Starbuck Island (or Volunteer Island) is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific, and is part of the Central

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands (in Gilbertese, ''Aono Raina'') are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Haw ...

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

. Former names include "Barren Island", "Coral Queen Island", "Hero Island", "Low Island", and "Starve Island".

Geography, flora and fauna

Located at , just east from the geographic center of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

(), and measuring east-to-west and north-to-south, Starbuck Island has a land area of . It is a low, dry,

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

island with a steep beach backed by a bank composed of large coral fragments. Several hypersaline

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 ...

s 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 Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...

-mining days sank up to his neck in salty mud before being rescued. There is no

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

on the island, which is one of the drier atolls in the Line Island group. Annual yearly rainfall averages approximately . Little vegetation exists on Starbuck; stunted '' Sida fallax'' scrub and low herbs and grasses predominate, with a few ''

Cordia subcordata ''Cordia subcordata'' is a species of flowering tree in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that occurs in eastern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, northern Australia and the Pacific Islands (including Hawaii). The plant is known by a variety ...

'' bushes and bunch grass rounding out the flora. Recent photos showed a few

palm trees Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

growing near the center of the island. The island boasts a large

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

sooty tern The sooty tern (''Onychoprion fuscatus'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. It is a bird of the tropical oceans, returning to land only to breed on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Taxonomy The sooty tern was described by Carl Linnae ...

s, estimated at 1.5 million pairs, together with

Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asia, a ...

feral cat A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...

s, green turtles, and around fifteen other species of

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

s. Other accounts estimate the sooty tern population to be as high as three to six million birds.

History

James Henderson, merchant captain of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

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 it, or he himself, had failed to state the exact date for his sighting of modern Starbuck Island. Henry Evans Maude's educated guess was 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. The island was sighted again on December 12, 1823 by Obed's first cousin, Valentine Starbuck, the American-born master of the British

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

ship . ''L'Aigle'' was carrying King

Kamehameha II Kamehameha II (November 1797 – July 14, 1824) was the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His birth name was Liholiho and full name was Kalaninui kua Liholiho i ke kapu ʻIolani. It was lengthened to Kalani Kaleiʻaimoku o Kaiwikapu o Laʻa ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and Queen Kamāmalu and their retinue to England. Valentine Starbuck is the first non-Pacific Islander known to have set foot on the island.Bryan, p. 128 The island was finally charted in 1825 by

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

The 7th Lord Byron (a cousin of the famous poet). Lord Byron, commanding the British warship , was returning to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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 Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...

while trying to visit

King George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten ye ...

. Lord Byron also sighted and charted Mauke and Malden Island, which he named after his surveying officer.Dunmore, p 46 Starbuck Island was claimed by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

under the 1856 Guano Act, but controlled by Britain after 1866, when possession was taken by Commodore Swinburn of . Starbuck Island was mined for

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...

between 1870 and 1893. The island formed a part of the British

Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony The Gilbert and Ellice Islands (GEIC as a colony) in the Pacific Ocean were part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. They were a protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a colony until 1 January 1976. The history of the colony w ...

prior to the independence of

Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...

in 1979. American claims to the atoll were formally vacated in the

Treaty of Tarawa On September 20, 1979, representatives of the newly independent Republic of Kiribati and of the United States met in Tarawa to sign a treaty of friendship between the two nations, known as the Treaty of Tarawa. More formally, the treaty is entit ...

, signed that same year. 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. Starbuck Island has been designated as the ''Starbuck Island Wildlife Sanctuary''. 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.

Photo gallery

File:Starbuck AKK Wall.jpg, Ruined wall from 19th-century guano settlement on Starbuck Island File:Starbuck AKK Sooty Tern.jpg, Sooty tern colony on Starbuck Island File:Starbuck Island Interior.jpg, Largely barren interior of Starbuck Island File:Bidens kiribatiensis Starbuck AKK.jpg, '' Bidens kiribatiensis'' on Starbuck Island

References

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 The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu. Founded in 1889, it is the la ...

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, * Quanchi, Max & Robson, John, (2005); ''Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Pacific Islands'', USA: Scarecrow Press,

External links