User:St Mark Is.
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Îles Saint-Marc (St. Marc Islands) a group of islands forming part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the Indian Ocean, with an area of 6 km² (2.3 sq mi). They are about 785 kilometres (488 miles) northeast of the closest island Île Amsterdam, located between and . They are fertile islands measuring no more than five km (three miles) at their greatest width, hitherto thought to be uninhabited.
During sailing ship days captains would occasionally use the islands as a check on their navigation before heading north.
A scientific research cabin on the islands is used for scientific or ecological short campaigns, but there is no permanent population.
Îles Saint-Marc is one of three islands which is an antipode of the United States. It corresponds to Firstview, Colorado. The other two antipodes are Îles Amsterdam and Kerguelen Island.
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[edit] History
In the 1880s Charles Lightoller was shipwrecked here. He accurately describes the islands in his autobiography, Titanic and Other Ships. During French rule of Mauritius, Saint-Marc as well as Îles Amsterdam were administered from Port Louis, but they were transferred to Réunion prior to British invasion of Mauritius.
In 1871 a British frigate, HMS Megaera, was wrecked on one of the islands. Most of the 400 persons on board had to remain upwards of three months on the islands.
Lightoller suggested that pirates may have used the islands and their treasure could be buried in its caves. There is also speculation that officers from the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis hid treasure near the entrance of the bay during World War II.[citation needed]
In 1928, an ill-fated spiny lobster cannery was established on Îles Saint-Marc. Seven employees of the cannery were abandoned to their fate on the islands when the company went bankrupt in 1931; they later came to be known as Les Oubliés de Saint-Marc ("the forgotten ones of St. Marc"). Five died; the two survivors were finally rescued in 1934.[1][2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- LeMasurier, W. E.; Thomson, J. W. (eds.) (1990). Volcanoes of the Antarctic Plate and Southern Oceans. American Geophysical Union, 512 pp. ISBN 0-87590-172-7.
- ^ Les oubliés de lle Saint-Marc, by Daniel Floch. 1982.
- ^ "St. Mark Islands: A Frightening History.". [1]
[edit] External links
- Charles Lightoller's Titanic And Other Ships on Titanic-Titanic.com
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Pictures of Îles Saint-Marc
- Antipodes of the USA
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