Winslow Reef is an underwater feature of the Phoenix Islands

Phoenix Islands

The 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...

, Republic of Kiribati

Kiribati

Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...

,
located 200 km north-northwest of McKean Island

McKean Island

McKean Island is a small, uninhabited island in the Phoenix Islands, Republic of Kiribati.It is located at . Its area is 57 hectares.-Flora and fauna:...

 at 01°36′S 174°57′W. It is the northernmost and westernmost feature of the Phoenix Islands, not counting the outlying Baker

Baker Island

Baker Island is an uninhabited atoll located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia, and is a possession of the United States. Its nearest neighbor is Howland Island, to the north.Located at...

 and Howland Island

Howland Island

Howland Island is an uninhabited coral island located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an unincorporated, unorganized territory of the United States. Geographically, it is part...

s. It has a least depth of 11 metres. The reef is about 1.6 km long east-west, and about half that wide. The bottom is pink coral and red sand. Winslow Reef is mentioned by Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....

, who sailed over an area thought to be Winslow Reef in late 1889, but did not find it.

The reef was discovered by the whaler Phoenix

Phoenix (ship)

Phoenix, or Phenix, was an American wooden whaler plying the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean from its base in Nantucket, Massachusetts, from 1821-1858....

 in 1851, and the name of the whaler became attached to the entire group of islands. Perry Winslow

Perry Winslow

Perry Winslow was a whaling ship master out of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Born February 25, 1815 in Nantucket to Joseph Winslow and Betty Winslow, he was the brother of another whaling captain, Joseph Winslow, and the first cousin of Charles F. Winslow, 1811-1877. Among his many commands was the...

 was the master of the Phoenix on this voyage.

It is part of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area

Phoenix Islands Protected Area

The Phoenix Islands Protected Area is located in the Republic of Kiribati, an ocean nation in the central Pacific approximately midway between Australia and Hawaii. PIPA constitutes 11.34% of Kiribati’s Exclusive Economic Zone and with a size of it is the largest marine protected area in the...

 and is therefore a protected nature reserve.

It is not to be confused with Winslow Reef in the Cook Islands

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...

 at 20°38′S 160°56′W.

External links

• Phoenix Islands Protected Area, Kiribati
• Seamount Catalog — Winslow Reef Seamount
  Seamount
  A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
  
  listing