The Water Horse — Where 'Crusoe' Gets Its Name

The Water Horse is a castaway -- that is, "one cast adrift at sea" -- beacuse the found egg was washed up on a Scottish beach. Read about another casaway, a man named Alexander Selkirk. After you learn his story, you'll see why the Water Horse is given the name "Crusoe."

Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor born in 1676. He went to sea at age 19 to make his fortune. After a few years, Alexander was made a Sailing Master because he was so good at sailing a ship. But Selkirk soon found himself on a ship that he did not like sailing. Its captain liked getting into battles at sea with other ships. After battles with several Spanish ships, Selkirk feared his ship would be sunk during a battle. Selkirk demanded that the captain put him ashore on the next island they came upon.

So in September 1704, Alexander Selkirk was cast away on an uninhabited island (today known as Robinson Crusoe Island) 400 miles off the coast of Chile. Selkirk took with him some clothing, bedding, a musket with gunpowder, some tools, and a Bible. After he came ashore, he read his Bible and waited for someone to rescue him. But with a heavy sadness, Selkirk soon realized that he would be alone on the island for a long, long time. Selkirk tried to make the best of island life. He made friends with rats, cats, and goats to keep him company. On February 1, 1709, two British ships dropped anchor offshore. Selkirk saw this and lit a torch. He waved it wildly at the ships. When a landing party from the ships rowed to shore, they found a "wildman" dressed in goatskins. Alexander Selkirk had spent four years and four months on the island -- all by himself.

In 1713 Selkirk published the story of his adventures. Six years later, Alexander Selkirk's true story was turned into a fictional story by an author named Daniel Defoe. Daniel Defoe called his novel (and its main character) Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe pretends to tell the "true" story of an English castaway who washes ashore and spends 28 years on a remote island. In Defoe's novel, Robinson Crusoe meets all sorts of people before he is rescued. The full title of Daniel Defoe's novel is:

The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pirates. Written by Himself.

Adapted from "Alexander Selkirk: The Real Robinson Crusoe?" Please see: www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/europe/oddities_europe.shtml

This page is excerpted from Walden Media’s Activity Poster for The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. Click here for a complete copy of the poster in PDF format.

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