Crusoe's Island
Page 35
Rogers’s account of, 1, 2;
and Sutcliffe, 1
‘Selkirk’s Mirador’ (Más a Tierra), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Seller, John, 1
Seven Years’ War (1756), 1, 2
Severn, 1
Seville (Spain), 1, 2
Seymour, Admiral George, 1, 2, 3; accompanied by family, 1, 2;
expedition of, see Collingwood expedition
Shakespeare, William, 1, 2, 3
sharks, 1, 2, 3
Sharp, Bartholomew, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; trial/acquittal of, 1
Sharp’s Bay (Más a Tierra), 1
sheep, 1, 2, 3, 4
Shelvocke, Captain George (Speedwell), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; and Clipperton, 1, 2;
description of Más a Tierra by, 1;
mutiny of crew, 1;
profit from expedition, 1;
repair of ship/leaving island, 1;
shipwrecked, 1, 2, 3;
voyage to Más a Tierra, 1
Shillibeer, Lieutenant John (Briton), 1
ship repairs, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
shipping/trade routes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; in First World War 1, 2, 3
shipwrecks, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Sick and Hurt Board, 1, 2, 3
silk, 1, 2, 3
silver, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; importance of, 1, 2;
mines, 1, 2, 3, 4
Simpson, Robert, 1, 2(n12)
Skottsberg, Carl, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
slavery, 1, 2
Sloane, Hans, 1, 2
Slocum, Joshua, 1, 2, 3, 4(n6)
Smith, Bernard, 1
smuggling, 1, 2, 3, 4
Socorro (Chile), 1, 2
soil erosion, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Solander, Daniel, 1
Somerville, Commander Philip (Collingwood), 1, 2, 3
Souhami, Diana, 1, 2, 3
South America: Cromwell and, 1; Spanish conquest of, 1;
and gold/silver, 1, 2;
trade in, see trade; wars of independence in, 1, 2, 3, 4;
see also specific countries
South American Station, 1
South Atlantic, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
South Pacific fiction, 1, 2
South Sea Bubble, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
South Sea Company, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
South Seas: maps/charts of, see maps/charts; national obsession with, 1; piracy in, see pirates/privateers; travel literature on, 1
South Seas Company, 1
Southern Ocean, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Southern Whale Fishery Committee, 1, 2
Spain: alliance with Britain (1793), 1; alliance with France (1796), 1;
Bourbon, 1, 2, 3, 4;
British fear of, 1, 2, 3;
and diplomacy, 1;
Habsburg, 1, 2;
pirate literature in, 1;
and Seven Years’ War, 1;
war with Britain (1585–1604), 1;
war with Britain (1738), 1, 2;
war with Britain (1779), 1;
war with Britain (1796), 1;
war with Britain, threat of (1727), 1;
war with Chile, 1;
war with France (1688–97), 1;
war with France (1796), 1;
war with Habsburg Empire, 1;
and whaling industry, 1, 2
Spanish Empire, 1; and China, 1;
economic system of, 1;
and England, conflicts with, 1, 2, 3;
and gold/silver, 1, 2;
and Más a Tierra, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
and oceanic/island exploration, 1;
and Pacific sea lanes, 1;
and piracy, see piracy; weakness of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Spanish South Seas Armada, 1, 2, 3
Spanish Succession, War of (1701–14), 1, 2
Speedwell, 1, 2
sperm whales, see whaling spice trade, 1, 2, 3
Spithead, 1, 2, 3
Springer, Haskell, 1
Staten Island, 1
steamships, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Steele, Richard, 1, 2, 3
Stewart, Captain, 1
Stewart, Chaplain Charles, 1, 2
Stewart, Commodore Charles (Franklin), 1
Stradling, Captain Thomas (Cinque Ports), 1, 2
strawberries, 1
Strong, Captain John (Welfare), 1
Stuart England, 1, 2; piracy in, 1;
pirate literature in, 1;
voyaging in, 1;
War of Spanish Succession, 1, 2
Stumpfhaus, Jürgen, 1, 2
Sturdee, Vice Admiral Sir Doveton, 1
Success, 1
Surrey (English merchant ship), 1
Sutcliffe, Thomas, 1, 2, 3, 4(nn9, 11); pamphlets by, 1, 2;
unreliability of, 1, 2
Swallow (HMS), 1
Sweepstakes (HMS), 1
Swift, Jonathan, 1, 2, 3
Sydney (Australia), 1, 2
Tagus (HMS), 1
Tahiti, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; taken by French 1, 2
Talcahuano (Chile), 1, 2, 3
Tamar (HMS), 1
‘Task, The’ (Cowper), 1
Tasman, Abel, 1
Tassell, Hubert, 1, 2
Taylor, William, 1
telegraph cables, 1, 2, 3, 4
Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 1, 2, 3
Terre Australis, 1
Thomas, Pascoe, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Thomas, Rear Admiral Richard, 1
Thucydides, 1
Tierra del Fuego, 1, 2, 3
Timaeus (Plato), 1
Timbuktu, 1
Times, The, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Tinian, 1, 2, 3
Topaz, 1
Topaze (HMS), 1
tourism, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; eco- 1, 2
Townsend, 1
trade, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; access to markets, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
America and, 1;
Anglo-Chilean, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;
Defoe’s promotion of, 1, 2, 3, 4;
and Nootka Sound Crisis, 1, 2;
and piracy, 1, 2;
Spanish domination of, 1
travel writing, 1
Trotter, Thomas, 1
Tryal (sloop), 1, 2, 3, 4
tsunamis/tidal waves, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Tudor England, 1, 2, 3, 4; and Empire 1, 2;
and Europe 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
as maritime power 1, 2;
piracy in 1, 2;
scientific achievements in 1;
and Spain 1
turnips, 1, 2, 3, 4
turtles, 1
Two Years Before the Mast (Dana), 1, 2; and Melville, 1, 2, 3;
and Robinson Crusoe, 1, 2, 3
Typee (Melville), 1, 2
U-boats, 1
Ulloa, Antonio de, 1, 2
UNESCO, 1
United States, 1, 2, 3; and British Empire, 1, 2, 3;
decline of seafaring in, 1;
imperialism of, 1;
literature of, 1;
and Manifest Destiny, 1;
national identity of, 1, 2, 3, 4;
and seal skin industry, 1;
seapower of, 1;
and trade, 1, 2, 3;
Vespucci’s, 1, 2;
voyage literature of, 1, 2, 3;
war with Britain (1812), 1, 2, 3;
and whaling industry, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
United States (USS), 1
Utopia (More), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Utrecht, Treaty of, 1, 2, 3
Valdivia (Chile), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Valparaiso (Chile), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12;
British in, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; British plan to seize, 1;
Essex captured at, 1;
in First World War, 1, 2
Vancouver, George, 1, 2, 3
Venezuela, 1
Venice (Italy), 1
Vernon, Admiral Sir Edward, 1
‘Verses, Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk’ (Cowper), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Vespucci, Amerigo, 1, 2, 3
Vincennes (USS), 1
von Spee, Admiral Maximilian Graf, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
voyage literature, 1, 2;
American, 1, 2; and buccaneer tales, 1;
fantastic in, 1;
first-hand experience in, 1;
Gulliver’s Travels (Swift), 1, 2, 3, 4;
and mental effects of scurvy, 1;
New Atlantis (Bacon), 1, 2, 3, 4;
and real voyages, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;
robinsonades, 1, 2, 3, 4;
sailors as consumers/producers of, 1;
and science fiction 1;
Utopia (More), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6;
see also Robinson Crusoe
voyage narratives, 1, 2, 3; of Anson’s expedition, 1;
and British world view, 1;
collectors of, 1, 2, 3;
Dutch, 1;
as guides to navigation/resources, 1, 2, 3;
illustrations to, 1, 2, 3;
imaginary, see voyage literature; as promotion of trade/exploration, 1, 2;
and Royal Society, 1;
and Selkirk, 1, 2;
seventeenth century, 1;
translations of, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5;
Tudor period, 1, 2;
Victorian, 1
Voyage Round the World by Way of the Great South Sea (Shevlocke), 1; as resource for later voyagers, 1, 2, 3
Wafer, Lionel, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Wager (HMS), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Waggoner (Sharp), 1, 2
Wallis, Samuel, 1, 2, 3, 4
Walpole, Lieutenant Frederick, 1, 2
Walpole, Robert, 1, 2, 3
Walter, Richard, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; and buccaneer tales, 1;
and later expeditions, 1, 2
Wandelaar, Jan, 1
War of 1812, 1, 2, 3
Wars of the Roses, 1
Warspite (HMS), 1
water supplies, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Watling, Captain John, 1
Webb, Cornelius, 1
Welbe, John, 1
Welfare (privateer), 1
Westcott, Martin, 1
Wever, Hugo, 1, 2, 3
Weymouth (HMS), 1, 2
Whale Fishery Act (1788), 1
whale oil, 1, 2, 3, 4
whales, 1, 2
whaling, 1, 2, 3; American, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7;
and Board of Trade, 1, 2, 3, 4;
competition with Spain, 1;
decline of, in South Pacific, 1;
Enderby and, 1, 2, 3;
as global system, 1, 2;
and literature, 1;
Melville’s experience of, 1;
and oil industry, 1;
and privateers, 1;
ships attacked/seized, 1;
size/importance of, 1;
and smuggling, 1;
and South Seas Company, 1
wheat, 1, 2, 3, 4
White Jacket (Melville), 1
Wilkes, Charles, 1
Will (Meskito Indian), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; in Dampier’s account, 1
William (whaleship), 1
William & Ann, 1
William IV, 1, 2
Williams, Glyn, 1
Windy Bay (Más a Tierra), 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
woodcuts, 1, 2
Woodward, Ralph, 1, 2
Daniel Defoe (right) spun a tale that would capture the imagination of the western world and create a literary genre that wrapped up English identity in tiny islands and oceanic space. The Victorian statue of Alexander Selkirk (left), in his home town of Lower Largo, demonstrates how profoundly his story had melded with that of Crusoe, depicted here as armed and ambitious, not as the nervous castaway.
This frontispiece image of Crusoe in the book’s first edition (1719) determined the impact of the story before readers had engaged with Defoe’s text, but the illustration made it clear that Crusoe’s island lay in the Caribbean, off the fabled Orinoco River, the scene of Sir Walter Raleigh’s gilded failure.
The woodcut that opened Thomas More’s Utopia of 1516 linked insularity, Englishness and civilisation through the powerful metaphor of the three-masted ship, the vehicle that embodied English imperial ambition.
Herman Moll’s ‘New and Exact Map of the Coast, Countries and Islands within the Limits of the South Sea Company’, created to promote the South Sea Company, placed the island of Juan Fernández at the centre of ‘the Pacific Sea’, and provided a coastal perspective to enable visiting mariners to identify their target.
The coastal perspective taken by the officers of HMS Tagus in early 1816 emphasised the majestic verticality of the island. The critical role of the anchorage in Cumberland Bay and the food and watering opportunities of the village at San Juan Bautista are also evident in the seaman’s view of Juan Fernández.
The men who put the island into the English lexicon: buccaneer author William Dampier (left), who visited it on four occasions, and George, Lord Anson, who used it to refit his scurvied expedition. Dampier’s career ended in humiliation, Anson’s with fabulous wealth, political power and naval glory. Their books are still read, and help to shape the way the island is understood.
In the first edition of A Voyage Round the World in the Years MDCCXL, Lord Anson chose to have his encampment represented in the midst of an idealised classical landscape; the image distorts the perspective and imposes classical order on the angular hills. This verdant valley remains at the heart of island life today, complete with its own mini-market.
When Lord Anson’s men landed, vast breeding herds of majestic elephant seals dominated the beaches. They provided a suitably fantastical element to Anson’s book, replacing the sea monsters of medieval cartography with something very real, and equally alarming.
The fabled cave of Alexander Selkirk in Puerto Inglese. As Selkirk did not live in a cave, and Crusoe did not live on the island, the cave demonstrates how easily their stories became intertwined. Today the cave is larger, deepened by treasure hunters seeking equally mythic gold.
In June 1910, The Times advertised a pioneering round-the-world tourist voyage for wealthy sportsmen. The RMSS Atrato never sailed, and the next English visit had more deadly intent.
The wider world finally arrived on the island on 14 March 1915, when a global conflict brought HMS Kent, Glasgow and Orama into Cumberland Bay, where they caught the German light cruiser SMS Dresden (below) at anchor. The Germans scuttled their ship, which still lies where she sank, 60 metres below the waves.
A vertical island. High up at ‘Selkirk’s Mirador’ the angularity of El Yunque and the thick vegetation create a distinctive razor’s edge on the rim of an ancient volcano.
The sailor’s view of Crusoe’s domain: heading into Cumberland Bay, the island resembles a natural amphitheatre, clad in green and artfully arranged around the majestic heights of El Yunque. This photograph was taken in late 2010, the year of the most recent tsunami.
About the Author
Andrew Lambert is Laughton Professor of Naval History at King’s College London. His books include Nelson: Britannia’s God of War, Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great, Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812, for which he was awarded the Anderson Medal, and The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy Against Russia 1853-1856. His highly successful history of the Royal Navy, War at Sea, was broadcast on BBC Two.
Also by the Author
Trincomalee: The Last of Nelson’s Frigates
War at Sea in the Age of the Sail
The Foundations of Naval History
The Crimean War: Grand Strategy against Russia 1853–1856
Nelson: Britannia’s God of War
Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great
Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation
The Challenge: America, Britain and the War of 1812
Copyright
First published in 2016
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bury House
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ISBN 978–0–571–33025–6