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Alexander Selkirk (167613 December 1721), also known as Alexander Selcraig, was a Scottish sailor who spent more than four years as a castaway after being marooned on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean (also known as the South Sea). Selkirk was an unruly youth, and joined buccaneering expeditions to the South Sea. One such expedition was aboard the ''Cinque Ports'', commanded by William Dampier. The ship called in for provisions at the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile, and Selkirk judged correctly that his craft was unseaworthy and asked to be left there. By the time that he was rescued, he had become adept at hunting and making use of the resources that he found on the island. His story of survival was widely publicised when he returned home and became a likely source of inspiration for writer Daniel Defoe's fictional character Robinson Crusoe. ==Early life and privateering== Alexander Selkirk was the son of a shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, born in 1676. In his youth, he displayed a quarrelsome and unruly disposition. He was summoned before the Kirk Session in August 1693 for his "indecent conduct in church", but he "did not appear, being gone to sea." He was back at Largo in 1701, when he again came to the attention of church authorities for beating up his brothers. Early on, he was engaged in buccaneering. In 1703, he joined an expedition of English privateer and explorer William Dampier to the South Sea, setting sail from Kinsale in Ireland on 11 September. They carried ''letters of marque'' from the Lord High Admiral authorising their armed merchant ships to attack foreign enemies, as the War of the Spanish Succession was then going on between England and France.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Letters of Marque and Reprisal for the St George, Declaration of William Dampier )〕 Dampier was captain of the ''St George,'' and Selkirk served on the ''Cinque Ports'', ''St George''s companion ship, as sailing master under Captain Thomas Stradling. By this time, Selkirk must have had considerable experience at sea. In February 1704, following a stormy passage round Cape Horn, the privateers fought a long battle with a well-armed French vessel, the ''St Joseph'', only to have it escape to warn the Spanish of the buccaneers' arrival in the Pacific. A raid failed on the Panamanian gold mining town of Santa María when their landing party was ambushed. The easy capture of the ''Asunción'', a heavily-laden merchantman, revived the men's hopes of plunder, and Selkirk was put in charge of the prize ship. Dampier took off some much-needed provisions of wine, brandy, sugar, and flour, then abruptly set the ship free, believing that the gain was not worth the effort. In May 1704, Stradling decided to abandon Dampier and strike out on his own. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alexander Selkirk」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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