who looked at selkrik at in difference and why?
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History is often stranger than fiction. If you have read Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, or seen one or more of the various films made of the book, you may be interested in the true story of Alexander Selkirk, the man on which Defoe based his story.
There are obvious differences between Robinson Crusoe and Alexander Selkirk. Crusoe was marooned for nearly thirty years while Selkirk was stranded for only four years and four months. (Of course, Crusoe had the company of Friday and others for some of the time.) Defoe's island had a tropical location in the Caribbean, near the mouth of the Orinoco river off Venezuela, while Selkirk's was in the Pacific, some 400 miles off the coast of Chile, a much more temperate area. Selkirk's adventures took place in the early 18th century while Crusoe's were set in the mid-1600s.
Alexander Selkirk was born in 1676, the seventh son of a cobbler, John Selkirk, and grew up in Lower Largo in the Kingdom of Fife, that area bordering the north coast of the Firth of Forth. It seems he had a bit of a temper. When he was nineteen his brothers tricked him into drinking sea-water, and he made such a fuss that whole family became involved in what today could be called a 'domestic affair' which ended up with Alexander being summoned to appear before the Kirk Session of Largo to explain his unruly behaviour. He found a way out of this situation quite easily. He ran away to sea, enlisting in an expedition heading for the South Seas. This was a privateering expedition led by Captains Dampier and Pickering, who had the sole intention of plundering the Spanish galleons and the rich Spanish colonies. These privateering expeditions were given approval by the government, but in reality it was legalised piracy which was very profitable if the expeditions were successful.
While at school Alexander Selkirk had developed a keen interest in mathematics and navigation and became quite proficient in both subjects, something which stood him in good stead, for he soon became a first class navigator and was appointed sailing master (a position equivalent to 'first mate' on a modern ship) on Pickering's ship, the ninety ton vessel Cinque Ports. Unfortunately for all concerned the expedition proved to be a failure. Then Captain Pickering died, and a man named Thomas Stradling took over as captain. Stradling proved to be an incompetent commander. He mishandled his crew and his bad judgements caused unrest among the crew. He was so unpopular that at one time the crew mutinied and forty two of them were put ashore. Dampier intervened and persuaded the crew to return to the Cinque Ports, but there remained an uneasy peace between Stradling and his crew.
In 1704, after a number of violent and unsuccessful encounters with Spanish ships the two captains went their separate ways, and the Cinque Ports sailed around Cape Horn and ended up at the islands of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles or so off Valparaiso in Chile, to refit. The largest of these islands was used by privateers as a place where they could go after rounding the Horn to make repairs to their ships. Being off the normal trade routes it was also safe from the attentions of the Spanish. While the ship was here, Alexander had an argument with Captain Stradling over the seaworthiness (or lack of) of the Cinque Ports, which finished with Alexander demanding to be put ashore on the island with his kit, fairly confident that most of the crew would join him. However, none of the crew felt inclined to join him and he was left on the island alone. As things turned out he was the only member of the ship's crew to return safely to England. The vessel sprang leaks and sank off the coast of Peru and most of its crew were drowned. Only the captain and seven other men survived, and they were captured and left to rot in a Peruvian jail.