Tromelin Island
Tromelin Island is located in the Indian Ocean a 0.8km ² large tropical island, east of Madagascar.
History
The island was discovered in 1722 by the French ship La Diane and initially ( German as " sand island " ) called Ile des Sables.
On the night of July 31, 1761 Utile, a French slave ship off the island ran aground and smashed, whereupon the survivors (60 slaves and the crew) took refuge on the island equipped only with a sparse vegetation. In the first few days on the island more than 20 people died, as no drinking water was available and had to be dug first a fountain. After two months, the surviving white sailors left with an assembled from the wreckage of the ship raft the island, leaving it to send back help the surviving slaves with the promise and reach Madagascar. There, however, refused the governor to send help, since France was currently at war with England. Two rafts left later the island and the mainland were trying to achieve, but this is not probably managed.
The inhabitants of the island lived on seabirds, fish, hermit crabs and turtles. They made from bird feathers clothing and managed for 15 years not to let a fire go out. This is particularly remarkable in that subject across the island sometimes very fierce trade winds and hurricanes. 1776 persevered seven women and an eight month old baby on the island. The ship La Dauphine under Captain Chevalier de Tromelin reached in the year the island and rescued the survivors. According to him the island is named today. The baby was baptized Moise (Moses) and came under the care of the Governor of Mauritius. It is still not entirely clear how the survivors were able to hold out on the island for 15 years.
1830 Captain Laplace led a mission to the geographical destination of the island. He found the still existing dwellings of the former castaways and calculated the geographical position of the island on: 15 ° 38 ' South and 52 ° 11 ' East.
1954 a permanent weather station with an airstrip was built on the island.
2006, a research group was formed to find out by means of archaeological excavations further about the survival of the former slaves. These excavations have shown that after the rescue of the shipwrecked and before the construction of the weather station in 1954 sometime again people had built houses on the island.
Politics and Administration
The island was in 1814 by Reunion from managed without belonging ( since 1960 by the prefect of the overseas departments), even to Réunion. Tromelin is therefore not part of the European Union. Since 2005, she is like the other Îles Éparses managed as private property of the French State by the prefect and top managers of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.
The island is also claimed by Mauritius.
Geography and Economics
The oval, about 1700 m long, up to 700 m wide and surrounded by a coral reef island is 450 km away from the nearest land mass, surrounded by 4000 m deep ocean and thus difficult to reach.
The island is sandy, flat and largely without vegetation except for Sporadic bushes. The highest elevation is 7 m high. On the island there is no indigenous population, but an important weather station ( in particular for the study of cyclones ), in which usually 15 to 20 meteorologists from Météo France work. The rest of the island now serves as a sanctuary for sea turtles.
However, the island has no harbor, but an anchorage off the coast. Also located on the island a short ( below 1000 m), not paved runway and landing strip for airplanes.