ISLAND FULL OF RATS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 77, 11 January 1949, Page 4

ISLAND FULL OF RATS

(Air Mail) , [SYDNEY. . ' Captain G. J. .Webster, of the British Colonial Service, was a recent visitor to Sydney, after he had elected one of the loneliest lighthouses in the world. Last, August Captain Webster made a 3000-mile voyage from Suva, where his headquarters, are located, to put up a prefabricated lighthouse on Henderson (Elizabeth) Island, in the Pitcairn Group. - Captain Webster said that the only inhabitants of Henderson Island are eight skeletons in a cave and millions of rats. The skeletons were first reported .in the 1820’s by three survivors of the whaleship Essex, sunk by a, whale, and inspiration of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. “They’re still there,” said Captain Webster. “1. counted eight skulls in the cave, but gave up counting the rats. 1 suppose the rats came from ah old wreck we found on the rocks. We used teak timber, still in perfect condition, from the wreck to hoist the lighthouse 120 ft up the limestone cliff.” The lighthouse, self-operating, will have to be serviced every nine months to guide the few ships that, pass by Henderson Island.