Fred Noonan of Amelia Earhart" on Plainsong's album "In Search of Amelia Earhart." Noonan is a main character in Jane Mendelsohn's acclaimed novel, "I Was Amelia Earhart" (1996), and in Neal Bowers' poem "The Noonan Variations" ("The Sewanee Review", Volume CXVIII, 1990). Fred Noonan Frederick Joseph "Fred" Noonan (born April 4, 1893; declared missing July 2, 1937 and dead June 20, 1938), was an American flight navigator, sea captain and aviation pioneer who first charted many commercial airline routes across the Pacific Ocean during the 1930s. He was last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land
Western New Guinea landed, naming the island Nueva Guinea. In 1606 Spanish navigator Luís Vaz de Torres sailed along the southwestern part of the island in present-day Papua, and also claimed the territory for the King of Spain. Near the end of the sixteenth century, Sultanate of Ternate under Sultan Baabullah (1570–1583), had influence over parts of Papua. In 1660, the Dutch recognised the Sultan of Tidore's sovereignty over New Guinea. New Guinea thus became notionally Dutch as the Dutch held power over Tidore. In 1793, Britain established a settlement near Manokwari. However, it failed. By 1824 Britain and the Netherlands agreed that