Alexander Selkirk
E124825
Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor famously marooned on a Pacific island in the early 18th century, whose real-life survival story helped inspire Daniel Defoe’s novel "Robinson Crusoe."
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Alexander Selkirk canonical | 8 |
| Alexander Selkirk memorial | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1078442 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Alexander Selkirk Context triple: [Robinson Crusoe, inspiredBy, Alexander Selkirk]
-
A.
James Crabe
James Crabe was an American cinematographer best known for his work on influential films of the 1970s and 1980s, including the original Rocky.
-
B.
Robinson
Robinson is a common English surname borne by numerous notable figures across politics, sports, arts, and other fields.
-
C.
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers was an English sea captain and privateer who became famous for his circumnavigation of the globe and later served as the first royal governor of the Bahamas, where he worked to suppress piracy.
-
D.
Oceanus Hopkins
Oceanus Hopkins was a child born aboard the Mayflower during its 1620 voyage to New England, making him one of the earliest English children associated with the Plymouth Colony.
-
E.
George Somers
George Somers was an English naval officer and privateer best known for leading the 1609 Sea Venture expedition that was wrecked in Bermuda, an event that helped pave the way for English colonization there.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Alexander Selkirk Target entity description: Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor famously marooned on a Pacific island in the early 18th century, whose real-life survival story helped inspire Daniel Defoe’s novel "Robinson Crusoe."
-
A.
James Crabe
James Crabe was an American cinematographer best known for his work on influential films of the 1970s and 1980s, including the original Rocky.
-
B.
Robinson
Robinson is a common English surname borne by numerous notable figures across politics, sports, arts, and other fields.
-
C.
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers was an English sea captain and privateer who became famous for his circumnavigation of the globe and later served as the first royal governor of the Bahamas, where he worked to suppress piracy.
-
D.
Oceanus Hopkins
Oceanus Hopkins was a child born aboard the Mayflower during its 1620 voyage to New England, making him one of the earliest English children associated with the Plymouth Colony.
-
E.
George Somers
George Somers was an English naval officer and privateer best known for leading the 1609 Sea Venture expedition that was wrecked in Bermuda, an event that helped pave the way for English colonization there.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Scottish person
ⓘ
castaway ⓘ human ⓘ sailor ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Robinson Crusoe Island ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
East Neuk of Fife
ⓘ
surface form:
Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland
|
| birthYear | 1676 ⓘ |
| burialPlace | at sea ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | Kingdom of Scotland ⓘ |
| deathCause | fever ⓘ |
| deathPlace | at sea off the coast of West Africa ⓘ |
| deathYear | 1721 ⓘ |
| describedBy |
Richard Steele
ⓘ
Woodes Rogers ⓘ |
| era | early 18th century ⓘ |
| event | mutiny or dispute with Captain Thomas Stradling ⓘ |
| familyName | Selkirk ⓘ |
| givenName | Alexander ⓘ |
| inspiredByAuthor | Daniel Defoe ⓘ |
| inspiredWork | Robinson Crusoe ⓘ |
| languageSpoken |
English
ⓘ
Scots ⓘ |
| legacy | symbol of solitary survival and self-reliance ⓘ |
| maroonedDuration | about four years and four months ⓘ |
| maroonedEndYear | 1709 ⓘ |
| maroonedOn |
Juan Fernández Islands
ⓘ
Más a Tierra ⓘ Pacific Ocean island ⓘ |
| maroonedStartYear | 1704 ⓘ |
| memorial |
plaque in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland
ⓘ
statue in Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland ⓘ |
| name | Alexander Selkirk self-link ⓘ |
| nationality | Scottish ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being marooned on a Pacific island for several years
ⓘ
inspiring the fictional character Robinson Crusoe ⓘ |
| occupation |
privateer
ⓘ
sailor ⓘ |
| rank | sailing master ⓘ |
| religiousPractice | reading the Bible while marooned ⓘ |
| rescuedBy |
Woodes Rogers
ⓘ
surface form:
Captain Woodes Rogers
Duke (privateering ship) ⓘ William Dampier (as pilot on the rescue voyage) ⓘ |
| shipServedOn | Cinque Ports ⓘ |
| subjectOf | A Cruising Voyage Round the World ⓘ |
| survivalSkills |
building shelters
ⓘ
domesticating feral cats for protection ⓘ hunting goats ⓘ making clothing from goatskins ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Alexander Selkirk Description of subject: Alexander Selkirk was a Scottish sailor famously marooned on a Pacific island in the early 18th century, whose real-life survival story helped inspire Daniel Defoe’s novel "Robinson Crusoe."
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Alexander Selkirk memorial