Spring Drive To Robinson Crusoe Statue Lower Largo East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video of a Spring road drive from Leven, with Scottish bagpipes and drums music, on visit to the Robinson Crusoe statue in Lower Largo in the East Neuk of Fife. Lower Largo or Seatown of Largo is a village in Fife, Scotland situated on Largo Bay on the north side of the Firth of Forth. An ancient fishing village, Lower Largo has gained fame as the 1676 birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Alexander Selkirk was the son of a shoemaker and tanner in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland, born in 1676. Early on, he was engaged in buccaneering. In 1703 he joined an expedition of English privateer and explorer William Dampier to the South Pacific Ocean, setting sail from Kinsale in Ireland on 11 September. They carried letters of marque from the Lord High Admiral authorising their armed merchant ships to attack foreign enemies as the War of the Spanish Succession was then going on between England and Spain. Dampier was captain of St George and Selkirk served on Cinque Ports, St George's companion ship, as sailing master under Captain Thomas Stradling. By this time, Selkirk must have had considerable experience at sea. In September 1704, Captain Stradling brought Cinque Ports to an island known to the Spanish as Más a Tierra located in the uninhabited Juan Fernández archipelago 420 miles off the coast of Chile for a mid expedition restocking of fresh water and supplies. Selkirk had grave concerns about the seaworthiness of their vessel, and wanted to make the necessary repairs before going any farther. He declared that he would rather stay on Juan Fernández than continue in a dangerously leaky ship. Stradling took him up on the offer and landed Selkirk on the island with a musket, a hatchet, a knife, a cooking pot, a Bible, bedding and some clotthes. Selkirk immediately regretted his rashness, but Stradling refused to let him back on board. He was to spend four years and four months on Robinson Crusoe Island. When Daniel Defoe published The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in 1719, few readers could have missed the resemblance to Selkirk.

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