Navassa Island (; ; , sometimes ) is an uninhabited island in the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. Located east of

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, south of

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, and west of

Jérémie Jérémie (; ) is a commune and capital city of the Grand'Anse department in Haiti. It had a population of about 134,317 at the 2015 census. It is relatively isolated from the rest of the country. The Grande-Anse River flows near the city. ...

on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, it is subject to an ongoing

territorial dispute A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession (law), possession or control of territories (land, maritime territory, water or airspace) between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial ...

between

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

and the United States, which administers the island through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The U.S. has claimed the island as an

appurtenance An appurtenance is something subordinate to or belonging to another larger, principal entity, that is, an adjunct, satellite, or accessory that generally accompanies something else.Guano Islands Act of 1856. Haiti's claim over Navassa goes back to the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 that recognized French, rather than Spanish, control of the western portion of the island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

and other specifically named nearby islands. However, there was no mention of Navassa in the treaty detailing terms. Haiti's 1801 constitution claimed several nearby islands by name, among which Navassa was not listed, but also laid claim to "other adjacent islands", which Haiti maintains included Navassa. The U.S. claim to the island, first made in 1857, asserts that Navassa was not included among the unnamed "other adjacent islands" in the 1801 Haitian Constitution. Since the Haitian Constitution of 1874, Haiti has explicitly named "la Navase" as one of the territories it claims. It maintains that it has continuously been claimed as part of Haiti since 1801.

History

1504 to 1901

In 1504,

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

, stranded on

during his fourth voyage, sent some crew members by canoe to Hispaniola for help. En route, they landed on the island, which had no water. They called it Navaza (from ), and mariners largely avoided it for the next 350 years. In 1798, Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry, a member of the

French Parliament The French Parliament (, ) is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of the French Fifth Republic, consisting of the Senate (France), Senate (), and the National Assembly (France), National Assembly (). Each assembly conducts legislative sessi ...

best known for his publications on

Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue () was a French colonization of the Americas, French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spanish main city on the isl ...

, referred to "la Navasse" as a "small island between Saint-Domingue and Jamaica". From 1801 to 1867, the successive constitutions of Haiti claimed sovereignty over adjacent islands, both named and unnamed, although Navassa was not specifically enumerated until 1874. Navassa Island was claimed for the United States on September 19, 1857, by Peter Duncan, an American sea captain, under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, for the rich

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

deposits found on the island and for not being within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, nor occupied by another government's citizens. Haiti protested the annexation, but on July 7, 1858, U.S. President

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

issued an Executive Order supporting the American claim, calling for military action to enforce it. Navassa Island has since been maintained by the United States as an

unincorporated territory Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions and dependent territory, dependent territories overseen by the federal government of the United States. The American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indi ...

(according to the Insular Cases). The

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

on November 24, 1890, in '' Jones v. United States'', , Id. at 224, found that Navassa Island must be considered as appertaining to the United States, creating a legal history for the island under U.S. law, unlike many other islands initially claimed under the Guano Islands Act. Haiti's 1987 constitution maintains its claim to the island, which is considered part of the department of Grand'Anse.

Guano mining and the Navassa Island Rebellion of 1889

Guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

phosphate is a superior organic fertilizer that became a mainstay of American agriculture in the mid-19th century. In November 1857, Duncan transferred his discoverer's rights to his employer, an American guano trader in Jamaica, who sold them to the newly formed Navassa Phosphate Company of

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

. After an interruption for the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, the company built larger mining facilities on Navassa with barrack housing for 140

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

contract laborers from

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, houses for white supervisors, a blacksmith shop, warehouses, and a church. Mining began in 1865. The workers dug out the guano by

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

and pick-axe and hauled it in rail cars to the landing point at Lulu Bay, where it was put into sacks and lowered onto boats for transfer to the Company

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

, the S.S. ''Romance''. The living quarters at Lulu Bay were referred to as ' Lulu Town', as appears on old maps. Railway tracks eventually extended inland. In September 1875, the fierce 1875 Indianola hurricane swept over the island, destroying much of the company's infrastructure, including the rail line and workers' homes. In total, the storm caused an estimated $25,000 () in damage on the island. Hauling guano by muscle power in the fierce tropical heat, combined with general disgruntlement with conditions on the island, eventually contributed to a riot in 1889, in which five supervisors died. A U.S. warship returned 18 of the workers to Baltimore for three separate trials on murder charges. A black fraternal society, the Order of Galilean Fishermen, raised money to defend the miners in federal court. The defense tried to build a case on the contention that the men acted in self-defense or the heat of passion and even claimed that the United States did not have jurisdiction over the island. E. J. Waring, the first black lawyer called to the Maryland bar, was a part of the defense's legal team. The cases, including ''Jones v. United States'', went to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 1890, which ruled the Guano Act constitutional. Three of the miners were scheduled for

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in ...

in the spring of 1891. A grass-roots petition driven by black churches around the country, also signed by white jurors from the three trials, reached President

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was the 23rd president of the United States, serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia—a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison, and a ...

, who mentioned the case in the 1891 State of the Union Address. Among other things, he said: Guano mining resumed on Navassa at a much-reduced level. In 1898, during the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

, the Phosphate Company had to abandon its operations on Navassa due to its proximity to Spanish Cuba and Puerto Rico. Company president John H. Fowler noted that the war made it impossible to find ships to deliver supplies to the island and expected his workers to be evacuated by June. Maryland senator Arthur Pue Gorman called for a naval warship to escort supply ships to the island to help evacuate workers. In July 1898, abrogating an agreement with Haitian Naval Admiral Hammerton Killick that would have allowed the Phosphate Company to withdraw equipment and supplies left on Navassa, a group of Haitians occupied the island and seized the company's assets. They were unable to operate the machinery, and mining ceased. The Navassa Phosphate Company went bankrupt and the island was sold at auction in the United States in September 1900. A dispute over the sale hampered efforts to restart mining on the island and left four contract workers virtually abandoned on Navassa from December 1900 to May 1901. Between 1857 and 1898, approximately of phosphate deposits were removed from the island.

1901 to present

In 1905, the U.S. Lighthouse Service identified Navassa Island as a good location for a new lighthouse. However, plans for the light moved slowly. With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, shipping between the American eastern seaboard and the Canal through the

Windward Passage Windward Passage (; ) is a strait in the Caribbean Sea, between the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. The strait specifically lies between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti. wide, the Windward Passage has a threshold depth ...

between Cuba and Haiti increased in the area of Navassa, which proved a hazard to navigation. Congress appropriated $125,000 in 1913 to build a lighthouse on Navassa, and in 1917 the Lighthouse Service built the Navassa Island Light on the island,

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. At the same time, a

wireless telegraphy Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using electrical cable, cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimenta ...

station was established on the island. A keeper and two assistants were assigned to live there until the Lighthouse Service installed an automatic beacon in 1929. After absorbing the Lighthouse Service in 1939, the U.S. Coast Guard serviced the light twice yearly. The U.S. Navy set up an observation post for the duration of World War II. The island has been uninhabited since then. Fishermen, mainly from Haiti, fish the waters around Navassa. As part of the Parish–Smithsonian Expedition to Haiti in 1930, Smithsonian naturalists Alexander Wetmore and Waston Perrygo stopped at Navassa to document and collect examples of the island's birds and other terrestrial and marine wildlife. From 1917 to 1996, Navassa was under the administration of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. In 1996, the Coast Guard dismantled the light on Navassa, which ended its interest in the island. Consequently, the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...

assumed responsibility for the civil administration of the

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

, and placed the island under its Office of Insular Affairs. For statistical purposes, Navassa was grouped with the now-obsolete term United States Miscellaneous Caribbean Islands and is now grouped with other islands claimed by the U.S. under the Guano Islands Act as the

United States Minor Outlying Islands The United States Minor Outlying Islands is a statistical designation applying to the minor outlying islands and groups of islands that comprise eight United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean (Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Isla ...

. In 1997, an American salvager, Bill Warren, claimed Navassa to the Department of State based on the Guano Islands Act. On March 27, 1997, the Department of the Interior rejected the claim on the basis that the Guano Islands Act applies only to islands which, at the time of the claim, are not "appertaining to" the United States. The department's opinion said that Navassa is and remains a U.S. possession "appertaining to" the United States and is "unavailable to be claimed" under the Guano Islands Act. A 1998 scientific expedition led by the Center for Marine Conservation in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, described Navassa as "a unique preserve of Caribbean biodiversity." Aside from a few extinctions, the island's land and offshore ecosystems have mostly survived the 20th century.

National Wildlife Refuge

In September 1999, the

United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...

established the Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses of land and a 12 nautical mile (22.2 km) radius of marine habitat around the island. Later that year, full administrative responsibility for Navassa was transferred from the Office of Insular Affairs to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The

National Wildlife Refuge The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) is a system of protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, Department of the Interi ...

protects coral reef ecosystems, native wildlife, and plants and provides opportunities for scientific research on and around Navassa Island. Navassa Island features large seabird colonies, including over 5,000 nesting red-footed booby (''Sula sula''). Navassa is home to four endemic lizard species. Two other endemic lizards, '' Cyclura cornuta onchiopsis'' and '' Leiocephalus eremitus,'' are extinct. Navassa Island NWR is administered as part of the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Due to hazardous coastal conditions and to preserve species habitat, the refuge is closed to the general public, and visitors need permission from the Fish and Wildlife Service to enter its territorial waters or land. After World War II, amateur radio operators occasionally visited to operate from the territory. Navassa is accorded "entity" (country) status by the

American Radio Relay League The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. ARRL is a non-profit organization and was co-founded on April 6, 1914, by Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence D. Tuska of ...

. The

callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assi ...

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

is KP1. Since it became a National Wildlife Refuge,

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

operators have repeatedly been denied entry. In October 2014, permission was granted for a two-week DX-pedition in February 2015. The operation, designated K1N, made 138,409 contacts. File:NavassaLighthouse.jpg, upNavassa Island's lighthouse with the light keeper's quarters in the foreground File:Lighthouse Keeper Residence Navassa Island.jpg, The ruins of Navassa Light keeper's quarters

Geography, topography and ecology

Navassa Island is about in area. It is located west of

's southwest peninsula, south of the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and about one-quarter of the way from mainland Haiti to

in the Jamaica Channel. Navassa reaches an elevation of at Dunning Hill south of the lighthouse, Navassa Island Light. This location is from the southwestern coast or east of Lulu Bay. The terrain of Navassa Island consists mostly of exposed coral and limestone, the island being ringed by vertical white cliffs high, but with enough grassland to support goat herds. The island is covered in a forest of four tree species: short-leaf fig (''Ficus populnea'' var. ''brevifolia''), pigeon plum ('' Coccoloba diversifolia''), mastic ('' Sideroxylon foetidissimum''), and poisonwood ('' Metopium brownei'').

Ecology

Navassa Island's topography, ecology, and modern history are similar to those of Mona Island, a small limestone island located in the

Mona Passage The Mona Passage () is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The Mona Pas ...

between

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. These islands were once centers of

mining and are now nature reserves for the United States. Transient Haitian fishermen and others camp on Navassa Island. Still, it is uninhabited. Navassa has no ports or harbors, only offshore anchorages, and its only natural resource is guano. Economic activity consists of subsistence fishing and commercial trawling activities. A 2009 survey of fishermen in southwestern Haiti estimated some 300 fishermen, primarily from Anse d'Hainault Arrondissement, regularly fished near the island. There were eight species of native reptiles, all of which are believed to be, or to have been,

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Navassa Island: '' Comptus badius'' (an anguid lizard), '' Aristelliger cochranae'' (a

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards ...

), '' Sphaerodactylus becki'' (a gecko), '' Anolis longiceps'' (an

anole Dactyloidae are a family of lizards commonly known as anoles (singular anole ) and native to warmer parts of the Americas, ranging from southeastern United States to Paraguay. Instead of treating it as a family, some authorities prefer to treat ...

), '' Cyclura cornuta onchiopsis'' (an endemic subspecies of the rhinoceros iguana), '' Leiocephalus eremitus'' (a curly-tailed lizard), ''

Tropidophis bucculentus ''Tropidophis bucculentus'', also known Common name, commonly as the Navassa Island dwarf boa, is a nonvenomous Tropidophiidae, dwarf boa species endemism, endemic to Navassa Island in the Caribbean Sea. There are no subspecies that are recognize ...

'' (a dwarf boa), and '' Typhlops sulcatus'' (a tiny snake).Powell, Robert (2003).
Reptiles of Navassa Island.
'' Avila University. Of these, the first four remain common, with the next three likely

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

, and the last being possibly

extirpated Local extinction, also extirpation, is the termination of a species (or other taxon) in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinctions mark a chan ...

due to feral

cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers ...

and

pigs The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

inhabiting the island. In 2012, '' Acropora palmata'' (elkhorn coral), a common reef-building coral of the Caribbean, was located underwater near the island. The remaining coral was found to be in good condition.

Birds

The island, with its surrounding marine waters, has been recognized as an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports breeding

colonies A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...

of red-footed boobies and

magnificent frigatebird The magnificent frigatebird (''Fregata magnificens''), frigate petrel or man o' war is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae. With a length of and wingspan of , it is the largest species of frigatebird. It occurs over tropical and subtr ...

s, as well as hundreds of white-crowned pigeons.

Maritime boundary disputes

The dispute has prevented the definitive delimitation of the maritime zones between the United States and Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti, as well as determining the maritime frontier at the point of confluence between Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti. The island was disregarded for the purposes of determining equidistant boundary calculation with

during the signing of the Cuba–Haiti Maritime Boundary Agreement in 1977; Cuba backs Haiti's claim to the island.

References

* '' The Navassa Island Riot. Illustrated.'' Published by the National Grand Tabernacle, Order of Fishermen, Baltimore, Md. *

External links

A 2014 dissertation entitled ''Haiti's Claim over Navassa Island: A Case Study''

Navassa Island National Wildlife Refuge

State of Navaza

The Mails of Navassa
{{Authority control Caribbean islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act Former populated places in the Caribbean Greater Antilles Haiti–United States relations Important Bird Areas of the United States Caribbean Important Bird Areas of United States Minor Outlying Islands International territorial disputes of the United States Islands of Haiti Seabird colonies Territorial disputes of Haiti Uninhabited Caribbean islands of the United States United States Minor Outlying Islands Dependent territories in the Caribbean Disputed islands