Île Saint-Paul
Encyclopedia
Île Saint-Paul is an island
forming part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres australes et antarctiques françaises--TAAF) in the Indian Ocean
, with an area of 6 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi). It is located about 85 km (52.8 mi) southwest of the larger Île Amsterdam
, and 3000 km (1,864.1 mi) south of Réunion
. During sailing ship days captains would occasionally use the island as a check on their navigation before heading north. A scientific research cabin on the island is used for scientific or ecological short campaigns, but there is no permanent population. It is under the authority of a senior administrator on Réunion
.
Île Saint-Paul is one of three land antipodes
of the continental United States, corresponding to an area about 10 miles (16.1 km) southwest of Cheyenne Wells, Colorado
. (The other two land antipodes are Île Amsterdam
and Kerguelen Island.)
There is a cool ocean climate and the slopes of the volcano are covered in grass. The island is an important breeding ground for a number of seabirds including an endemic subspecies of Salvin's Prion (Pachyptila salvini macgillivrayi).
(See Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands
for more detail of the flora and fauna)
. The island was mapped, described in detail and painted by members of the crew of the Nau
São Paulo, among them the Father Manuel Alvares and the chemist Henrique Dias (Alvares and Dias calculated the correct latitude 38° South in the same moment of discovery). The ship was commanded by Rui Melo da Câmara and was part of the Portuguese India Armada commanded by Jorge de Sousa. The Nau São Paulo, who also carried women and had sailed from Europe and had scale in Brazil, would be the protagonist of a dramatic and moving story of survival after sinking south of Sumatra. There were further sightings of the island through the 17th century. One of the first detailed descriptions of it (and possibly the first landing) was by Willem de Vlamingh
in 1696.
Saint-Paul was occasionally visited by explorers, fishermen, and seal hunters in the 18th and 19th centuries, among which was the American sealer General Gates, which called at the island in April 1819. George William Robinson, an American sealer, was left on the island to hunt seals, and stayed there for 23 months until the General Gates returned for him in March 1821. Robinson subsequently returned to Saint-Paul in 1826 to gather sealskin, sailing from Hobart
aboard his own vessel, the schooner Hunter.
France's claim to the island dates from 1843, when a group of fishermen from Réunion
, interested in setting up a fishery on Saint-Paul, pushed the Governor of Réunion to take possession of both Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Island. This was performed by means of an official decree dated 8 June 1843, and on 1 July, Martin Dupeyrat, commanding the ship L'Olympe, landed on Amsterdam Island and then on Saint-Paul on 3 July, and hoisted the tricolor. The only surviving evidence of this claim is an inscribed rock situated on the edge of Saint-Paul's crater lake, inscribed "Pellefournier Emile Mazarin de Noyarez, Grenoble, Canton de Sassenage, Département de l'Isère, 1844". All fishery operations were, however, abandoned in 1853, when the French government renounced its possession of the two islands.
The first good map of the island was not drawn up until 1857, when the Austrian frigate Novara landed a team which studied the flora, fauna, and geology from November to December.
In 1871 a British troop transport, HMS Megaera
, was wrecked on the island. Most of the 400 persons on board had to remain upwards of three months before being taken off. A short, impressionistic account of the two French residents encountered by the shipwrecked crew appears in Judith Schalansky's Atlas of Remote Islands (2009).
In September 1874 a French astronomical mission conveyed by the sailing ship La Dive spent just over three months on Saint-Paul to observe the transit of Venus
; geologist Charles Vélain
took the opportunity to make a significant geological survey of the island.
In 1889 Charles Lightoller
, who was later to become famous as the Second Officer of the RMS Titanic, was shipwrecked here for eight days when the sailing barque
Holt Hill ran aground. He describes the shipwreck and the island in his autobiography, Titanic and Other Ships. Lightoller speculated that pirates may have used the island and their treasure could be buried in its caves.
In 1892 the crew of the French sloop Bourdonnais, followed by the ship L'Eure in 1893, took possession of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Island in the name of the French government.
In 1928, the Compagnie Générale des Íles Kerguelen recruited René Bossière and several Bretons and Madagascans to establish a spiny lobster
cannery on Saint-Paul, "La Langouste Française". When the company went bankrupt in 1931, seven of its employees were stranded on the island. Five died, the two survivors were finally rescued in 1934. This event has since come to be known as Les Oubliés de Saint-Paul ("the forgotten ones of St. Paul").
A few years later in 1938, the crew of a French fishing boat were stranded on the island. Distress calls sent by the crew over short-wave radio were barely but fortuitously received 11,000 miles away in the United States. The message was relayed to the Navy and the French consul in San Francisco, while an amateur radio operator in California made contact with the stranded crew and assured them that help was on the way.
There is a fictionalized description of the island in Robert Stone's novel Outerbridge Reach
(1998).
s, Southern Elephant Seal
s and Rockhopper Penguin
s. It was also the breeding site for an endemic flightless duck & several kinds of petrel
before the introduction of exotic predators and herbivores, including Black Rat
s, House Mice
, European Rabbit
s, pigs and goats during the 19th century or earlier. The pigs and goats have since disappeared or been eradicated. Black Rats were eradicated in January 1997 following an aerial drop of 13.5 tonnes of brodifacoum
anticoagulant poison baits over the island. Subsequently two species of seabirds, Macgillivray's Prion and Great-winged Petrel
, were found to be recolonising the island as breeding birds.
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
forming part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres australes et antarctiques françaises--TAAF) in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, with an area of 6 square kilometres (2.3 sq mi). It is located about 85 km (52.8 mi) southwest of the larger Île Amsterdam
Île Amsterdam
New Amsterdam, Amsterdam Island, or Île Amsterdam is a French island in the Indian Ocean located at . It is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.- History :...
, and 3000 km (1,864.1 mi) south of Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
. During sailing ship days captains would occasionally use the island as a check on their navigation before heading north. A scientific research cabin on the island is used for scientific or ecological short campaigns, but there is no permanent population. It is under the authority of a senior administrator on Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
.
Île Saint-Paul is one of three land antipodes
Antipodes
In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points that are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line running through the centre of the Earth....
of the continental United States, corresponding to an area about 10 miles (16.1 km) southwest of Cheyenne Wells, Colorado
Cheyenne Wells, Colorado
Cheyenne Wells is a Statutory Town that is the county seat and most populous town of Cheyenne County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,010 at the 2000 census.J. L...
. (The other two land antipodes are Île Amsterdam
Île Amsterdam
New Amsterdam, Amsterdam Island, or Île Amsterdam is a French island in the Indian Ocean located at . It is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.- History :...
and Kerguelen Island.)
Description
Île Saint-Paul is triangular in shape, and measures no more than 3 mi (4.8 km) at its widest. It is the top of an inactive volcano, and is rocky with steep cliffs on the east side. The thin stretch of rock that used to close off the crater collapsed in 1780, admitting the sea through a 100 m (328.1 ft) channel; the entrance is only a few meters deep, thus allowing only very small ships or boats to enter the crater. The interior basin, 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) wide and 50 m (164 ft) deep, is surrounded by steep walls up to 270 m (885.8 ft) high. There are active thermal springs.There is a cool ocean climate and the slopes of the volcano are covered in grass. The island is an important breeding ground for a number of seabirds including an endemic subspecies of Salvin's Prion (Pachyptila salvini macgillivrayi).
(See Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands
Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands
The Amsterdam and Saint-Paul Islands temperate grasslands is an ecoregion comprising two volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean. The only way to visit the islands is on the French research vessel Marion Dufresne II which services the Martin-de-Viviès research station on Amsterdam...
for more detail of the flora and fauna)
History
Île Saint-Paul was first discovered in 1559 by the PortuguesePortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. The island was mapped, described in detail and painted by members of the crew of the Nau
Nau
Nau or NAU may refer to:*Nau , an outdoor apparel company*Northern Arizona University*North American Union*National American University*National Aviation University *Lepidium oleraceum, a plant endemic to New Zealand...
São Paulo, among them the Father Manuel Alvares and the chemist Henrique Dias (Alvares and Dias calculated the correct latitude 38° South in the same moment of discovery). The ship was commanded by Rui Melo da Câmara and was part of the Portuguese India Armada commanded by Jorge de Sousa. The Nau São Paulo, who also carried women and had sailed from Europe and had scale in Brazil, would be the protagonist of a dramatic and moving story of survival after sinking south of Sumatra. There were further sightings of the island through the 17th century. One of the first detailed descriptions of it (and possibly the first landing) was by Willem de Vlamingh
Willem de Vlamingh
Willem Hesselsz de Vlamingh was a Dutch sea-captain who explored the central west coast of Australia in the late 17th century.- Vlamingh and the VOC :...
in 1696.
Saint-Paul was occasionally visited by explorers, fishermen, and seal hunters in the 18th and 19th centuries, among which was the American sealer General Gates, which called at the island in April 1819. George William Robinson, an American sealer, was left on the island to hunt seals, and stayed there for 23 months until the General Gates returned for him in March 1821. Robinson subsequently returned to Saint-Paul in 1826 to gather sealskin, sailing from Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
aboard his own vessel, the schooner Hunter.
France's claim to the island dates from 1843, when a group of fishermen from Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
, interested in setting up a fishery on Saint-Paul, pushed the Governor of Réunion to take possession of both Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Island. This was performed by means of an official decree dated 8 June 1843, and on 1 July, Martin Dupeyrat, commanding the ship L'Olympe, landed on Amsterdam Island and then on Saint-Paul on 3 July, and hoisted the tricolor. The only surviving evidence of this claim is an inscribed rock situated on the edge of Saint-Paul's crater lake, inscribed "Pellefournier Emile Mazarin de Noyarez, Grenoble, Canton de Sassenage, Département de l'Isère, 1844". All fishery operations were, however, abandoned in 1853, when the French government renounced its possession of the two islands.
The first good map of the island was not drawn up until 1857, when the Austrian frigate Novara landed a team which studied the flora, fauna, and geology from November to December.
In 1871 a British troop transport, HMS Megaera
HMS Megaera (1849)
HMS Megaera was originally constructed as an iron screw frigate for the Royal Navy, and was one of the last and largest ships built by William Fairbairn's Millwall shipyard....
, was wrecked on the island. Most of the 400 persons on board had to remain upwards of three months before being taken off. A short, impressionistic account of the two French residents encountered by the shipwrecked crew appears in Judith Schalansky's Atlas of Remote Islands (2009).
In September 1874 a French astronomical mission conveyed by the sailing ship La Dive spent just over three months on Saint-Paul to observe the transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
; geologist Charles Vélain
Charles Vélain
Charles Velain was a French geologist and geographer....
took the opportunity to make a significant geological survey of the island.
In 1889 Charles Lightoller
Charles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...
, who was later to become famous as the Second Officer of the RMS Titanic, was shipwrecked here for eight days when the sailing barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Holt Hill ran aground. He describes the shipwreck and the island in his autobiography, Titanic and Other Ships. Lightoller speculated that pirates may have used the island and their treasure could be buried in its caves.
In 1892 the crew of the French sloop Bourdonnais, followed by the ship L'Eure in 1893, took possession of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Island in the name of the French government.
In 1928, the Compagnie Générale des Íles Kerguelen recruited René Bossière and several Bretons and Madagascans to establish a spiny lobster
Spiny lobster
Spiny lobsters, also known as langouste or rock lobsters, are a family of about 45 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia...
cannery on Saint-Paul, "La Langouste Française". When the company went bankrupt in 1931, seven of its employees were stranded on the island. Five died, the two survivors were finally rescued in 1934. This event has since come to be known as Les Oubliés de Saint-Paul ("the forgotten ones of St. Paul").
A few years later in 1938, the crew of a French fishing boat were stranded on the island. Distress calls sent by the crew over short-wave radio were barely but fortuitously received 11,000 miles away in the United States. The message was relayed to the Navy and the French consul in San Francisco, while an amateur radio operator in California made contact with the stranded crew and assured them that help was on the way.
There is a fictionalized description of the island in Robert Stone's novel Outerbridge Reach
Outerbridge Reach
Outerbridge Reach is a 1998 novel by American novelist Robert Stone.-Plot:Stone's incisive, haunting novel follows the story of a copywriter who enters an around-the-world solo boat race.-Commercial success:...
(1998).
Fauna
The island is a breeding site for Subantarctic Fur SealSubantarctic Fur Seal
The subantarctic fur seal is a fur seal found in the southern parts of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. It was first described by Gray in 1872 from a specimen recovered in northern Australia—hence the inappropriate tropicalis specific name.- Description :The subantarctic fur seal is...
s, Southern Elephant Seal
Southern Elephant Seal
The Southern Elephant Seal is one of the two extant species of elephant seal. It is both the most massive pinniped and member of the order Carnivora living today...
s and Rockhopper Penguin
Rockhopper penguin
The rockhopper penguins are three closely related taxa of crested penguins that have been traditionally treated as a single species and are sometimes split into two or three species. Not all experts agree on the classification of these penguins...
s. It was also the breeding site for an endemic flightless duck & several kinds of petrel
Petrel
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group...
before the introduction of exotic predators and herbivores, including Black Rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
s, House Mice
House mouse
The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus.As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food....
, European Rabbit
European Rabbit
The European Rabbit or Common Rabbit is a species of rabbit native to south west Europe and north west Africa . It has been widely introduced elsewhere often with devastating effects on local biodiversity...
s, pigs and goats during the 19th century or earlier. The pigs and goats have since disappeared or been eradicated. Black Rats were eradicated in January 1997 following an aerial drop of 13.5 tonnes of brodifacoum
Brodifacoum
Brodifacoum is a highly lethal vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant poison. In recent years, it has become one of the world's most widely used pesticides...
anticoagulant poison baits over the island. Subsequently two species of seabirds, Macgillivray's Prion and Great-winged Petrel
Great-winged Petrel
The Great-winged Petrel or Grey-faced Petrel, Pterodroma macroptera, is a petrel. In New Zealand it is also known by its Māori name oi and as a muttonbird.- Taxonomy :...
, were found to be recolonising the island as breeding birds.
See also
- List of volcanoes in French Southern and Antarctic Lands
- Administrative divisions of FranceAdministrative divisions of FranceThe administrative divisions of France are concerned with the institutional and territorial organization of French territory. There are many administrative divisions, which may have political , electoral , or administrative objectives.- Metropolitan France :As of January 1, 2008, metropolitan...
- French overseas departments and territories
- Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceansIslands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans-Indian Ocean Islands:The following islands are in the Indian Ocean*Réunion - *Mayotte - *French Southern and Antarctic Lands **Amsterdam Island **Crozet Islands **Kerguelen Islands...
- Sub-antarctic islands
- Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublandsTemperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublandsTemperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome whose predominant vegetation consists of grasses and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and semi-arid to semi-humid....