Phoenix Islands

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The Phoenix Islands are a group of eight atolls, plus two submerged coral reefs in the central Pacific Ocean, east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands. They are part of Kiribati. During the late 1930s they were the site of the last attempted colonial expansion of the British Empire (the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme). The islands and surrounding areas are home to some 120 species of coral and more than 500 species of fish. On January 28, 2008, the government of Kiribati formally declared the entire Phoenix group and surrounding waters a protected area, making its 410,500 square kilometres the world's largest marine protected area.

The group is uninhabited except for a few families on Kanton (41 people according to the 2005 census). The United States territories Baker Island and Howland Island can be considered northerly outliers of the group, in a geographic sense. Those two are statistically grouped with the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The islands (not including the reefs) have all been claimed by the United States at some point, and many have come under British sovereignty during their history.

At various times, the islands have been considered part of the Gilbert group (once also known as "Kingsmill"), but the name "Phoenix" for this group of islands seems to have been settled on in the 1840s, after the island of that name within the group. Phoenix Island was probably named after one of the several whaleships of that name known to be in the area in the early nineteenth century.

Islands of Kiribati
Atoll/Island/Reef Land
Area
km²		 Lagoon
km²		 Coordinates

Phoenix Islands (Kiribati)
Abariringa (Canton Island) 9.0 50 02°50′S, 171°43′W
Enderbury Island 5.1 0.6* 03°08′S, 171°05′W
Birnie Island 0.2 0.02* 03°35′S, 171°31′W
McKean Island 0.4 0.2* 03°36′S, 174°08′W
Rawaki (Phoenix Island) 0.5 0.5 03°43′S, 170°43′W
Manra (Sydney Island) 4.4 2.2* 04°27′S, 171°15′W
Orona (Hull Island) 3.9 30 04°30′S, 172°10′W
Nikumaroro (Gardner Island) 4.1 4 04°40′S, 174°31′W
Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) 27.6 84.5

Submerged coral reefs
Winslow Reef - 1 01°36′S, 174°57′W
Carondelet Reef -  ? 05°34′S, 173°51′W

U.S. territories to the north
Baker Island 1.6 - 00°13′N, 176°28′W
Howland Island 1.8 - 00°48′N, 176°38′W
* The lagoon areas marked with an asterisk are contained within the island areas of the previous column because they are, unlike in the case of a typical atoll, landlocked bodies of water completely sealed off from the sea.

Contents

[edit] Geography

The Phoenix Islands are a group of eight islands, 11 sq mi (28 sq km), central Pacific, N of Samoa. The chain comprises a portion of Kiribati. The two most important are Kanton (or Abariringa) and Enderbury Island. The other islands include Rawaki (formerly Phoenix), Manra (formerly Sydney), Birnie, McKean, Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner), and Orona (formerly Hull).

[edit] History

There is evidence to suggest that Howland Island was the site of prehistoric settlement, which possibly extended down to Phoenix, Canton, Sydney and Hull, probably in the form of a single community utilising several adjacent islands, but the hard life on isolated islands led to extinction of or dereliction by the settled peoples, in much the way other islands in the area (such as Christmas Island and Pitcairn) were abandoned.[1] Such settlements probably began around 1000 BC, when eastern Melanesians travelled north.[2]

The oceans of the mid-pacific and Micronesia opened up in the early nineteenth century as whalers from Europe and the Americas came in search of prey. The "on-the-line" grounds of the Central Pacific became popular in the 1820s, with hundreds of ships sailing through the area each year.[3] This remained the case for some years:Matthew Fontaine Maury's whaling chart of 1851 showed the area as a good ground for hunting sperm whales.[4] The sudden influx of whaling vessels in the 1820s led to the discovery and intitial charting of most of the islands of the Central Pacific between 1821-1825.[5]

Most of the islands were annexed by Great Britain in the late 19th century, although the United States claimed Howland and Baker islands in 1935, and in 1937 Britain included the Phoenix group in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony. In 1938 the United States claimed sovereignty over Canton and Enderbury, and in 1939 Britain and the United States agreed to exercise joint control over the two islands for a period of 50 years.[6]

Between 1938 and 1940, in an effort to reduce overcrowding on the Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme colonised the previously uninhabited Orona (Hull), Manra (Sydney), and Nikumaroro (Gardner) islands.[7] By 1963, however, the three settlements had failed and the entire population was moved to the Solomon Islands.

[edit] Discovery and mapping of the islands

Islands of Micronesia provided the first landfall for the Spanish explorers of the early-mid sixteenth century, but the area was the last in the Pacific to be fully explored and charted, probably because the islands were predominantly small and isolated.[8] In 1568, when Spaniard Mendana was commanded to explore the South Pacific, he sailed between the Line Islands and the Phoenix without sighting land, before discovering "Isla de Jesus", probably amongst the Ellice group.[9] While it is accepted that early nineteenth-century whalers were responsible for discovering most of the Kiribati islands in the modern era, conflicting reports, inaccurate mapping and duplication of islands makes it almost impossible to confirm exactly who discovered each of the islands.[10] Jeremiah N. Reynolds's 1828 report to the American Navy recommended an exploring expedition to the Pacific as "the English charts, and those of other countries are as yet very imperfect. Much of their information has been obtained from loose accounts from whalers who were careless in some instances, and forgetful in others, and which were seized with greediness by the makers of maps and charts, in order to be the first to make these discoveries known."[11]

Things had changed little by the time Charles Wilkes finally led the Exploring Expedition in the 1840s: the Peacock and the Flying Fish surveyed the islands under William Hudson, and reported that the existing charts of Kiribati were "so inaccuarate as to be a cause of danger rather than safety; for in them the islands are multiplied and every hummock or detached islet on the same reef is represented as separate and a name assigned to it."[12] Map makers worked on co-ordinates and reports given by whalers and other sailors and rarely assessed for duplication, such as the case of Obed and Valentine Starbuck, who each discovered Starbuck Island (in the Line group) in 1823, on independent voyages.[13] The islands started to be shown on charts from the late 1820s, such as Lavasseur's chart of 1838, which names Mary Island (probably Canton), Arthur (McKean), Birnie and New Nantucket (Baker Island).[14]

[edit] Identifying the discoverers

Report of JN Reynolds, 1828[11]
Island Name Location Reynold's comments
"Phenix Island"* 2°35'S, 171°39'W "small and sandy, three miles in circumference"
"Mary Balcout's
Island"*		 2°47'S, 171°58'W "Surrounded by a reef twenty leagues in circum-
ference, with only four openings where boats can
enter" (this is an almost identical position to
"Mary Island" shown on Norie's map of 1825;
similar to Canton Is.)[15]
"Barney's Island"* 3°9'S, 171°41'W "a lagoon, twenty miles in circumference"
(Possibly another sighting of Canton Is.)[15]
"Birney's Island" 3°30'S, 171°30'W "Discovered by Capt Emmert; found on charts"
"Sidney's Island" 4°25'S, 171°20'W "Discovered by Capt Emmert; found on charts"
"Sidney's Is." (2) 4°30'S, 171°20'W
"Sidney's Is." (3) 4°29'S, 171°20'W
"New Nantucket" 0°11'N, 176°20'W "Not on charts"
"Gardner's Island" 4°30'S, 174°22'W "Not on charts; discovered by Capt Coffin,
on Ganges".
unnamed 3°14'S, 170°50'W
unnamed 3°33'S, 173°44'W
unnamed 3°35'S, 170°20'W
unnamed 4°45'S, 174°40'W
unnamed reef 5°30'S, 175°W "Not on the charts". (possibly Carondelet Reef)
*Reynold's suggests that since these three have similar coordinates, they "are probably the
same as Birney's Island"

Commissioned by the navy in 1828, to provide a survey of American discoveries in the Pacific, JN Reynolds interviewed New England whalers, and inspected their logbogs, charts and documents. His report includes at least 13 islands fitting roughly within the Phoenix group, but the coordinates of each are not conclusive when compared with the now-known coordinates of the group.[15] (See above table for modern coordinates).

Further confusion regarding the initial discoveries is provided by other contemporary reports of the islands: Frenchman Louis Tromelin reported his 1823 discovery of Phoenix island at 3°42'S, 170°43'W (while cartographer John Arrowsmith plotted it 12 minutes further north), and a rediscovery of Sydney's Is at 4°26'30", 171°18'. The same year, James Coffin recorded "Enderby's Island" at 3°10', 171°10.[15] When these reports are compared with the actual geography of the area, "the impossibility of deciding who discovered which of these...islands, and when, becomes apparent."[16]

The early coordinates are not the only controversy surrounding the islands; contemporary reports and modern analysis provide conflicting evidence regarding the indentification of the initial discoverers, complicated by the numerous names given to the islands.

The name "Phoenix" appears to have been first applied to the whole group by Wilkes's Exploring Expedition, from the island of that name reported within the group.[16] The source of the initial name remains uncertain (see below).

[edit] McKean Island

McKean Island was the first of the Phoenix group to be reported and named. It was discovered May 28, 1794 by the British Capt. Henry Barber, of the ship Arthur, while enroute from Botany Bay, New South Wales to the north-west coast of America.[17] Barber named it "Drummond's Island", plotting it at 3°40'S, 176°51'W.[18] It was later named 'Arthur Island' and appeared as such in charts of the time located at 3°30'S, 176°0'W.[19] The island was reported and visited by a number of ships in the years following, including Capt Kemin (1824) (see below), the whaler Japan in 1830, Capatin Worth (1832) who mistook it for Onotoa, and an unknown whaler in 1834, who named it "Wigram's Island".[20]

It was renamed and mapped by Commander Charles Wilkes of the US Exploring Expedition on August 19, 1840 after a member of his crew. However, Arthur Island remained suspected and 'in need of confirmation' until at least 1871, when it was listed in Findlay's Directory, using the charts of cartographer John Arrowsmith.[19]

[edit] Enderbury Island

Enderbury Island is generally held to have been discovered by Capt. James Coffin of the British whaler Transit in 1823, who named it "Enderby's Island" after the London whaling house.[21] However, when he described his own discoveries of the Bonins to Arrowsmith and other geographers, he did not mention Enderbury.[22]

[edit] Birnie Island and Manra (Sydney Island)

The discovery of Birnie and Sydney Islands are reported to have occurred in 1823 by a British whaler, either the Sydney Packet or the Sydney, captained by a "Emmett", "Emmert" or "Emment", and named after the ship and ship owner, the London firm Alexander Birnie & Co. "Captain Emmett" might be William Emmett, from Sydney, who sailed regularly in the area and is known to have bought the brig Queen Charlotte from whaler James Birnie (of the Birnie ship owning family) in 1820.[22] Frenchman Tromelin found Sidney's Island again in 1823 (or 1828), placing it at 4°26'30", 171°18'; he went on to survey Phoenix Island.[23]

[edit] Abariringa (Canton Island)

"Mary Island" and "Mary Balcoutts Island", at similar coordinates to Canton Island, exist in reports and charts from 1825.[15] Reynold's report also describes a "Barney's Island", roughly at Canton's position, which was possibly named and discovered by Capt. Joseph Barney of the Equator, who was whaling in the area in 1823-4.[24] It was given the name "Canton" by Commander RW Meade of the USS Narragansett in 1872, after the whaler Canton, which was wrecked there in 1854.[25]

[edit] Nikumaroro (Gardner Island)

0n 8 January 1824, Capt. Kemin, of an unnamed ship, discovered what is possibly Gardner Island (at 4°45'S, 186°20'15"E) and McKean Island, naming them the "Kemin Islands".[25] Capt. Joshua Gardner, reportedly on board the whaler Ganges, discovered an island in 1825, located at 4°20' S, 174°22' W, and named it "Gardner's Island". His discovery was reported in the Nantucket Enquirer, December 1827.[26] However, contemporary Joshua Coffin (also reportedly on the Ganges) is sometimes credited with the discovery, naming the island after his ship's owner, Gideon Gardner.[27]

During the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, Charles Wilkes identified Gardner's Island from the reported position, and confirmed its existence.[28]

[edit] Rawaki (Phoenix Island)

Frenchman Louis Tromelin, aboard the corvette Bayonnaise, came across Sydney (see above) and Phoenix Island, probably in 1828[24], although some sources state 1823[15] and 1826[29]. Placing the island at 3°42'S, 189°17'E, Tromelin claimed it was already reported on Norie's map.[24]. A "Phenix", plus unnamed islands at similar coordinates also feature in Reynold's report. The source of the name (and discoverer) is unknown but may be the whaling ship Phoenix of Nantucket, Massachusetts, which was active in the area and also the discoverer of Winslow Reef;[30] the London whaler Phoenix, owned by Daniel Bennett (W. Bennett & Co), whaling in the Pacific in 1815;[24] the Phoenix, under the command of John Palmer in 1824, or a vessel, also named the Phoenix under the command of a Captain Moore, which was in the Pacific in 1794.[31]

[edit] Orona (Hull Island)

Little is known about the discovery of Hull Island, but it was confirmed by the US Exploring Expedition in 1841 (and found to be inhabited), and named by Wilkes after Commodore Isaac Hull.[32]

[edit] Winslow Reef

The reef was discovered by the whaler Phoenix in 1851, speculated to be the ship which gave its name to the group.[33] (although "Phoenix Island" was reported prior to this date). Perry Winslow was the master of the Phoenix on this voyage.[34]

[edit] Carondelet Reef

An unnamed reef at similar coordinates to Carondelet Reef was included in Reynold's report of 1828.[11]

[edit] Baker Island

In August 1825, Capt Obed Starbuck of the whaler Loper sighted a low barren island at 0°11'N, 176°20'W, which he named "New Nantucket" after his home Nantucket, Massachusetts. Starbuck had previously discovered islands in the Ellice group. It was later named after Capt Michael Baker, who discovered the guano deposits on the island in 1839.[25]

[edit] Howland Island

The discovery of Howland Island is sometimes credited to Captain George B Worth of the Nantucket whaler Oeno, around 1822, who called it "Worth Island".[15] Daniel MacKenzie of the American whaler Minerva Smith, charted the island in 1828, and, believing it to be a new discovery, named it after his ship's owners.[25]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Irwin, pp 176-9
  2. ^ Suárez, p 17
  3. ^ Maude, p 121-2
  4. ^ Suárez, p 214-5
  5. ^ Maude, p 123
  6. ^ The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05
  7. ^ Maude, pp 315-342
  8. ^ Suárez, p 178
  9. ^ Maude, pp 53-56
  10. ^ Sharp, p 212
  11. ^ a b c Reynold's Report to the House of Representatives
  12. ^ quoted in Suárez, p 191
  13. ^ Suárez, p 190
  14. ^ Suárez, pp 6-7
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Sharp, pp 210-13
  16. ^ a b Sharp, p 210
  17. ^ Quanchi & Robson, p 11
  18. ^ Maude, p 109
  19. ^ a b Sharp, p 210
  20. ^ Maude, p 110
  21. ^ Polynesian Society, p 104
  22. ^ a b Maude, p 129
  23. ^ Sharp, p211
  24. ^ a b c d Maude, p 131
  25. ^ a b c d Maude, p 130
  26. ^ Dunmore, p 115
  27. ^ Stackpole, p
  28. ^ Sharp, p 213
  29. ^ Quanchi & Robson, p xviii-xix
  30. ^ Atoll research Bulletin, page 6
  31. ^ Bryan, p
  32. ^ Maude, p 132
  33. ^ Atoll Research Bulletin 41,page 6, Issued by the Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington DC, August 15, 1955.
  34. ^ Ships' Log Collection, Phoenix, Nov. 7, 1848 – Feb. 5, 1853. In the Nantucket Historical Association, Resource Library and Archives.

[edit] References

  • Bryan, EH, (1942) American Polynesia, Honolulu,
  • Dunmore, John.Who's Who in Pacific Navigation. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-52284-488-X.
  • Irwin, Geoffrey (1992), The Prehistroric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521476518
  • Maude, H.E., (1968) Of Islands and Men: Studies in Pacific History, Melbourne: Oxford University Press
  • Polynesian Society, (1961), The Journal of the Polynesian Society
  • Quanchi, Max & Robson, John, (2005); Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands, USA: Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810853957
  • Sharp, Andrew (1960); The Discovery of the Pacific Islands, Oxford:Oxford University Press,
  • Stackpole, Edouard A.; The Sea Hunters: The New England Whalemen During Two Centuries, 1635-1835
  • Suárez, Thomas (2004), Early Mapping of the Pacific, Singapore: Periplus Editions, ISBN 0794600921

[edit] See also

[edit] External links