MYSTERIOUS ISLANDS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11533, 9 January 1932, Page 11

MYSTERIOUS ISLANDS

NAVIGATORS’” TRIALS. Admiralty sailing directions, which are the navigator’s bible, record extraordinary vagaries oi supposedly solid land. Remarking that these official records are in places more extraordinary than fiction, Mr Lawrence G. Green has collected a few examples in the “Empire Review for March. One statement runs that on June 1, 1920, a mud island, 150 ft. long by 30ft. wide and 12lt. above high-water mark, suddenly made its appearance in Walvis Bay, on the African coast. Three months later the island disappeared, bill twice since il lias visited the suriacc lor brief periods. On these occasions millions of dead fish were thrown up on the South-West African coast and even a few dead whales were found. Volcanic creations of this kind have been recorded in almost all the seas of the world.

Close io Trinidad, on the Venezuela coast, an island was born one day and was promptly proclaimed British territory by the residents ot 1 rinidad. Two days later it. sank, and the only record of its existence remains the mark of its locality on the charts. Many years ago at Port Royal, Jamaica, a whole town sank into the sea. One of the causes of mistakes in official charts has been the reporting of ice-islands for solid ground. Some ol these ice-islands have been 20 to 30 miles long, and hundreds of feet in height, and strewn with rock and earth irom the Antarctic continent. An emigrant ship, tho Guiding Star, sighted a hook-shaped ice-island 60 miles long and was traped in its bay. The wind failed, and it drifted on to the ice, and was lost, with all hands. In 1851 the brig Renovation sighted an iceisland with two three-masted ships high and dry upon it. The identity of these ships was never discovered. The problem of the Avocet rock in the Rod Sea was one which cost; two ships valued at many thousands of pounds before it was solved by 11.M.5. Flying Fish. The Avocet was first to strike and sink on ail uncharted rock. The Board of Trade and the Admiral!;- scouted the idea of such a rock.;.’ Fie locality indicated, and the story of the captain of the Avocet was disbelieved. Shortly atterwards the Teddington rammed tho same rock and sank. The Admiralty then woke up. After hot weeks of weary dragging with wires tho rock was found. It proved to be a small patch of coral, reaching to within 15 ft. of the surface and rising abruptly from a depth of ISOt. Falcon Island, in the South Pacific, has been a constant source of irritation to shipmasters and chartniakers since it was first observed in 1885. 1 lie cliffs o’ the island were then loOl.t. higu an 1 it was placed on tho map. Lhe'i it went down, and stayed down lor several years then one day it appeared, piping hot, with a volcano in eruption. In 1900 it was only Oft. above high-water mark. In 1927 it was again examined. It had increased m size and height, and a small bush had taken root. Grahane’s Island, in the Mediterranean, near Sicily, some years ago made its unexpected appearance. It was examined and charted by the Admiralty; but no sooner had the new charts been put into circulation than the island dropped back to the sea bed. In 1880 ail American ship, Levant, was directed to find a low-lying atoll that had been sighted by a whaler. Its position and appearance were accurately described. Whether the Levant made i the island or not will never e kiiotvn, for neither ship nor island nas been heard of since. A London city businessman took a woman friend to a theatre, and was greatly enjoying the show when ho discovered at the interval that his wife was sitting next to him. He had told her that he was going to hear ‘'a lecture.’’ Then he heard it. The man’s wif e in a loud voice told him and his companion that she had found two tickets for the performance in his jacket pocket and bought the seat next to him. "While she was lecturing her bushand -‘tlie other woman” slipped away. The man and his wife departed together.