Ducie Island
This morning we were able to land on Ducie atoll, the furthermost island of the Pitcairn Island group, which is rarely visited due to its isolation. Ducie lays 254 nautical miles east of Pitcairn Island and measures only 247 square miles in surface. It has a closed interior lagoon that is inaccessible to ships, and due to the poor soil and lack of fresh water only one species of plant grows there, and all attempts to plant coconuts or other species of trees have failed. Although it apparently was uninhabited in past times, it would have laid in the route leading from Pitcairn or Henderson to Easter Island, and the enormous number of seabirds that inhabit it year around would have made its presence conspicuous to anyone sailing in its vicinity, so it could have been used as a stopover by these early Polynesian voyagers, in their eastwards quest for land.
At this time of the year there was a great number of Murphy petrels nesting and many grown chicks under the shade of the Tournefortia trees. In their branches lay white terns and even some immature frigate birds could be observed perching on them around the lagoon.
Garbage was collected upon the beach where we went ashore, close to where the remains of the Acadia lay. This was a four mast sailing ship with a steam engine that was carrying grain from San Francisco to Ireland. Due to faulty navigation they hit the island unexpectedly during the night and sunk there in the late 19th century. One of the anchors of this ship was removed in 1999 and taken to Pitcairn Island where we were able to see it.
This morning we were able to land on Ducie atoll, the furthermost island of the Pitcairn Island group, which is rarely visited due to its isolation. Ducie lays 254 nautical miles east of Pitcairn Island and measures only 247 square miles in surface. It has a closed interior lagoon that is inaccessible to ships, and due to the poor soil and lack of fresh water only one species of plant grows there, and all attempts to plant coconuts or other species of trees have failed. Although it apparently was uninhabited in past times, it would have laid in the route leading from Pitcairn or Henderson to Easter Island, and the enormous number of seabirds that inhabit it year around would have made its presence conspicuous to anyone sailing in its vicinity, so it could have been used as a stopover by these early Polynesian voyagers, in their eastwards quest for land.
At this time of the year there was a great number of Murphy petrels nesting and many grown chicks under the shade of the Tournefortia trees. In their branches lay white terns and even some immature frigate birds could be observed perching on them around the lagoon.
Garbage was collected upon the beach where we went ashore, close to where the remains of the Acadia lay. This was a four mast sailing ship with a steam engine that was carrying grain from San Francisco to Ireland. Due to faulty navigation they hit the island unexpectedly during the night and sunk there in the late 19th century. One of the anchors of this ship was removed in 1999 and taken to Pitcairn Island where we were able to see it.
