Between 1708 and 1711, the privateer Woodes Rogers circumnavigated the globe without losing a ship, becoming the first Englishman to do so. Rogers' methods to stave off the diseases which often accompanied long voyages, particularly scurvy, were revolutionary for the period and did not become widely accepted until later in the eighteenth century.
This circumnavigation is perhaps most notable for the rescue of the castaway Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who had been marooned on the Juan Fernandez Islands off the coast of Chile for over four years before being recovered. Selkirk's remarkable survival was greeted with immense interest and Rogers' account of the voyage, published in 1712, became an instant success due to its extensive telling of Selkirk's story. It is likely that this story provided the basis for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, first published in 1719.
Aside from his account of the rescue of Alexander Selkirk, the book is devoted to encouraging British involvement in the South Sea trade, a venture which was wrongly believed to be incredibly profitable at the expense of Spain. This speculation eventually led to the collapse of what is now known as the South Seas bubble in 1721.