Nightingale Island
Encyclopedia
Tristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America...
group of islands. They are administered by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as part of the overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union consisting of the islands of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the Tristan da Cunha group...
.
Nightingale Island is part of the Nightingale Islands
Nightingale Islands
The Nightingale Islands are a group of three islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, part of the Tristan da Cunha territory. They consist of Nightingale Island, Middle Island and Stoltenhoff Island. The islands are administered by the United Kingdom as part of the overseas territory of Saint Helena,...
, which also includes islets Middle Island
Middle Island, Tristan da Cunha
Middle Island is a small, uninhabited island in the South Atlantic Ocean, part of the Nightingale Islands. They are governed as part of Tristan da Cunha, an archipelago that is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.-External links:*...
and Stoltenhoff Island
Stoltenhoff Island
Stoltenhoff Island is a small uninhabited island in the South Atlantic Ocean, part of the Nightingale Islands. It is the smallest of the Nightingale Islands, and is to the north west of Nightingale Island itself...
. All three are uninhabited, but are regularly visited for scientific purposes and research.
Geography
Nightingale has two peaks on its north end. One is 337 metres (1,105.6 ft) high while the other is 293 metres (961.3 ft) high. The rest of the island is ringed by cliffs. However, these cliffs are not nearly as high as those surrounding Nightingale's neighbour Inaccessible Island, which is approximately 16 km away and has cliffs approximately 300m high. Thus human access is much easier on Nightingale than on Inaccessible.Caves in Nightingale Island seem to indicate elevation.
The two nearby islets are called Stoltenhoff (99 m) and Middle (46 m).
Large amounts of kelp
Kelp
Kelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....
surround the island, which makes it harder to anchor ships in bad weather.
History
Nightingale was discovered along with Tristan da CunhaTristan da Cunha
Tristan da Cunha is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying from the nearest land, South Africa, and from South America...
and Inaccessible Island
Inaccessible Island
Inaccessible Island is an extinct volcano, 14 km² in area, rising out of the South Atlantic Ocean 45 km southwest of Tristan da Cunha. Inaccessible Island is located at . It is part of the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, which is part of the overseas territory of the United Kingdom,...
in 1506 by Tristão da Cunha
Tristão da Cunha
Tristão da Cunha was a Portuguese explorer and naval commander. In 1514 he served as ambassador from king Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X leading a luxurious embassy presenting in Rome the new conquests of Portugal...
.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch and French governments as well as the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
considered taking possession of Nightingale (as well as Tristan and Inaccessible), but declined due to lack of landing space.
In 1656, the Nachtglas, which also made a landing at Inaccessible, landed at Nightingale. Nightingale was originally named Gebroken Eyland (the Broken Island), but it was later renamed after Gamaliel Nightingale, who explored the island in 1760.http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Saint_Helena.htm#Nightingale
In 1767, the islets Stoltenhoff and Middle were discovered by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
captain D'Escheverry.
Nightingale has been said to contain pirate loot. Captain John Thomas, on an expedition to the South Atlantic, left a fortune of Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
doubloon
Doubloon
The doubloon , was a two-escudo or 32-reales gold coin, weighing 6.77 grams . Doubloons were minted in Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Nueva Granada...
s and pieces-of-eight
Spanish dollar
The Spanish dollar is a silver coin, of approximately 38 mm diameter, worth eight reales, that was minted in the Spanish Empire after a Spanish currency reform in 1497. Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler...
in caves on Nightingale for safekeeping. However, no recovery of this treasure (if it is there) has ever been confirmed.
In 1811, the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pirate Jonathan Lambert laid claim to Tristan and its neighbouring islands. He wanted to call Inaccessible 'Pinsard Island', and Nightingale 'Lavel Island'. He was successful in his claim, but he died less than one year later.
In 1961, the 2060 metre high shield volcano on Tristan da Cunha erupted and forced the inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha to evacuate to Nightingale. They eventually moved to the United Kingdom, returning to Tristan in 1963.
Wildlife conservation
Conservation biology
Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...
efforts are ongoing on Nightingale. The previous conservation workers' sheds were severely damaged during a storm produced by an extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclone
Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are a group of cyclones defined as synoptic scale low pressure weather systems that occur in the middle latitudes of the Earth having neither tropical nor polar characteristics, and are connected with fronts and...
in 2001 that reportedly included winds up to 120 mph. Repair is ongoing, but to continue carrying out the conservation work, all of the damaged shacks on the island need to be repaired. The United Kingdom established funding for a conservation effort on Nightingale for 2004-2006.
2011 oil spill
Before daybreak on 16 March 2011, the Maltese-registered MS OlivaMS Oliva
The MS Oliva was a bulk carrier launched in 2009. On 16 March 2011 the ship went aground off Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlantic, while on a voyage from Santos, Brazil to China with a cargo of soya beans....
cargo carrier ran aground at Spinners Point on the island's northwestern shore. The resulting oil spill
Oil spill
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is mostly used to describe marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters...
, which spread around the island, is expected to have a significant impact on the seabird colonies of Nightingale and Middle Island. The ship contained 1,500 metric tons of crude oil and a cargo of 60,000 metric tons of soya beans. As many as 200,000 penguins are threatened, and there is a risk that rats from the ship could make it ashore to eventually prey on the chicks and eggs of native seabirds. Nightingale Island has no fresh water, so the penguins are being transported to Tristan da Cunha for cleaning. The Greek captain and his 21 Filipino crew stayed in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is the main settlement of the island of Tristan da Cunha, in the Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha overseas territory of the United Kingdom, in the South Atlantic Ocean...
and assisted the islanders in their work.
Wildlife
Nightingale Island is known as a breeding ground for various types of seabirds; over a million birds are estimated to breed on the island, with Great ShearwaterGreat Shearwater
The Great Shearwater is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. Its relationships are unclear. It belongs in the group of large species that could be separated as genus Ardenna ; within these, it might be allied with the other black-billed, blunt-tailed species Short-tailed...
s being among the most abundant. There are four wetland areas on the island which each contain hundreds of Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross
Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross
The Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross, Thalassarche chlororhynchos, is a large seabird in the albatross family. This small mollymawk was once considered conspecific with the Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross and known as the Yellow-nosed Albatross...
es. As with Inaccessible Island, Nightingale also has a breeding colony of Northern Rockhopper Penguin
Northern Rockhopper Penguin
The Northern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes c. moseleyi, is usually considered a subspecies of rockhopper penguin, although fairly recent studies show evidence of distinction from the Southern Rockhopper Penguin group Eudyptes c. chrysocome/E. c. filholi.A study published in 2009 showed that the...
s, now an endangered species, with a fraction the 1950's population remaining.
Tourism
Inaccessible and Gough Islands are strict nature reserves with no tourism permitted. However, tourists are permitted to go to Nightingale.Many tourists to Tristan da Cunha visit Nightingale Island for the wildlife. Non-Tristanians can travel to Nightingale only with a guide from Tristan. Part of the money they pay the guide goes toward paying for the conservation work being done on the island. Once a year, filmmakers and journalists are permitted to work on the island (for a fee), but they are not allowed to interfere with the private lives of the Tristanian islanders. Also, Tristan natives visit Nightingale on holiday.
Economy
Fishing companies fish off the coast of Nightingale, just as they do with Inaccessible.Nightingale also has guano
Guano
Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...
deposits.
External links
- The Annals of Tristan da Cunha - gives comprehensive history of Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible, and Nightingale from their initial discovery to 1925 (PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
file) - Tristan da Cunha News: A conservation project on Nightingale Island
- The Loneliest Place in the World
- Etext of Chapter 15 of Narrative of A. Gordon Pym by Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
- the chapter that contains the references to Tristan, Inaccessible, and Nightingale - Tristan da Cunha website - includes information about visiting Nightingale
- Picture of the centre of Nightingale Island