Alexander Selkirk was not the only castaway with an incredible story

Posted in Adventure, Historical articles, History, Ships on Tuesday, 1 October 2013

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This edited article about castaways originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 414 published on 20 December 1969.

Alexander Selkirk, picture, image, illustration

Alexander Selkirk, the most famous historical castaway and model for Robinson Crusoe, by Paul Rainer

Alexander Selkirk was the most famous castaway of them all. After quarrelling with his captain in 1704, he asked to be put ashore on an island and remained there alone for over four years. From his experiences came Robinson Crusoe, the great novel by Daniel Defoe which immortalised the notion of the castaway.

Because Robinson Crusoe has now become an almost legendary character, it has often been taken for granted that no other men suffered as he did. In fact there were a number of castaways, whose stories are just as enthralling as the story of Alexander Selkirk’s.

* * *

In the year 1816, passengers aboard steamboats which were already plying up and down the River Clyde, might have glanced with pity at the poor legless man, who huddled in a corner of the deck, entertaining the travellers by playing his fiddle.

The man who barely eked a living from what was little more than begging was barely 29 years old; reduced to this kind of life by an undeserved and cruel set of circumstances.

His name was Alexander Campbell, and he had been born near Glasgow, at a place called Wyndford, in the year 1787. After his father had lost his life while serving as a soldier in the West Indies, young Campbell became apprenticed to a weaver, but when he was 13, he was seized with a sudden desire to go to sea. He made several voyages to the West Indies, but one day his ship called at Madeira, and there he was taken by a press gang for service aboard His Majesty’s ship Diana.

Campbell remained with the frigate Diana until she reached Portsmouth in 1806. There he deserted to enlist aboard a fine East Indiaman called the Thames. At that time, British sailors were in great demand, particularly by skippers of American vessels, and while in a waterfront tavern in Canton, 20-year-old Alexander Campbell met Captain O’Kean, the master of an American ship, the Eclipse, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Although several other American captains had offered Campbell a bounty and higher wages to desert the Thames, he had refused them all, but O’Kean’s offer was too tempting to resist.

Campbell had just decided to go with the American, when the captain and guard from the Thames arrived. With another deserter, Campbell jumped through the tavern window, climbed to the top of a house and dashed over the roofs. They crossed the street by means of a heavy beam which lay across the roofs, and so reached the river.

In May, the Eclipse weighed anchor, and set sail for the north-west coast of America with a cargo of silk, sugar and tea. Four months later, a fierce wind from the south blew up, and almost all canvas had to be taken in. The ship was off course when the lookout sighted land, which proved to be the coast of Alaska. Altering course, the mate suddenly reported sighting breakers.

Suddenly the Eclipse struck hard upon a hidden reef with such force that the rudder was unshipped. The vessel was moving with such speed that she was carried clean over the reef, into deeper water beyond. For a moment, it seemed that the captain might save his ship, but a few minutes later, the Eclipse hit another reef, the masts went over the side, and the crew were flung into the water.

Desperately, the men fought to release the small jolly-boat, but it was held fast among the tangled rigging. The longboat had previously been cleared and launched, but it had drifted away in the darkness, and was lost to sight.

As Campbell and some of the other seamen were struggling to get clear, the broken main topmast floated by. Badly ensnared though it was, and tangled with rigging, Campbell and the others managed to cut away the tangle and scramble on to the mast.

During the night, the seas carried the topmast with the men clinging to it, on and on, over reef after reef. Terrible cries told their own story, as the weakened men were torn from their hold on the broken mast.

By dawn, only six men remained clinging to the topmast. Around them, in the sea, were a few bits of wreckage; then a wave brought something else into view. It was the bowsprit, with eight more men clinging to it. Campbell, weak with exposure, cold and half drowned, sighted land, and hoarsely reported what he saw. As he did so, three of the men slipped silently into the sea, never to be seen again.

Some hours later, the topmast was driven towards the beach inside the reef, and gratefully, the three men felt smooth sand beneath their feet. Those three were Captain O’Kean, Brinkman the mate, and Alexander Campbell. Half-dead though they were, the three men staggered the remaining quarter-mile in shallow water, and eventually reached the shore.

As they fell, completely exhausted, on to the ground, they saw the bowsprit, with four men upon it, being carried towards the beach by the waves.

Captain O’Kean considered his position. He and a few survivors had been cast away on a desolate shore: with little more vegetation than moss and a few stunted bushes, their chances of survival were slim. At least, he thought, they would not go thirsty, for, here and there were a few pools of fresh water. As the day went on, two of the men who had come ashore on the bowsprit died, and their bodies were buried in the sand.

Before night fell, the five survivors discovered that a number of pieces of wreckage had been cast on to the shore. From a large sail, they were able to erect a kind of tent, in which they spent the night. When morning came, a search party was organised, and more wreckage was found, including some articles of great value: tools, marline spikes, the ship’s arms-chest, barrels of salt pork, beef and biscuits. Later, the castaways made the greatest discovery of all. The ship’s longboat, which had disappeared just after they had struck the reef, was found floating in a small bay, hardly damaged at all.

A quadrant was found amongst the wreckage, and the captain decided that they had come ashore at Sanak Island, which is at the south-western tip of Alaska. At that time, Alaska and the neighbouring islands belonged to the Russian Empire.

The castaways had to rely for their survival almost entirely upon what could be taken from the wreck, for the only food obtainable on the island was a few berries and shellfish such as mussels. They had no way of making fire, and they had to eat everything raw. By repairing the longboat, the shipwrecked men were able to visit the wreck and gather whatever useful materials there were still in her, such as stores, tea and rice.

After the shipwrecked men had been on the island about three weeks, they were visited by some Eskimos paddling small, skin-covered canoes. The Eskimos caught some fish and showed the castaways how to make fire, using soft wood and friction. That day, the survivors had their first cooked meal since the shipwreck.

Soon, more Eskimos arrived, and their leader suggested that Captain O’Kean and his men, using the longboat should make the 400-mile journey to the north-east, to Kodiak Island, where there was a Russian settlement. Fitted out as a 22-foot sloop, the longboat eventually arrived at the settlement in early December, after nearly being wrecked again. Captain O’Kean was a determined man, and when his men had recovered, the sloop was refitted, and he sailed once again for Sanak Island, where he hoped to salvage as much of the cargo as possible.

This was the winter season in a normally cold part of the world, and the weather conditions were very bad indeed. Bad luck seemed to follow Captain O’Kean, for during the voyage heavy seas drove the sloop towards more reefs, and he had to run his sloop ashore on the North East coast of Kodiak Island, where she was shortly afterwards smashed up by the great waves. It was decided that they would have to cross the island on foot to reach the nearest settlement.

Kodiak Island is mountainous, and that winter, heavy seas, driving snowstorms and hazards of various kinds made conditions almost impossible. But the party kept bravely on. Campbell was wearing some sealskin boots, which became filled with water as he struggled out of the sea, and then all but froze as he tried to make his way up snow-swept mountainsides. Somehow, he dragged himself along, reaching the shelter of a hut with his feet frost-bitten and useless, and his hands frozen.

Just as all the provisions had been used up, help arrived, and the survivors were carried by canoe to the largest Russian settlement on the island. Alexander Campbell was taken to the local hospital, where he was attended, in extremely primitive conditions, by the resident surgeon of the Russian American Company. Campbell’s feet were in such a deplorable state that the surgeon had no choice but to amputate them, as well as two of his fingers.

It was thus that this brave man and fine seaman, after suffering terrible privation, was reduced to penury and forced to beg when he returned to his own country.

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