Gilbert and Ellice Islands French captain Louis Duperrey was the first to map the whole Gilbert Islands archipelago. He commanded "La Coquille" on its circumnavigation of the earth (1822–1825). Funafuti atoll was named Ellice's Island after Edward Ellice, a British politician and merchant, by Captain Arent de Peyster, who sighted the islands in 1819 sailing on the ship "Rebecca". Ellice owned the cargo of the ship. The name Ellice was applied to all nine islands, of what is now Tuvalu, after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay. The Gilbert and Ellice Islands were formerly designated an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "GE"
Postage stamps and postal history of the Marshall Islands Postage stamps and postal history of the Marshall Islands This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Marshall Islands. The "Republic of the Marshall Islands" (RMI) is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. The islands first used German stamps in 1888, with overprinted German stamps for the Marshall Islands becoming available in 1897. Stamps of German Marshall Islands were also valid in Nauru. After WWI, as part of mandated territory, stamps of Japan were