# Stranded on a deserted island twice **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956 "2002-12-06T16:58:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![empfsu1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@empfsu1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/empfsu1)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/1 "2002-12-06T16:58:34Z")
A friend and I were watching CAST AWAY, and were wondering if there are any documented cases of someone who has actually been stranded on a deserted island more than one time. I know people have been struck by lightning more than once, but what are the odds of actually getting stranded more than once. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/2 "2002-12-06T17:01:04Z")
Let’s see… Didn’t the crew from Gilligan’s Island end up stranded back at the same island after they got off it in the first reunion movie… 😃 ::ducking and running:: Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/3 "2002-12-06T17:02:44Z")
Seriously, I don’t know the answer to your question. But I would imagine that most people who ended up stranded stayed that way, and most of the few who were rescued (as in Cast Away) probably stayed away from situations where they could potentially get stranded again. And welcome to the boards, **empfsu1** Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![CuriousCanuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@CuriousCanuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CuriousCanuck)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/4 "2002-12-06T17:02:53Z")
Not counting Gilligan, the skipper too, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the professor and mary-ann? try [Here](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/s252440.htm) That was all I could find on short notice… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lindsay.reid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@lindsay.reid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsay.reid)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/5 "2002-12-06T18:44:56Z")
I know this is fictional, but Robinson Crusoe actually had several misadventures at sea before he ended up on his famous desert island. I know that Defoe loosely based the character of Crusoe on an actual historical sailor…but I’m not sure if that sailor also had similar mishaps before his long stay on the desert island. ---
**Author:** ![empfsu1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@empfsu1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/empfsu1)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/6 "2002-12-06T23:41:45Z")
Zev Steinhardt - Thanks for Welcome! Your point is the same as my friends, that someone who got stranded but happened to get rescued would never go on a boat again. But my argument is that in all the history of the world, the probability that is has happened to at least one person, has got to be in my favor. But when you add in the fact that, that person would’ve had to make record of such events, it lessens the chances. But I’m resting my gambling hopes on the fact that there have been a lot of people who made their living thru sailing, and if they got stranded once, they might’ve had to go out again for the sake of their livelihood. We’ll see. Stranger questions have been answered on this site. empfsu1 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/7 "2002-12-06T23:50:35Z")
Wasn’t it a staple plot on _Battlestar Galactica_ for one of the Viper pilots to wander off, crash-land, and get stuck on some wierd planet before being rescued at the last minute? _Star Trek_ did it a lot, too. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/8 "2002-12-07T00:40:59Z")
Depends on the stranding conditions. Tom Neale, A New Zealander, kind of stranded himself on Suvarrow (or Suvarov) atoll in the Cook Islands a couple of times. He wrote a book called An Island to Oneself (An Island to Myself in the US). Probably not applicable to the OP but interesting nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/9 "2002-12-07T01:00:46Z")
Robinson Crusoe was based (very loosely) on a sailor named Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was marooned somehow (I seem to recall maybe he was actually kicked off the ship or something?) and spent four years on an island before being picked up. Interestingly, while Crusoe arrives on the island and starts working his butt off–building huts, fencing in pens, raising goats, building boats, exploiting natives, you name it–Selkirk got to the island, built himself a hut and a hammock and said, “It’s vacation time!” He apparently didn’t do much of anything but sunbathe and eat fruit for four years. Sounds all right to me. Well, except for the “Hope I don’t die here” part. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stranded-on-a-deserted-island-twice/140956/10 "2002-12-07T04:14:40Z")
I realize this contributes absolutely nothing to the OP’s question, but if we’re dipping into literature here, in Gulliver’s Travels, our protagonist was stranded four times. His reason for going out to sea again and again was basically being bored of his family.