CRUSOE, CASTAWAYS AND SHIPWRECKS IN THE PERILOUS AGE OF SAIL

Castaways have a big hold on our imaginations, as we can see from the first novel in English, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, together with modern developments of the same theme, from The Martian to I'm A Celebrity - get me out of here and Pirates of the Caribbean. Defoe started life as plain Daniel Foe, marrying young and engaging in a series of failed business ventures. In 1685 he headed west in support of the Monmouth rebellion and was lucky to escape execution. Then he wrote political pamphlets, which soon got him back in gaol. Finally he became a spy for the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Harley, and started writing books. Robinson Crusoe in 1719 was a surprise hit with the public, with its winning formula of the slave-trader shipwrecked with his dog and cat, armed only with a Bible, who is assisted in his survival by the unexpected appearance of Man Friday, heralded by an enormous footprint. He is not alone! Crusoe has never been out of print and has been filmed several times. Alexander Selkirk was a famous real-life castaway whose story Defoe is likely to have known through Selkirk's rescuer, Captain Woodes Rogers. Selkirk ran away to sea to escape retribution for a series of misdemeanours and became a privateer, choosing to be set ashore from a ship he considered in danger of breaking up, and after four years was picked up by Woodes Rogers who was circumnavigating the world, the first captain to return with crew and vessel intact. Other possible influences were Robert Knox, who adopted native customs when shipwrecked on Sri Lanka, the explorer of Ascension Island, William Dampier, Captain Bligh, and the 60 slaves who were marooned for 15 years on Tromelin near Madagascar. The book looks at astonishing tales of survival in the face of adversity, down in Falklands, in the Caribbean and off the coast of Australia and how being a castaway brings out the best in some and in others the very worst, with stories of murder rape and betrayal. 151 pages, maps, photos in black and white and colour.