Marutea Atoll (Marutea Sud), also known as Lord Hood Island, Marutea-i-runga, and Nuku-nui, is an atoll in the far southeast of the

Tuamotu The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

group of

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

. It lies in the east-northeast part of the

Gambier (commune) Gambier () is a commune of French Polynesia in the administrative subdivision of the Tuamotu-Gambier Islands. The commune includes the Gambier Islands as well as several atolls in the Tuamotu Archipelago (the Acteon Group and the isolated atol ...

, about 72 km northeast from Maria Atoll. Marutea Atoll is irregular in shape and bound by a

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

broken by passes into 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'') an ...

. It is long with a maximum width of and a land area of approximately . Its islands are low and flat and the main village, Auorotini, is located at the northern end of the

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

. It is populated by ex Gambier Islanders looking for pearls and maintaining the pearl farms on the atoll. Marutea Sud should not be confused with

Marutea Nord Marutea, or Taunga tauranga-e-havana, is one of the Tuamotu atolls in French Polynesia. It is located 24 km to the southeast of Makemo Atoll and 30 km southwest of Nihiru Atoll. Marutea Atoll measures 42 km in length with a maxim ...

located in the western area of the

Tuamotu Archipelago The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

at 17˚ 07' S, 143˚ 11' W.

History

The first recorded European to sight this atoll was Spanish explorer

Pedro Fernández de Quirós Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...

on 4 February 1606. He called it ''San Telmo''. Other Spanish names were ''San Blas'', given by de Quiros' captain Diego de Prado y Tovar, and ''Corral de Agua'' is found in some contemporary charts (in Spanish, water corral). Marutea was later explored by Edward Edwards, while he was searching for the mutineers of in 1791. Edwards renamed it "Lord Hood". According to Russian Admiral

Adam Johann von Krusenstern Adam Johann von Krusenstern (; 10 October 177012 August 1846) was a Russian admiral and explorer of Swedish and Baltic German descent, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth in 1803–1806. Life Krusenstern was born i ...

Marutea was once inhabited by the ancient Polynesians. British mariner

Frederick William Beechey Rear-Admiral Frederick William Beechey (17 February 1796 – 29 November 1856) was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer. Life and career He was the son of two painters, Sir William Beechey, RA and his sec ...

found a stone-walled hut upon it in 1825. In 1984 Marutea Atoll was bought by

Robert Wan Robert Wan, also known as Wan Fui Yin (born 1934) is a French Polynesian pearl trader. Due to his importance to French Polynesia's pearl industry, he is known as the "emperor of pearls". He particularly invested in the Gambier Islands, to produce b ...

, the main Tahitian black pearl trader, in order to engage in cultured black pearl farming. A private airfield was built in 1993.

Administration

Administratively Marutea Sud belongs to the commune of the

References

*
Polynesian archaeological remainsAtoll namesRobert Wan
* Jean-Claude_Brouillet, L'ile de perles noires, Editions Robert Laffont S.A., Paris 1984

External links

Atolls of the Tuamotus {{FrenchPolynesia-geo-stub