Manua'e's first European visitor was British navigator Samuel Wallis, in 1767. A small village was established there at the time, the remains of which can still be found on the northern part of the main island. The atoll was the site of the 1855 shipwreck of the three-masted "Julia Ann". Its crew and passengers, including twenty-four women and children, lived on the atoll for two months, during which time they were able to build a boat with which they were able to sail to Ra'iātea. There is no evidence that the islands were ever permanently inhabited prior to the shipwreck of the "Julia Ann", a ship whose passengers were mainly Latter-day Saints on their way from Australia to the United States. Beginning in 1952, the islands were regularly visited by copra merchants. During the 1960s, these casual visitors began capturing large numbers of sea turtles until their activities were legally restricted in 1971. Today the atoll is visited regularly by fishermen from Ra'iātea.