# Were there ever any real-life castaways? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762 "2002-07-01T01:07:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/1 "2002-07-01T01:07:51Z")
Island castaways are such an iconic image in our culture, Robinson Crusoe, Gilligans Island, a google of New Yorker cartoons, at least a couple dozen movies…has it ever really happened? Has anyone ever been shipwrecked or plane wrecked and found themselves on a deserted island and survived by their wits, only to later escape or be found? And if no one was ever rescued or seen alive again, has any conclusive evidence ever been found that someone managed to live in such a situation for a signiicant period of time? (Meaning, the island was later found and evidence of such an existance was found)? Stoid (who just watches Cast Away again…) ---
**Author:** ![hegel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cab0a1/32.png) [@hegel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hegel)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/2 "2002-07-01T01:09:27Z")
Robinson Crusoe was based on the real-life saga of Alexander Selkirk. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/3 "2002-07-01T01:24:37Z")
Thanks… I thought I remembered something like that. But having looked it up, I think it doesn’t qualify 100%, only because Selkirk \* requested \* that he be left on the island. So I’ll be more specific…any unwilling castaways? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/4 "2002-07-01T01:53:10Z")
There was the [Ross Sea Party](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackletonexped/1914/). ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/5 "2002-07-01T02:36:58Z")
Absolutely! **Pedro de Sarrano** was marooned in 1540 on an island off the coast of Peru when his ship sank. He was the only survivor. **Peter Carder** was marooned several times, before being lost from the Drake cicrumnavigation. He was actually lost on the contintent that time. **two unknown passengers** washed up on an island off the coast of Scotland in 1615 after being set adrift in a small boat by French pirates. **Philip Ashton** was left by his captain on Roatan island **an unknown sailor** was abandoned on Ascension Island for being a homosexual. **Marguerite de la Roque** was left to die with her nobleman lover and an old servant on a “haunted” isle in the Gulf of St Lawrence. **a whole crew** from a ship called the Wager was marooned off the east coast of South Amaerica. Their ordeal was documented by John Byron. I could go on. These are just a few references from an excellent book which I just finished rereading … again …this weekend at the beach: **Desparate Journeys, Abandoned Souls** by Edward Leslie Let’s also not forget the countless sailors who were left on rocky isles with a sea chest and a gun with one shot to end their misery - or those who were marooned, but were never found. Then there were those who went adrift in the middle of the ocean with not even a barren shoal to set foot on. The crew of the whaler Essex comes to mind and Steve Callahan who wrote **Adrift** after a long ordeal in the Atlantic. For 16th-18 century sailors, expectation of being marooned, cannablism, and drawing lots were the “custom of the sea”. It was that common. ---
**Author:** ![flowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4bbf92/32.png) [@flowers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flowers)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/6 "2002-07-01T02:52:11Z")
This doesn’t exactly qualify as a castaway, but there was a Japanese man named Shoichi Yokoi who, after his regiment was annihilated on the island of Guam during WWII, remained there for 26 years, unaware that the war was over. He was eventually discovered & taken back to Japan, whereupon he said,“I feel shame that I have returned alive”. He had great difficulty readjusting but lived to be 82. The rock band Camel released an album called _Nude_ in 1981 based on this & several other similar stories. For more information, go to: [www.camelproductions.com](http://www.camelproductions.com) ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/7 "2002-07-01T07:43:16Z")
Are you sure it was Guam? Because I know there was another Japanese fellow stationed in the Phillipines who continued fighting his own little ‘war’, not believing that his country had surrendered. ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/8 "2002-07-01T13:14:25Z")
Stop, [you’re both right](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000310.html). The Philippines guy “gave up” in 1980, the Guam guy in 1972. ---
**Author:** ![flowers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4bbf92/32.png) [@flowers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flowers)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/9 "2002-07-01T13:55:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Incubus \* > \*\*Are you sure it was Guam? Because I know there was another Japanese fellow stationed in the Phillipines who continued fighting his own little ‘war’, not believing that his country had surrendered. \*\* The Japanese man who was in the Phillipines was named Hiroo Onada. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/10 "2002-07-01T14:08:26Z")
The crew of The Bounty purposely marooned themselves. Superfically, they were “willing” castaways, I suppose, but it was a desperate measure to evade detection by British authorities. So you could debate how “willing” it really was. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/11 "2002-07-01T14:51:36Z")
Didn’t the Bounty crew stay on Tahiti? Not exactly a deserted island. ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/12 "2002-07-01T15:11:03Z")
Not all the crew stayed on [Tahiti](http://www.tallshipbounty.org/history.html), including the most famous mutineer. “After an unsuccessful three month effort to settle on the island (Tubuai), they returned to Tahiti, put 16 of the crew ashore, some loyal to Bligh, some mutineers.  Fletcher Christian and eight Bounty crew, accompanied by six Tahitian men and twelve women, one with a baby, sailed away in the Bounty hoping to hide forever from the long arm of the British law.” They later landed on Pitcairn Island, burned the ship and remained undiscovered for 18 years. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/13 "2002-07-01T18:04:24Z")
_Castaway_ Absolutely dead last in the Most Popular Movies To Be Shown On An Airliner list. Those were the most horrifying plane crash scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![violet9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea666f/32.png) [@violet9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violet9)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/14 "2002-07-03T00:32:08Z")
The Pitcain Islanders, decendants of Fletcher Christian and 5 other mutineers and a handful of Tahitian women who went into exile with them. It is not known exactly what became of Christian, but the last sailor died a number of years after they were marooned. The Pitcairners have a terrific website at [http://www.lareau.org//pitc.html](http://www.lareau.org//pitc.html). It’s really fascinating (someone on another island manages it for them I think - I don’t believe they have computers) and you can actually buy handmade crafts from them - making for wonderful presents that are real conversation pieces, and sales help allow the Pitcairners to stay on their island. They have been having problems sustaining their economy due to their extreme isolation, and they have been facing having to immigrate - which I believe they decided as a community, to resist doing. ---
**Author:** ![violet9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ea666f/32.png) [@violet9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violet9)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/15 "2002-07-03T00:57:05Z")
Oops - I was wrong - it use to be that their website was managed off-island, but they are now getting internet access due to an agreement with the Albuquerque Seismological Laboratory whereby the lab has erected a seismic station on the island and the natives get to share satelite access. I LOVE the story of the Pitcairners - it never ceases to amaze me that a handful of exiles founded a community that has persisted for more than 200 years - wow! ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mike\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_H)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/16 "2002-07-03T01:08:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > \*\*_Castaway_ Absolutely dead last in the Most Popular Movies To Be Shown On An Airliner list. > > \*\* I could think of some worse inflight movies… _Alive_ comes to mind, along with\* Final Destination \*. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-ever-any-real-life-castaways/116762/17 "2002-07-03T06:37:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mike H \* > \*\* > > I could think of some worse inflight movies… _Alive_ comes to mind, along with\* Final Destination \*. \*\* _Hero_, _Fearless_, _Marooned_, _Pajama Party_ starring Tommy Kirk…well, that last one isn’t an _air_ disaster, but I’d hate to be trapped in a pressurized metal cylander for two hours watching it. Ranchoth