Baja Bernie - 6-8-2007 at 08:40 AM
Taken from a great book that I just finished...Forgotten Waters by Randolph Leigh 1940 (I'm sure he won't care that I excerpted this small story from
a wonderful book)
"In November 1709, two British raiders, the Duke and the Duchess, dropped anchor of Cape San Lucas, waiting to capture two China Galleons which were
due to pass that way enroute to Acapulco. On the larger of the two British vessels the second mate was Alexander Selkirk, a Scot who had been picked
up a few months earlier on Juan Fernandez Island, off the coast of Chile, Sellkirk had been left on the desert isle by the captain of another British
vessel, in accordance with the rugged disciplinary system of the time, and had been rescued by the commander of the Duke. One of the galleons sailed
innocently into the arms of the British warships and surrendered without struggle. The other slipped away safely in the night.
Selkirk must have been a competent seaman as well as a good for the emergencies of life on a desert isle. Proof of this lies in the fact that, out of
the 304 men available, he, though newly acquired, was chosen to act as the sailing master of the captured galleon.....................
Ten years later Selkirk, thanks to Defoe, emerged from obsecurity as Robinson Crusoe."
So Crusoe did, in fact, hang out at Cabo San Lucas and nobody even noticed.
Boy! They really strung long sentences together back then.
This is one of the things that I love about Baja......scratch the surface and you will find many amazing and colorful stories and ones that would be
totally unexpected.
FARASHA - 6-8-2007 at 09:21 AM
BERNIE - seems you are digging the whole week,just to bring the most interesting stories up here on friday - GREAT - it's appreciated - TY ->f<