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A Most Unwelcome Death

© Cindy Vallar

1. To put ashore and abandon on a desolate island or coast
2. To isolate without aid or resources

Pirates of yore sailed under articles that governed them while at sea. If violated, the quartermaster enforced the prescribed punishment. The infractions that merited the severest consequence were stealing from the crew or abandoning one's post in battle. The punishment? Marooning - the most dreaded of all punishments, for it promised a slow, cruel death without hope of reprieve.

Both Bartholomew Roberts' and John Phillips' articles included this punishment and listed precisely what items the disgraced pirate would be given if marooned on a deserted island, preferably a sand bar without fresh water, food, or shelter. He took with him the clothes he wore, a bottle of water (usually one day's worth), a pistol, powder, and shot. His mates returned to their ship and sailed away, leaving him to die.

The island was a prison from which there was little chance of escape. The hot sun burned and blistered his skin. Without food and water he starved and became dehydrated. At high tide, the water might flood the island or leave him standing in water up to his neck. And woe to him if sharks infested the surrounding water. If he preferred a quick death, he could kill himself with the pistol. To do that, however, damned his soul forever.

Some men survived marooning, but those were rare cases. If pirates rescued a marooned man, then they might allow him to join their crew. If merchantmen or warships found him, they assumed him a pirate and delivered him to the nearest port for trial. This happened to Charles Vane, an unpopular pirate captain. Although a castaway rather than a marooned pirate, Vane was stranded on an unpopulated island for several months after a shipwreck. Identified as a pirate in 1720, he was taken to Port Royal, found guilty, and hanged.

Alexander Selkirk requested to be put ashore because of frequent disagreements with his captain. When he made the request, he expected fellow pirates would join him. They didn't and his fate was sealed. His home for the next 4 ½ years was Más á Tierra - one of the Juan Fernandez Islands situated 400 miles off the Chilean coast - where food and water were plentiful. Woodes Rogers rescued Selkirk in 1709. Two years later they returned to London where Richard Steele, an essayist, published Selkirk's story. Daniel Defoe immortalized Selkirk when he penned his most famous work, Robinson Crusoe, still a classic more than 200 years after its publication in 1719.