In October 1704, Alexander Selkirk asked to leave his boat, which had stopped on an uninhabited island, fearing that it was unsafe. He was granted his wish, when he later changed his mind and called after the ship he was ignored. He lived alone on the island for over four years, twice hiding from crews who stopped on the island because they were Spanish. He was eventually rescued in February 1709, and by that time had learned to feed himself by catching goats, which he also used for milk and clothes. He built huts for himself, and didn’t need new shoes after his feet became hardened and calloused. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, published 1719, was based upon Selkirk’s story. In Defoe’s tale, Crusoe spends twenty eight years on an island near Venezuela. Crusoe comes across an escaped prisoner from a cannibal tribe, and makes him his servant, to whom he also teaches English and converts to Christianity. The book was a massive success, and prompted other shipwreck narratives, notably The Swiss Family Robinson, (1812), which is heavily based on Defoe’s text, in which a family are stranded and learn a series of lessons about natural history. Gulliver’s Travels (1726) is more of a parody of the genre and of Defoe’s text, in which humans are seen as destructive, and society as corrupt. The shipwreck theme is still popular, with the movie Cast Away and the TV series Lost.
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