Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish privateer and Royal Navy officer who spent four years and four months as a castaway (1704–1709) after being marooned by his captain, initially at his request, on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean. He survived but died from tropical illness years later while serving as a lieutenant aboard HMS Weymouth off West Africa.
Daniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
Robinson Crusoe is an English adventure novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. Written with a combination of Epistolary, confessional, and didactic forms, the book follows the title character after he is cast away and spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island near the coasts of Venezuela and Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. The story has been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" which was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. Pedro Serrano is another real-life castaway whose story might have inspired the novel.
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, telling a story of "buccaneers and buried gold". It is considered a coming-of-age story and is noted for its atmosphere, characters, and action.
Marooning is the intentional act of abandoning someone in an uninhabited area, such as a desert island, or more generally to be marooned is to be in a place from which one cannot escape. The word is attested in 1699, and is derived from the term maroon, a word for a fugitive slave, which could be a corruption of Spanish cimarrón, meaning a household animal who has "run wild". Cimarrón in turn may be derived from the Taino word símaran (“wild”), from símara (“arrow”).
Woodes Rogers was an English sea captain, privateer, slave trader and, from 1718, the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is remembered as the captain of the vessel that rescued marooned Alexander Selkirk, whose plight is generally believed to have inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Whitbread is a British multinational hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England.
Oreston, formerly a village on the southern bank of the Cattewater, is now a suburb of Plymouth. It is recorded as Horestone on the 1591 Spry Map of Plimmouth. Oreston offers many small, local services. It is home to a small cornershop style shop called "The Quay News," a pub called "The King's Arms," a small dock and free public slipway in "Oreston Quay," and is home to approximately 3,000 residents.
Lower Largo or Seatown of Largo is a village in Fife, Scotland, situated on Largo Bay along the north side of the Firth of Forth. It is east of, and contiguous with, Lundin Links.
Cinque Ports was an English ship whose sailing master was Alexander Selkirk, generally accepted as a model for the fictional Robinson Crusoe. The ship was part of a 1703 expedition commanded by William Dampier, who captained the accompanying ship, the 26-gun St George with a complement of 120 men.
The Old Duke is a jazz and blues venue and pub in the English city of Bristol. Live music is played every night of the week, admission is free and it hosts an annual Jazz Festival. The pub's name is a reference to the classic American jazz musician Duke Ellington, though the pub has actually held the same name since it was built, and most likely previously referred to the Duke of Cumberland.
Robinson Crusoé is an opéra comique with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Eugène Cormon and Hector-Jonathan Crémieux. It premiered in Paris on 23 November 1867.
Llandogo is a small village in Monmouthshire, south Wales, between Monmouth and Chepstow in the lower reaches of the Wye Valley AONB, two miles north of Tintern. It is set on a steep hillside overlooking the River Wye and across into the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. The 2011 census population was 547.
King Street is a 17th-century street in the historic city centre of Bristol, England.
The Hatchet Inn is a historic pub in the English city of Bristol. It is a Grade II listed building. The name is thought to originate from the axes/hatchets that the local woodsmen used in Clifton Woods.
Thomas Dover (1660–1742), sometimes referred to as "Doctor Quicksilver", was an English physician. He is remembered for his common cold and fever medicine Dover's powder, his work with the poor in Bristol, and his privateering voyage alongside William Dampier and Woodes Rogers that rescued castaway Alexander Selkirk, the real-life inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.
A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World is a 1712 book by Edward Cooke, about a real-life trip around the world in two ships, under the command of Woodes Rogers. It is notable for including a firsthand account of castaway Alexander Selkirk, whose tale appears to have helped inspire Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe a few years later.
Welsh Back is a wharf and street alongside the floating harbour in the centre of the city of Bristol, England. The wharf and street extend some 450 metres (1,480 ft) along the west side of the harbour between Bristol Bridge and Redcliffe Bridge. At the northern end, the street and wharf are immediately adjacent, but to the south they are separated by a range of single story transit sheds. The wharf is a grade II listed structure and takes its name because it was freqented by vessels from Welsh ports.
