THE SILENT PACIFIC.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18569, 19 December 1925, Page 15

THE SILENT PACIFIC.

DISAPPEARING ISLANDS. IMAGINARY REEFS. (SPECZAIi.T -VSTTTCT *OB "THZ FBX.SS.'J (By Captain Francis McCullagh.) I never expected to see a coral atoll or to cruise off the beaten track m midPacific; but, thanks to the courtesy of the American Fleet, I have, during the past few weeks seen enough atolls to provide mo with pleasant reminiscences for the rest, of my life, and I have been verv much off the beaten track of steamers'having been aboard the swift ennser Memphis from Samoa to the Galapagos. We did not meet any other ships at all, thanks to the fact that the Memphis avoided those lines which run across the oceans and remind me of trolley lines, and are known as "steamer Toutes. \t present some islands scorn to bob up and down as if for no other purposo than to worrv the sonls of harassed navigators. The" strangest case on record is that of Falcon Island (lat 20deg 19min S„ 17r>'!rg 25min W.), about whose birth, growth, and disappearance full particulars exist, in the records of the British Admiralty. To give its history as briefly as possible: — seen as a breaking reef by tho British naval vessel .P'alcon. 1877 —.Smoke seen rising from the sea by the British naval vessel Sappho. 1885 (October)—A full-fledged island. 1889 —Surveyed by the British surveying vessel Egcria. "it was not easy to survev, as the loose volcanic ashes and cinders, of which it was composed, were' continually slipping down owing to tho action of the sea in undermining the coast. In 1889 it was found that since 1885 two-thirds of the island, had been washed away.

389-1 —It had dwindled •to "a low streak of black rock, which could not be seen by night.'' 3894 (December) —It had bobbed trp again. "Owing to quite recent volcanic action, a new crater was fonnod, with the result that tho island had grown again 50ft high, three miles long, and 3i miles broad . . . quite hot"— liko a new pancake. 1898 (July)—lt had disappeared, become, in fact, n. submarine island, "entirely surrounded by water," even on tho top-side. In the matter-of-fact language of the pilot book, its place was i'ound in that year to be occupied by "a shoal one hundred yards in extent, breaking heavily. ." . - Discoloured water, from a quarter to half a mile in extent, was seen about one mile southward of these breakers." 1900 (April)—A shoal. Nine feet of foul water at the north end. 1913—This shoal had entirely disappeared. 1921 (November)—Tho British naval vessel Falcon, which had been present at the birth of the island, was now sent to -drop a sounding lead on its watery grave. Having * examined carefully "tho site," it announced that "nofcli-. ing remained save a rock!, 15yds in diameter, 3ft below the surface. Elsewhere, tho Ibottom was nowhere less than seven fathoms." Not only is your Pacifio Island threatened from beneath, it is also threatened from the surface by the waves and from above by the winds. "Under the alarming caption, "Vanished Islands," the pilot book baldly states that "the islands of Pial, Komal, and Falulap have been reported washed away." As these three are in the Japanese sphere of influence, we did not make any enquiries about them. Of reefs and "foul ground" the Pacific seems to have more than its due share. But worse than the reefs, in some respects, are the reported reefs whose positions have not been fixed. They are called "vigias." "A vigia is a, reported shoal, the extent of which or its exact locality is doubtful." Whalers, who formerly swarmed in these waters, are blamed for having encumbered the chart with vigias, but no subsequent navigator seems to have had the courage to omit them, so that it was with fear and trembling that Captain Lackey of the Memphis steamed over many points where, fifty years ago, some whaler had marked a ripple on his chart. Even to-day the appearance of a breaker anywhere in midPacific is regarded by a ship's captain with as much alarm as a aymptom of bubonic plague in one of the crew is regarded by a ship's doctor. Ijn the channel separating Hatutu from Eiau "a breaker was once reported to have been seen in mid-channel," and, though no rock has evef been discovered! there, a reef still appears at that point on every ship's chart. Many of the vigias are due to deceptive appearances of the water. Sometimes a volcanic disturbance at , the bottom of the sea, or. a shoal of fish or of marine animal cuke give a patch of sea-water the exact appearance which would be given to it by reefs a few feet below the surface, these resemblances being so close as to deceive even the most experienced navigators. Sometimes confervoid algae appear on the surface and form masses of discoloration very like the colour of a coral reef three fathoms down. Furthermore, when currents of different temperatures meet, shoals of fish often collect and present the appearance of a reef, while large fish splash and spout water so as to resemble breakers.