Orona

Orona (formerly Hull Iceland ) is on the canton is the second largest atoll of Kiribati Phoenix Islands. It is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 460 km south of the equator. The large, central location, and up to 10 m deep lagoon is covered by numerous sand islands ( motus ) surrounded, but also through many narrow passages to the open sea connected.

When and by whom was sighted for the first time, the atoll is not known; without doubt, it is a - British or American - whaling discovery in the early 1820s. It is clear that Orona was often confused in this period with the neighboring Sydney Island, today MANRA. Your former name Hull Iceland owes the island in any case the designation by Charles Wilkes, the head of a U.S. South Sea Expedition. Wilkes named the atoll with its local arrival at August 26, 1840 after the American naval officer and Captain Isaac Hull ( 1773-1843 ); see also USS Constitution.

The including lagoon about 38 km ² atoll was inhabited only 1938-1963. The village on the west side Oronas was Arariki. Hull Iceland was at that time a destination launched by the British colonialists resettlement program (so-called " Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme ") to the overpopulation on the north-west Gilbert Islands to master. That the project failed was mainly because those were the soil and groundwater derived therefrom too salty to operate agriculture and livestock. After the failure of the project but left little by the settlers, the three islands concerned Orona (Hull Iceland ), Nikumaroro (Gardner Iceland ) and MANRA ( Sydney Iceland ) again.

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The inner lagoon

Historic post office on Orona

The atoll is now uninhabited, is, however, numerous seabirds and sea turtles as an important breeding site.