Mili Atoll

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Mili Atoll is an atoll of 92 islands in the Ratak Chain in the Pacific Ocean. It is a legislative district of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is only 6.15 mile² (16 km²), but it encloses a lagoon of 294.7 mile² (763 km²). The main village is also called Mili. Mili, Mili (like New York, New York) is littered with thousands of old World War II relics. The law forbids these items from being removed from the island. Mostly what remains are large bunker systems, rail systems, old artillery pieces and downed aircraft that remain intact today. Examples includes Japanese Zeroes and a B-25 Mitchell bomber sitting in just several feet of water. The ground is still covered with craters created by the artillery campaigns that lasted 30 days to "prep" the island for the Allied invasion. The Japanese occupied the island from 1914 to 1944, heavily influencing the culture. Other well known villages are Nallu, Enejet, Lukonor, Tokewa, and Wau, Mili. Nallu, Enejet and Lukonwor are only accessible from Mili by land during lowtide. Only Mili, Mili and Enejet, Mili have runways for small planes.

The population of the islands in the atoll is 1032 as of 1999. The atoll is separated by a water channel called the Klee Passage from the Knox Atoll which is considerably smaller.

[edit] The Globe Mutiny

In 1823 the whaling ship Globe, out of Martha's Vineyard, was brought to Mili Atoll by her mutinous crew. After slaughtering the ships captain and its three officers, Samuel B. Comstock “Bloody Sam” sailed the ship here. A few days after anchoring Comstock was murdered by his co-mutineer Silas Payne. Six of the crew fled in the ship and stranded nine men on the island. By the time the rescue ship, the naval clipper Dolphin, arrived (two years later) all but two of the crew had been murdered by the islanders.