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:''Cinque Ports is also the name for a group of five English port towns, the namesake of this ship.'' ''Cinque Ports'' was an English ship whose sailing master was Alexander Selkirk, generally accepted as a model for the fictional Robinson Crusoe. The ship was part of a 1703 expedition commanded by William Dampier, who captained an accompanying ship, the 26-gun ''St George'' with a complement of 120 men. When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701, English privateers were recruited to act against French and Spanish interests.〔("Letters of Marque and Reprisal for the Cinque Ports, Declaration of Charles Pickering" ), The National Archives (11 January 1702).〕 Despite a court-martial for cruelty to one of his crew in an earlier voyage,〔("William Dampier, Captain, HMS ''Roebuck'', Royal Navy Court Martial" ), The National Archives (8 June 1702).〕 Dampier was granted command of the two-ship expedition which departed England on 30 April 1703 for the port of Kinsale in Ireland. ==Fateful voyage== William Dampier's original companions dropped out of the scheme and a new agreement was made with Captain Charles Pickering of the ''Cinque Ports''. The ''Cinque Ports'' was fitted out with 16 guns and a crew of 63. The two ships left Kinsale on 11 September 1703 with the intention of attacking Spanish galleons returning from Buenos Aires. When this plan fell through the privateers decided to make for the South Sea by way of Cape Horn. While the ships were off the coast of Brazil an outbreak of scurvy on board ''Cinque Ports'' led to the death of a number of men, including the captain who was replaced by 21-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Stradling. After rounding the Horn and cruising up the South American coast as far as Panama, capturing several Spanish ships on the way, the two captains decided to separate. Captain Stradling stopped at one of the islands of the Juan Fernández Archipelago off the Chilean coast in September 1704 to resupply. There was a dispute between Alexander Selkirk and Stradling regarding the ''Cinque Ports'' seaworthiness, and Selkirk impetuously chose to be put ashore on an uninhabited island. He remained on Juan Fernández in solitude for four years and four months, before being rescued by Woodes Rogers in 1709. His experience was one of the likely sources of inspiration for the character Robinson Crusoe in the novel by Daniel Defoe. Selkirk's suspicions were soon justified, as the ''Cinque Ports'' sank near Malpelo Island from the coast of what is now Colombia, with Stradling and the surviving members of his crew being taken prisoner by the Spanish. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cinque Ports (1703 ship)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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