Ducie Island

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Ducie, old name: La Encarnación or Incarnacion, one belonging to the group of islands of the Pitcairn islands uninhabited, sandy Atoll, about 500 kilometers east of Pitcairn is at 24 ° 41 ' South and 124 ° 47' west in the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost atoll of the earth.

Geography

Ducie is made up of the islands of Acadia Iceland, Westward Iceland, Iceland Pandora and Edwards Iceland. They have a combined area of ​​0.7 km ². The total area of the atoll, which rises only slightly above the sea level is, including the lagoon 3.9 km ².

The crescent-shaped, about 3.5 km long main island Acadia Iceland is named after the British three-master Acadia, with a cargo of wheat suffered here on June 5, 1881 shipwreck. With the open lifeboats rowed the survivors - with a stopover on the likewise uninhabited Henderson - 13 days to Pitcairn, where they were eventually rescued. The anchor of the Acadia was lifted in March 1990 by divers in the World Discoverer and installed along with a commemorative plaque to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement on Pitcairn prior to the generator house.

Flora

The vegetation consists of only two low-growing plant species:

• Pemphis acidula, a midget tree with a reddish, hard wood, small leaves and small white flowers
• Argusia argentea (synonyms: Tournefortia argentea, now Heliothropium foertherianum ), a compact, up to 6 meters high tree, which is one of the heliotrope ( a sub-family of Boraginaceae ). The pointed- oval, shiny leaves grow in clusters at the ends of the branches. The salt- tolerant plant with small, white and very fragrant flowers forming on the island a monospecific forest.

Fauna

The fauna of Ducie is species-poor because of the limited land area, the isolated location and the low biodiversity of the flora. Known and described are only 15 species of insects, plus a tick, six species of spiders, an isopod and amphipod. Among the terrestrial molluscs, only two species of snails are known: Melampus flavus and Pacific Ella - kind.

On Ducie breed 14 different seabird species. Ducie is the world's largest breeding colony of Murphy 's petrel ( Pterodroma ultima ), from January to August nest here than 250,000 birds.

The up to 15 m deep, interspersed with many coral reefs lagoon has a rich underwater flora. The largest populations of marine life can be found, however, in the flow channels between the islands, especially in the 100 m wide and up to 80 m deep passage between Westward and Pandora Island. The whitetip reef shark ( Triaenodon obesus ) is often in the area of Ducie.

History

Apparently the island was never permanently settled by humans, this hardly seems to be possible because of the total lack of freshwater sources also. The presence of the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans ), which was carried and spread by Polynesian seafarers as a food animal, however, is at least the temporary presence of Polynesians.

Ducie was discovered on January 26, 1606 by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. It was the first island which Quiros sighted after his departure from Callao on 21 December in 1605. He named the atoll first "Luna Puesta ", but in his memoirs of 1609 he changed the name to " La Encarnación ".

Got its name, the archipelago of Captain Edward Edwards of the frigate HMS Pandora, which was sent out to search for the Bounty mutineers -. The Pandora reached Ducie on 16 March 1791 but Edwards went - as Quiros before him - not on land. He named the atoll by the Earl of Ducie, who belonged to the peers of the United Kingdom. Edwards had been patronized by the noble family.

During his expedition to the Pacific and the Arctic North America, the British explorer Frederick William Beechey visited the islands of Pitcairn and Henderson and Ducie reached on 28 November 1825., He did not land, but sent a dinghy for soundings from. His measurements were the basis for the first map of the island (British Admiralty Chart No.. 1176 ). For more than 100 years, this should be the only card of Ducie.

" Ducie 's Island is a coral formation of oval shape with a lagoon or lake in the middle, which is hardly enough above sea level. The height of the solid state is about 12 feet [ 3.6 m], with trees, the [ 4.3 m ] are about 14 feet high, and is thus the highest altitude 26 feet [ 7.9 m] above sea level. The lagoon seems to be deep and has a driveway for a small boat when the sea is calm enough to allow the driveway. The passage is the southeast corner, right by two cusps, which are apparently sandbanks. The island extends from northeast to southwest, is three-quarter miles long and a mile wide. We saw no living thing, except birds, but in the area there seems to abound and there are plenty of fish sharks. The water was so clear about the coral reef that we could perceive the seabed, even if we [ 54.8 m] depth had no sounding in 30 fathoms. In 24 fathoms [ 43.9 m] a coral block lifted on the seabed out clearly. The coral had a variety of shapes and were of different colors, mainly white, yellow and purple, so her look variegated the seabed, but they also faded very quickly when they are replaced. The soundings around the island we had the impression that they have seen from some distance, had the curved shape of a flat top. "

The first European to set foot on Ducie, was the British naturalist and malacologist Hugh Cuming, who, coming down with his ship Discoverer of Easter Island, Ducie reached on December 7, 1827.

Relying on the Guano Islands Act brought the United States from 1867 claims of ownership.

Under the direction of Robert Teesdale Simons, the British Consul at Tahiti and Deputy Commissioner for the Western Pacific from 1894 to 1908, the cutter sailed Pitcairn Adventists under the command of Captain GF Jones of Pitcairn Island by Oeno, Henderson and Ducie. On 19 December 1902, the crew left on Ducie a plaque with the inscription: " This island is a colony of Pitcairn and property of the British government. "

The first, well-prepared, scientific expedition to Ducie was the Whitney South Seas Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, whose primary objective was to collect bird specimens on various Pacific islands. The scientists who Ducie reached the schooner France on 19 March 1922 were 12 days and have made extensive studies of the flora and fauna.

In August 1937, the British- New Zealand light cruiser HMNZS Leander went to the islands of Oeno, Ducie and Henderson to renew the claim of the British Crown to the islands. The crew hoisted the Union Jack on Ducie and left a plaque. The on-board aircraft made ​​the first aerial photographs of the island, on the basis of the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office produced a new map of the island.

So far there have been few scientific expeditions to Ducie. Worth mentioning are the National Geographic Society - Oceanic Institute expedition to South East Oceania of 1971, the operation Raleigh Pacific Iceland Expedition of 1987 and the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition to the Pitcairn Islands from January 1991 to April 1992, 20 scientists from various disciplines even after Ducie brought.

Cruise ships that are on the way to Easter Island, the atoll pass only.