Here are four fictional “stranded” stories and their analogous real events.

Wall-E & Charles Barnard

Fiction – Wall-E

Wall-E is a little robot who is marooned on earth by the humans he is cleaning up after.

Real – Charles Barnard

OK, so this one isn’t a perfect analog. Charles Barnard isn’t an adorable robot. Everyone didn’t leave the planet without him.

However, Charles Barnard was marooned by people he was in the process of helping.

What happened?

Charles Barnard was the captain of a ship sailing in the Falkland Islands. He came across some shipwrecked sailors with whom he was technically at war (they were British, he was American, it was 1812). However, ol’ Charlie thought it cruel to leave them behind so he offered to take them to safety. However, adding extra people to the crew meant his ship didn’t have enough supplies to make the voyage. To solve the problem, he set out on a nearby island with some of his crew members to find some more provisions. While he was out, the shipwrecked sailors overpowered his crew and left. Thus beginning Charles Barnard’s 18 month stay on the uninhabited eagle island.

Jack Sparrow & Edward England

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

Fiction – Jack Sparrow

The pirate Captain Jack Sparrow is marooned on a deserted island when the crew of his ship (the Black Pearl) mutinies against him.

Real – Edward England

The pirate Captain Edward England is marooned on a deserted island after his crew mutinies against him. For a little while Eddie E even captained a ship called the “pearl” (but he changed it’s name to “The Royal James” shortly after taking command).

What happened?

The part that really makes this story for me is the reason they mutinied: England decided not to kill the crew of a captured ship.

Jack’s and Edward’s stories diverge after the abandonment bit. This is probably partially due to the very un-disney-like ending of Edward’s story. He and the few crew members that were marooned were able to make it the 500 some odd miles to Madagascar on a crude raft. However, once he got there England was destitute and only able to survive for a short time by begging for food. He died before the end of the year.

Lost & Amelia Earhart

Fiction – Lost

A plane en route to Los Angeles from Sydney crashes on some southern pacific island.

Real – Amelia Earhart

Most people-in-the-know believe that Earhart’s plane crashed in the south pacific while she was trying to circumnavigate the globe.

What happened?

No one really knows what happened to Amelia Earhart. However, one of the best supported theories for how she crashed argues that she made it to a nearby island.

According to the “she made it to an island” theory there was some trouble with finding their intended destination. The plane overshot it’s goal by quite a bit and eventually crashed near Gardner island. If this is the case, the search efforts sadly concentrated in the wrong place. Even though she may have been able to survive for a little while on the island, she was not found in time.

Robinson Crusoe & Alexander Selkirk

Fiction – Robinson Crusoe

The famous book Robinson Crusoe tells the story of an English castaway stuck on an island for 28 years. (I’ll give you two guesses what his name was….)

Real – Alexander Selkirk

Alexander was a Scottish castaway who was stuck on a deserted island for four years and four months.

What happened?

Alexander decided mid-voyage that the ship he was a crew member of was in such bad condition that it was bound to sink in the near future. After a few “we are going to sink” fights with the captain Alexander got off at the next island. He figured another ship would come by soon.

Turns out, ships didn’t come by that often. However, Alexander was right on his primary claim. While he was alone and forgotten on the island, the ship he left in protest sank and most of it’s crew died. Score one for the Alex-meister.

This castaway story ends rather touchingly. When he was finally rescued he was so happy that he was completely incoherent. Because, his rescuers were rather hungry when they came across him, Alexander caught 2-3 goats a day (a skill he acquired on the island) until they were all healthy.

This town has a rich history of pirate-era weaponry use. Mostly because it was an important Spanish treasure port during the pirate-era. In fact, that is really what put Portobelo on the map.

Every once and a while a bunch of Spanish would get together in the town, load an incredible amount of sliver on a bunch of boats, and decided to make a booze run to Spain.

2) Henry Morgan & A Can of Atrocity

Pissed that the Spanish were not buying his preferred brand of rum, Captain Henry Morgan attacked the town in 1668. He lead a band of 450 “defenders of rum’s honor” against the heavily fortified settlement. The dude actually pulled in off. He then spent 14 days committing atrocities.

Henry Morgan’s raid went down in history as one of the most successful and “I’m soooo glad I wasn’t there” pirate raids. The legend of Henry Morgan’s conquest was later heightened when Morgan scandalized the pirate world by admitting that he had plundered while drunk.


Creative Commons picture by gailf548.

3) The Name

Portobelo was named by Christopher Columbus during his “why are there so many gigantic freaking storms” tour (aka “fourth voyage”). The name is thought to either mean “beautiful port” or “Please God, let this place have good food. Perhaps portobello mushrooms….” It was a rough voyage.

The name still remains. However, in 1596 the Spanish won a fight against the famed Francis Drake and almost renamed the area “Place Francis Drake, the English moron, totally failed to conquer.” The dramatic “meeting for the adjustment of names” was so much fun several members stayed up all night renaming things in ways that made fun of the English. After the excitement of the meeting had passed cooler heads were able to prevail. It was realized that renaming a Spanish-controlled landmark in a slang of English that didn’t yet exist “would totally suck.” In the end the Spanish decided to keep the old name. Despite their unanimous agreement that Francis Drake was a moron.

Present Day

Portobelo is now a sleepy Panamanian town 28 miles east of Colon. The fortifications that weren’t blown up during the pirate-era or any of the subsequent wars can still be seen by tourists today. I also hear that boat tours of the area are quite cool. From a boat one can witness howler monkeys, river otters, and sloths while talking like a pirate.