![]() Had they steered toward Tahiti, they would have been saved as it was, they exhausted their resources fighting the currents and began to die of hunger and thirst, and the survivors were forced to eat their starved shipmates for nourishment. That nearby island was Tahiti and was actually inhabited by tribes friendly to Europeans, but because of the slow communications of the early 19th century, this discovery was not yet widely known. The crew of the Essex take to their lifeboats, but, fearing that cannibals inhabit a nearby island downwind from them, they set a course against the currents and tradewinds for South America. Simmons tells the horrifying story of the whaleship Essex, which was battered to bits by an angry whale in 1821 (Melville based Moby-Dick on this episode). Other castaway adventures did not end so well. He finds a cave to live in, tames some goats, and spends the next four years in isolated bliss, teaching his domesticated animals to dance to sea shanteys, until Captain Woods Rogers accidentally lands on the island in 1709 and “saves” him. Wandering inland, he discovers a paradise abundant in goats, clear streams, wild root vegetables and house cats that had been stranded on the island during previous shipwrecks. He mopes on the beach, waiting in vain for another ship’s sails to appear on the horizon, but what actually appears is a better cure for his loneliness than he ever could have imagined: sea lions! Mar a Tierra Island turns out to be the mating ground for a colony of sea lions, who arrive in such numbers that Selkirk is forced to flee his beach. ![]() Selkirk (the real life adventurer on whom Defoe based Robinson Crusoe) chooses to be left behind rather than continue a voyage on an English privateer captained by a lunatic, but his voluntary isolation soon leads him to despair. The author never romanticizes these tales of Europeans and Americans on expeditions that go terribly wrong, yet the idea of being abandoned to your own devices with no friends still somehow shimmers with romantic allure.Īlexander Selkirk‘s adventures on Mar a Tierra Island kick off the book in grand style. ![]() This compendium of South Seas adventures involving deserters, pirates and mutineers has a breezy tone that belies the horrifying reality of its true stories. ![]()
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