A
castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a
shipwreckA shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade their
captorsIn criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
or the world in general. Alternatively, a person or item can be
cast away, meaning rejected or discarded. Note that when a person was left ashore as punishment, usually the term
maroonMarooning is the intentional leaving of someone in a remote area, such as an uninhabited island. The word appears in writing in approximately 1709, 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...
(or
marooned) was used.
The provisions and resources available to castaways may allow them to live on the island until other people arrive to take them off the island. However, such rescue missions may never happen if the person is not known to still be alive, if the fact that they are missing is unknown or if the island is not mapped. These scenarios have given rise to the plots of numerous stories in the form of
novelA novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s and
filmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s.
Thorgisl
Icelander Thorgisl set out to travel to
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. He and his party were first driven into a remote sound on the east coast of
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. Thorgisl, his infant son and several others were then abandoned there by their
thrallThrall was the term for a serf or unfree servant in Scandinavian culture during the Viking Age.Thralls were the lowest in the social order and usually provided unskilled labor during the Viking era.-Etymology:...
s. Thorgisl and his party traveled slowly along the coast to the
EystribyggðThe Eastern Settlement was the largest and first of the three areas of Greenland, settled in approximately 985 AD by Norse farmers from Iceland . At its peak it contained approximately 4,000 inhabitants...
settlement of Eric the Red on the southwest coast of
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
. Along the way they met a Viking, an outlaw who had escaped to East Greenland. This history is told in
Flóamanna saga-External links:*...
and Origines Islandicae and occurred during the early years of Viking
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, while
Leif EricsonLeif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America , nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus...
was still alive.
Grettir Ásmundarson
Icelander Grettir Ásmundarson was
outlawIn historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
ed by the assembly in
IcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
. After many years on the run he and two companions went to the forbidding island of
DrangeyDrangey or Drang Isle, with its steep sea cliffs, towers majestically in the midst of Skagafjörður fjord in Iceland. The island is the remnant of a 700,000 year old volcano, mostly made of volcanic tuff, forming a massive rock fortress....
, where he lived several more years before his pursuers managed to kill him in 1031.
Fernão Lopez
The Portuguese Fernão Lopez was marooned on the island of
Saint HelenaSaint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...
in 1513. He had lost a hand and much of his face as punishment for mutiny. With some interruptions he stayed on the island until his death in 1545.
Juan de Cartagena and Pedro Sánchez Reina
In August 1520, a mutiny broke out in
MagellanFerdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
's fleet while at the Patagonian seashore. Magellan put it down and executed some of the ringleaders. He then punished two others: the King of Spain's delegate, Juan de Cartagena and the priest, Pedro Sánchez Reina, by marooning them in that desolate place. They were never heard from again.
Gonzalo de Vigo
Gonzalo de Vigo was a
GalicianThe Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...
sailor who deserted from
MagellanFerdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
's fleet in the island of
GuamGuam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
in March 1521. He was unexpectedly found there in 1526 by the
flagshipA flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
of the
Loaísa ExpeditionGarcía Jofre de Loaísa was a 16th century Spanish explorer ordered by king Charles I of Spain to command an expedition to Asia, known as the Loaísa expedition, which in 1525 was sent by the western route to colonize the Spice Islands in the East Indies, thus crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans...
, on its way to the
Spice IslandsThe Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
and the second
circumnavigationCircumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
of the globe. Gonzalo de Vigo was the first European castaway in the history of the
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
.
Marguerite de La Rocque
A French noblewoman, Marguerite de la Rocque was marooned in 1542 on an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, off the coast of
QuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. She was left by her near relative Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval, a nobleman
privateerA privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
, as punishment for her affair with a young man on board ship. The young man joined her, as did a servant woman. They later died, as did the baby she bore. Marguerite survived by hunting wild animals and was later rescued by fishermen. She returned to France and became well-known when her story was recorded by the
Queen of NavarreMarguerite de Navarre , also known as Marguerite of Angoulême and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of Henry II of Navarre...
in her work
HeptameronThe Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French by Marguerite of Navarre, published in 1558. It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio...
.
Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos
In 1629 Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos were ship boys on board the Dutch ship
BataviaBatavia was a ship of the Dutch East India Company . It was built in Amsterdam in 1628, and armed with 24 cast iron cannons and a number of bronze guns. Batavia was shipwrecked on her maiden voyage, and was made famous by the subsequent mutiny and massacre that took place among the survivors...
, famous because of its stranding on the islets of the
Houtman AbrolhosThe Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia...
off the west coast of Australia and the subsequent mutiny and mass killings. When all culprits were arrested on the islets, most of them were either hanged or sent to court in the town of Batavia (now
JakartaJakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
). However, the young culprits Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos were marooned on the Australian mainland, probably near the mouth of the
Murchison RiverThe Murchison River is the second longest river in Western Australia. It flows for about from the southern edge of the Robinson Ranges to the Indian Ocean at Kalbarri. It has a mean annual flow of about 200 million cubic metres.-Course:...
. The two boys were probably the first Europeans to reside on the Australian mainland. During the following decades, captains of Dutch ships were ordered to search for the boys in case the ships would be nearby, however, the two boys were never heard from again.
A Miskito called Will
In 1681, a Miskito named Will by his English comrades was sent ashore as part of an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
foraging party to
Más a TierraRobinson Crusoe Island , formerly known as Más a Tierra , or Aguas Buenas, is the largest island of the Chilean Juan Fernández archipelago, situated 674 kilometres west of South America in the South Pacific Ocean...
. When he was hunting for goats in the interior of the island he suddenly saw his comrades departing in haste after having spotted the approach of enemies, leaving Will behind to survive until he was picked up in 1684.
Alexander Selkirk
The
Juan Fernández IslandsThe Juan Fernández Islands are a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of three main volcanic islands; Robinson Crusoe Island, Alejandro Selkirk Island and Santa Clara Island, the first...
, to which Más a Tierra belongs, would have a more famous occupant in October 1703 when
Alexander SelkirkAlexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe....
made the decision to stay there. Selkirk was born in
Lower LargoLower Largo or Seatown of Largo is a village in Fife, Scotland situated on Largo Bay on the north side of the Firth of Forth. An ancient fishing village, Lower Largo has gained fame as the 1676 birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.The arrival of the...
in
ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
in 1680. Selkirk was concerned about the condition of the
Cinque PortsCinque Ports is the name of an English galley whose sailing master was Alexander Selkirk, generally accepted as the model for the fictional Robinson Crusoe...
, on which he was sailing, and remained on the island. The ship later sunk with most of its crew being lost. Being a voluntary castaway, Selkirk was able to gather numerous provisions to help him to survive, including a
musketA musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
,
gunpowderGunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
,
carpenter's toolA carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
s, a
knifeA knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
, a
BibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, and
clothingClothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
. He survived on the island for four years and four months, building huts and hunting the plentiful wildlife before his rescue on 2 February 1709. His adventures are said to be an inspiration for
Robinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
, a novel by
Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
published in 1719. In 1966, Más a Tierra was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island.
Philip Ashton
Philip AshtonPhilip Ashton stayed as a castaway on uninhabited Roatan Island in the Bay of Honduras for 16 months in 1723/1724. His memoirs about his solitary stay were not believed by everyone; some people believed the book was a novel in the style of Robinson Crusoe...
, born in
Marblehead, MassachusettsMarblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...
in 1702, was captured by pirates while
fishingFishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
near the coast of
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
in June 1722. He managed to escape in March 1723 when the pirates' ship landed at
RoatánRoatán, located between the islands of Útila and Guanaja, is the largest of Honduras' Bay Islands. The island was formerly known as Ruatan and Rattan...
in the Bay Islands of
HondurasHonduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, hiding in the
jungleA Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
until the pirates left him there. He survived for 16 months, in spite of many insects, tropical heat, and crocodiles. He had no equipment at all until he met another castaway, an Englishman. The Englishman "disappeared" after a few days but he left behind a knife, gunpowder, tobacco, and more. Ashton was finally rescued by the
Diamond, a ship from
Salem, MassachusettsSalem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
.
Leendert Hasenbosch
Leendert HasenboschLeendert Hasenbosch, was a Dutchman, an employee of the Dutch East India Company who was set ashore as a castaway on uninhabited Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, as a punishment for sodomy. He wrote a diary until his death.- Early life :Leendert Hasenbosch was likely born in The...
was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
ship's officer (a bookkeeper), probably born in 1695. He was set ashore on the uninhabited
Ascension IslandAscension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
on 5 May 1725 as a punishment for
sodomySodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
. He was left behind with a tent, a survival kit, and an amount of water for about four weeks. He had bad luck in that no ships called at the island during his stay. He ate seabirds and green turtles, but probably died of thirst after about six months. He wrote a diary that was found in January 1726 by British mariners who brought the diary back to Britain. The diary was rewritten and published a number of times.
As late as 2002, the full truth of the story was disclosed in a book by Dutch historian Michiel Koolbergen (1953–2002), the first to mention Leendert by name. Before that time, the castaway's name had not been known. The story is available in English as
A Dutch Castaway on Ascension Island in 1725.
Chunosuke Matsuyama
In 1784, Chunosuke Matsuyama, a Japanese seaman and 43 of his companions began a voyage to find
buried treasureA buried treasure is an important part of the popular beliefs surrounding pirates and Old West outlaws. According to popular conception, criminals and others often buried their stolen fortunes in remote places, intending to return for them later, often with the use of treasure maps.-Pirate...
on a Pacific island. During the voyage, a storm blew the group's ship onto a
coral reefCoral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
and forced the sailors to seek refuge on a nearby island. However, the crew was unable to find fresh water or sufficient food on the island. With a limited food supply, consisting mostly of crabs and
coconutsCOcOnuts is the second album released by Jane, comprising Animal Collective member Panda Bear, and Scott Mou. It was originally self-released on CD-R's, but later became the first album released by Psych-o-path Records in 2005. The Psych-o-path version was remastered by Rusty Santos and Edik Kleyner....
, the sailors began to die from
dehydrationIn physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
and
starvationStarvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
. Before his own death, Matsuyama carved a message telling the story of his group's
shipwreckA shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....
into thin pieces of wood from a coconut tree, which he inserted into a bottle and threw into the ocean. Approximately 151 years later, in 1935, a Japanese
seaweedSeaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
collector found the bottle. The bottle had washed ashore in the village of Hiraturemura, where Matsuyama was born.
Charles Barnard
In 1812, the British ship
Isabella, captained by George Higton, was shipwrecked off
Eagle IslandSpeedwell Island is one of the Falkland Islands, lying in the Falkland Sound, southwest of Lafonia, East Falkland....
, one of the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
. Most of the crew was rescued by the American
sealerSeal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. The hunt is currently practiced in five countries: Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, Namibia, the Danish region of Greenland, Norway and Russia...
Nanina, commanded by Captain Charles Barnard. However, realising that they would require more provisions for the expanded number of passengers, Barnard and a few others went out in a party to retrieve more food. During his absence, the
Nanina was taken over by the British crew, who left them on the island. Barnard and his party were finally rescued in November 1814. In 1829, Barnard wrote
A Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Captain Charles Barnard detailing the happenings.
Other castaways
Other castaways in history include:
- Pedro Serrano
Pedro Luis Serrano was a Spanish sailor who was supposed to have been marooned for seven or eight years in the sixteenth century on a small desert island. Details of the story differ, but the most common version has him shipwrecked on a small island in the Caribbean off the coast of Nicaragua in...
, a 16th century Spanish sailor marooned in the Caribbean
- The Bountys mutineers and Tahitian women
- Oguri Jukichi
was one of the first Japanese citizens known to have reached present day California. He and his fourteen man crew, bound for Edo, were sailing off the Japanese coast in 1813 when their ship, the Tokujomaru, was disabled in a storm...
, a Japanese captain whose disabled ship floated across the Pacific Ocean and who was eventually rescued by an American ship off the California coast near Santa Barbara in 1815
- Otokichi
was a Japanese castaway originally from the area of Onoura near Mihama, on the west coast of the Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture.- Biography :...
, a Japanese boy whose ship was cast adrift and after 14 months reached the west coast of North America in 1834
- Nakahama Manjirō
, also known as John Manjirō , was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.-Voyage to America:...
, a Japanese fisherman's son, shipwrecked on Torishima, literally meaning "Bird Island", is an uninhabited volcanic island at the south end of the Izu Islands in the Pacific Ocean, administered by Japan.-Geography:...
in 1841, who was rescued by an American ship and played a role in the opening up of Japan to the West
- Juana Maria
Juana Maria , better known to history as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island , was a Native American woman who was the last surviving member of her tribe, the Nicoleño. She lived alone on San Nicolas Island from 1835 until her discovery in 1853...
, the last surviving member of the NicoleñoThe Nicoleño were a Native American tribe living on San Nicolas Island in California. Juana Maria, the "Lone Woman of San Nicolas," was the last surviving Nicoleño when she died in 1853.-History:...
, who lived alone on San Nicolas IslandSan Nicolas Island is the most remote of California's Channel Islands. It is part of Ventura County. The 14,562 acre island is currently controlled by the United States Navy and is used as a weapons testing and training facility, served by Naval Outlying Field San Nicolas Island...
, CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
from 1835 to 1853 and inspired Scott O'DellScott O'Dell was an American children's author who wrote 26 novels for young people, along with three novels for adults and four nonfiction books...
's Island of the Blue DolphinsIsland of the Blue Dolphins is a 1960 American children's novel written by Scott O'Dell. The story of a young girl stranded for years on an island off the California coast, it is based on the true story of Juana Maria, a Nicoleño Indian left alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island in the 19th...
- 22 men of Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE was a notable explorer from County Kildare, Ireland, who was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration...
's crew on Elephant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula for four months in 1916
- Ada Blackjack
Ada Blackjack, was an Inuit woman who lived for two years as a castaway on uninhabited Wrangel Island in northern Siberia.- Biography :...
, an InuitThe Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
woman left alone (1921–23) on Wrangel IslandWrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland...
when a European expedition went wrong
- Poon Lim
Poon Lim or Lim Poon BEM was a Chinese sailor who survived 133 days alone in the South Atlantic.-Castaway:...
, a Chinese sailor from a British ship sunk by a German submarine who survived 133 days alone in the South Atlantic in 1942-43
- Tom Neale
Tom Neale was a New Zealander who spent much of his life in the Cook Islands and 16 years in three sessions living alone on the island of Anchorage in the Suwarrow atoll, which was the basis of his popular autobiography.-Early life:Thomas Francis Neale was born in Wellington, New Zealand, but...
, a New Zealander who chose to spend 16 years between 1952 and 1977 on SuwarrowSuwarrow is a low coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is about 1,300 km south of the equator and 930 km NNW of Rarotonga, from which it is administered....
in the Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...
.
- Dougal Robertson
Dougal Robertson was a Scottish author and sailor born in Edinburgh. He joined the British Merchant Navy after attending Leith Nautical College...
, author of Survive the Savage Sea, and his family, experienced sailors from ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
who were sailing to the Galapagos IslandsThe Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
from PanamaPanama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
when their boat was sunk by a pod of killer whales and who survived for 38 days on a lifeboat before being picked up by a fishing trawler
- Gerald Kingsland
Gerald W. Kingsland was a journalist, adventurer and writer, born and raised in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England. He was five times married. He had five sons and two daughters from the total marriages...
and Lucy IrvineLucy Irvine is a British adventurer and author. Born in Whitton, London, after a tumultuous and free spirited adolescence, in which she replaced formal education with travel and adventure, she joined forces with writer Gerald Kingsland and, as an experiment in isolation, became self imposed...
, author of CastawayCastaway, a 1983 autobiographical book by Lucy Irvine about her year on the Australian tropical island of , having answered a want ad from writer Gerald Kingsland seeking a "wife" for a year in 1982. It was published by Victor Gollancz Ltd.. Irvine stated she longed for a “major personal challenge”...
, British writers and self-imposed castaways for a year (1982–83) on Barney Island, Queensland, in the Torres StraitThe Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands which lie in Torres Strait, the waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea but Torres Strait Island known and Recognize as Nyumaria.The islands are mostly part of...
between New GuineaNew Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
and AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
- 16 people who were washed onto an island during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and were rescued after two months
- Jesus Vidana
Jesús Vidaña is a fisherman from Mexico, famous for being a castaway in the early 21st century.- Lost at sea :Just before sunrise, on October 28, 2005, Lucio Rendón, Salvador Ordóñez and Jesús Eduardo Vidaña, along with two other companions, set forth from the Mexican port of San Blas, Nayarit, to...
, Salvador Ordoñez and Lucio Rendon, three Mexican fishermen from the port of San Blas, Nayarit who sailed 5500 miles (8,851.4 km) before being rescued 200 miles (321.9 km) from Marshall Islands on August 9, 2006
Castaways in popular culture
Various novels, television shows and films tell the story of castaways:
Pre-20th century
- The Odyssey, an ancient Greek epic attributed to Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
- Sinbad the Sailor
Sinbad the Sailor is a fictional sailor from Basrah, living during the Abbasid Caliphate – the hero of a story-cycle of Middle Eastern origin...
, a Middle Eastern folk tale
- Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān is an Arabic philosophical novel and allegorical tale written by Ibn Tufail in the early 12th century.- Translations :* from Wikisource* English translations of Hayy bin Yaqzan...
(Philosophus Autodidactus), a 12th century novel by Ibn TufailIbn Tufail was an Andalusian Muslim polymath: an Arabic writer, novelist, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, vizier,...
- Theologus Autodidactus, a 13th century novel by Ibn al-Nafis
- Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
(1719), a novel by Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...
based loosely on the real life of Alexander SelkirkAlexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a castaway when he was marooned on an uninhabited island. It is probable that his travels provided the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe....
, first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in EnglishThe following works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English.* Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, * William Baldwin, Beware the Cat,...
- The Swiss Family Robinson
-History:Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance...
, an 1812 book by Johann David WyssJohann David Wyss is best remembered for his book The Swiss Family Robinson. It is said that he was inspired by Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, but wanted to write a story from which his own children would learn, as the father in the story taught important lessons to his children...
that has been adapted into various film and television versions
- Several late 19th century novels by Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, such as In Search of the CastawaysIn Search of the Castaways is a novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1867–1868. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Édouard Riou. In 1876 it was republished by George Routledge & Sons as a three volume set titled "A Voyage Round The World"...
(1868), The Mysterious IslandThe Mysterious Island is a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874. The original edition, published by Hetzel, contains a number of illustrations by Jules Férat. The novel is a sequel to Verne's famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and In Search of the Castaways, though thematically it is...
(1874), Godfrey MorganGodfrey Morgan: A Californian Mystery , also published as Godfrey Morgan, School for Robinsons, and School for Crusoes, is an adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne first published in 1882. It tells of a young adventurer, Godfrey Morgan, and his deportment instructor, Professor T. Artelett,...
(also known as School for Robinsons, 1882), and Two Years' VacationTwo Years' Vacation is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1888. The story tells of the fortunes of a group of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island in the South Pacific, and of their struggles to overcome adversity...
(1888)
20th century writing
This is a list of fiction. There are also memoirs such as
CastawayCastaway, a 1983 autobiographical book by Lucy Irvine about her year on the Australian tropical island of , having answered a want ad from writer Gerald Kingsland seeking a "wife" for a year in 1982. It was published by Victor Gollancz Ltd.. Irvine stated she longed for a “major personal challenge”...
.
- The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon is a romance novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole, first published in 1908. The novel is the first of the Blue Lagoon trilogy, the second being The Garden of God and the third being The Gates of Morning ....
, a 1908 romance novel by Henry De Vere StacpooleHenry De Vere Stacpoole was an Irish author, born in Kingstown . His best known work is the 1908 romance novel The Blue Lagoon, which has been adapted into feature films on three occasions...
about two children stranded on a tropical island after a shipwreck, with multiple film adaptations
- Baby Island
Baby Island is a novel by Carol Ryrie Brink, published in 1937. It resembles Robinson Crusoe in that the protagonists Mary and Jean are stranded on a desert island with four babies.-Plot summary:...
, a 1937 novel by Carol Ryrie BrinkCarol Ryrie Brink was an American author of over thirty juvenile and adult books. Her novel Caddie Woodlawn won the 1936 Newbery Medal...
about two preteen sisters caring for four babies on a South Seas island
- Survivor Type, a 1982 short story by Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
about a shipwrecked surgeon who ends up eating parts of his own body to survive
- Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
, a novel by William GoldingSir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
, and several movie versions
- Hatchet
Hatchet is a 1987 three-time Newbery Honor-winning wilderness survival novel written by Gary Paulsen. It is the first novel in the Hatchet series and is followed by four sequels....
, a novel that follows the life of a teenage boy as he survives in the CanadianCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
wilderness after the plane he was on crashes.
- Island of the Blue Dolphins
Island of the Blue Dolphins is a 1960 American children's novel written by Scott O'Dell. The story of a young girl stranded for years on an island off the California coast, it is based on the true story of Juana Maria, a Nicoleño Indian left alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island in the 19th...
, a book by Scott O'Dell about a girl marooned on an island for 18 years
- Life of Pi
Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...
, in which the title character, Pi Patel, spends months on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger
20th century video
- Mr. Robinson Crusoe
Mr. Robinson Crusoe is a 1932 American film. It is one of the few "talkie" films starring Douglas Fairbanks in his penultimate film role, who also produced the film and provided the story. The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland, a veteran silent film director, for Fairbanks's Elton...
, a 1932 Douglas FairbanksDouglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
movie
- Gilligan's Island
Gilligan's Island is an American television series created and produced by Sherwood Schwartz and originally produced by United Artists Television. The situation comedy series featured Bob Denver; Alan Hale, Jr.; Jim Backus; Natalie Schafer; Tina Louise; Russell Johnson; and Dawn Wells. It aired for...
, an AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
TVA television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
sitcomA situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
which aired on CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
from 1964 to 1967
- Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N.
Lt. Robin Crusoe USN is a 1966 comedy film released and scripted by Walt Disney. The film stars Dick Van Dyke as a U.S. Navy pilot who becomes a castaway on a tropical island. It was shot in San Diego....
, a 1966 Disney film, starring Dick Van DykeRichard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke, and father of Barry Van Dyke...
- Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto), a 1974 Italian film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
about a rich woman and a communist sailor stranded on a Mediterranean island
- Castaway
Castaway is a 1986 film starring Amanda Donohoe and Oliver Reed, and directed by Nicolas Roeg. It was adapted from the 1984 book of the same name by Lucy Irvine, telling of her experiences of staying for a year with writer Gerald Kingsland on the isolated island of Tuin, between New Guinea and...
, a 1986 film starring Amanda Donohoe and Oliver Reed, and directed by Nicolas Roeg, based on the book Castaway by Lucy IrvineLucy Irvine is a British adventurer and author. Born in Whitton, London, after a tumultuous and free spirited adolescence, in which she replaced formal education with travel and adventure, she joined forces with writer Gerald Kingsland and, as an experiment in isolation, became self imposed...
- Six Days Seven Nights
Six Days Seven Nights is a 1998 adventure film. The screenplay was written by Michael Browning. The movie, filmed on location in Kauai, is directed by Ivan Reitman. It stars Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline Obradors, and Temuera Morrison...
, a film about two people whose plane crashes on an island
- Johnny Castaway
Johnny Castaway is a screensaver released in 1993 by Sierra On-Line/Dynamix, and marketed under the Screen Antics brand.The screensaver depicts a man stranded on a very small island with a single palm tree. It follows a story which is slowly revealed through time. It takes many days to catch on to...
, a screensaver that follows the daily exploits of its namesake
- The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: The Secret of the Living Volcano
The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures: Secret of the Living Volcano is a personal computer game in The Learning Company's ClueFinders series of educational software...
, a 1999 PC game created by The Learning CompanyThe Learning Company is an American educational software company, founded in 1980. It produced a grade-based system similar to Knowledge Adventure's JumpStart series. The products for preschoolers through second graders feature Reader Rabbit, and software for more advanced students features The...
- Cast Away
Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his successful attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane's cargo, as well as his...
, a 2000 film starring Tom HanksThomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
, directed by Robert ZemeckisRobert Lee Zemeckis is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Zemeckis first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of the comedic time-travel Back to the Future film series, as well as the Academy Award-winning live-action/animation epic Who Framed Roger Rabbit ,...
- Castaway 2000
Castaway 2000 was a reality TV programme commissioned by the BBC in 2000.-The Concept:Castaway 2000 is a successful British television show that, because it was aired in the same year that Survivor first aired in the United States and Big Brother first aired in Great Britain, is often regarded as a...
, a BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
reality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
series in which a volunteer community lived for a year on the previously uninhabited TaransayTaransay is an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It is famous for being the host of the British television series Castaway 2000. Uninhabited since 1974, except for holidaymakers, Taransay is the largest island in Scotland that lacks a permanent population...
in the Outer HebridesThe Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...
21st century
- Flight 29 Down
Flight 29 Down is a television series about a group of teenagers who are stranded on an island. It was produced by Discovery Kids. The show was created by Stan Rogow and D. J. MacHale . The executive producers are Rogow, MacHale, Shauna Shapiro Jackson, and Gina & Rann Watumull...
, a television series on Discovery KidsDiscovery Kids is an American website owned by Discovery Communications, Inc. created for children. Until October 10, 2010, it was an American digital cable specialty channel, owned by Discovery Communications with television programming for education of children. It was launched in October 1996...
about teenagers after a plane crash on an island somewhere in the South PacificOceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
.
- Survivor, a CBS television reality series that pits contestants against each other on various remote island areas
- Lost
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
, a 2004 drama series about the 48 survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 as they try to survive on a mysterious island in the South Pacific.
Minor part of the story
Castaways are part of other stories as well, where the event is not the central plot but is still an important aspect. Examples include:
- The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion is a 1979 American film based on the 1941 classic children's novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, who is shipwrecked on a desert island, together with a wild Arabian stallion whom he befriends...
- The Road to El Dorado
The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 American animated adventure comedy film by DreamWorks. The soundtrack features songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, the music team from Disney's The Lion King....
- Kidnapped
Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis...
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island DiscsDesert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
is a
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
interview show in which the subject is invited to consider themselves as a castaway on a desert island, and then select their eight favourite records, one favourite book (in addition to
The Bible and books by Shakespeare), and a luxury inanimate object to occupy their time. This concept has become so widespread that it has become a part of popular culture.
See also
- Desert island
A desert island or uninhabited island is an island that has yet to be populated by humans. Uninhabited islands are often used in movies or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes for the idea of "paradise". Some uninhabited islands are protected as nature reserves and...
- Marooning
Marooning is the intentional leaving of someone in a remote area, such as an uninhabited island. The word appears in writing in approximately 1709, 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...
- Stowaway
A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected....
- Castaway depot
A castaway depot is a store or hut placed on an isolated island to provide emergency supplies and relief for castaways and victims of shipwrecks...
- Castaway 2000
Castaway 2000 was a reality TV programme commissioned by the BBC in 2000.-The Concept:Castaway 2000 is a successful British television show that, because it was aired in the same year that Survivor first aired in the United States and Big Brother first aired in Great Britain, is often regarded as a...
and 2007Castaway 2007 was a follow-up to the BBC series Castaway 2000 in which a group of people from the British public are "castaway" on a remote island. While in the 2000 series 36 men, women and children moved to a remote Scottish island for a year, this series featured 15 men and women from the...
Survival video games category
- Robinsonade
Robinsonade is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The success of this novel spawned enough imitations that its name was used to define a genre, which is sometimes described simply as a "desert island story"...
External links
- Adams, Cecil
Cecil Adams is a name, possibly a pseudonym, designating the American author of The Straight Dope, a popular question and answer column published in The Chicago Reader since 1973. Ed Zotti is Adams' current editor....
(2 December 2005). Not necessarily Lost: Are there actual cases of castaways who have been rescued? at The Straight DopeThe Straight Dope is a popular question-and-answer newspaper column published in the Chicago Reader, syndicated in thirty newspapers in the United States and Canada, as well as being available and archived at the .-Newspapers:...
. Accessed 4 December 2005.