Enterprise and Adventure/Modern Crusoes
MODERN CRUSOES.
The adventures of a modern Robinson Crusoe, in the person of a poor sailor of Paington, in Devonshire, named Charles Goodridge, are related in a narrative written by himself in 1844. Goodridge, with his fellow shipmates, was wrecked when on a sealing voyage in 1821, and cast ashore upon one of the Crozet islands in the South Seas, uninhabited by any human being, and without a tree or a shrub growing upon its barren soil. In this situation they furnished themselves with such aid as pieces saved from the wreck would afford, subsisting upon birds, the sea-elephants, and fish. In this way
they spent two years, and Goodridge, who was a man of respectable family and tolerably good education, has described in a simple but interesting way, the life of these unfortunate castaways in this desolate spot.
When the vessel struck, Goodridge and his companions took to the boats and pulled lustily through the breakers. The night was dark and rainy, but after four hours' labour, skirting along the almost perpendicular rocks which lined the shore, they found an opening and effected a landing. Their boat, however, was swamped, and it was with great difficulty they succeeded in dragging it ashore; which they at length accomplished, and by turning it bottom upwards and propping up one side, they crept under and obtained some little shelter from the rain, being all miserably cold, wet, and hungry. Thus they remained huddled together till daylight appeared, when they sallied forth in search of a sea-elephant, with which they were already familiar from their voyages among these islands. Although they were rather scarce at that period of the year, they soon found one and dispatched it. With its blubber they kindled a fire, and such parts as were eatable were, with the assistance of a frying-pan saved from the wreck, soon cooked. They also made a fire of some blubber under their boat, and by this they dried their clothes and warmed themselves as well as they could. No superior officer was among the party, and Goodridge being a man of some education, naturally assumed the direction of their enterprises. When the party had in some measure recruited their strength, they set out over the hills in the direction of the spot where the vessel was wrecked, in order to ascertain her fate. They found her lying on the rocks on her beam ends, with a large hole in her lower planks, and the sea breaking over her, so that it was impossible she could hold together much longer. It was evident, therefore, that all hopes of rescuing her were at an end, and their endeavours could only be exerted for the purpose of saving any portion of the wreck, such as planks or fragments of wood containing nails or bolts which might prove serviceable to them in their forlorn situation, to which they now considered themselves doomed for life. "Still," says poor Goodridge, "thankfulness for the preservation of our lives was due to the author of all good."
On the following day they succeeded in launching their boat and then proceeded towards the wreck. In their progress they discovered a cave much nearer the vessel than where they had landed, and which they had easily missed on the night of their escape, and this they resolved to make their immediate station. Coming to the wreck again they succeeded in saving the captain's chest, the mate's chest, and also some planks. On the following day they picked up the vessel's trisail and some casks of biscuit; but the casks unfortunately not being water-tight, all the biscuit was spoilt by the salt water. On the next day the wind blew very strong, and they saw to their sorrow that nothing remained of their vessel but the topmast, which had become entangled by the rigging among the rocks, and which was almost the last thing they were enabled to secure.
The weather continued so wet and boisterous for three weeks from this time, that it was as much as they could well do to procure necessary food for their 
DOMINIC SPESINICK MAKING SIGNS TO THE AMERICAN SCHOONER.
sustenance, and they therefore contented themselves with the shelter of their boat propped up as before described. The weather proving now less inclement, and their minds being somewhat more reconciled to their forlorn situation, they set about collecting all the materials they had saved, and then commenced erecting for themselves a more commodious dwelling-place. The sides were formed of stones and the wood saved from the wreck, for there was not a shrub or tree growing in the whole island; the top they covered with sea-elephants' skins, and at the end of a few weeks they were comparatively well lodged. They made their beds of the long grass, called tussick, with which the island abounded; and the skins of the seals they chanced to kill served for blankets and counterpanes. While constructing their hut, they found traces of some other person who had visited the islands, and who had built a hut and other conveniences. The sea-elephants, however, had trodden almost everything into the ground; and as they had no tools with which to dig, they could not search for anything they might have left. Providence, however, at length threw the means in the way of effecting their wishes; for one of the company, while searching for eggs at a considerable distance from the building, found a pick-axe, and brought it home in high glee. To men situated as they were, and cherishing a sort of superstition, it was not to be wondered at that they should deem this almost a miracle; but they set to in good earnest to make use of it, by digging up the place where traces of the hut remained; and their labour proved not to be in vain, for they got out of the earth & quantity of pieces of iron, nails, and other things, all which they carefully preserved; they also found a part of a pitch-pot, which would hold about a gallon. This proved highly valuable to them, for by help of a piece of iron hoop, they afterwards manufactured it into a frying-pan, their other one being worn so thin by continued use that it was scarcely fit to cook in. Digging further, they found a broad axe, a sharpening stone, a piece of a shovel, and an auger, also a number of iron hoops. These things were of essential service to them. They did not save any of their lances from the vessel, and they had often considerable labour to kill the large male sea-elephants; but they now took the handle of their old frying-pan, and with this weapon dispatched these animals with ease.
These animals, although of enormous size, offered scarcely any resistance, and were very sluggish in their movements, and consequently easily killed. They used first to give them a blow on the nose with the flat side of the lance, when they would rear themselves up above their height, resting on their fore flippers, and were soon dispatched with lances, as they then presented the parts most easily penetrated, and their movements were only backward, without changing their upright position, as they repeated their assaults.
One of the party had fortunately saved his watch uninjured, so that they were able to divide their time pretty regularly. When settled in their habitation, they usually rose about eight in the morning, and took breakfast at nine. After breakfast, some of the party would go catering for the day's provisions, whilst the others remained home to fulfil the domestic offices. They dined generally about one o'clock, and took tea about five. For some months this latter meal, as far as the beverage went, consisted only of boiled water; but they afterwards manufactured what they named Mocoa, as a substitute for tea, and this consisted of raw eggs beaten up in hot water. They supped about seven or eight, and generally retired to rest about ten. They had saved an oil-can in the boat; this served them to make their Mocoa in, and it favoured their other cooking apparatus.
A large part of the food of the party, who numbered seven in all, could only be procured from a distance, and the weather in those latitudes being extremely wet and tempestuous, they were not always able to go in quest of it. Their supply of salt was very small, and only procured by filling a frying-pan with sea-water and then evaporating it over a slow fire. They had for a long time no grain or vegetables, and subsisted entirely on the flesh of animals. Their table utensils were very scanty; but they contrived after a while to manufacture some wooden spoons. Of a keg which was washed ashore, they formed a pair of soup-tureens, and after this they made some wooden trenchers. Seal skins, after a few months, were in great request for articles of clothing, as the clothes they had on when wrecked were soon worn out. Goodridge had been fortunate enough to save a great-coat from the wreck, and when his other clothes were entirely worn out, he set to work to manufacture this single garment into a suit. They had sharpened a nail so as to make an awl, and the sinews of the sea-elephant served him for sewing thread. The lining of this coat he made, with some contrivance, into a shirt; he then cut off the skirts, and with these manufactured a pair of trousers, and the upper part served for a jacket. This suit, however, was at last worn out; and he was obliged to resort at last entirely to a seal-skin costume almost identical with that of Robinson Crusoe, as described by Defoe. As they had no razors among them, the addition of long beards to their seal-skin dresses and fur caps, with a knife and steel stuck in their belts, gave them a wild, grotesque appearance, which caused some mirth among the party.
The timber, old iron, and nails, which they had so fortunately discovered, were from the remains of a hut erected by some Americans about sixteen years before—a fact which they ascertained from some tallies of skins obtained by them, on which the date of 1805 was cut. As there were traces of similar ruined huts in the neighbourhood, a party were detached to explore the island. In about a month these returned, bringing with them skins which they had collected and prepared, much timber which they had found, and also a three-legged pot, used by the South Sea men in procuring oil from the blubber. They now manufactured saws out of the iron hoops, and the carpenter contrived various other tools out of old iron bolts, beaten out with the solitary hammer on a stone anvil after being heated.
They now felt themselves able to construct another habitation of a more comfortable kind; and soon afterwards set to work to construct a rude boat, in which it was determined that some of the party should set sail in the hope of finding some escape; for the chance of any vessel coming to their rescue became apparently every day less and less, and two years had now rolled over their heads. Relief, however, was now near at hand. On the 21st of January, 1823, one of the men named Dominick Spesinick taking a walk towards a high point of land about three quarters of a mile from their hut, came suddenly upon the welcome sight of a vessel coming round the point. He immediately came running towards his comrades, apparently in great agitation, and for some time could do nothing but gesticulate. Having so far recovered as to be able to tell his story, it was determined that John Soper, another of their party, should go with him, taking a direction across the island, so that they might, if possible, intercept the vessel; and they were supplied with a tinderbox in order to make a fire to attract the notice of the crew. The hours passed slowly during their absence, and when night approached, and they did not return, numerous conjectures were started to account for their stay. Some suggested that having seen the vessel, they had selfishly gone aboard, and left those remaining to their fate. Others more charitably concluded that being worn out, in pursuing what was doubtless only a phantom of the old man's brain, had been unable to return from fatigue, but that morning would bring them back with bitter disappointment. Morning at length came, after a tedious night. Some had not closed their eyes, whilst the others who had caught a few minutes' sleep, had been disturbed by frightful dreams, and awakened only to dire forebodings, that they were doomed to drag out their existence without the least chance of deliverance.
Meanwhile their two companions who had gone in search of the vessel, had indeed been fortunate enough to reach that part of the island in which she was still in sight. By finding the remains of a sea-elephant that had been recently killed, they ascertained that the crew had been on shore, and they hastened to kindle a fire, but finding they could not attract the attention of those in the vessel from the beach, they proceeded with all haste to ascend a hill in the direction in which she was still steering. Spesinick however became exhausted, partly by fatigue, and partly by his over-excited feelings, and was unable to go any further. Soper went on, but seeing the vessel proceeding, he sunk on the ground in despair. He however again rose, but had to descend into a valley before he could gain another elevated spot to make a signal from. Spesinick, returning to the beach where they had kindled the fire, and to his great joy he saw a boat from the vessel coming on shore. The crew had reached the beach before Spesinick got to it, but his voice had been drowned by the noise of a rookery he had disturbed on the hill. Seeing the fire, the smoke of which had first attracted their attention, they of course were convinced that there were human beings on the island, and had commenced a search. In the meanwhile Spesinick had made for the boat, which they had hauled up out of the surf, and having reached it he clung to it in a fit of desperate joy, which gave him the appearance of a savage maniac; and the crew on returning after what had appeared to them a vain search, found him in such questionable guise, that they hailed him lustily before they approached. Dressed in shaggy fur skins, with cap of the same material, and beard of nearly two years' growth, it was not surprising that they hardly took him for a civilized being. They soon, however, became better acquainted, and he gave them an outline of the shipwreck, and the number of men on the island, and told them that his companion, Soper, was not far off.
The vessel proved to be an American schooner, called the "Philo," Isaac Perceval, master, on a sealing and trading voyage. This vessel finally took the whole party aboard; but their adventures were not yet ended. After they had sailed with him for some weeks, the captain, quarrelling with the mate of their party, determined to put them ashore on another island. Here they experienced something like their old life; but they knew that they were more on the track of vessels than before. Finally they were rescued by a small sloop of only twenty-eight tons' burthen, commanded by Mr. Anderson, the first officer of the "King George Whaler," in which tiny craft they were safely conveyed to Van Dieman's Land.