Alexander Selcraig (he changed his name later) was born in Scotland in 1676. He was an unruly child and once beat up his whole family because of a simple prank. Later, It was jail or the sea, so he signed on as a privateer (a government sponsored pirate). In 1704, he was on an expedition as the navigator of the ship Cinque Ports. The ship was participating in the War of the Spanish Succession, attacking Spanish ships and ports. The voyage was a bad one with lots of disease and hardships. The crew was mutinous and Selkirk led the complaining. His relationship with the captain was dysfunctional. When the ship anchored off a deserted island in the South Pacific, things came to a head. Selkirk demanded that he be left on the island because he felt the ship was dangerously unseaworthy. The captain called his bluff and left him. He was 28-years-old. Turned out Selkirk was right as the ship ended up floundering off the coast of Colombia. The captain and a few survivors were captured by the Spanish and suffered a harsh imprisonment. Selkirk had been left with a musket, hatchet, knife, cooking pot, bedding, clothes, and his Bible. He stayed on the beach at first, eating giant crawfish. But a herd of sea lions forced him to move inland. He built two shelters, one for cooking and one for sleeping. He used wild goats for meat and milk. He scrounged for fruits and vegetables. He read the Bible and sang psalms to occupy his time. One time he had to run and hide in a tree when Spanish chased him, but otherwise he had no contact with any humans. After four years and four months, a British privateer stopped at the island and he was rescued on Feb. 2, 1709. He returned to England where he was a celebrity. An author named Daniel Defoe read about him and was inspired to write a novel about a castaway named Robinson Crusoe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk#Castaway
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-robinson-crusoe-74877644/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/alexander-selkirk
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