St. Matthew Island (phantom island) and H.C. Adams (1883) suggest that the error may have arisen from a confusion with Annobón Island, which lies at the same latitude but at 5°38′E longitude. St. Matthew Island (phantom island) St Matthew Island is a phantom island once thought to lie roughly one thousand kilometers northeast of Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. It appeared on navigational charts until as late as the early twentieth century. It was supposedly located at approximately 2°S 8°W, and was alleged to have been discovered by the Portuguese on St. Matthew's Day 1516. It was shown and named on several maps going
Ross Island Penal Colony convicts who were freed were engaged in agriculture, and those who were forced to do service were given monetary compensation of US$25 per month. However, even then escape from the penal colony was impossible and any escapee who tried was killed. At the beginning of World War I in 1914, Dr. Robert Heindl of Germany had noted that the 15,000 political prisoners at the penal colony could create an undesirable revolution and therefore their release in one stage, following capture of the island by a German ship by bombardment, was risky. He suggested that after due care and adequate security