Aurora Islands
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The Aurora Islands were a group of three islands first reported in 1762 by the Spanish ship Aurora while sailing from Lima to Cádiz. The Aurora's officers reported sighting them again in 1774. The Spanish ship San Miguel fixed their location at 52° 37' S, 47° 49' W. In 1794, they were sighted again by the corvette Atrevida, which had been sent to find them. Their reported location was east of Cape Horn, approximately half way between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia at .
The islands were last sighted in 1856, and have subsequently been ascribed a mythical status, although they continued to appear on maps of the south Atlantic until the 1870s.
It is unknown if the Aurora Islands ever actually existed, or if persistent reports of them may have simply been the result of mid-ocean atmospheric peculiarities or optical illusions. Another opinion is that the Aurora Islands are the Shag Rocks, and the name Islas Aurora is used in Spanish for them.
They are the subject of a 2001 novel entitled Hippolyte's Island, by Barbara Hodgson, during which they are rediscovered by the book's protagonist. In an episode in Edgar Allan Poe's novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Pym and his crewmates search for but fail to find them.
[edit] References
- Raymond Ramsay, No Longer on the Map, Ballantine Books 1972, pages 78-80
