DID GILLIGAN EVER HAVE IT BETTER?:

Island gives up secret of real Robinson Crusoe (STEPHEN MCGINTY, 22 Sep 2005, The Scotsman)

A GLINT of metal in the soil marked the end of a 13-year quest by a Japanese explorer to locate the base camp of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned 18th-century mariner, whose ordeal inspired the book Robinson Crusoe.

As a teenager, Daisuke Takahashi read the classic novel by Daniel Defoe and when he discovered it was based on the life of a Scottish sailor, an obsession was ignited which has carried him across the globe to the island of Mas-a-Tierra, 416 miles off the coast of Chile, where Selkirk was abandoned in 1704.

An expedition led by Mr Takahashi has now uncovered clinching evidence of the location of Selkirk's base camp, where he spent four years and four months scanning the horizon in hope of rescue.

Excavation of a site, high in the hills along an abandoned trail, has led to the discovery of a bronze tip from a pair of navigational dividers, which have since been dated to the early 18th century and are almost certain to have belonged to Selkirk, a ship's master.

"I have finally reached him," said Mr Takahashi, who previously wrote the Japanese best-seller, In Search of Robinson Crusoe.

"It's a peaceful site, with the sound of a nearby river and birds singing. You can see how Selkirk could have conquered his loneliness here."

The question is why folks are always in such a frenzy to get off of deserted islands.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 22, 2005 10:15 AM