Root sailed out of New Haven harbor in 1802 on the Huron with Captain David Montthrop (variant spelling Molthrop) in what he expected to be a lucrative adventure trading in seal furs. The port of New Haven was a frequent point of departure for sealing expeditions. The first recorded voyage to sealing grounds along the shores of the southern Pacific Ocean was that of Captain Daniel Greene from New Haven in 1790. Root's memoir, written in 1840, recounts his adventures and misadventures while engaged in sealing operations mostly on islands off the coast of Chile. He gives a "detailed account of efforts to take hair seal skins for the American market and fur seal skins for the Chinese trade, primarily from the islands of Mocha, St. Mary's and Masafuero [Mas a tierra], in the Juan Fernandez Islands." Masafuero was also known as Mas Afuero "further away," or Alexander Selkirk's Island, or the Robinson Crusoe Islands. Daniel Defoe based his novel Robinson Crusoe on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk's survival on the island between 1704 and 1709.Hawkes, John Lawrance, with transcription and notes by Donald M. Johnson. The Journal of Joel Root, Supercargo, on the brig Huron, 1802–1806, p. 83.
