How well would you deal with being cast away like Robinson Crusoe?

[Intermatic_Timer]

Re: Cecil’s ressurected topic today.

I’m thinking I could last a year on an island without too much trouble.
Not a fussy eater and no special attachment to meat.
Don’t mind amusing myself for hours counting the specks on the wall.

Let’s see, what other skills did Tom Hanks have in that movie?
I guess he could fish with a net.
And I guess he could tie knots in bark to make a raft.

Those I could pick up self-taught.

So when they came looking for me I’d still be there.

[Lightnin]

I’d do fairly well, survival-wise. I love to do outdoors stuff like hiking and camping. I know how to fish, hunt, and set snares. Heck, I read survival guides for fun.

However, I don’t deal well with boredom. I think I’d go nuts if I was lost for too long.

[feppytweed]

Have you read Robinson Crusoe? Its been a while for me, but IIRC, He had several guns, with powder/bullets, he had barrels of food and several tools, like hatchets, picks, and the like.

I definitely don’t think I would have trouble in that situation for months, maybe even a years time.

[dandrews02]

If the alternative was floundering at sea,
I would think a little island would be just peachy.

[Bricker]

@Intermatic Timer

Re: Cecil’s ressurected topic today.

I’m thinking I could last a year on an island without too much trouble.
Not a fussy eater and no special attachment to meat.
Don’t mind amusing myself for hours counting the specks on the wall.

Let’s see, what other skills did Tom Hanks have in that movie?
I guess he could fish with a net.
And I guess he could tie knots in bark to make a raft.

Those I could pick up self-taught.

So when they came looking for me I’d still be there.

What do you picture starting with? For example, you could indeed learn to fish with a net… if you had a net.

In An Island to Oneself, Tom Neale describes his years spent on the Suvarov atoll in the South Pacific. He, of course, planned his residency there, and didn’t lack for basic survival tools… but even so, he tells the story of his first visitors to the island, two couples dailing a yacht around the South Pacific. He tried to show them how to fish in the shallows with a spear… despite thier best efforts, they could catch nothing, while he was loaded up with fish for lunch for all of them in short order.

Now, admittedly, you’d be more highly motivated, and have longer to practice. But some of the techniques he mentions probably have to be taught.

@An Island to Oneself

I could see their feelers sticking out of a crevice, and since a cray invariably faces outwards from the hole in which it hides, I was able to catch hold of the feelers with my right hand, slide my left into the crevice, grab him and start pulling. The cray is quite difficult to dislodge and I had to keep up a steady strain. Once he tired, however, it was easy. When I got him out, I would give the tail a quick twist to kill him. Quite by chance, I discovered a crayfish “reservoir.” Walking along the reef one morning I came on a pool about eighteen inches deep with a white coral lining showing clearly through the water. At that very moment a cray scuttled like a flash from one crevice to another.

I thought I had spotted where it had taken refuge and poked after it with the shaft of my spear. For a few moments nothing happened and I supposed I had stuck the shaft into the wrong crevice, but just as I was about to pull the spear out, I felt a curious vibration in my hand. And that meant a cray was hiding in the hole, for long ago in Moorea I had learned from the native fishermen that if you happen to touch a hidden cray a vibration travels up the pole. The cray doesn’t actually move - at least, I don’t think it does; it must be the fishy equivalent of a shudder of apprehension! Whatever it is, the vibration is so marked that I could always feel it if I were holding the spear shaft in my hand. Once I had got this one out, I tried another crevice and sure enough there was a vibration. I want on poking around until the whole pool seemed alive with cray. Indeed, it proved a fertile larder and I came back to the pool for weeks until I had exhausted the entire natural supply.

It’s those kinds of things that make me think there’s something to be said for knowing what you’re about ahead of time.

[levdrakon]

I’d be just fine. So long as there’s fresh water, fruits & veggies, maybe some fish or crab or big roastable bugs for protein.

No problem. First I’d more or less landscape my little area. Then I’d slowly befriend some critter. A bird, or lizard, or mouse or something. Feed it everyday until it overcame its fear of me, and spend greater & greater amounts of time with me.

Yup. I could live out the rest of my life like that. I’m sure I’d get eccentric. I’d create a sundial of sorts, monitor the time of year. Make up my own traditions, rituals, dances, songs, etc.

When the rescuers came, they’d find me naked, or mostly naked. Elaborately painted, my hair long & braided & dread-locked with twigs & leaves in it, dancing around the fire with my pet bird or lizard on my shoulder. They’d think I was insane.

But I’d be alllllrighty.

[stretch]

mr.stretch would last forever. He would be so happy.

I would last…32 seconds if I have a candy bar.

[Marlitharn]

I think I’d do okay. I’ve read The Mysterious Island six times, so I don’t think it’d take me very long to manufacture nitroglycerine, domesticate a herd of sheep and flocks of fowl, plant a garden, build a pottery kiln, smelt some iron, plant a garden, dam the river, build some bridges, mill my own flour, and teach an orangutan to smoke a pipe and wait on me hand and foot.

When I got bored I’d build a schooner with a full set of sails and go visit other islands with my orangutan.

[Ephemera]

@feppytweed

Have you read Robinson Crusoe? Its been a while for me, but IIRC, He had several guns, with powder/bullets, he had barrels of food and several tools, like hatchets, picks, and the like.

I definitely don’t think I would have trouble in that situation for months, maybe even a years time.

“[Crusoe] manages to fetch arms, tools and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He proceeds to build a fenced-in habitation and cave, keeps a calendar by making marks in a piece of wood. He hunts, grows corn, learns to make pottery, raises goats etc”

Robinson Crusoe

In that situation, I think I could survive for a while but all alone without tools? Maybe a couple months at most. I have no idea how to hunt, nor do I know what plants are edible. It’d only be a matter of time before I ate some tasty looking berry only to discover its highly toxic.