Ducie Island
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Ducie Island, a rarely visited island atoll, has been part of the Pitcairn Islands since 1902. There are no permanent inhabitants.
The atoll is located 540 km east of Pitcairn at and has a total area, including the lagoon, of 3.9 km². It is 2.4 km long, northeast to southwest, and about 1.6 km wide. There are four islets on the rim of the atoll:
- Acadia Islet (largest islet, along the north and east rim)
- Pandora Islet (second largest, in the south)
- Edwards Islet (immediately east of Pandora Islet)
- Westward Islet (smallest, west of Pandora Islet)
The land area is 0.7 km². The maximum elevation is 4 m. 70 percent of the land is forested with Tournefortia Argentea (a common tree throughout much of the Pacific Ocean), which grows to a height of 6 m. Two other plant species were reported in 1971 but were not found in 1987[citation needed]. The lagoon is deep and noted for its poisonous fish and extremely dangerous sharks[citation needed].
Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandez de Quiros discovered Ducie on January 26, 1606 and named it La Encarnación. It was later rediscovered by the British in 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards who commanded the Pandora while searching for the mutineers from the Bounty. Ducie Island is named after Baron Francis Ducie, a captain in the Royal Navy.
The island was claimed in 1867 for the United States under the Guano Islands Act and the UK annexed the island in 1902.
In 2003, Canadian amateur radio operators launched a DXpedition on Ducie Island using the callsign VP6DIA.
[edit] External links
- A visit to Ducie Island (April 1998) with some photos
- Map of the island
1 Sovereignity over territories in Antarctica currently suspended under the Antarctic Treaty System.
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