South Sea Mystery

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18450, 28 April 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

South Sea Mystery

A ROMANCE of the far South Atlantic is involved in a controversy that has arisen over the ownership of a lonely island on the 54th parallel of south latitude (writes the diplomatic correspondent of the London “ Daily Chronicle ”).

Not only is the sovereignty of the island involved in doubt—according to one side in the controversy—but its very existence and position have for nearly two centuries been sharply disputed by mariners who have seen or have not seen its ice-covered peaks. The island is that of Bouvet, which is 1700 miles to the S.S.W. of Cape Town, in latitude 54.26 S. and longitude 3.24 E. Near to it is another isle, named Thompson, while a third, called Lindsay, is also charted as lying west of the other two.

All are barren, uninhabited, and so sften icebound as to have been at imes mistaken for icebergs. No region could be less attractive to he explorer.

Yet Bouvet Island, which has no vegetation and. sustains no animal life, has suddenly become a centre of a dispute which is at present a whalers’ fight for a fishing depot, but may develop (according to one account) into a diplomatic problem.

Enter Diplomacy. Its modern story began in the official announcement from the Colonial Office

Who Owns Bouvet Island ? Norway Jumps British Claim.

that Messrs Johan Rasmusson and Co., of Sandefjord, Norway, ✓* had been granted an exclusive license to Occupy “ certain islands belonging to his Majesty, named Bouvet 'and Thompson Island.’’ * ’ ’

That license permits -#fche company to take and treat whales in the territorial waters of the islands and to remove guano, subject to t^e*.payment of a yearly rent and royalties on whale oil and guano exported. The duration of the license is ten years. Following that announcement a telegram from Reuter’s correspondent at Oslo declared that it was asserted in that city that the announcement must rest on a misconception, “ as ’the island of Bouvet was occupied by a Norwegian expedition on December 1 last.”

Oslo Foreign Office is quoted as having stated that the Norvegia expedition. sent to the Southern Atlantic by the Bryde and Dahl Whaling Cornpan}', of Sandefjord. to find fresh places for whale-catching, had occupied the island and hoisted the Norwegian flag. “ the island having previously been regarded by The Norwegian Foreign Office as a No Man’s Land." The Norvegia had already commenced whale and seal hunting at Bouvet Island. Where is Thompson Isle? It was added that Norwegian whalers had declared that they had never come across any traces of Thompson Island. Further, the Oslo “ Tidcns Tele-

gram ” states that the Norwegian Government “ long ago ” authorised the Bryde and Dahl Whaling Company to occupy the island as a new base for Norwegian whaling purposes, and that the Norwegian Minister in London notified the British Government of this occuoation.

One piquant point about this story of claim-jumping over a barren island is that the whaling company licensed In', the British Government, as well as the rival company, which is acting under the patronage of the Norwegian Government hails from Norway and from the same port from which so many whaling expeditions have sailed. A cardinal point of the complaint—which must be regarded for the moment as confined to what is “ asserted in Oslo,” until some diplomatic representation is made to the British Government—is that Bouvet Island was, until December last, owned by nobody. Then the Norwegians annexed it. Is there any evidence to substantiate this contention? Captain Cook Couldn't See It. Bouvet Island was discovered in 1769 by Pierre Bouvet, described as a French naval officer, who arrived in a ship called the Adel Marie, on a voyage of discovery in search of the southern mainland (“Southland”). lie could not make out whether the land was an island or the mainland, so, after naming a headland of it Cape Circumcision (he having sighted it on January 1). he sailed away and never saw the island again. Captain Cook tried to locate it on his first voyage, but failed to find it, or any “ Southland.” During the years that followed several whalers reported sighting the island, which some named after its discoverer, while others called it Liverpool Island. But there was still great divergence as to its position, while other master whalers declared that they had been unable to find such an isle.

On the other hand, another island to the north of it was reported by Captain Norris, of the whaler Sprightley. in 1825, and was named Thompson, after the mariner who sighted it; but the discovery of a third island in 1808 by Captain Lindsay, which he named after himself, seems to have referred to the original Bouvet. Come-and-go. For ninety years Bouvet Island came and went, like the Flying Dutchman. It was sighted in 1825, but no one liked to investigate it closely until the German Deep Sea Expeditionary vessel Valdivia fetched up at the island on November 25, 1898. Some of the ship’s company landed and made observations of the inhospitable interior, particularly of the volcanic mountain, 3000 feet high, in its centre which they called the Kaiser Wilhelm Peak. But they did not try to annexe it—probably because they regarded it as British territory. In British maps of the Southern Seas all three islands are marked—Bouvet. Thompson, and Lindsay. In the most recent, published in 1924, each of the names is underlined in red; signifying that they were regarded as British possessions. The British Government has in good faith given to a Norwegian firm the right, to use the islands as a base of whaling operations and for other purposes; and apparently Whitehall had reasonable ground for so doing.