The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk (2007)

damninteresting.com

46 points·benbreen··8 comments

Interesting detective-work story connecting Blackbeard's sunken ship and another author who told Selkirk's story in 1712, Edward Cooke. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/discovery-shows-pi...]

Sea-chest of Alexander Selkirk - National Museums Scotland

https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/collection-sea...

Crusoe Hotel, Lower Largo - Historic Environment Scotland

https://canmore.org.uk/site/32845/lower-largo-2-main-street-...

I this subject interests you I recommend "Desperate journeys, abandoned souls : true stories of castaways and other survivors" available freely on the Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/desperatejourney00edwa/page/n19/...

Damn interesting used to be such a great website- this article was from its golden age.

I never heard of it before. What changed?

I think the telling of this kind of content moved largely to video/youtube, and DI got left in the dust a bit. There was a period where youtube "creators" would upload videos of them reading DI articles and displaying quasi relevant images from google search, and they would make way more money than the actual authors of DI would.

I don’t understand people that would rather watch a video of that than read. But I guess that’s why I’m out of touch with this generation.

"But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest,

The beast is laid down in his lair;

Even here is a season of rest,

And I to my cabin repair.

There's mercy in every place;

And mercy—encouraging thought!

—Gives even affliction a grace,

And reconciles man to his lot. ".

Strange that the article does not seem to mention William Cowper's famous poem.

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