Term generally used to describe
pirates. Maroon comes from the Caribbean, where the Spanish word "cimarrĂ³n" was used to describe anything wild or untamed, used for runaway
slaves and later for
lost people in general. The practice of
marooning was a punishment, used by pirates, in which a
seaman was left on a desert island to die. The
Caribbean is ideal for this because by high tide its many small sand
islands disappear, and eventually the marooned pirate would die.
http://www.columbia.edu/~tg66/piratepage.htm