Malden may have been the island sighted in 1823 by another captain, William Clark of the whaling vessel Winslow. ===Prehistoric ruins=== At the time of its discovery by Europeans, Malden was found to be unoccupied, but the remains of ruined temples and other structures indicated that the island had at one time been inhabited.
Small numbers of green turtles nest on the beaches, and [crab]s abound. ==History== ===Discovery=== The earliest documented sighting of Malden Island by Europeans was on 25 March 1825, by Captain Samuel Bunker (1796-1874) of the whaler Alexander of Nantucket.
He couldn't land, and sailed on the next day. On 30 July 1825, the island was seen again by Captain The 7th Lord Byron (a cousin of the famous poet).
Guano Company under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which authorized citizens to take possession of uninhabited islands under the authority of the United States for the purpose of removing guano, a valuable agricultural fertilizer.
This company and its successors exploited the island continuously from the 1860s through 1927. Writer Beatrice Grimshaw, a visitor to Malden in the guano-digging era, decried the "glaring barrenness of the bit island", declaring that "...shade, coolness, refreshing fruit, pleasant sights and sounds: there are none.
Various wells used by these ancients were found by later settlers to be dry or brackish. ===Whalers and guano diggers=== In the first half of the nineteenth century, during the heyday of American whaling in the central Pacific, Malden was visited on a number of occasions by American whalers. In 1918, schooner Annie Larsen, infamous for her role in the Hindu-German Conspiracy, was stranded at Malden Island. Malden was claimed by the U.S.
This tramway remained in use on Malden as late as 1924, and its roadbed still exists on the island today. Although guano digging continued on Malden through the early 1920s, all human activity on the island had ceased by the early 1930s.
In 1924, the Malden ruins were examined by Kenneth Emory, an archaeologist from the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, who concluded that they were the creation of a small Polynesian population which had resided there for perhaps several generations some centuries earlier. The ancient stone structures are located around the beach ridges, principally on the north and south sides.
This tramway remained in use on Malden as late as 1924, and its roadbed still exists on the island today. Although guano digging continued on Malden through the early 1920s, all human activity on the island had ceased by the early 1930s.
This company and its successors exploited the island continuously from the 1860s through 1927. Writer Beatrice Grimshaw, a visitor to Malden in the guano-digging era, decried the "glaring barrenness of the bit island", declaring that "...shade, coolness, refreshing fruit, pleasant sights and sounds: there are none.
This tramway remained in use on Malden as late as 1924, and its roadbed still exists on the island today. Although guano digging continued on Malden through the early 1920s, all human activity on the island had ceased by the early 1930s.
No further human use seems to have been made of Malden until 1956. ===British nuclear testing=== In 1956 the United Kingdom selected Malden as the "instrumentation site" for its first series of thermonuclear (H-bomb) weapons tests, based at Kiritimati (Christmas Island).
The airstrip constructed on the island by the Royal Engineers in 1956–57 remained usable in July 1979. ===Malden Island today=== Malden was incorporated in the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972, and included in the portion of the colony which became the Republic of Kiribati in 1979.
Nevertheless, the bombing target marker was located at the south point of the island and three thermonuclear devices were detonated at high altitude a short distance offshore in 1957.
The airstrip constructed on the island by the Royal Engineers in 1956–57 remained usable in July 1979. ===Malden Island today=== Malden was incorporated in the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972, and included in the portion of the colony which became the Republic of Kiribati in 1979.
Some revenue has been realized from ecotourism; the World Discoverer, an adventure cruise ship operated by Society Expeditions, visited the island once or twice annually for several years in the mid-1990s. Malden was reserved as a wildlife sanctuary and closed area, and was officially designated as the "Malden Island Wildlife Sanctuary", on 29 May 1975, under the 1975 Wildlife Conservation Ordinance.
The airstrip constructed on the island by the Royal Engineers in 1956–57 remained usable in July 1979. ===Malden Island today=== Malden was incorporated in the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972, and included in the portion of the colony which became the Republic of Kiribati in 1979.
On 20 September 1979, representatives of the United States and Kiribati met on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilberts group of Kiribati, and signed a treaty of friendship between their two nations (commonly referred to as the Treaty of Tarawa of 1979) by which the United States recognized Kiribati's sovereignty over Malden and thirteen other islands in the Line and Phoenix Islands groups.
This treaty entered into force on 23 September 1983. The main value of the island to Kiribati lies in the resources of the Exclusive Economic Zone which surrounds it, particularly the rich tuna fisheries.
In 2014 the Kiribati government established a fishing exclusion zone around each of the southern Line Islands (Caroline (commonly called Millennium), Flint, Vostok, Malden, and Starbuck). ==Geography== Malden Island is located south of the equator, south of Honolulu, Hawaii, and more than west of the coast of South America.
Bishop Museum special publication ==External links== National Geographic – Southern Line Islands Expedition, 2014 Malden Atoll viewed from space Nuclear test sites British nuclear test sites Uninhabited islands of Kiribati Pacific islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act Former populated places in Oceania Guano trade Line Islands Islands of Kiribati Former disputed islands Line Islands (Kiribati)
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05