Robinson Crusoe Island - History

History

The island was first named Juan Fernandez Island after Juan Fernández, a Spanish sea captain and explorer who was the first to land there in 1574. It was also known as Más a Tierra. There is no evidence of an earlier discovery either by Polynesians, despite the proximity to Easter Island, or by Native Americans.

It was here that the sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned as a castaway in 1704, and lived in solitude for four years and four months. Selkirk had been gravely concerned about the seaworthiness of his ship, the Cinque Ports, and declared his wish to be left on the island during a mid-voyage restocking stop. His captain, Thomas Stradling, a colleague on the voyage of privateer and explorer William Dampier, was tired of his dissent and obliged. All Selkirk had left with him was a musket, gunpowder, carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible and some clothing. The sailor's experience most likely inspired Daniel Defoe to write the classic novel Robinson Crusoe in 1719. In the 1840 narrative, Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. described the port of Juan Fernandez as a young prison colony. To reflect the literary lore associated with the island, the Chilean government renamed the location Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.

Admiral Maximilian von Spee's cruiser squadron stopped and re-coaled at the island between 26 – 28 October 1914, during World War I. It was here that the admiral was unexpectedly rejoined by the armed merchant cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, which he had earlier detached to attack Allied shipping in Australian waters, and where he was finally caught by a British squadron at the Battle of Más a Tierra.