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Crusoe loading his raft
Justyne, Leitch, Macquoid, Morgan, Pasquier, & Thomas
Engravers: Butterworth and Heath
1863-64
Wood-engraving
19.3 cm high by 14.2 cm wide.
Cassell's Robinson Crusoe, page 33.
[Click on image to enlarge it and mouse over text for links.]
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship. And here I found a fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently that if we had kept on board we had been all safe — that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company as I now was. This forced tears to my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my clothes — for the weather was hot to extremity — and took the water. But when I came to the ship my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board; for, as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the second time I spied a small piece of rope, which I wondered I did not see at first, hung down by the fore-chains so low, as that with great difficulty I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope I got up into the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or, rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search, and to see what was spoiled and what was free. And, first, I found that all the ship’s provisions were dry and untouched by the water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and ate it as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose. I also found some rum in the great cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I had, indeed, need enough of to spirit me for what was before me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat to furnish myself with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary to me. [Chapter III, "Wrecked on a Desert Island," pp. 32-33]
The London publishers Cassell, Petter, and Galpin have taken full advantage of the realistic possibilities of the new style of composite wood-block engraving synonymous with the New Men of the Sixties, notably such innovative illustrators as Fred Walker and such skilled engravers as the Dalziels, Thomas and Edward. The ample program of plates for this volume reflect the Sixties' veering away from Cruikshankian caricature and Phizzian comicality, and towards a much greater of degree realism, evident here in the three-quarter-page wood-engraving dropped into the text which details ropes in coils, trunks, casks, barrels, and even the jib-sail of the wrecked slave-ship. The prominent "M" in the lower left suggests that this is the work of either Macquoid or Morgan.
The particular moment captured by the illustration anticipates Crusoe's status for much of the first half of the story as the castaway on a desert island south of Trinidad off the mouth of the Orinoco River. Crusoe, as one would expect, dominates the entire narrative-pictorial program: he occurs in fifty-five of the illustrations, and is prominent (in cameos and closeups) in thirty-five. He appears in some twenty-three capacities: as a son, a slave, a businessman and planter, a salvager, a builder, a diarist, a hunter-gatherer, an explorer, a patient, a basket-weaver, a goat-herd, a sower, a teacher, a boat-builder, a sailor, a tailor, a goat-milker, a woodsman, a soldier, a military strategist, a diplomat, a religionist, as a destroyer of idols, and as Friday's companion. Necessarily, given his age and the story's shift in setting and action in part two, Crusoe is less present in The Farther Adventures.
Left: Cruikshank's less atmospheric realisation of the same episode, Crusoe salvaging cargo from the shipwreck (1831: wood-engraving, Chapter III, "Wrecked on a Desert Island"). Right: Colourful realisation of the same scene, but somewhat lacking in realistic perspective: Robinson Crusoe on the Raft (1818). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Left: Stothard's elegant realisation of the same episode, Robinson Crusoe upon the raft (1782: copperplate-engraving, Chapter III, "Wrecked on a Desert Island"). Right: John Gilbert's vivacious young Crusoe rescues the ship's dog and one cat, Robinson Crusoe on his Raft (1860s). [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner. As Related by himself. With upwards of One Hundred Illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1863-64.
Last modified 9 March 2018