Alexander Selkirk

Alexander Selkirk (or Selcraig), (1676-1723) was a sailor who spent 4 years as a castaway on an uninhabited island; he is supposed to be the prototype of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.

The son of a shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, he was born in 1676. In his youth he displayed a quarrelsome and unruly disposition, and having been summoned on 27 August 1695 before the kirk-session for his indecent behaviour in church, "did not compear, having gone away to the seas".

At an early period he was engaged in buccaneer expeditions to the South Seas, and in 1703 joined the galley Cinque Ports as sailing master. The following year he had a dispute with the captain, and at his own request was in October put ashore on the archipelago of Juan Fernandez off the Chilean coast. After a solitary residence of four years and four months there, he was taken off by Captain Woods Rogers on February 2, 1709. Rogers was commander of a privateer and made Selkirk his mate and afterwards gave him the independent command of one of his prizes. He returned home to Britain in 1712. Rogers's "Cruising Voyage" was published in 1712, with an account of Selkirk's ordeal.

In 1717 Selkirk had returned to Lower Largo, but only stayed a few months. There he met Sophia Bruce, a 16-year old dairymaid, and they eloped to London. Within a year he had again gone to sea. On a visit to Plymouth, he married a widowed innkeeper. He died in 1723 while lieutenant on board the Royal ship Weymouth, probably succumbing to yellow fever. He was buried at sea off the west coast of Africa.

For the possible influence of Selkirk's story on the novel Robinson Crusoe, see the discussion there.

One of the islands in Juan FernÃÂÃÂ¡ndez has been named Alejandro Selkirk.

Original text from the 9th edition EB.