Oeno Island or Holiday Island is a coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

 atoll

Atoll

An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...

 in the South Pacific Ocean, part of the Pitcairn Islands

Pitcairn Islands

The Pitcairn Islands , officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Pacific...

 overseas territory

British overseas territories

The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...

.

Geography

Located 143 kilometres (88.9 mi) northwest of Pitcairn Island, at 23°55′26"S 130°44′03"W. Oeno Island measures about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) in diameter, including the central lagoon, with a total area exceeding 20 square kilometres (7.7 sq mi). There are two larger and three smaller islets on the rim of the atoll. Their aggregate land area is only 0.69 square kilometres (170.5 acre). Oeno Island serves as a private holiday site for the few residents of Pitcairn Island, who will travel there and stay for two weeks in January.

The main island (Oeno), about 0.5 square kilometres (123.6 acre) in area, has forest and scrub with pandanus and palm trees. It is located on the southwest rim of the atoll. There is a water tap installed on the island. The maximum elevation is less than 5 metres (16.4 ft). Three smaller islets are to the south and west of the main island.

History

June 1819 : Captain James Henderson of 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...

 ship Hercules sights Oeno Island.
26 January 1824 : Captain George Worth aboard the American whaler Oeno

Oeno (ship)

The Oeno was a nineteenth century Pacific whaling vessel, registered in the United States in Nantucket, that disappeared in the Fiji Islands. Nine years later, the ship's cooper William Cary returned to Nantucket and claimed that the ship had wrecked on an island's reef and that the crew had been...

 names the atoll after his ship.
5 March 1858 : The Wild Wave, a 1500 ton clipper sailing from San Francisco, is wrecked on Oeno's reef.
1893 : The Bowdon is wrecked on Oeno.
10 July 1902 : Oeno is annexed by United Kingdom.
1938 : Incorporated into the Pitcairn Islands

Pitcairn Islands

The Pitcairn Islands , officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Pacific...

 colony.

External links

• Oeno Photo Tour – Pitcairners spending holidays on the island
• Island Evolution: Oeno Island from NASA Earth Observatory
  NASA Earth Observatory
  NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information pertaining to the climate and the environment which are being provided by NASA for consumption by the general public...
  
  
• Map of Oeno Island