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Ducie Island is an uninhabited atoll in the Pitcairn Islands. It lies east of Pitcairn and has a total area of , which includes the lagoon. It is long, measured northeast to southwest, and about wide. The island is composed of four islets: Acadia, Pandora, Westward and Edwards. Despite its sparse vegetation, the atoll is known as the breeding ground of a number of bird species. More than 90% of the world population of Murphy's petrel nests on Ducie, while pairs of red-tailed tropicbirds and fairy terns make around 1% of the world population for each species. Ducie was first discovered in 1606 by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, who named it ''Luna Puesta'', and rediscovered by Edward Edwards, captain of , who was sent in 1790 to capture the mutineers of . He named the island ''Ducie'' in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie. In 1867 it was claimed by the United States under the Guano Islands Act, but the United Kingdom annexed it on 19 December 1902 as part of the Pitcairn Islands. Due to its inaccessibility and the distance from Pitcairn Island, Ducie is rarely visited today. ==History== The island was discovered by a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese sailor Pedro Fernandes de Queirós on 26 January 1606, during an expedition that began in Callao, Peru.〔Brand, Donald D. ''The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations'' The American Geographical Society (New York, 1967) p.136.〕 Supported by Pope Clement VIII and Philip III of Spain, Queirós was given the command of the ''San Pedro'', ''San Pablo'' and ''Zabra''. The fleet was nicknamed ''Los Tres Reyes Magos'' ("The Three Wise Men"). The objective of the expedition was to take soldiers, friars and provisions to establish a colony in the Santa Cruz Islands.〔Paine, Lincoln; (p.122 )〕 Ducie Island was the first of eighteen discoveries on the trip. Queirós named the island ''Luna Puesta'' (roughly, "moon that has set"). On the same day, he also sighted two more islands, one that he named ''San Juan Bautista'' ("St. John the Baptist"), and the other ''La Encarnación'' ("the Incarnation"). It is unclear which one was Henderson island and which one Pitcairn.〔 The confusion was later compounded when a chart produced by Admiral José de Espinosa marked Ducie as ''La Encarnación'', rather than as ''Luna Puesta''.〔 The island was rediscovered and named Ducie Island on 16 March 1791 by Captain Edward Edwards, of , who had been despatched from Britain in 1790 to arrest the ''Bounty'' mutineers.〔Edwards, Edward; (p.60 )〕 Edwards named it in honour of Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, under whom he had served earlier in his career.〔Heffernan, Thomas; (p.80 )〕 HMS ''Pandora'' turned northwards from Ducie and, because of this change of course, Edwards did not sight the other islands of the group. If HMS ''Pandora'' had maintained its course, it would eventually have reached Pitcairn Island and found the ''Bounty'' mutineers.〔Edwards, Edward; (p.5 )〕 The crew of the whaleship ''Essex'', which had been attacked and sunk by a whale in November 1820, mistakenly believed that they had reached Ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats. In fact they had reached Henderson Island.〔Whipple, A.B.C p. 150〕 The first recorded landing on Ducie was made in the same year by Captain Thomas Raine of the ''Surrey'', who was searching for the survivors of the ''Essex''.〔 The first comprehensive description of the island was written by Frederick William Beechey, who arrived in during November 1825. Beechey's expedition did not land in the atoll, but members of the crew navigated around it in small boats.〔Beechey; (p.60 )〕 Based on Beechey's survey, the first Admiralty chart of the island was published in 1826. For nearly a hundred years it was the only available map of the island.〔Rehder, Harald A.; Randall, John E.; p.6〕 On 5 June 1881 the mail ship ''Acadia'' ran aground on the island while returning from San Francisco, Peru after unloading its cargo. On the way to Queenstown or Falmouth for new orders, Master Stephen George calculated a route passing to the east of Ducie. George left the first mate in command at 6 am. Half an hour later, the first mate saw a white line, which he disregarded on the assumption that it was phosphorescence in the water. Later, realising that it was land, he manoeuvred to avoid running aground, but failed. The look-out excused himself by saying that he thought that the white land was a cloud. The crew made several unsuccessful attempts to re-float the ship, after which the master sailed one of the ship's boats to Pitcairn Island. He was assisted there by the local inhabitants and returned aboard the ''Edward O'Brien'', an American boat, to rescue the rest of the crew. The incident was later investigated in a court in Liverpool, where the ultimate cause of the wreck was left undetermined, though possible causes included a calculation error by the master or an unknown current that carried the ship to the island. The court declared the master not guilty of any wrongdoing.〔Board of Trade p.1〕 A stone marker with a memorial inscription is located at the landing point on Acadia Islet. It was unveiled to commemorate the recovery of the anchor in 1990. The wreck lies offshore from the memorial stone in about 10 metres of water.〔McKinnon, Rowan; (p.249 )〕 In 1969 the atoll was proposed as an "Island for Science",〔 and was later recommended as a Ramsar Site.〔Ramsar; p. 3〕 Major expeditions that came to the island to record its biota include the Whitney South Seas Expedition in 1922, the National Geographic Society-Oceanic Institute Expedition to Southeast Oceania of 1970–71〔 and the Smithsonian expedition of 1975.〔The Royal Society of New Zealand, (p.161 )〕 More recent expeditions include a new expedition by the Smithsonian in 1987,〔 one by Raleigh International in the same year, the Sir Peter Scott Commemorative Expedition of 1990–91〔D. G. Frodin; (p.917 )〕 and the Pitcairn Scientific Expedition of 1991–92.〔 In 2012, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Enric Sala produced ''Sharks Of Lost Island'' including Ducie and all the Pitcairn Islands.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/episodes/sharks-of-lost-island/ )〕 Because of its inaccessibility, Ducie is rarely approached,〔 but cruise ships make one or two landings per year.〔Ramsar Information Sheet: UK62001; p.4〕 In addition, unrecorded visits are known to be made by freighters and tankers that dump residues on the island or in the nearby waters.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ducie Island」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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