Maroning is a cruel alternative to the death penalty, which many mistakenly consider a thrilling adventure

Maroning is a cruel alternative to the death penalty, which many mistakenly consider a thrilling adventure

Do you naively believe that living on a deserted island is a fascinating romantic event and Robinson Crusoe was the happiest man on Earth? Haha - if not, and now you will see for sure!

Expulsion of the culprit far away from sight is one of the most popular punishments in many nations. After all, we are all with a rare exception - social beings, and therefore the long absence of a society like us is similar to torture.

Not only did the exile lose social support and the chance to communicate with family and loved ones, but also faced many dangers that he had never faced before.

With the development of civilization, this method gradually lost its relevance, but only not at sea, where the guy simply had no place to go unpleasant to the shipping society. At the same time, maroning, that is, landing on an uninhabited island or a shore far from the famous civilization, although considered more humane than execution, punishment, but in fact was extremely rare.

The term comes from the word "maron" - a runaway slave, t. k. In the beginning, they were sometimes punished like this. Later, the method was adopted by the teams of pirate ships, and then by the merchant and military.

The unpredictability of the situation was that people usually didn't think much about the suitability of the place to live - that the first to meet them on the track and they landed there. If the convict was lucky, he ended up on a paradise Pacific island, if not, on a bare North Atlantic rock, which appears slightly in the middle of the icy waves (and only at low tide). Again, a lot depended on the mood of the "judges", who could supply the poor with a supply of food, weapons and gunpowder, and could be limited to only the Bible and a tobacco pipe. Often they left a gun with a single charge - it's clear why.

The sailor landed on a piece of land was jokingly called the "freshly baked governor of the island", however he was not up to the fun himself. After all, in most cases, an inevitable, often long and painful death from hunger, thirst, cold, predators or bloodthirsty aborigines awaited the poor. In such cases, a single-charge gun turned out to be very handy.

It should be noted that a modern man, devoid of stupid prejudices and having knowledge about the world order, would have a much better chance of survival than the average sailor of that time. The fact is that most of the "sea wolves" of that time were not fearless supermen, strong, agile and skillful. Most often it was an illiterate audience, only able to perform specific duties on board - nothing more. Many couldn't even swim!

Is it really that bad?

To be fair, history knows and there are many cases of a favorable outcome. Perhaps the most famous "governor of the island" is the botsman Alexander Selkirk, who after the rescue became a prototype of the same Robinson Crusoe.

Selkirk was not a criminal at all - he was just so fed up with the captain of the ship Saint Por, Mr. Stralding, that he could not stand it, and with the consent of the team, he landed a bore 700 km away from Chile on the deserted island of Mas-a-Tierra, where he spent four fun years. And the botman got tired of his daily grumbling about the ship's bad condition, which was considered a bad omen at the time.

As it turned out, Selkirk was not far from the truth, because shortly after his landing, the ship successfully sank during a fairly harmless storm. That is, the punishment in this case became the salvation.

It also happened that the captains who had been disembarked from the ship. For example, a similar fate happened to the famous pirate captain Edward England, who remained cuckooing with two assistants on an island in the Indian Ocean. By the way, they all survived by building a fence and getting to Madagascar on it. Or here's another example: Robinsons, flies, and spirit power. The true story of survival on a deserted island.

It happened that women were also maroned. The French nobility Marguerite de la Rocke, who was left stranded on Demon Island off the shores of Newfoundland, was most famous. Not the warmest and coziest place, as you understand. Most likely, the lady was "set up" by a indebted relative who wanted to seize her property. Marguerite was landed on the wild northern island with a maid and a passenger-lover, for the alleged relationship with which she was convicted.

Incredibly, but the tender nobleman managed to survive, although her companions died of diseases very soon, and she managed to give birth and bury the infant there. Of course, the poor thing had to learn hunting for animals, catching fire, and a lot of other wise things. That's the way things are.