Alexander Selkirk

Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721), Scottish sailor, born in Largo in the Fife region. He first went to sea in 1695. In 1703 he became sailing master on the ship Cinque Ports, one of the two vessels of a privateering expedition under the English navigator William Dampier. While the expedition was near the Juan Fernández Islands, off the coast of Chile, Selkirk had a dispute with the captain of his ship. At his own request, he was put ashore in October 1704 on one of the islands. He lived alone there until rescued in February 1709 by the commander of a British privateer, the Duke. Selkirk subsequently continued his career as a sailor, and at the time of his death he was master's mate on the British man-of-war Weymouth. The story of his solitary sojourn on Más a Tierra Island (now Isla Róbinson Crusoe) was related in a number of versions by early 18th-century writers such as the British essayist Sir Richard Steele. It also suggested to the English novelist Daniel Defoe the plot of his novel Robinson Crusoe (1719).