9. Alexander Selkirk’s Castaway Adventure
The Tom Hanks film Castaway, is a brilliant tale of how much one man, his basketball and a pesky FedEx package are prepared to endure to survive being stranded upon a deserted island. However, it is not the most impressive tale of man conquering solitude – that honor belongs to the 18th century Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk.
Selkirk was jettisoned from an expedition ship in 1704, for being a troublemaker and left upon an uninhabited island in the South Pacific for his sins. His only possessions were a bible, musket, gunpowder, knife and a little clothing. He utilized his possessions to an incredible degree; by the time Selkirk was picked up by a passing English ship, he had been marooned on the island in complete isolation for an astonishing four years and four months. That’s a lot of time to think about his bad behaviour.
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