One for the trivia buffs

The next in my series of what connects disparate items concerns the Chilean earthquake some weeks ago, Scottish mariners and 18C English literature. Alternatively it would be the connection between the Juan Fernadez Islands, Selkirk and castaways. The answer as you all know is of course Robinson Crusoe.

Written by Daniels Defoe in 1719, Robinson Crusoe is sometimes described as the first English novel. An instant classic it remains in print to this day. Few however would know that it's full title is The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself.

Now that is a title!

Think about how long ago 1719 was. Defoe was a direct contemporary of Sir Isaac Newton and was writing barely 50 years after the Great Fire of London. Charles Dickens would not be born for another hundred years. It would be more than 50 years before James Cook would set sail and 70 years before the French Revolution. London at the start of the 18C was indeed a very different place than today


Popular folklore has it that the inspiration for Defoe was the story of Alexander Selkirk who was castaway on the Juan Fernadez Islands off the Cilean coast from 1705 until 1709. The Wikipedia entry for Robinson Crusoe however casts doubt on whether this was in fact the true inspiration and lists a range of other castaway possibilities.

Whatever the truth, it didn't stop the islanders of the Juan Fernandez archipelago renaming their main island Robinson Crusoe Island 50 years ago and it was these self same islands that suffered from the tsunami generated by the recent Chilean earthquake.

I was touched by the storey that ran in one newspaper over here of Martina Maturana, a 12 year old girl who lives on Robinson Crusoe Island along with 650 other hardy souls.

It was Martina who peered out her window when she felt the tremor and noticed the boats in the harbour bobbing violently in the water. Her father, the community Policeman, was busy on the phone so she decided to run down to the village square and ring the emergency bell. The bell alerted the villagers who stumbled out of their home in the night to find out what the problem was only to be hit minutes later by a 20m wave crashing through the little harbour and racing 300m into the village killing 8 locals and injuring 8 others.

Naturally she is a hero but the islanders are furious that the tsunami warning system failed to work. "We can't depend on a little girl" as one commentator put it