Two islands have, at one time or another, carried the name Christmas Island. The Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean is today better known as Kiritimati, and is part of the nation of Kiribati. It was documented by Captain
Two islands have, at one time or another, carried the name Christmas Island. The Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean is today better known as Kiritimati, and is part of the nation of Kiribati. It was documented by Captain James Cook on Christmas Eve in 1777. It was on this Christmas Island that Britain carried out a series of nuclear tests in the 1950s.
The second Christmas Island, which is still known by the same name today, is located in the Indian Ocean, some 960 miles northwest of the Australian mainland. Scarcely visible on a map, this 52-square-kilometre island was first sighted by Europeans in 1615, but named on Christmas Day 1643 by Captain Willian Mynors of the East India Company’s ship Royal Mary.
Today, Christmas Island is inhabited by fewer than 2,000 people, is primarily a national park, and is entirely designated as a wildlife sanctuary. In spite of being little-known, it is a site of significant historical and geographical interest. Here’s a breakdown.
The location of Christmas Island. Credit: TUBS / Commons.
It wasn’t explored until the 19th century
Christmas Island was first sighted in 1615 by Richard Rowe of the Thomas. However, it was Captain Mynors who named it nearly 30 years later after sailing past it on the Royal Mary. It began to be included on English and Dutch navigation charts early in the 17th century, but it wasn’t included on an official map until 1666.
The first documented landing on the island was in 1688, when the crew of the Cygnet arrived on the west coast and found it uninhabited. However, they did collected wood and Robber Crabs. In 1857, the crew of the Amethyst tried to reach the summit of the island, but found the cliffs impassable. Shortly after, between 1872 and 1876, naturalist John Murray carried out extensive surveys on the island a part of the Challenger expedition to Indonesia.
The British annexed it
In the late 19th century, Captain John Maclear of HMS Flying Fish anchored in a cove that he then named ‘Flying Fish Cove’. His party gathered flora and fauna, and the following year, British zoologist J. J. Lister gathered phosphate of lime, amongst other biological and mineral samples. The discovery of phosphate on the the island led to its annexation by Britain.
Thereafter, the Christmas Island Phosphate Company Ltd was granted a 99-year lease to mine the phosphate. An indentured workforce of Chinese, Malays and Sikhs were transported to the island and set to work, often in appalling conditions.
It was a Japanese