Have you ever heard of Alexander Selkirk?

There once was a man who was strained on a deserted island for a long, long, time. Every day his beard grew longer, and his clothes deteriorated. His only friends were the goats and cats that shared who he sang and danced to.

In April 1719 the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe was released. It is the story of a man who is stranded on a remote tropical desert island near the coasts of Venezuela and Trinidad for 28 years.  When the book was published, it was credited to the work’s protagonist Robinson Crusoe. Because of this, many who first read the book believed that it was based on a true story. It wasn’t.

But there was a man who suffered a similar fate, although his time on a deserted island was a lot less time, and he had no companion named Friday. He was a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk He was born Alexander Selcraig in 1676 to the son of a wealthy shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland. He was the seventh son, and because of this, his mother considered him to be a lucky lad and hoped he would obtain good fortune.

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To visit my Transister.FM site for this episode to find a list of all the sources I used to write this thrilling adventure, follow this link.

The post The Tale of Castaway Alexander Selkirk – A Podcast first appeared on Coffee With Jeff.