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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallThese seven castaway stories span five centuries and very different kinds of isolation: one sailor chose to remain ashore, one man was exiled, an Arctic expedition failed, and six Tongan boys survived together after a boating accident. They are seven stories, not seven individuals. Their records also vary: some accounts are retrospective or uncertain, while others include a survivor’s own diary or published account.
1. Alexander Selkirk chose to stay on Más a Tierra
In 1704, Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk believed his ship, the Cinque Ports, was unseaworthy. When it stopped at the Juan Fernández Islands, he asked to be left ashore; the ship sailed without him. Naval historian Andrew Lambert later described Selkirk’s concern: “The ship itself was in poor condition and he believed it would sink, which indeed it did.” The remark is attributed to Lambert in a 2016 National Geographic interview, as reported by Smithsonian Magazine.
Selkirk initially used supplies left by the crew, then relied on goats and plants. He made clothing and tools from what the island offered and was rescued by the English vessel Duke in 1709, after a reported four years and four months ashore. Royal Museums Greenwich provides further detail on his resourcefulness.
Selkirk is often called the “real Robinson Crusoe,” but that simplifies the literary history. His experience was one of several survival narratives known to Daniel Defoe, not an established sole or primary source for the novel. National Geographic discusses why the familiar claim is overstated.
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2. Fernão Lopes was exiled to an island
According to Smithsonian Magazine’s account, Portuguese soldier Fernão Lopes converted to Islam and was severely mutilated on the orders of Afonso de Albuquerque. He later received a royal pardon, but was left on an island. The account does not establish a firm island name, how long he remained there, or a detailed rescue story, so those details should not be supplied as fact. His episode is an exile story rather than a shipwreck.
3. Marguerite de la Rocque was abandoned off Newfoundland
During a 1542 voyage to Canada, Jean-François de la Rocque de Roberval left his relative Marguerite, her lover, and a servant on an island identified in the tradition as the Isle of Demons, off Newfoundland. Smithsonian Magazine recounts that Marguerite gave birth, her companions and child died, and she survived by hunting until fishermen rescued her.
The story is known in part through Marguerite de Navarre’s posthumously published Heptaméron, one of its principal accounts. It is best read as a historical report, not as a fully verified contemporary record with every detail independently established.
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4. Philip Ashton survived after escaping pirates
In 1723, English sailor Philip Ashton escaped pirates and hid on an island near Honduras. He arrived without food or equipment and survived at first on fruit and raw turtle eggs. Another stranded Englishman later left him a knife and flint, allowing Ashton to hunt and cook meat. He was rescued in June 1724.
Ashton’s account has an unusually direct first-person element: Smithsonian Magazine quotes his own 1726 book at the moment of rescue. His story shows how a small change in available tools could alter what food was accessible.
5. Ada Blackjack endured two Arctic winters on Wrangel Island
Iñupiat seamstress Ada Blackjack joined an expedition to Wrangel Island in 1921 that was expected to last only months. When a relief ship failed to arrive and hunting prospects worsened, three men set out toward Siberia in January 1923 and never returned. Lorne Knight, who was ill with scurvy, died on June 23. Blackjack cared for him and then survived alone until the schooner Donaldson reached the island on August 20, 1923.
Blackjack learned to hunt and shoot, trapped foxes, collected eggs, built shelter, and made clothing. The National Park Service recounts these skills and reproduces a transcription from her diary. In a May 21, 1923 entry, she wrote: “I was over to the traps today nothing but raven track and I shoot a shot gun one time. I took empty tea tin and shot it I shot right in it, thats pretty good for first time shooting. And I clean both shot gun’s” [sic].
Dartmouth Libraries’ Ada Blackjack Diary materials provide a chronology and archival context. The diary’s ownership and Indigenous cultural meaning are entangled, a consideration that matters alongside its historical value. For a fuller book-length account, Jennifer Niven’s Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic is listed in the Smithsonian Libraries catalog.
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6. Six Tongan boys built a life together on ‘Ata
In 1965, six teenage boys from Tonga ran away by boat. Winds blew them off course, and after eight days adrift they reached the island of ‘Ata. They built a shelter, organized tasks, maintained a fire, and used local food as well as cultivated plants. Fisherman Peter Warner found them in September 1966.
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This was a collective survival effort, not a lone castaway tale. One of the boys, Sione Filipe Totau, recalled in a 2021 interview: “We all worked together as though we’d live on the island for a long time.” Their experience resists the assumption that stranded young people inevitably descend into conflict.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.7. Joseph Rangel was stranded off Baja California
In 2000, Joseph Rangel, Lorenzo Madrid, and guide Jose Luis Ramos Garcia tried to row toward the mainland, but heavy winds pushed them back to an island off Baja California. They ate crabs, sea snails, and sea cucumbers. Madrid died after eleven days; rescuers found Rangel and Garcia less than 48 hours later.
Rangel later told the Associated Press: “A simple radio would have taken care of it, simple safety equipment and a plan if something went wrong.” In this account, the remark is a reminder that isolation can follow a seemingly manageable boating trip, not only a major shipwreck.
What these castaway stories reveal
The circumstances differ too much for a meaningful ranking of who was toughest. Selkirk had an island’s animals and plants; Ashton began with almost nothing but later gained tools; Blackjack faced Arctic cold and a long period of solitude; the Tongan boys survived through shared work. The stories also rest on different kinds of evidence, from published first-person accounts and diary materials to retrospective reports whose details remain uncertain.
Quick Recap
- Isolation has different causes: a deliberate decision to stay ashore, exile, escape, expedition failure, and boating accidents all appear here.
- Environment shapes survival: food, shelter, climate, and tools mattered as much as individual skill.
- Company can change the experience: some endured alone, while the Tongan boys organized their work collectively.
- The records are not equally complete: early-modern episodes are often known through later accounts, so their details call for more caution than dated diary entries.
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