Starbuck Island

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Island as seen from space

Starbuck Island, also known as Volunteer Island, is an uninhabited coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Central Line Islands belonging to Kiribati. Former names have included Barren Island, Coral Queen Island, Hero Island, Low Island, Starve Island or Volunteer Island.

Located at 5°37′S, 155°56′W, and measuring 8.9 km east-to-west and 3.5 km north-to-south, Starbuck Island was first sighted in 1823 by Valentine Starbuck, master of the British whaling ship L'Aigle^[1]. It was claimed by the United States under the 1856 Guano Act, but controlled by the British after 1866, when possession was taken by Commodore Swinburn of the HMS Mutine. Starbuck Island was mined for phosphate between 1870 and 1893. Because of its low profile (at its highest point, the island rises to about 5 meters) there are dangerous surrounding reefs, a number of ships had been wrecked at Starbuck Island in the late 1800s, including the French transport Euryale on March 10, 1870.

Starbuck Island has been designated a protected area by the United Nations and is home to a colony of Sooty Terns.

[edit] External links

Starbuck Island

[edit] Referrences

^ American Polynesia and the Hawaiian Chain, E.H. Bryan, Jr. 1941. Honolulu, Hawaii: Tongg Publishing Company page 128

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