Duchess(privateer ship) 4–6, 9, 10, 21–2, 36, 37, 77, 87–9, 101, 102, 104
Duke(privateer ship) 1, 4–6, 9, 10, 21–2, 36, 37, 41, 77, 85–9, 91, 100–4, 109
Dutch East India Company 104
Dykes, Stewart 113
Eilan Donan castle 146
Enterprise, HMS 146
Evans, S. H. 37
Evening News and Star 119–20
Fernandez, Juan (the man) 15, 67
Frye, Robert 7–9
Gilles, James 118
Gillies, David 50
Gillies, David Selkirk 47, 48
Gillies, Katherine 49
Gillies, Teresa 50
Glen Shiel, battle of (1719) 146
Gray, Muriel 111
Greystoke Castle, Cumberland 119
Guayaquil, Ecuador 90, 91–9, 142
Hamilton, Duke of 40–1, 156–8
Harford, Henry Charles 36–7, 39
Harford, Joseph 36, 39
Heliagos, Antonio 89
Hill, Peter 119
Howard, Sir Esme 119
Howell, John viii, 6, 56, 66, 75, 110, 111, 137, 156
Hutton, S. 40
Increase(formerly Santa Josepha) 90, 100, 104
James, Isaac 39
Jardine, Allan 47–8, 82, 109, 114, 118
Jardine, Ivy 47–8, 82, 114, 115, 123–4
Jardine, Mark 41
Jervies, William 61
Joseph(50-tonner) 100, 101, 102, 104
Juan Fernandez islands
see Robinson Crusoe island
Kinsale 5
Kirkcaldy Museum 113
Lamond, Dr 137
Lane, Jeanne 119–20
Lanning, Ernest 115–16, 117
Lettice, Lesley-Anne 112
Llandoger Trow pub, Bristol 33–5
Lobos de la Mar, island of 89
Long John Silver Trust, Bristol 35
Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland ix, xi, 12, 28
churches 46, 53–4, 113
‘Crusoe’ heritage 44–50, 52, 113–14
modern 43–5
seen by Selkirk on voyage home 104–5
Selkirk’s birthplace cottage 48–52
Selkirk’s return to 132–43
Lumsdaine, Major John 118
Lumsdaine, Robert 118
Lumsdaine, Stamford Robert 118
Lundine, John 61
Mackie, Euphan 53
Makgill, Reverend James 57
Marquess(formerly Havre de Grace) 90–1, 100, 101, 104
Martin, John 99
Mas a Tierra island
see Robinson Crusoe island
Mason, Katherine 147
Mitchison, Amanda 55
Moncrieff, Reverend Alex 54, 55
Moncrieff, Reverend William 134
Mortone, Thomas 61
Murdoch, Reverend John 53
museums and exhibitions 79, 110, 112–13, 116, 119
Ashmolean 127–8, 129, 131
British Museum 126, 127, 129–30, 131
Lower Largo 47, 113–14, 123–5
National Museum of Scotland 110, 125
Ness, Thomas 61
Netherlands 104
Nettle, John 106
New York Times,‘Crusoe May Have Owned This Gun’ 126–30
Novak, M. 40
Nuestra Senora de Begona(treasure ship) 104
Osbourn, Florence 122–4
Parry, Richard Lloyd 80
The Philadelphia Bulletin 119–20
Philippines 87
Pickering, Captain Charles 2, 64
Powell, Commodore 82
Reid, Norman 59
Robb, Louise 52
Robinson Crusoe(Defoe) 84
comparisons with Selkirk 24–30, 109
immediate success of 31, 39, 154
rescue in 109–10
setting for 25, 28
stores retrieved from shipwreck in 109 see also Defoe, Daniel
Robinson Crusoe island (formerly Mas a Tierra)
climate and vegetation 15, 74, 79–80
earlier visitors 15, 65–6, 68, 74
Selkirk’s refuge found on 80–4 see also Selkirk, Alexander
Rogers, Captain Woodes 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 21, 22, 42, 100, 104, 108
Bristol home 32, 35
A Cruising Voyage around the World 11–17, 32, 37, 40, 42, 136
Defoe’s opinion of 35, 40
docking in Erith 105
Guayaquil raid 90, 91–9, 142
privateering 86–7, 89, 90–2, 100
treasure ships 101–4
wounds suffered by 103, 104
Rogers, John 90, 91
Royal Navy xi
Rymer, Harry and James 158
St Andrew’s University Library 113
St George(privateer frigate) 2, 64, 66, 85
Sawyer, C. J. 116, 117, 130, 131
Sawyer, Charles 117
Say, Reverend 158
Schmidt, Louis 119
Selcraig, Alexander (nephew) 147
Selcraig, Andrew (brother) 53, 58, 60–1, 63
Selcraig, Bruce (American descendent) 50, 77–9, 114
Selcraig, David (brother) 47
Selcraig, Eupah (mother) viii, 56–7, 129, 132, 134
Selcraig, John (brother) 50, 53, 55, 58, 60, 61, 135, 140
Selcraig, John (father) viii–ix, 55, 56, 58–9, 61, 135, 140, 147
Selcraig (Selkirk) family 49–50, 53, 57–63, 134–5
Selkirk, Alexander
general
affinity with animals 140
appearance xi, 110, 129, 132–3, 134
birthplace cottage 48–9, 51, 52
Bristol 32–3, 38, 110, 130
bronze statue of 48–9, 50, 52, 108, 121
capture of treasure ship 101–3
character viii–x, 4, 47, 50, 54, 56
childhood viii–ix
command of the Increase 90
command of the Joseph 100
command of treasure ship 103–6
death from yellow fever 114, 153–4
drunken brawl 105–6
Enterprise, HMS 146
fishing expeditions 137–8
furious family row 57–63
Guayaquil raid 90, 91–9
homesickness for the island 51–2, 137
marriage to Frances 25, 40, 149–51
meeting with Defoe in Bristol 30, 32–42
navigational skills 56, 84, 86, 88
papers 38–42, 156–8
privateering xi, 10, 22–3, 85–104
return home to Lower Largo 132–43
return to England 105–6
running away to sea 56–7
self-made cave in garden 51, 137, 139–40
seventh son 56–7
Sophia Bruce 141–3, 145–9, 151–2
transgressions against local kirk 53–7, 59–63, 113
treatment of Guayaquil women 96–8, 142
wealth ix, xi, 32, 132
Weymouth, HMS xi, 114, 144, 149, 152–4
will in favour of Frances Candis 150–1
will in favour of Sophia Bruce 146–8
island of Mas a Tierra
ambivalence about leaving 7–8, 10, 21, 22, 29–30, 76–7
animals 8, 14, 18, 19–20, 23, 25, 28, 68, 72–3, 75
appearance on vii, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 14–15, 73
artefacts believed to come from 110–31
Cowper’s poem about 70–1, 74
day-to-day life 74–5
diet 13–14, 18, 22, 67, 68–9, 73
early optimism of rescue 68, 69
falling down precipice 13, 20, 74, 75
fictional island compared with 24–30
first months on 67–72
initial visit to 65
marooning 2–3, 12, 18, 25, 65, 67
melancholy and homesickness 12, 18, 29, 69
memorial plaques 82
musket, present-day search for 114–31
provisions allowed by captain 12, 18, 25, 67, 108–9
readjustment to people 22
religion 12, 18, 29, 69, 74–5, 133
rescue vii, 4–9, 22–3, 77
running speed 4, 13, 20, 22, 73, 76
shelters 7–8, 12, 19, 72, 80–4
Spaniards landing 11–12, 76
speech 6–7, 9, 15, 20, see also under Robinson Crusoe island
Selkirk, Frances (wife) 40–1, 149–51, 154–8
Selkirk, John 49
Sharpe, Captain 16
Shepherd, Dorothy 50–1
Sibbald, Sir Robert 118
Sim, Adam 112
Smith, Eric 117
Smith, James 61
Smithurst, Peter 125–6
Sotheby’s auction house, London 116–17, 130
Souhami, Diana 97
South Sea Company 106
Spain 87–8, 104
Sporting Gun, ‘Desert Island Flintlock?’ 120–2
Star Inn, Bristol 35, 38, 39, 40
Steeds, Mark 33, 36, 38
Steele, Sir Richard ix, 11, 17–31, 32, 108, 136
Stevenson, Robert Louis 35
Stradling, Captain Thomas 2, 3, 9, 11, 25, 65, 66, 67, 69–70, 127
Sunday Times 127
Takahashi, Daisuke 80–3, 125
Taylor, William 31
Texel, island of 105
The Times
‘Crusoe’s Gun’ 130–1
‘Selkirk’s Refuge Found’ 80–1
Tobago, island of 25–6
Topaze, HMS 82
Wasse, James 100
Watkins, Mark 39
Watlin, Captain 16
Weymouth, HMS xi, 114, 144, 149, 152–4
Whyte, Hulda 118–19
Wilson, Walter 37, 38
Wilsone, Magnus 61
Wishart, Drew 51
Wood, Sir Andrew 53n
Wood, Stephen 123
Woodhall, Barry 120
Wright, Douglas 118–19
Chapter 2 A Tale of Two Tales
* The Harfords were a prominent Bristol banking family.
Chapter 3 The Village he left Behind
* Grandson of the brother with whom Alexander had a serious quarrel.
† Left with the family by Selkirk, along with his musket.
* Another local acknowledged at the Upper Largo kirk is the area’s other well-remembered sailor, Sir Andrew Wood. A handsome model of a 15th-century fighting ship, the Yellow Carvel, sits inside the church a prominent chancel position, a reminder of the Largo-born sea captain who rose to become Lord High Admiral of Scotland. After changing his career from that of merchant trader in Leith, he began his naval career as a privateer under James III and flourished under James IV. By 1489 he owned the Mayflower and the Yellow Carvel, which fought and captured five English ships offshore near Dunbar. In response, the English launched a larger expedition the following year under Stephen Bull, which attacked Wood’s ships in the Firth of Forth. The battle lasted two days and Wood eventually triumphed, despite being heavily outgunned and outnumbered. His victory was so appreciated that he was granted many lands and properties around Largo and knighted by James IV.
* Appear.
Chapter 4 Survival on the Island
* A temporary summer residence for shepherds. Chambers Scots Dialect Dictionary.
Chapter 5 How he got Rich
* Flip was made by pouring a gill of rum into a mug of beer that had been sweetened with pumpkin, cream, eggs, molasses (and/or sugar) and then stirred with a red-hot poker.
Chapter 7 Homecoming and Sophia
* After she set up a church in Scotland’s ancient capital of Dunfermline, on Fife’s north side of the Forth, the wife of King Malcolm III saw it rapidly become a place of pilgrimage and so set up a ferry for herself and the pilgrims to travel between the river’s south and north banks. Initially operated by monks, the service went on and developed for 800 years thereafter, finally taking on cars – until the road bridge took its place in 1965.
* As previously mentioned, the 19th-century building of the railway track on the high embankment above the garden would have wiped away any trace of this refuge.
Chapter 8 London and the End
* Marriage by cohabitation with habit and repute. Under Scots law, if a couple cohabited for sufficient time they were generally held and reputed to be husband and wife.
Alexander Selkirk’s statue and plaque at Lower Largo cottage, which replaced the original home of his birth.
The church at Upper Largo where the Kirk Session’s chastisements forced Selkirk to flee the village. He returned a very wealthy man.
Extract from the original church papers recording Selkirk’s misdemeanours (St Andrews University).
The original Robinson Crusoe as portrayed in the first edition of Daniel Defoe’s book
Allan Jardine, direct descendant of childless Alexander Selkirk’s brother, David.
Selkirk’s signature from a legal document.
Selkirk’s powderhorn (St Andrews Museum), his sea chest (National Museums Scotland) and what was once thought to be his musket as traced by the author (above).
Cumberland Bay, the key feature of the island off the coast of Chile where Selkirk was marooned for four and a half years. It is the largest of the Juan Fernandez archipelago and as such is often called by that name alone. Its other names are Mas a Tierra or nowadays, Robinson Crusoe Island.
Kincraig Point on the coast of Fife where Selkirk went to remind himself of Juan Fernandez.
Keil’s Den where Selkirk met Sophia Bruce.
Selkirk’s Bristol haunts. The still-extant Llandoger Trow (left) and the long-gone Cock and Bottle (right) pub have had competing claims, along with the Star, to be the meeting place of Selkirk and Defoe. Local historians favour the Star.
The plaque on the site of Captain Woodes Rogers’ house in Bristol’s Queen Square where Selkirk stayed.
Where Selkirk survived and when he died. Map of Juan Fernandez and the death entry for Selkirk recorded in HMS Weymouth’s log.
The site of Selkirk’s camp on Juan Fernandez, recorded by Daisuke Takahashi in 2005.
Rick Wilson was born in Montrose and has been a professional journalist all his life. He started his career on the Montrose Standard before joining The Courier in Dundee. He spent time editing magazines in Holland before returning to Scotland where he worked for The Scotsman. He is the former editor of Scotland on Sunday magazine and former assistant editor of The Herald. His fascination with Alexander Selkirk led him to search for and discover Selkirk’s musket which he returned to his family in Fife. Following that, he decided to fully research the mariner’s life which led to the publication of this book.
Rick is now semi-retired, but still does some work for The Scotsman and the Mirror Group. He lives in Edinburgh.
First published by
Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd
www.nwp.co.uk
© Rick Wilson, 2011
First published in February 2009
Reprinted in 2010
The author asserts his moral right to
be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is
available from the British Library
Prine edition ISBN: 978-1-906476-02-1
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-906476-35-9