Marooning is the act of leaving someone behind intentionally in an uninhabited area. It was usually a penalty for captains of pirate vessels by an angry crew. Pirates themselves may have used marooning as well, and certainly do so quite frequently in fiction. During the late 18th century in the American South, "marooning" took on a humorous additional meaning describing an extended camping-out picnic over a period of several days (Oxford English Dictionary).