Sapwuahfik, formerly Ngatik, or the Raven Islands
/ref> is a

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gro ...

of the

Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states compr ...

. It is a village and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

of roughly 430 people on a land area of in the state of

Pohnpei Pohnpei "upon (''pohn'') a stone altar (''pei'')" (formerly known as Ponape or Ascension, Proto-Chuukic-Pohnpeic: ''*Fawo ni pei)'' is an island of the Senyavin Islands which are part of the larger Caroline Islands group. It belongs to Pohnp ...

Geography

It is located southwest of the main island of

in the Eastern

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the ce ...

and consists of 10 individual islands on the reef. The largest and only inhabited island is Ngatik, at the western end. The atoll is long and up to wide. The

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into '' coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons ...

measures in area, and the total area is . The aggregate land area of the 10 islands is , of which the main island Ngatik is , or more than half. While Ngatik is the only inhabited island, the six larger of the remaining islands are used by the population for harvesting coconuts and growing

taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afri ...

, and animal husbandry (pigs and chickens). There are 12 buildings for temporary shelter on those islands.Donald W. Buden: The Reptiles of Sapwuahfik Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia
The islands, clockwise, starting at Ngatik in the west:

Airfield

Sapwuahfik has an airstrip that lies just off the island of Ngatik, the Sapwuahfik Civil Airfield ().

Coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwar ...

has cut the airstrip off from the island by about 20 meters, making it necessary to ferry arriving and departing passengers between it and Ngatik by boat. There are on-call personnel who go to the airfield whenever a flight is expected.

Population

The population of Sapwuahfik is approximately 433 (2010). The culture is closely related to that of

, its closest neighbor; however it retains its own distinctive character. The local creole, Ngatik Men's Creole, developed as a result of the 1837 Ngatik massacre, during which the island's male population was wiped out by the crew of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

n captain C.H. Hart and Pohnpeian warriors. Some of the Europeans and

Pohnpeians The Micronesians or Micronesian peoples are various closely related ethnic groups native to Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They are a part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, which has an Urheimat in Taiwan. ...

settled and repopulated the island, taking the local women as wives. The island formed a new culture and language, a mixture of English and Ngatikese (a Pohnpeic language). In addition to the creole, which is only spoken by men, all of the residents speak Ngatikese, a Pohnpeic language closely related to the

Pohnpeian language Pohnpeian is a Micronesian language spoken as the indigenous language of the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian has approximately 30,000 (estimated) native speakers living in Pohnpei and its outlying atolls and islands with an ...

History

The atoll was first discovered by Westerners on 6 April 1773 by the Spanish naval officer

Felipe Tompson Felipe is the Spanish variant of the name Philip, which derives from the Greek adjective ''Philippos'' "friend of horses". Felipe is also widely used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil alongside Filipe, the form commonly used in Portugal. Noteworthy ...

when sailing from

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

to San Blas in

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the A ...

on board of the vessel ''Nuestra Señora de la Consolación'' also called in short ''Buen Fin''. Tompson charted the island as ''Los Valientes'' (the island of the bold in Spanish). At some point between 1793 and 1796,

William Raven William Raven (1756–1814) was an English master mariner, naval officer and merchant. He commanded the whaler and sealing vessel ''Britannia'' and the naval store ship in Australian and New Zealand waters from 1792 until 1799. While in command ...

, captain of ''Britannia'' gave a firm sighting to the island.

Education

Pohnpei State Department of Education operates public schools: * Sapwuafik Elementary SchoolPohnpei Schools
" Pohnpei State Department of Education. Retrieved on February 23, 2018.

Transportation

Just east of the Sapwuahfik is an Sapwuahfik Airfield with a paved runway.

Notes

References

External links

*
Deutsches Koloniallexikon
(German)

retrieved December 8, 2010
POHNPEI (Islas Carolinas orientales). 3º parte.
(Spanish) {{authority control Atolls of the Federated States of Micronesia Municipalities of Pohnpei Islands of Pohnpei