Malden Island, sometimes called
Independence Island in the nineteenth century, is a low, arid, uninhabited island in the central
Pacific OceanThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
, about in area. It is one of the
Line IslandsThe Line Islands, or Equatorial Islands, is a group of eleven atolls and low coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands...
belonging to the
Republic of KiribatiKiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres, straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line to the east.The...
.
The island is chiefly notable for its "mysterious" prehistoric
ruinsRuins is a term used to describe the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete but which have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction...
, its once-extensive deposits of phosphatic
guanoGuano is the excrement of seabirds, bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. Superphosphate made from guano is used for aerial topdressing...
(exploited by Australian interests from c. 1860-1927), its former use as the site of the first British
H-bombA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
tests (
Operation GrappleOperation Grapple, and operations Grapple X, Grapple Y and Grapple Z, were the names of British nuclear tests of the hydrogen bomb. They were held 1956—1958 at Malden Island and Christmas Island in the central Pacific Ocean. Nine nuclear detonations took place during the trials, resulting in...
, 1957), and its current importance as a protected area for breeding seabirds.
Geography
Malden Island is located south of the equator, south of
Honolulu, HawaiiHonolulu is the capital of and the most populous census-designated place in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Although Honolulu refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and the county are consolidated, known as the City and County of Honolulu, and the city and...
, and more than 4,000 nautical miles (5,000 statute miles or 8,000 km) west of the coast of
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
. The nearest land is uninhabited
Starbuck IslandStarbuck Island is an uninhabited coral atoll in the central Pacific, and is part of the Central Line Islands of Kiribati...
, to the southwest. The closest inhabited place is Tongareva (Penrhyn Island), to the southwest. The nearest airport is on Kiritimati (
Christmas IslandKiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati.The island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world: about ; its lagoon is about the same size. The atoll is about in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline...
), to the northwest. Other nearby islands (all uninhabited) include
Jarvis IslandJarvis Island is an uninhabited 4.5 square kilometer coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean at , about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands...
, to the northwest,
Vostok IslandVostok Island also known as Staver Island, is an uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Line Islands belonging to Kiribati...
, to the south-southeast, and
Caroline (Millennium) IslandCaroline Island or Caroline Atoll , is the easternmost of the uninhabited coral atolls which comprise the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean....
, to the southeast.
The island has roughly the shape of an equilateral triangle, with on a side, aligned with the southwest side running northwest to southeast. The west and south corners are slightly truncated, shortening the north, east and southwest coasts to about , and adding shorter west and south coasts about 1 to 2 km (–1 mi) in length. A large, mostly shallow, irregularly shaped lagoon, containing a number of small islets, fills the east central part of the island. The
lagoonA lagoon is a body of comparatively shallow salt or brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a shallow or exposed sandbank, coral reef, or similar feature. Thus, the enclosed body of water behind a barrier reef or barrier islands or enclosed by an atoll reef is called a lagoon. This...
is entirely enclosed by land, but only by relatively narrow strips along its north and east sides. It is connected to the sea by underground channels, and is quite salty. Most of the land area of the island lies to the south and west of the lagoon. The total area of the island is about .
The island is very low, no more than above sea level at its highest point. The highest elevations are found along a rim that closely follows the coastline. The interior forms a depression that is only a few meters above sea level in the western part and is below sea level (filled by the lagoon) in the east central part. Because of this topography, the ocean cannot be seen from much of Malden's interior.
There is no standing fresh water on Malden Island, though a fresh water lens may exist.
A continuous heavy surf falls all along the coast, forming a narrow white to gray sandy beach. Except on the west coast, where the white sandy beach is more extensive than elsewhere, a strip of dark gray coral rubble, forming a series of low ridges parallel to the coast, lies within the narrow beach, extending inward to the island rim.
Flora and Fauna
Because of Malden's isolation and aridity, its vegetation is extremely limited. Sixteen species of
vascular plantVascular plants are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the ferns, clubmosses, flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms...
s have been recorded, of which nine are indigenous. The island is largely covered in stunted
Sida fallax scrub, low herbs and grasses. Few, if any, of the clumps of stunted
Pisonia grandisPisonia is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. Certain species in this genus are known as Catchbirdtrees because their sticky seeds reportedly trap small birds. Such sticky seeds are postulated to be an evolutionary feature of some island species for...
once found on the island still survive. Coconut palms planted by the guano diggers did not thrive, although a few dilapidated trees may still be seen. Introduced weeds, including the low-growing woody vine
Tribulus cistoides, now dominate extensive open areas, providing increased cover for young Sooty Terns.
Two kinds of lizards, the Mourning Gecko (
Lepidodactylus lugubris) and Snake-eyed Skink (
Ablepharus boutonii) are present on Malden, together with brown libellulid
dragonflyA dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...
and large colonies of sooty terns and other migratory seabirds (nineteen species in all).
Cats, pigs, goats and house mice were introduced to Malden during the guano-digging period; all did incalculable damage. While the goats and pigs have all died off, feral cats and house mice are still present. Small numbers of green turtles nest on the beaches, and Hermit Crabs abound.
Discovery
Malden was discovered on 30 July 1825 by Captain George Anson (Lord) Byron (a cousin of
the poetGeorge Gordon Byron, later Noel, 6th Baron Byron, of Rochdale, FRS, and commonly known today as Lord Byron was an English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism...
). Byron, commanding the British warship
HMS BlondeEleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Blonde:*HMS Blonde was a 32-gun fifth rate, captured from the French in 1760 by HMS Aeolus. She was wrecked in 1782....
, was returning to
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
from a special mission to Honolulu to repatriate the remains of the young king and queen of
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
, who had died of
measlesMeasles is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
during a visit to Britain. The island was named for Lt.
Charles Robert MaldenCharles Robert Malden , was a 19th century British naval officer, surveyor and educator. Discoverer of Malden Island in the central Pacific, which is named in his honour. Founder of the Windlesham House School at Brighton, England.Malden was born in Putney, Surrey, son of Jonas Malden, a surgeon...
, navigator of the
Blonde, who sighted the island and briefly explored it. Andrew Bloxam, naturalist of the
Blonde, and James Macrae, a botanist travelling for the
Royal Horticultural SocietyThe Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert. It is a charity and exists to promote gardening and horticulture in Britain and Europe...
, joined in exploring the island and recorded their observations.
Prehistoric ruins
At the time of its discovery, Malden was found to be unoccupied, but the remains of ruined temples and other structures indicated that the island had at one time been inhabited. At various times these remains have been speculatively attributed to "wrecked seamen", "buccaneers", "South American
IncasThe Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca Empire arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in early 13th century...
", "early
ChineseChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
navigators", etc. In 1924, the Malden ruins were examined by an archaeologist from the
Bishop MuseumThe 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 O'ahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawai'i and is home to the world's...
in Honolulu,
Kenneth EmoryKenneth Pike Emory was an American anthropologist who played a key role in shaping modern anthropology in Oceania. In the tradition of A. L...
, who concluded that they were the creation of a small Polynesian population which had resided there for perhaps several generations some centuries earlier.
The ancient stone structures are located around the beach ridges, principally on the north and south sides. A total of 21 archaeological sites have been discovered, three of which (on the island's northwest side) are larger than the others. These sites include temple platforms, called
maraeA marae malae , malae , is a sacred place which served both religious and social purposes in pre-Christian Polynesian societies...
, house sites, and graves. Comparisons with stone structures on Tuamotu atolls show that a population of between 100 and 200 natives could have produced all of the Malden structures. Maraes of a similar type are found on
RaivavaeRaivavae is an island that is part of the Austral Islands in French Polynesia.It sustains a population of 996 people on of land. Its highest point is the top of a dead volcano which is 437 meters high.It was annexed by France in 1880....
, one of the
Austral IslandsThe Austral Islands are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the South Pacific. Geographically, the Austral Islands consist of two separate archipelagos. From northwest to southeast they are:...
. Various wells used by these ancients were found by later settlers to be dry, or brackish.
Whalers and guano diggers
In the first half of the nineteenth century, during the heyday of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
whalingWhaling is the hunting of whales which dates back to at least 3,000 BC. The evolution of traditional Arctic whaling developed with increasing rapidity by early organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of...
in the central Pacific, Malden was visited on a number of occasions by American whalers.
Malden was claimed by the U.S. Guano Company under the
Guano Islands ActThe Guano Islands Act is federal legislation passed by the U.S. Congress, on August 18, 1856. It enables citizens of the U.S. to take possession of islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of other...
of 1856, which authorized citizens to take possession of uninhabited islands under the authority of the United States for the purpose of removing guano, a valuable agricultural fertilizer. Before the American company could begin their operations, however, the island was occupied by an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n company under British license. This company and its successors exploited the island continuously from the 1860s through 1927.
Beatrice GrimshawBeatrice Grimshaw was a Papua New Guinean writer.She was born in Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, Ireland and worked as a freelance journalist in Dublin from 1891-1903 before moving to Papua, where she was to remain for twenty-seven years, and a close friend of Sir Hubert Murray.In 1936 she retired to Kelso,...
, a visitor to Malden in the guano digging era, decried the "glaring barrenness of the bit island", declaring that "...shade, coolness, refreshing fruit, pleasant sights and sounds: there are none. For those who live on the island, it is the scene of an exile which has to be endured somehow or other". She described Malden as containing "a little settlement fronted by a big wooden pier, and a desolate plain of low greyish-green herbage, relieved here and there by small bushes bearing insignificant yellow flowers". Water for settlers was produced by large distillation plants, since no fresh-water wells could be successfully dug on the island.
The five or six
CaucasianThe term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia...
supervisors on the island were given "a row of little tin-roofed, one-storeyed houses above the beach", while the native laborers from
Niue IslandNiue is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and natives of the island call it "the Rock"....
and
AitutakiAitutaki, also traditionally known as Araura, Ararau and Utataki, is one of the Cook Islands, north of Rarotonga. It has a population of approximately 2,000. Aitutaki is the second most visited island of the Cook Islands. The capital is Arutanga on the west side.-Geography:Aitutaki is an "almost...
were housed in "big, barn-like shelters". Grimshaw described these edifices as being "large, bare, shady buildings fitted with wide shelves, on which the men spread their mats and pillows to sleep". Their food consisted of "rice, biscuits, yams, tinned beef, and tea, with a few cocoanuts for those who may fall sick". Food for the white supervisors consisted of "tinned food of various kinds, also bread, rice, fowls, pork, goat, and goat's milk", but vegetables were hard to come by.
Indentured laborers on Malden were contracted for one-year, paid ten shillings per week plus room and board, and repatriated to their home islands when their contracts expired. Salaries for the supervisors were described as "quite high." Work hours were 5am to 5pm, with one hour and 45 minutes given off for meals.
The guano diggers constructed a unique railroad on Malden Island, with cars powered by large sails. Laborers pushed empty carts from the loading area up the tramway to the digging pits, where they were then loaded with guano. At the end of the day, the sails were unfurled, and the train cars whisked back to the settlement by the prevailing southeastern winds. While cars were known to jump the tracks more than once during these excursions, the system seems to have worked fairly well. Railroad handcars were also used. This tramway remained in use on Malden as late as 1924, and its roadbed still exists on the island today.
Although guano digging continued on Malden through the early 1920s, all human activity on the island had ceased by the early 1930s. No further human use seems to have been made of Malden until 1956.
British nuclear testing
In 1956 the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
selected Malden as the "instrumentation site" for its first series of thermonuclear (H-bomb) weapons tests, based at Kiritimati (
Christmas IslandKiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati.The island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world: about ; its lagoon is about the same size. The atoll is about in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline...
). British officials insisted that Malden should not be called a "target island". Nevertheless, the bombing target marker was located at the south point of the island and three thermonuclear devices were detonated at high altitude a short distance offshore in 1957. The airstrip constructed on the island by the
Royal EngineersThe Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. It provides combat engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces...
in 1956-57 remained usable in July 1979.
Malden Island today
Malden was incorporated in the British
Gilbert and Ellice IslandsThe Gilbert and Ellice Islands were a British protectorate from 1892 and colony from 1916 until 1 January 1976 when the islands were divided into two different colonies which became independent nations shortly after...
Colony in 1972, and included in the portion of the colony which became the Republic of Kiribati in 1979. The U.S. continued to dispute British sovereignty, based on its nineteenth century Guano Act claims, until after Kiribati became independent. On 20 September 1979, representatives of the United States and Kiribati met on
Tarawa AtollTarawa is an atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously the capital of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. It is the location of the capital of the Republic of Kiribati, South Tarawa...
in the Gilberts group of
KiribatiKiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. It is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres, straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line to the east.The...
, and signed a treaty of friendship between their two nations (commonly referred to as the
Treaty of TarawaOn 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. In this treaty, the U.S. acknowledged Kiribati sovereignty over 14 islands. The treaty...
of 1979) by which the United States recognized Kiribati's sovereignty over Malden and thirteen other islands in the Line and
Phoenix IslandsThe Phoenix Islands are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs, lying in the central Pacific Ocean east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands. They are a part of the Republic of Kiribati. During the late 1930s they became the site of the last attempted colonial...
groups. This treaty entered into force on 23 September 1983.
The main value of the island to Kiribati lies in the resources of the
Exclusive Economic ZoneUnder the law of the sea, an Exclusive Economic Zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources. It stretches from the edge of the state's territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles from its coast...
which surrounds it, particularly the rich
tunaTuna are ocean-dwelling carnivorous fish in the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers—they have been clocked at —and include several warm-blooded species...
fisheries.
GypsumGypsum is a very soft mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO
4·2H
2O.-Crystal varieties:...
deposits on the island itself are extensive, but do not appear to be economically viable under foreseeable market conditions, mainly due to cost of transportation. Some revenue has been realized from
ecotourismEcotourism is travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for...
; the
World Discoverer, an adventure cruise ship operated by
Society Expeditions, visited the island once or twice annually for several years in the mid-1990s.
Malden was reserved as a
wildlife sanctuaryA nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
and closed area, and officially designated as the "Malden Island Wildlife Sanctuary", on 29 May 1975, under the 1975 Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. The principal purpose of this reservation was to protect the large breeding populations of seabirds. This sanctuary is administered by the Wildlife Conservation Unit of the Ministry of Line and Phoenix Islands Development, headquartered on
KiritimatiKiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean atoll in the northern Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati.The island has the greatest land area of any coral atoll in the world: about ; its lagoon is about the same size. The atoll is about in perimeter, while the lagoon shoreline...
. There is no resident staff at Malden, however, and occasional visits by foreign yachtsmen and fishermen cannot be monitored from Kiritimati. A fire in 1977, possibly caused by visitors, threatened breeding seabirds; this remains a potential threat, particularly during periods of drought.
External links