How the undiscovered Sandy Island was "discovered"

The 1908 map showing Sandy Island, circled (map from the Auckland Museum blog).  

The saga of the phantom island named Sandy Island between New Caledonia and Australia, which showed up on many charts and Google Maps may have been solved by a Shaun Higgins, a librarian at Auckland Museum, New Zealand.  In November 2012, Australian scientists on the RV Southern Surveyor found that the island did not exist.  Higgins, based on a 1908 British admiralty chart, traced the "Sandy Island" to a false sighting of land by the crew of the whaling ship from Velocity in 1876.

• "588 - No Land Ho: Sandy Island and the Age of Un-Discovery," Strange Maps, by Frank Jacobs
• "The mystery of an island that isn’t there," Auckland Museum blog, by Greg Meylan
• "The Island that doesn't exist," Auckland Museum
• "Missing Pacific island riddle 'solved,'" The Telegraph, by Jonathan Pearlman

AHA Session: Women and Maps in Early Modernity

Terrae InBLOGnitae readers and SHD members might be interested in this call for papers for 2014's AHA annual meeting in Washington, DC:

Women and Maps in Early Modernity

Abstracts are invited for papers about "Women and Maps in Early Modernity," for a possible Society for the Study of Early Modern Women co-sponsored session at the American Historical Association's annual meeting in Washington, DC, in January 2014.

Papers from a range of disciplines—including, but not limited to, history, art history, literary studies, and historical geography—which address the nexus between early modern women and maps/cartography in any geographical region or culture, during the time period c. 1400-1700 are sought. Paper topics might consider women as:

• Explorers contributing data from which maps are made
• map illustrators
• printers/publishers/sellers of maps
• navigators/users of maps
• writers on the topic of cartography

Abstracts (400-500 words) for papers twenty minutes in length should be submitted by January 10, 2013, by e-mail, to Allyson Poska (aposka@umw.edu) and Erika Gaffney (egaffney@ashgate.com).

Scientific expedition "un-discovers" Sandy Island

Sandy Island on a British map, 1922.

Sandy Island on Google Earth, 2012.

On November 22, 2012, an expedition of Australian scientists from the University of Sydney on the RV Southern Surveyor, studying plate tectonics in the Coral Sea, noticed that some maps showed an isle named Sandy Island between French-governed New Caledonia and Australia while others did not.  The expedition found no island at the location, though European maps dating back to Captain Cook's 1774 expedition showed a "Sandy Island" or "Île de Sable" somewhere near New Caledonia.  (Some maps showed two Sandy Islands.)  The Australian expedition instead found 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) of ocean depth.

• South Pacific Sandy Island 'proven not to exist' from BBC News
• Maps of Sandy Island Through History for a gallery of Sandy Island on maps dating back to 1774
• Aussie scientists un-discover Pacific island from ABC Science News

Antarctic expeditions set out to retrace Scott’s 1912 fateful attempt at the pole: teams include graduate students and injured veterans

The ill-fated final expedition of Robert Falcon Scott; from left to right: Wilson, Scott and Oates (standing), and Bowers and Evans (sitting)

The fated British Antarctic expedition of Robert Falcon Scott made it to the South Pole in January 1912 with Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans only to discover that Roald Amundsen and his team of Norwegians had beat them to the goal.  On their return, the British team ran out of food and all five perished.  The expedition still serves as an example of British perseverance and derring-do.

The International Scott Centenary Expedition (ISCE) selected 22-year-old Henry Evans, who recently completed his marine biology degree at Plymouth University, to trek to the South Pole in memory of Scott.  Evans raised £7,000 towards his trip by running in half-marathons in a penguin costume.  During the expedition, he will collect snow samples for Plymouth University and the British Antarctic Survey to note any changes in the stable isotopes of water, which could occur due to changing climate patterns.  This expedition leaves in December.

Polar explorer David Hempleman-Adams is leading three wounded British soldiers, Capt. Adam Crookshank, Cpl. Robbie Harmer, and L/Cpl. Nick Webb of the Royal Dragoon Guards, on a charity trek to the South Pole.  The soldiers are from the same regiment as Cpt. Lawrence Oates from Scott’s original expedition, who famously sacrificed himself in a vain attempt to help the team, stating, “I am just going outside and I may be some time.”  The charity expedition’s goal is to raise more than £1 million for Alzheimer’s Research UK and Walking With The Wounded (a rehabilitation service for wounded servicemen).  This expedition leaves in November.

• For more on the ISCE expedition, check out the International Scott Centenary Expedition website
• For more on the charity expedition, see the In the Footsteps of Legends website
• Click here for more Terra Nova Expedition centenary events

Another Saga in the Hunt For Old Prince Madoc by Ron Fritze

The DeSoto Falls in Lumpkin County, Georgia
Photo by Ron Fritze

SHD president Ronald Fritze offers the following blog post about supposed pre-Columbian Welsh sites in the eastern US:

Some of you are aware that I am very interested in the myths, legends, and histories of the theories concerning pre-Columbian contacts between the Old World and the Americas.  One myth that I have particularly focused on is the myth of Prince Madoc and the colony of the medieval Welsh in pre-Columbian North America.  The southeastern United States and the Ohio Valley are particularly rich in sites associated with the supposed Welsh settlers.  I have written essays about visiting some of these sites and written essays about the myths and legends associated with the site.  Here is a link to my latest essay.  The essay also contains links to four additional Madoc related essays.  So if you have an interest in the myth of Prince Madoc, I hope you find them helpful and enjoyable.

The link to his webpage is here: http://www.corndancer.com/fritze/fritze_040059/fritze054.html

Wreck of Robert Falcon Scott’s Ship Discovered Off the Coast of Greenland

The Terra Nova in December 1910

The British Antarctic Expedition 1910, led by Robert Falcon Scott, failed to be the first expedition to the South Pole, arriving thirty-three days after the Norwegian expedition of Roald Amundsen.  Scott and his expedition perished on the return voyage from the pole.  The ship that took them there, the SS Terra Nova, sailed home and resumed its career as a sealing ship before it was lost in the Arctic transporting supplies in the Second World War.  A US research company, Schmidt Ocean Institute, discovered the ship 1,000 feet below the surface off the coast of Greenland.

Click here for more information on Scott's last ship

New newsletter!

The latest issue of the SHD newsletter Terrae Cognitae has been published here.  You'll find abstracts for the upcoming meeting in Pasadena, and other member news.  Happy reading!