The rise and fall of nature’s many short-lived islands

Posted in Geography, Geology, Historical articles, History, Sea, Ships on Wednesday, 18 April 2012

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This edited article about the Aurores Islands originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 689 published on 29 March 1975.

The vanished isalnds, picture, image, illustration

Nothing could be seen but the restless waves when the sailors looked out for the Aurores, by Ken Petts

Have you ever heard of the Aurores Islands? You will search a map in vain, for they are not marked. Like many other islands, they have vanished as completely as if they never existed. But that the Aurores did exist about two centuries ago, is vouched for by numerous reports and data reported over a number of years.

They were first reported by Captain Oyardvido, master of the sailing vessel Aurora (hence their name) in the early 1760’s. They were described as a group of islands, situated in the South Atlantic to the south-east of the Falkland Islands. Other vessels reported them and they were finally surveyed by a Spanish ship specially equipped for such work and were duly shown on all maps of that time.

Some years later, the captain of a vessel cruising in the vicinity decided he would take a look at these islands for himself. He studied his chart and altered course accordingly. He reached the spot, but of the islands there was no trace. He checked his bearings and posted a lookout in the crow’s nest. Nothing could be seen but the restless waves.

Had the ocean bed opened up and swallowed them in their entirety? Had Captain Oyardvido mistaken icebergs for land? Mist plays some curious tricks in that part of the world, but it is difficult to believe it could deceive an experienced seaman. At any rate, subsequent expeditions failed to find the islands and eventually the cartographers removed them from their maps.

Cartographers have also been obliged to remove many other mystery islands from their maps. These include St. Brandans’s Isle, supposedly situated in the Azores; and Graham Island which reared its head off the coast of Sicily some years ago. Both remained just long enough to be named and charted, then disappeared.

It was a tragic day when Garefowls Rock vanished from the North Atlantic, garefowl being another name for the now extinct flightless bird, the great auk. Garefowls Rock was the chief stronghold of these birds and when the island mysteriously disappeared about a century-and-a-half ago, the auks were compelled to seek refuge on a more accessible island nearby. Being unable to fly, they were easy prey for hunters and by 1850 they had become extinct.

When considering the mystery of vanishing islands, we must not overlook what may be termed floating islands. These usually consist of enormous masses of weed and flotsam, similar to those that make up the notorious Sargasso Sea. These islands are comparatively solid and can remain more or less intact for long periods, especially in the calmer seas. When viewed from a distance, they could be mistaken for genuine islands. Ships may have reported them as islands in all good faith, but as they are constantly drifting and disintegrating, it is easy to understand why subsequent searches have failed to locate them. This would seem to be the most logical explanation.

But one cannot use this explanation to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Dougherty Island. It was originally plotted by the captain of an American whaling ship in the vicinity of Cape Horn. The island was covered with snow and thousands of seals were observed dotted along its shores. These facts were also mentioned in the report of another captain who sailed close to the island at a later date. The fact that both captains observed the island closely enough to distinguish its seal population means that they could not possibly have mistaken it for an icefloe or a snow-covered floating island of weed.

The news that seals inhabited Dougherty Island eventually reached the ears of a commercial seal-hunting concern. With the prospect of a highly profitable kill, they lost no time in equipping two vessels for an expedition to the island.

The vessels, each manned by experienced seamen, reached the spot shown on their charts. Much to the annoyance of the members of the expedition, they found they had wasted their time. There was absolutely no sign of snow-covered Dougherty Island. Not so much as a solitary rock projected above the surface of the sea. Thinking that the charted position of the island might be inaccurate, the vessels spent two weeks searching over a wide area. They found nothing; in fact, they did not even catch sight of a single seal.

Whilst admitting that the two captains who reported the position of the island may have given incorrect bearings, surely other vessels would eventually have reported the island. None did and Dougherty has never been seen since.

Bouvet is an uninhabited island in the South Atlantic. It was discovered in 1739 by Pierre Bouvet, but no flag was hoisted until 1825 when Captain Norris landed and took possession of it in the name of King George IV. Whilst engaged on this mission, he noticed another island a few miles distant which was not shown on his map. To make sure of his facts, he sailed completely around it and named it Thompson Island.

It was when he was circumnavigating the island that he came across three small islets which also were uncharted. These, for some unknown reason, he named “The Chimneys”. He plotted all four islands and in due course they were added to all Admiralty charts.

The strange fact is that Thompson Island and its three Chimneys have never been seen since the day Captain Norris investigated them in 1825, a century-and-a-half ago. No-one has ever doubted Captain Norris’s integrity, for he was a distinguished and dedicated seaman. And no-one has ever found an answer to the riddle.

But if oceans can swallow up islands overnight, in like manner they can produce them. In 1963, the sea erupted off Iceland’s southern shore and a mighty column of smoke billowed five miles into the air. That column of smoke signalled the birth of the island of Surtsey, a square mile in extent. The great mass of volcanic material cooled, the first plant grew, and the new-born cliffs became alive with sea birds.

Perhaps one day Surtsey will vanish as completely as many other islands have. Who knows?

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