts discovered that all the ice around the island had disappeared, and with it the ship. Something had to be done.

In principle, they had everything for a successful Robinsonade: going in search of a hut, the party took with them guns and a supply of gunpowder, some food, an ax and a bowler hat. The island was full of deer and arctic foxes, so at first they were not threatened by starvation, but gunpowder tends to run out. In addition, Little Brown was by no means in the Caribbean, winter was just coming, and there was practically no vegetation above the top of the boot on the island. They were saved by a "fin" - in this place the sea regularly washed a wide variety of pieces of wood ashore, from the wreckage of dead ships to trees that had fallen somewhere in the water. Nails and hooks protruded from some of the debris. Having exhausted their supplies of gunpowder, the Pomors made bows and arrows for themselves, and during their Robinsonade they killed some unimaginable amount of local fauna with them: about 300 deer and about 570 arctic foxes. From the clay found on the island, they made dishes and fat oil lamps. From animal skins they learned to sew clothes, in a word they repeated Defoe's novel almost word for word. They even managed to avoid the scourge of all polar explorers - scurvy, thanks to herbal decoctions brewed by Alexei Khimkov.

Six years and three months later, they were discovered and picked up by one of Count Shuvalov's ships. All four returned to Arkhangelsk, successfully sold the fox pelts collected during their imprisonment at Maly Brown, and became very rich on that. But the fate of their boat and the crew members remaining on board is still unknown.

Leendert Hasenbosch - Dutch loser

In 1748, the British captain Mawson discovered on one of the islands of the Ascension archipelago sun-bleached bones and the diary of a Dutch sailor sentenced to marooning (as the punishment for landing on a desert island was officially called) for homosexual cohabitation with another member of the team. They even left him some utensils, a tent, a Bible and writing materials, but they forgot about gunpowder, so his musket turned out to be a useless piece of iron.

Illustration by Igor Ilyinsky for the book "Robinson Crusoe"

At first, the Dutchman ate sea birds, which he knocked down with stones, and turtles. The worst was with water - its source was a few kilometers from the coast, where he got his livelihood. As a result, the poor fellow had to carry water in pots for almost half a day. Six months later, the source dried up and the Dutchman began to drink his own urine. And then he slowly and in terrible agony died of thirst.

Juana Maria - the sad maiden of the island of San Nicolás

Initially, this island off the coast of California was quite inhabited - a tiny Indian tribe settled there, living in their isolated world and gradually hunting the sea animal. At the beginning of the 19th century, it was completely exterminated by a party of Russian sea otter hunters who accidentally swam to the island. Only a couple of dozen people survived, whose salvation was taken up by the holy fathers from the Catholic mission of Santa Barbrara. In 1835, they sent a ship for the surviving Indians, but right at the time of landing, a storm began, forcing the captain to give an urgent order to sail. As it turned out later, in the confusion, one of the women was forgotten on the island.

There she spent the next 18 years. And by the way, thanks to the skills learned from childhood to turn the gifts of nature into things useful for the economy, I got a good job. From the bones of whales thrown ashore, she built herself a hut, from the skin of fur seals and feathers of seagulls she sewed clothes for herself, and from the bushes and algae growing on the island she wove baskets, bowls and other utensils.

In 1853, she was found by the captain of the hunting ship, George Nydver. He took a 50-year-old woman with him to Santa Barbara, but there it turned out that no one was even able to understand what she was saying, because by that time the rest of her tribe had died for various reasons and their language was completely forgotten. She was baptized and named Juana Maria, but to begin new life under this name she was not destined - two months later she burned down from amoebic dysentery.

Ada Blackjack is a fearless Inuit girl.

In search of adventure, she was driven by need - her husband and older brother died, and her only son fell ill with tuberculosis. To earn at least some money, she was hired as a cook and seamstress on the ship of the Canadian polar explorer Willamur Stefansson, who intended to establish a permanent settlement on Wrangel Island. On September 16, 1921, the ship landed on Ostroy the first batch of five winterers, including Ada. And next summer they were promised to send a replacement.

At first, everything went well - the settlers killed a dozen polar bears, several dozen seals and countless birds, which allowed them to create quite good reserves of meat and fat. Winter passed, summer came, and the ship he promised never appeared. The following winter, they began to starve. Three wintering participants decided to get to the mainland on the ice of the Chukchi Sea, went into an impenetrable icy hell and disappeared without a trace. Ada, an ill Lorne Knight, and the ship's cat, Vic, were left on the island. In April 1923, Knight died and Ada was left alone. With a cat, of course.

Ada Blackjack with son

She spent the next five months hunting arctic foxes, ducks and seals in conditions that would have made the adventures of 18th-century Pomeranian Robinsons a picnic lunch. In the end, another member of Stefansson's expedition, Harold Noyce, took her off the island. Ada took with her a good supply of polar fox skins obtained during the Robinsonade, selling which she was finally able to pay for her son's treatment.

Pavel Vavilov - wartime robinson

On August 22, 1942, the Soviet icebreaker "Alexander Sibiryakov" took on an unequal battle with the German cruiser "Admiral Scheer" off the coast of about. Home in the Kara Sea. First-class fireman Pavel Vavilov during these events ended up in a part of the ship cut off by fire, and therefore he simply did not hear the command to open the kingstones and leave the ship. An explosion threw him into the water, plucked lifeboats floated nearby, in one of which Vavilov found three boxes of biscuits, matches, axes, a supply of fresh water and a revolver with a supply of cartridges for two drums. On the way, he rescued a sleeping bag with warm clothes folded inside and a burnt dog from the water. Armed with such a set, he swam to Belukha Island.

There he discovered a small gas beacon built of wood, in which he settled. It was not possible to hunt - the family of polar bears that had settled on the island interfered, so Vavilov had to survive on a brew of biscuits and bran and wait for at least someone to notice and save him.

But the lit beacon and the fire lit on the shore, passing by the court, seemed to be deliberately ignored. Finally, after 30 days, a seaplane flew over the island, which dropped a bag of chocolate, condensed milk and cigarettes, in which there was a note "We see you, but we can't land, a very big wave. Tomorrow we will fly again.". But the storms raged such that the famous polar pilot Ivan Cherevichny was able to make his way to Belukha Island only after 4 days. The plane landed on the water and the rubber boat that approached the shore finally completed Vavilov's 35-day Robinsonade.

The Kennedy Coconut Diet

The future president of the United States also had a chance to be robbed - in 1943, the PT-109 torpedo boat, which he commanded, was attacked by a Japanese destroyer. Two crew members were killed and two more were wounded. Eight sailors, along with their captain, were in the water. From the debris floating around they hastily built a raft, loaded the wounded into it, and in a few hours reached a tiny piece of land that bore the name of the island of Raisin Pudding.

John Kennedy. Photo: AP/TASS

There were no edible animals, no water on the island, but coconut palms grew in abundance, which provided them with food and drink for several days. Kennedy thought of scratching messages on the shell of coconuts asking for help and indicating the coordinates. Soon one of these messages was washed aboard a New Zealand torpedo boat, which took the Americans off the island. For saving the lives of his subordinates, the future president received the Medal of the Navy and the Marine Corps from the command, and from grateful compatriots - the nickname "the red-haired prince of America", with which he would enter politics after the war

Williams Haas - get a savior in the face

In 1980, the yacht, driven by the athlete Williams Haas, was blown to pieces by a storm in the area Bahamas. Without any problems, Haas managed to swim to the tiny island of Mir por Vos.

The problems started further. In this area, shipping was quite busy, but no matter how hard Haas tried, not a single ship reacted to the fire he set up. The poor fellow had to build himself a hut, make a distiller for drinking water and learn to catch lizards. As it turned out later, among the sailors of the World who walked in this area, Vos was considered a cursed place and they were afraid to stick to its shores. Because of this superstition, Haas sat on his island for three whole months and managed to become a complete misanthrope. His hatred of humanity took such an aggressive form that he met the helicopter pilot who flew in after him not with cries of joy, but with a direct hook to the jaw.

The fictional hero of the novel by Daniel Defoe spent 28 years on a desert island. This record has been broken in real life.

World map with marked points where the Robinsons were located

1. 1515, Portuguese, aged 30

In 2000, the historian Fernanda Durão Ferreira discovered in the chronicles of the 16th century references to Fernao Lopes, a soldier of the Portuguese colonial contingent in India. He went over to the side of the enemy during the siege of Goa and allegedly converted to Islam. When the Portuguese caught the defector, they cut off his right hand, ears, nose and landed on the island of St. Helena - in 300 years Napoleon Bonaparte will end his life there.

Like the literary Robinson, Fernao had his Friday - a Javanese shipwreck survivor. Instead of a parrot - a trained rooster.

Ships occasionally landed on the shores of St. Helena to replenish fresh water supplies. The sailors knew about the hermit and considered him a saint. Realizing his ugliness, Fernand did not seek to leave the island. He was persuaded to board the ship only after 10 years. The soldier received a pardon from the King of Portugal and an indulgence from the Pope, but chose to return to the island and lived there for another 20 years.

Liberation from punishment for sins.

Admiral di Albuquerque in 1510 recaptured Goa from Adil Shah, the founder of the Bijapur Sultanate. The former owners made several attempts to return it.

View of Saint Helena from space. Photo: NASA

2. 1540, Spaniard, 10 years old

Sailor Pedro Serrano was the only survivor of the wreck of a Spanish galleon off the coast of Peru. The island was unlucky: only 8 kilometers long, with a minimum of vegetation and no sources of fresh water. But there were a lot of turtles on it.

Pedro made fire by hitting stones, burning algae and pieces of wood thrown ashore. Turtles provided food, their shells served as bowls for collecting rainwater and made it possible to make a canopy from the sun.

Three years later, another sailor swam to the island, also a victim of the crash. Together with Serrano, they lived for 7 years, until the smoke of their fire was noticed by a passing sailboat.

Aerial view of Serrano Bank Island, where Pedro Serrano lived for 10 years. Source: militar.org.ua

During the wars of that time, private shipowners received official permission to rob enemy merchant ships. They were called capers. At the beginning of the 18th century, the War of the Spanish Succession was going on. The famous English navigator (the first to circumnavigate the world 3 times) William Dampier equipped two ships for the expedition. One of them was Cinque Ports.

3. 1704, Scot, 4 years old

The navigator of the galley "Cinque Ports" ("Five Ports") Alexander Selkirk had a heavy character even by the standards of privateers. The captain got rid of him while staying on the island of Mas a Tierra off the coast of Chile, leaving him on the shore with a musket, a blanket, an ax, a knife and a telescope.

After the discoverers of Mas-a-Tierra, feral goats remained there. They became a source of milk and meat for Selkirk. The sailor built a hut from trunks and leaves, learned how to make fire. He often saw sails on the horizon, but these were the Spaniards, from whom the British pirate could not ask for help. Compatriots rescued him after 4 years and 4 months - these were again privateers led by William Dampier. The ship's commander was impressed with Selkirk's physical form and peace of mind:

“We were convinced that loneliness and excommunication from the world is not as painful as people think, especially if the person who found himself in such a situation had no other choice than this person had.”

The rescued man continued to sail with pirate crews. The island of Mas-a-Tierra is now named after Robinson Crusoe - according to one version, the story of the Scot formed the basis of the novel by Daniel Defoe. In 2007, archaeologists found the remains of Selkirk's hut and his navigational instruments on the island.

Selkirk Awaits Rescue, sculpture by Thomas Stuart Burnett. Photo: Herbert A. French / Library of Congress

4. 1742, Russians, 6 years old

A fishing vessel with a crew of 14 people was blocked by ice not far from one of the islands of eastern Svalbard. The sailors sent four people ashore to find a wooden hut left from previous winterings. The scouts found her and stayed overnight, and in the morning they did not find the ship, which was carried away and smashed by the waves. Thus began the misadventure of Alexei Khimkov and his comrades.

The sailors made spears and bows, fished, ate half-baked meat of fur-bearing animals - in the Arctic, wood was tight, and driftwood thrown by the waves went to heat the hut. One sailor died of scurvy, three were picked up by a merchant ship. They returned home with wealthy people, because they brought about 200 skins of bears, deer and arctic foxes.

A disease caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C.

Archipelago Spitsbergen. Photo: ashokboghani / Flickr

5. 174?, Dutch, 6 months

In 1748, the crew of an English ship discovered human remains and a diary with the story of a Dutch sailor on Ascension Island in the Atlantic. Leendert Hasenbosch was the ship's treasurer. He was accused of homosexuality and sentenced to marooning, given various equipment, a Bible, a gun without gunpowder, a tent and writing materials.

The Dutchman knocked down birds with stones, ate turtles, and went to the other end of the island for fresh water. The diary tells of desperate daily attempts to get food. Six months later, the water source dried up, the captive drank the blood of birds and turtles, then urine, then died of thirst. A permanent settlement was founded on Ascension only in the 19th century.

Punishment by landing on a desert island.

Ascension Island in the Atlantic. Photo: Drew Avery / Flickr

6. 1805, Russian, 7 years old

Yakov Minkov was a hunter on a fishing vessel. He was landed on Bering Island near Kamchatka for the extraction of furs and promised to be picked up in two months. But the ship did not return. Yakov ate fish and meat of animals, built a yurt, sewed clothes from the skins of fur seals and arctic foxes. In 1812 he was taken by a passing schooner.

Steller Arch on Bering Island. Photo: Chuyan Galina Nikolaevna / CC BY-SA 4.0

7. 1809, American, age 5

When the brig "Negotiant" collided with an iceberg in the South Pacific Ocean, 21 crew members managed to board a lifeboat. For a month and a half, the boat was carried along the waves, people were dying.

Only sailor Daniel Foss made it to land. His home was a rocky piece of land inhabited by seals. Robinson ate their meat, sewed clothes from the skins. From the recesses in the stones collected fresh water. Five years later, the man was spotted from a passing ship. Because of the shallows, the ship could not land, and Foss got to it by swimming.

Seal rookery. Photo: Judith Slein / Flickr

8. 1835, Indian, age 18

The island of St. Nicholas off the coast of California was inhabited by the Indians. By 1835, about two dozen of them remained, and the Catholic mission decided to take the survivors to big land. In a hurry, because of the storm that had begun, one woman was forgotten on the island.

Only 18 years later, fur hunters found the lost woman, she was in good health. The islander lived in a hut made of whale bones, wore clothes made from the skin of fur seals and feathers of seagulls, wove baskets from bushes and seaweed. She could not communicate with anyone - the tribe died out, and no one understood her language. The woman was named Juana Maria. She died two months later of dysentery.

Probable photograph of Juana Maria. Photo: Edwin J. Hayward and Henry W. Muzzall / Southwest Museum of the American Indian

9. 1921, Eskimo, 2 years old

Ada Blackjack is hired on a Canadian Arctic expedition as a cook and seamstress to earn money and cure her son, who is suffering from tuberculosis. Five polar explorers reached Wrangel Island and stayed for the winter. But the stocks quickly depleted, the hunt was unsuccessful. Three members of the expedition decided to return. Ada stayed at the cabin with a seriously ill Lorne Knight and Witz the cat. The departed companions disappeared on the way, Knight soon died.

The woman learned to survive in extreme cold, and a year and a half later, a rescue expedition stumbled upon her. Ada took the skins of the hunted animals home, sold them profitably, and cured her son. The fate of the cat is unknown.