Talk:Alexander Selkirk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]

Please rate the article and, if you wish, leave comments here regarding your assessment or the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.

Hello... This page is about Alexander Selkirk, my great Uncle of whom the story Robinson Caruso was wriiten...My Grandmother on my Dads side was a Selkirk...You can read about him from here...My cousin did a family tree and found out this information...

  • No disrespect intended, but a documentary I saw on Selkirk contained the tidbit that he had marked some goats by 'notching' their ears as ones he'd had sex with, so that those were ones he didn't kill and eat. I've yet to see that 'fact' anywhere else, so I wonder if anyone has any cites for this. -- Kickstart70 20:03, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Friday

So there was no Friday character on this island as there is in Robinson Crusoe. --Abdull 16:48, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Query

This resulted in a major injury wherein he tumbled off a cliff and was rendered unconscious for two days..

Just a question but, if he was the only inhabitant of the island and was unconscious, how could Selkirk possibly know how much time had elapsed between the incident and the time he recovered consciousness? 194.125.98.48 03:28, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this up. I checked the first hand sources and found the passing period was an estimated 24 hours. Didn't find any explanation though. Lotsofissues 13:42, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Many things grow in a linear way with time. The position of the moon, the growth of grass under tropical climate, may help to distinguish between a period of one or two days ? --DLL 12:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)DLL

[edit] Where did the article go?

I wonder what happened to this article; its bluelinked where I have come across it; but each time I try to link to it, I get a prompt saying "start the Alexander Selkirk page", etc. Curious. Can anyone shed light on this? --FeanorStar7 11:26, 6 March 2006 (UTC)


In the article it mentions a William Dampier described earlier but there doesn't seem to be anything about William Dampier before it.

[edit] Query

Back in the early 80's I had a novel which detailed Selkirk's adventures. There's no mention of this book on the wiki page, and I can't find it using Google. I want to buy & read it again but I can't until I ID the title and author. Does anyone know? --Spacejock 19 July 2006

[edit] Connection with Hull, East Yorkshire?

When I was child i remember my mother showing me a plaque in Queens Gardens, Hull. This plaque declared that this was the loction that the mariner on who Robinson Crusoe had been based, Selkirk, had sailed from that location. Queens Gardens had formerly been a dock. Can anyone shed light on this claim? Also I have just read Selkirks Island by Diana Souhami. It is a very interesting read with numerous referances to period journals and publications that give further detail of Selikirks life. Christopher Lawson 15:00, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Change of Nationality

I note with interest that Selkirk was stranded a Scotsman, but rescued as a citizen of the United Kingdom... the Acts of Union having been passed in 1707. — Johan the Ghost seance 01:00, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Quote

Can anyone translate in English the quotation at the very end of the article? "A slackit way f'r a mon,' Alex mourned to himself. 'Ah dinnae ken Ah'd ever be Alex Selkirk.'" --Gspinoza (talk) 16:32, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Moskito Indian

In Dampier's original publication of these events he refers to Selkirk as a "Moskito Indian". Does anyone know anything more about this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zdb236 (talk • contribs) 01:06, 8 June 2008 (UTC)