Île Saint-Paul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Île Saint-Paul (St. Paul Island) is a very small island forming part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the Indian Ocean. It is about 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of the larger île Amsterdam, located at . It is a rocky and uninhabited island measuring no more than five km (three miles) at its greatest width and is completely devoid of trees.
During sailing ship days captains would occasionally use the island as a check on their navigation before heading north.
A scientific research cabin on the island is used for scientific or ecological short campaigns, but there is no permanent population.
Île Saint-Paul is one of three islands which is an antipode of the United States. It correspondes to Firstview, Colorado. The other two antipodes are île Amsterdam and Kerguelen Island.
In the 1880s Charles Lightoller was shipwrecked here. He accurately describes the island in his autobiography, Titanic and Other Ships.
Lightoller suggested that pirates may have used the island and their treasure could be buried in its caves. There is also speculation that officers from the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis hid treasure near the entrance of the bay during World War II.[citation needed]
In 1928, an ill-fated spiny lobster cannery was established on Île Saint-Paul. Seven employees of the cannery were abandoned to their fate on the island when the company went bankrupt in 1931; they later came to be known as Les Oubliés de Saint-Paul ("the forgotten ones of St. Paul"). Five died; the two survivors were finally rescued in 1934.[1][2]
[edit] See also
- Administrative divisions of France
- French overseas departments and territories
- Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific oceans
- Sub-antarctic islands
[edit] References
- ^ Les oubliés de lle Saint-Paul, by Daniel Floch. 1982.
- ^ "St. Paul and Amsterdam Island: A History of Two Islands." Discoverfrance.com. [1]
[edit] External links
- Charles Lightoller's Titanic And Other Ships on Titanic-Titanic.com
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Pictures of Île Saint-Paul
- Antipodes of the USA
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| Overseas departments1 | French Guiana · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Réunion |
| Overseas collectivities | French Polynesia · Mayotte2 · Saint Barthelemy · Saint Martin · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · Wallis and Futuna |
| Special status | New Caledonia |
| Uninhabited lands | Clipperton Island French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Amsterdam Island • Saint-Paul Island • Crozet Islands • Kerguelen Islands • Adélie Land Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean: Bassas da India3 • Europa Island3 • Glorioso Islands2, 3, 4 • Juan de Nova Island3 • Tromelin Island5) |
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1 Also known as overseas regions • 2 claimed by Comoros • 3 claimed by Madagascar • 4 claimed by Seychelles • 5 claimed by Mauritius
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1 Sovereignity over territories in Antarctica currently suspended under the Antarctic Treaty System.
