A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a desert island, either to evade captors or the world in general. A person may also be left ashore as punishment (marooned).
The provisions and resources available to castaways may allow them to live on the island until other people arrive to take them off the island. However, such rescue missions may never happen if the person is not known to still be alive, if the fact that they are missing is unknown, or if the island is not mapped. These scenarios have given rise to the plots of numerous stories in the form of novels and film.
Real occurrences
Thorgisl Icelander Thorgisl set out to travel to Greenland. He and his party were first driven into a remote sound on the east coast of Greenland. Thorgisl, his infant son, and several others were then abandoned there by their thralls. Thorgisl and his party traveled slowly along the coast to the Eystribyggð settlement of Erik the Red on the southwest coast of Greenland. Along the way, they met a Viking, an outlaw who had escaped to East Greenland. This history is told in Flóamanna saga and Origines Islandicae and occurred during the early years of Viking Greenland, while Leif Ericson was still alive.
Grettir Ásmundarson
Icelander Grettir Ásmundarson was outlawed by the assembly in Iceland. After many years on the run, he and two companions went to the forbidden island of Drangey, where he lived several more years before his pursuers managed to kill him in 1031.
Fernão Lopes
The Portuguese soldier Fernão Lopes was marooned on the island of Saint Helena in 1513. He had lost his right hand, the thumb of his left hand, his nose, and his ears as punishment for mutiny and apostasy for converting to Islam. For the rest of his life – he died in about 1545 – Lopes stayed on the island, except for two years around 1530, when the Portuguese king helped him travel to Rome, where the Pope granted him absolution for his sin of apostasy.
Juan de Cartagena and Pedro Sánchez Reina In April 1520, a mutiny broke out in Magellan's fleet while at the Patagonian seashore. Magellan put it down and executed some of the ringleaders. He then punished two others: the King of Spain's delegate, Juan de Cartagena and the priest, Pedro Sánchez Reina, by marooning them in that desolate place. They were never heard from again.
Gonzalo de Vigo Gonzalo de Vigo was a Spanish sailor (Galician) who deserted from Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa's Trinidad, part of the Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, while in the Maug Islands in August 1522. He lived with the Chamorros for four years and visited thirteen main islands in the Marianas until he was unexpectedly found in Guam in 1526 by the flagship of the Loaísa Expedition, on its way to the Spice Islands and the second circumnavigation of the globe. Gonzalo de Vigo was the first recorded European castaway in the history of the Pacific Ocean.Coello, Francisco. "Conflicto hispano-alemán", Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid, t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, pp. 233, 301
Marguerite de La Rocque
A French noblewoman, Marguerite de la Rocque, was marooned in 1542 on an island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, off the coast of Quebec. She was left by her near relative Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval, a nobleman privateer, as punishment for her affair with a young man on board ship. The young man joined her, as did a servant woman, both of whom later died, as did the baby de la Rocque bore. Marguerite survived by hunting wild animals and was later rescued by fishermen. She returned to France and became well known when her story was recorded by the Queen of Navarre in her work Heptaméron.
Otokichi A Japanese man called Otokichi drifted across the Pacific Ocean in 1837.
Jan Pelgrom de Bye and Wouter Loos In 1629 Jan Pelgrom de Bye van Bemel, a cabin boy, and Wouter Loos, a 24-year-old soldier, had been on board the Dutch ship Batavia. The ship was famous because it was wrecked on Morning Reef of the Wallabi Group of the Houtman Abrolhos, (off the west coast of Australia) leading to the infamous Batavia Mutiny and mass killings. When all culprits were arrested on the islets, most of them were either hanged or sent to court in the town of Batavia (now Jakarta). However, Jan Pelgrom and Wouter Loos were marooned on the Australian mainland, probably at or near the mouth of Hutt River in Western Australia, on 16 November 1629. They were the first Europeans to reside in Australia. Abel Tasman (after whom Tasmania was named) was subsequently ordered to search for the castaways on his voyage along the coasts of northern Australia in 1643–44 but did not sail that far south. They were not seen again by Europeans. It has been argued by Rupert Gerritsen in And Their Ghosts May Be Heard and subsequent publications that they survived and had a profound influence on local Aboriginal groups such as the Nhanda and Amangu.
68 passengers and crew from Vergulde Draeck In the early hours of 28 April 1656 a Dutch vessel belonging to the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), Vergulde Draeck, struck a reef off Ledge Point on the central west coast of Western Australia, about 5 kilometres from shore, and approximately 90 kilometres north of where Perth now stands. At least 75 individuals made it to shore, where they camped. Seven men departed in a boat, making for Batavia, now known as Jakarta, at the western end of Java. They arrived there on 7 June 1656 and raised the alarm. A number of ships were then dispatched over the following two years to search for the survivors who had remained behind, but an incorrect latitude meant the searches focused on the wrong area. The original campsite, by then abandoned, was not found until 26 February 1658, by a shore party led by Upper Steersman Abraham Leeman.Rupert Gerritsen 2011 Selected Transcriptions and Translations, and Collation of Information ... ... Relating to Material Evidence from the Vergulde Draeck ... 1656–1658, Canberra: Batavia Online Publishing. There has been much speculation as to the fate of the 68, who may have ended up east of Geraldton, approximately 350 kilometres to the north, ultimately integrating with the local Aboriginal population.Rupert Gerritsen 1994 And Their Ghosts May Be Heard, South Fremantle: Fremantle Art Centre Press. pp. 232–46. Two stone arrangements, the Ring of Stones, found to the north in modern times may have been markers left by the 68 survivors. Archaeological investigations are continuing in an endeavour to locate the original campsite.
Upper Steersman Abraham Leeman and 13 others On 28 March 1658, while searching for the 68 survivors of the wreck of Vergulde Draeck along the lower central west coast of Western Australia, Upper Steersman Abraham Leeman and his boat crew of 13 from Waeckende Boey (also known as Waeckende Boeij ("Watching Buoy")) were inexplicably abandoned by the skipper of that ship, Samuel Volkersen. They were then about 180 km north of present-day Perth. Their boat was in poor condition, they had no water, just a few pounds of flour contaminated by seawater, and some rashers of bacon.
Leeman, who kept a journal,‘Journaal of te dag register van mijne voyagie ...’ rallied his crew. They found water by digging on an offshore islet, and then killed seals and dried the meat, using the skins to raise the sides of the boat. Leeman even constructed his own compass. They then set sail for Java. They made their way up the Western Australian coast, and after a voyage of 2500 km reached the eastern end of Java with the loss of only one man. In endeavouring to land, their boat was wrecked and many of the men ran off into the jungle. Leeman and his three remaining companions then walked the full length of the south coast of Java, through jungle, volcanic country, braving marauding tigers along the way. Upon getting to the western end of Java they were captured by a Javanese prince and held for ransom. The Dutch then paid the ransom and Leeman and his compatriots finally made it to Batavia (Jakarta) on 23 September 1658.See James Henderson 1982 Marooned, Perth: St. George Books.
A Miskito called Will
In 1681, a Miskito named Will by his English comrades was sent ashore as part of an English foraging party to Más a Tierra. When he was hunting for goats in the interior of the island, he suddenly saw his comrades departing in haste after having spotted the approach of enemies, leaving Will behind to survive until he was picked up in 1684.
Alexander Selkirk
The Juan Fernández Islands, to which Más a Tierra belongs, would have a more famous occupant in October 1704 when Alexander Selkirk made the decision to stay there. Selkirk, a sailor with the William Dampier expedition, became concerned about the condition and seaworthiness of the Cinque Ports, the vessel on which he was sailing, and chose to be put ashore on the island. The ship later sank with most of its crew being lost. Being a voluntary castaway, Selkirk was able to gather numerous provisions to help him to survive, including a musket, gunpowder, carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible, and clothing. He survived on the island for four years and four months, building huts and hunting the plentiful wildlife before his rescue on 2 February 1709. His adventures are said to be a possible inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, a novel by Daniel Defoe published in 1719.
Philip Ashton
Philip Ashton, born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in 1702, was captured by pirates while fishing near the coast of Nova Scotia in June 1722. He managed to escape in March 1723 when the pirates' ship landed at Roatán in the Bay Islands of Honduras, hiding in the jungle until the pirates left him there. He survived for 16 months, in spite of many insects, tropical heat, and crocodiles. He had no equipment at all until he met another castaway, an Englishman. The Englishman disappeared after a few days but he left behind a knife, gunpowder, tobacco, and more. Ashton was finally rescued by the Diamond, a ship from Salem, Massachusetts."Pirate Biographies" at The New England Pirate Museum. Accessed 4 December 2005.
Survivors of the Zuytdorp The Zuytdorp departed from the Cape of Good Hope on 22 April 1712 with at least 200 to 250 people on board, including women and children, and disappeared. It is now thought to have struck the Zuytdorp Cliffs on the central coast of Western Australia in early June 1712. The first signs of the wreck were found in 1927 but it was not until 1959 that the identity of the wreck was confirmed by Dr. Philip Playford.Philip Playford 1960 "The Wreck of the Zuytdorp On the Western Australian Coast in 1712", Nedlands: Royal Western Australian Historical Society. The discovery of a considerable amount of material from the wreck on the scree slope and top of the cliffs established that many people had managed to get off the stricken vessel and on to shore. Exactly how many people survived the disaster is uncertain and estimates vary from 30 up to 180 or more. There has been speculation that the survivors headed east along the Murchison River, 60 kilometres to the south. However, finds of a coin and a 'Leyden Tobacco Tin' at wells to the north, as well as linguistic and technological evidence suggest they headed north, perhaps ending up in the northern Gascoyne, about 450 kilometres north of the wrecksite.Rupert Gerritsen 1994 And Their Ghosts May Be Heard pp. 252–60; Philip Playford 1996 Carpet of Silver: The Wreck of the Zuytdorp Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press pp. 213–17. It is thought the survivors ultimately integrated with local Aboriginal populations.
Leendert Hasenbosch