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by londons_explore 2337 days ago
If the ship later sank, do we have any other source for this story?

For all we know, Selkirk was chucked off the ship for being a thief, the ship later sank, and Selkirk made up the story to not reveal he was a thief.

2 comments

> For all we know

No, much more is known than what is casually assumed in this sentence. Unfortunately the sentence turns out to be just "for all londons_explore knows" but surely not "for all it is known from the survived texts."

And what is known is written in the very Wikipedia article which thewarpaint linked and which "londons_explore" obviously didn't read:

"Cinque Ports did indeed later founder off the coast of what is now Colombia. Stradling and some of his crew survived the loss of their ship but were forced to surrender to the Spanish. The survivors were taken to Lima, Peru, where they endured a harsh imprisonment.[16]"

Wikipedia also cites the source, the article from 1713:

Steele, Richard (3 December 1713). "Alexander Selkirk, an Account of His Living Alone Above Four Years in a Desolate Island". The Englishman. 1 (26): 168–173.

Also the link to the online readable form of the article, as it was printed in 1714, more than 300 years ago:

https://books.google.at/books?id=IY2UnI4L6g8C&pg=PA168

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Ports_(1703_ship)

Says at least some of the crew survived and Selkirk gave a deposition in the resulting lawsuit between the ships owners and the captain.