Starbuck Island

For the island in New York, see Starbuck Island (New York).
Starbuck Island
(Volunteer Island)
Starbuck Island (Volunteer Island) is located in Kiribati
Starbuck Island (Volunteer Island)
Starbuck Island
(Volunteer Island)
Starbuck Island (Volunteer Island) is located in Oceania
Starbuck Island (Volunteer Island)
Starbuck Island
(Volunteer Island)
Starbuck Island (Volunteer Island) is located in Pacific Ocean
Starbuck Island (Volunteer Island)
Starbuck Island
(Volunteer Island)
Geography
LocationPacific Ocean
Coordinates5°38′30″S 155°52′40″W / 5.64167°S 155.87778°W / -5.64167; -155.87778
 Kiribati
Map of Starbuck Island
Ruins of the 19th-century guano settlement on Starbuck Island
Starbuck as seen from space

Starbuck Island (or Volunteer Island) is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific, and is part of the Central Line Islands of Kiribati. Its former names include "Barren Island", "Coral Queen Island", "Hero Island", "Low Island", and "Starve Island".

Geography, flora and fauna

Located just east from the geographic center of the Pacific Ocean (4°58′S 158°45′W / 4.97°S 158.75°W / -4.97; -158.75),[1] and measuring 8.9 kilometres (5.5 miles) east-to-west and 3.5 kilometres (2.2 miles) north-to-south, Starbuck Island has a land area of 1,620 hectares (4,003 acres).[2] It is a low, dry, coral limestone island with a steep beach backed by a 6–8-metre-high (20–26 ft) bank composed of large coral fragments. Several hypersaline lagoons form on the island's eastern side. These occasionally dry up, and are said to be dangerous to approach: one worker during the island's guano-mining days sank up to his neck in salty mud before being rescued.[3]

There is no freshwater on the island, which is one of the drier atolls in the Line Island group. Annual yearly rainfall averages approximately 800 mm (31.5 in).[2]

Little vegetation exists on Starbuck; stunted Sida fallax scrub and low herbs and grasses predominate, along with a few Cordia subcordata bushes and bunch grass. Photos have shown a few palm trees growing near the center of the island.[4]

The island boasts a large colony of sooty terns, estimated at 1.5 million pairs, together with Polynesian rats, feral cats, green turtles, and around fifteen other species of seabirds.[2] Other accounts estimate the sooty tern population to be as high as three to six million birds.[5]

History

James Henderson, merchant captain of the East India Company ship Hercules, sighted the island in 1819 while sailing from South America to Calcutta, India. Soon after his arrival a local newspaper, The Calcutta Journal (or Political, Commercial, and Literary Gazette), published Henderson's report of three islands which he had encountered during his voyage, but did not state the exact date for his sighting of modern Starbuck Island. Henry Evans Maude estimated that this may have been in early February 1819. The next captain known to have seen it was Obed Starbuck, captain of the whaler Hero out of Nantucket, on September 5, 1823.[6]

The island was sighted again on December 12, 1823 by Obed's first cousin, Valentine Starbuck, the American-born master of the British whaling ship L'Aigle. L'Aigle was carrying King Kamehameha II of Hawaii and Queen Kamāmalu and their retinue to England. Valentine Starbuck is the first non-Pacific Islander known to have set foot on the island.[7]

The island was finally charted in 1825 by Captain The 7th Lord Byron (a cousin of the famous poet). Byron, commanding the British warship HMS Blonde, was returning to London from a special mission to Honolulu to repatriate the remains of the Hawaiian royal couple, King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, who had died of measles while trying to visit King George IV. Lord Byron also sighted and charted Mauke and Malden Island, which he named after his surveying officer.[8]

Starbuck Island was claimed by the United States under the 1856 Guano Islands Act, but was controlled by Britain after 1866, when possession was taken by Commodore Swinburn of HMS Mutine. The island was mined for phosphate between 1870 and 1893. It formed part of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony prior to the independence of Kiribati in 1979. American claims to the atoll were formally vacated in the Treaty of Tarawa, signed the same year.[9]

At its highest point, the island rises to only about 5 meters. Due to its low profile and dangerous surrounding reefs, a number of ships were wrecked at Starbuck Island in the late 19th century. The French transport Euryale wrecked there in March 1870 and the crew was marooned on the atoll for 35 days. The experience allowed the captain of Euryale, future contre-admiral Albert Des Portes, to finally chart the correct geographical location of the island. All members of the crew were eventually rescued and returned to France.

On August 7, 1896 the Norwegian ship Seladon was wrecked against the barrier. The crew went into the lifeboats and drifted for 30 days until they landed on the island of Niulakita, Tuvalu. They lived together with a few natives for 10 months until they were rescued by a passing ship.[10]

Starbuck Island has been designated as the Starbuck Island Wildlife Sanctuary.[11] In 2014 the Kiribati government established a 12-nautical-mile fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands: Caroline (commonly called Millennium), Flint, Vostok, Malden, and Starbuck.[12]

  • Ruined wall from 19th-century guano settlement on Starbuck Island
    Ruined wall from 19th-century guano settlement on Starbuck Island
  • Sooty tern colony on Starbuck Island
    Sooty tern colony on Starbuck Island
  • Largely barren interior of Starbuck Island
    Largely barren interior of Starbuck Island
  • Bidens kiribatiensis on Starbuck Island
    Bidens kiribatiensis on Starbuck Island

See also

References

  1. ^ "International Journal of Oceans and Oceanography, Volume 15 Number 1, 2021, Determining the Areas and Geographical Centers of Pacific Ocean and its Northern and Southern Halves, pp 25-31, Arjun Tan". Research India Publications. Retrieved 2022-07-18.
  2. ^ a b c "Wetlands". UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Archived from the original on 11 November 2002. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
  3. ^ "Travel guide for the Pacific Islands with info and guides | Janeresture". www.janeresture.com. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
  4. ^ "Looking for Nemo Expedition - Day 18". www.theoceanadventure.com. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  5. ^ World Wildlife Fund, ed. (2001). "Central Polynesian tropical moist forests". WildWorld Ecoregion Profile. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2010-03-08. Retrieved 10 July 2008.
  6. ^ Dunmore, p. 237
  7. ^ Bryan, p. 128
  8. ^ Dunmore, p 46
  9. ^ "Treaty of friendship between the United States of America and the Republic of Kiribati". Retrieved 2013-06-08. Advise and consent to ratification by the Senate June 21, 1983;
  10. ^ Wincent Rege, Malvin Rege & Eli Rege (2012). The wreck of the Seladon: A true survival on an island story. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1470002459.
  11. ^ Edward R. Lovell, Taratau Kirata & Tooti Tekinaiti (September 2002). "Status report for Kiribati's coral reefs" (PDF). Centre IRD de Nouméa. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  12. ^ Warne, Kennedy (September 2014). "A World Apart – The Southern Line Islands". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2015.

Sources

  • Bloxam, Andrew (1925), Diary of Andrew Bloxam: naturalist of the "Blonde" on her trip from England to the Hawaiian islands, 1824-25 Volume 10 of Bernice P. Bishop Museum special publication
  • Bryan, Jr., Edwin H. (1942); American Polynesia and the Hawaiian Chain, Honolulu, Hawaii: Tongg Publishing Company
  • Dunmore, John (1992); Who's Who in Pacific Navigation, Australia:Melbourne University Press, ISBN 0-522-84488-X
  • Quanchi, Max & Robson, John, (2005); Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands, USA: Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0-8108-5395-7

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