Kanton Island alternatively known as "Mary Island", "Mary Balcout's Island" or "Swallow Island", is the largest, northernmost, and as of 2007, the sole inhabited island of the Phoenix Islands

Phoenix Islands

The Phoenix Islands are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs, lying in the central Pacific Ocean east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands. They are a part of the Republic of Kiribati. During the late 1930s they became the site of the last attempted colonial...

, in the Republic of Kiribati. It is an atoll located in the South Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 roughly halfway between Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 and Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 at 2°50′S 171°40′W. The island is a narrow ribbon of land enclosing a lagoon with an area of 40 square kilometers. Kanton's closest neighbor is the uninhabited island of Enderbury

Enderbury Island

Enderbury Island is a small, uninhabited atoll 63 km ESE of Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean at . It is about 1 mile wide and 3 miles long, with a reef stretching out 60–200 metres...

, 63 km to the south. The capital of Kiribati

Kiribati

Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...

, South Tarawa

South Tarawa

South Tarawa is the official capital of the Republic of Kiribati on Tarawa Atoll. The meaning of Teinainano is "down of the mast", alluding to the sail-shape of the atoll...

, lies 1,765 km to the west. As of 2005, the population was 41, down from 61 in 2000. In May 2010 the population was reportedly 24, with 14 adults and 10 children. The island's sole village is called Tebaronga.

Discovery and naming

Kanton Island was discovered on August 5, 1824, by two London whaling ships: the Phoenix

Phoenix (of London)

The Phoenix was a nineteenth century whaler. In 1824, while under the command of John Palmer, it was the first ship to discover Phoenix Island, later known as Rawaki Island, as well as Kanton Island....

, Capt. John Palmer; and the Mary, Capt. Edward Reed. The atoll was initially named "Mary Ballcout's Island" after the shipowner's wife.

Kanton got its permanent name from the New Bedford

New Bedford

-Places:*New Bedford, Illinois*New Bedford, Massachusetts, the most populous New Bedford**New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park*New Bedford, New Jersey *New Bedford, Ohio*New Bedford, Pennsylvania...

 whaler

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 Canton, which ran aground on the atoll on March 4, 1854, while under the command of Capt. Andrew Wing. The crew managed to escape on whaleboats and after an open-water voyage of 49 days, reached Tinian Island in the Marianas, without the loss of a man. Three of the survivors, including Capt. Wing and Thomas E. Braley settled in Acushnet, Massachusetts

Acushnet, Massachusetts

Acushnet is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,303 at the 2010 census.- History :Acushnet was first settled in 1659. It has been included as a part of three separate towns throughout its history. It was formerly the northeastern section of the town of...

.

Geography, flora and fauna

Kanton has been described as being shaped like a large pork chop. From its northwest to southeast points is a distance of 14.5 km (9 mi), while the land rim varies in width from 50–600 m (164–1,968.5 ft) and 1.5–7 m (4.9–23 ft) in elevation. The southeast corner of the island is known as "Pyramid Point." The sole entrances to the lagoon are on the west side, with the main channel exhibiting currents of 6–8 kn (3.3–4.4 m/s). The lagoon itself is filled with marine life, holding 153 different species of fish, including tuna

Tuna

Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...

, shark

Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

s, stingray

Stingray

The stingrays are a group of rays, which are cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes, and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae , Plesiobatidae , Urolophidae , Urotrygonidae , Dasyatidae , Potamotrygonidae The...

s and eel

Eel

Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...

s. An unpaved road runs around the island, though its current state of repair is uncertain. The northwestern corner of the island holds a functional (as of 2003) airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

, which has its own ICAO and IATA codes, but currently lacks any international or inter-island service. The World Port Index

World Port Index

The World Port Index contains a tabular listing of thousands of ports throughout the world, describing their location, characteristics, known facilities, and available services. Of particular interest are the applicable volume of Sailing Directions and the number of the harbor chart...

 number of Kanton Island is 56025.
Much of Kanton's land surface is bare coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

, sparsely covered with herbs

Herbaceous plant

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 and low bunch grass; trees and bushes are found near the village site. According to Edwin H. Bryan's American Polynesia and the Hawaiian Chain, Kanton possessed in 1941 a total of twelve native species of vegetation, including low herbs and bunch grass, a thick stand of Scaevola

Scaevola

Scaevola is a genus of flowering plants in the Goodenia family, Goodeniaceae. It consists of more than 130 tropical species, with the center of diversity being Australia and Polynesia, including Hawaii....

shrubs on the island's south side (2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) high), some Suriana maritima

Suriana

Suriana is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing only Suriana maritima, which is commonly known as Bay Cedar. It has a pantropical distribution and can be found on coasts in the New and Old World tropics. Bay Cedar is an evergreen shrub or small tree, usually reaching a height of and...

shrubs near the lagoon entrance, heliotrope (Heliotropium foertherianum

Heliotropium foertherianum

Heliotropium foertherianum is a species of flowering plant in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It is native to tropical Asia, including southern China, Madagascar, northern Australia, and most of the atolls and high islands of Micronesia and Polynesia. Common names include Tree Heliotrope, Velvet...

) and kou (Cordia subcordata) trees, and coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

 palms. In 1937, the New Zealand eclipse expedition reported 23 bird species on Kanton, together with Polynesian Rat

Polynesian Rat

The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...

s, lizard

Lizard

Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...

s, hermit crab

Hermit crab

Hermit crabs are decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea. Most of the 1100 species possess an asymmetrical abdomen which is concealed in an empty gastropod shell that is carried around by the hermit crab.-Description:...

s and turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s. Two species of spiders were found on the island.
There is no freshwater on Kanton, which is a problem for settlers. Rainwater is caught in cisterns; Pan American had a large distillation

Distillation

Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....

 plant

Desalination

Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...

 on the island when it operated there during the 1940s and 50's. Rainfall is sparse, averaging 8.71–35.97 in (22.1–91.4 cm) between 1938 and 1953, though later reports suggest a wetter climate in recent years.

British claims

The British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 laid claim to Kanton Island during the 1850s. The official British claim was formally reasserted on August 6, 1936, with the British making several visits to the island culminating in the placement of two radio operators on Kanton on August 31, 1937.

Americans arrive

On June 8, 1937, Kanton was the site of a total solar eclipse

Solar eclipse

As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...

 and the island was occupied briefly by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 scientists, members of an expedition organized by the National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

 and led by the astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

 Samuel Alfred Mitchell

Samuel Alfred Mitchell

Samuel Alfred Mitchell was an astronomer who studied solar eclipses and set up a program to use photographic techniques to determine the distance to stars at McCormick Observatory, where he served as the director.-Early years:Mitchell was the son of John Cook and Sarah Chown Mitchell,...

. During this time, the American party claimed the island for the United States, erecting a small monument with two American flags. According to one account, the British warship HMS Wellington fired a shot across the bow of the USS Avocet, when the latter refused to cede the choicest anchorage spot to the British vessel. The American ship allegedly responded in kind, following which both captains agreed to "cease fire" until instructions could be received from their respective governments. Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 quickly ordered no further escalation, and both parties observed the solar eclipse together, "though officially a bit cool."

In response to the British reoccupation of Kanton in August 1937, seven Americans landed on the island on March 7, 1938. Although the British ambassador to the United States requested removal of markers claiming U.S. sovereignty, President Franklin Roosevelt formally placed the island under control of the U.S. Interior department on March 3, 1938. Both parties continued to press their competing claims until April 6, 1939, when the U.S. and Britain agreed to hold Kanton under joint control for the next forty years as the Canton and Enderbury Islands

Canton and Enderbury Islands

The Canton and Enderbury Islands consist of the coral atolls of Canton and Enderbury in the northeastern part of the Phoenix Islands, about 1,850 miles south of Hawaii in the central Pacific Ocean...

 condominium

Condominium (international law)

In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...

. The U.S./U.K. tenure proved cordial and cooperative thereafter, with each party enjoying the other's hospitality and working together to ensure smooth operation of island facilities.

Airplane oasis

Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways, commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991...

 arrived on Kanton on May 18, 1939, to build facilities for their planned New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 flying boat service. Service commenced on July 12, 1940 with the Boeing 314

Boeing 314

The Boeing 314 Clipper was a long-range flying boat produced by the Boeing Airplane Company between 1938 and 1941 and is comparable to the British Short S.26. One of the largest aircraft of the time, it used the massive wing of Boeing’s earlier XB-15 bomber prototype to achieve the range necessary...

 Clipper. On December 4, 1941, the Pacific Clipper

Pacific Clipper

The Pacific Clipper was a Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat famous for having completed Pan American World Airways' first around the world flight. The flight of the then-named California Clipper began December 2, 1941 at the Pan Am base on Treasure Island, California for its scheduled passenger...

 departed Kanton for New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 as the final civilian flight before the war.

World War II

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 built a 6,230 foot (1.9 km) airstrip at 2°46′05"S 171°42′37"W . Kanton became a stopover point for the Navy Air Transport Service flights to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand as well as a staging point for attacks on the Gilbert Islands

Gilbert Islands

The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands...

, then held by Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. The USS President Taylor

USS President Taylor

President Taylor was a U.S. troopship in the Pacific Ocean in World War II.-Civilian career:Originally built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation as the Granite State for the New York to London service, she burned to the main deck in 1924...

 was grounded and abandoned near the island on 14 February 1942 when disembarking troops. It was shelled three times in late 1942 by Japanese submarines, and bombed once on March 25, 1943. Damage was reported as "slight". The island was defended by approximately 1,200 combat troops and support personnel, but was never attacked by Japanese forces. It was the site of at least two airplane crashes during the war: on 19 July 1944 and 5 December 1945. After the war moved west, it became the homebase for the Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

 in this area of the Pacific.

In November 1946, Pan Am resumed service to Australia and New Zealand via Kanton with Douglas DC-4

Douglas DC-4

The Douglas DC-4 is a four-engined propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s in a military role...

 aircraft. British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, Australia's first trans-Pacific airline, used the island as a stopover on the way to Hawaii, flying luxurious DC-6Bs on the Sydney to Vancouver BC, Canada route. Qantas

Qantas

Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...

 took over this service shortly thereafter, after BCPA went out of business. Canadian Pacific Airlines used the island as well. This service continued through 1958, when the DC-4's were replaced with the Douglas DC-7

Douglas DC-7

The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. It was the last major piston engine powered transport made by Douglas, coming just a few years before the advent of jet aircraft such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8.-Design and...

C. A full-scale community was established to support these operations, including an electrical power station, a hotel for the airline passengers' use, a medical dispensary, school for dependent children of station personnel, and other necessary facilities. The island was jointly administered by the United Kingdom and the United States, and the British and American post offices were both operated from a single building. The American administrator, who was an employee of the Civil Aeronautics Administration (predecessor to the FAA) and island manager for that agency, also served as the U.S. resident administrator under the Department of the Interior and as a U.S. special deputy marshal under the Department of Justice. William J. Evans held this position from 1952–1956, during which time a crew from National Geographic

National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...

magazine visited the island and highlighted it in the magazine's January 1955 issue.

Ultimately, the introduction of long-range jet aircraft spelled the end of Kanton's usefulness as an aircraft refueling station, and all airlines ended their operations there by the late 1950s—except for Pan Am, which continued a monthly service with DC-7C aircraft via Auckland, Nadi, Pago Pago, Kanton, Honolulu and return. This service was conducted using the outbased DC-7C aircraft N743PA and N744PA, which provided feeder service from Auckland to three points on the jet service schedules. The last Pan Am flight was in November 1965 when the final DC-7C returned to Miami after the opening of a new airport in Auckland, enabling New Zealand to be added to Pan Am's jet routes. Kanton's airport remained operational, however, as an emergency landing field.

After the airlines

In 1960 a tracking station for the Mercury program

Mercury program

Mercury Program might refer to:*the first successful American manned spaceflight program, Project Mercury*an American post-rock band, The Mercury Program...

 was built on Kanton. It was utilized through November 1965. The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space and Missile Systems Organization continued to use the island for missile-tracking operations through 1976. That year marked the complete end of the American presence; the airfield was abandoned and all U.S. personnel were removed. The British also closed their post office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

, ending their presence on Kanton as well. With the independence of Kiribati

Kiribati

Kiribati , officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population exceeds just over 100,000 , and is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, straddling the...

 from Britain in 1979, the Anglo-American condominium was formally terminated, and the island transferred to Kiribati sovereignty. Kanton's post office was reopened by the Kiribati government, and the island was repopulated with a few people from the more crowded atolls of the Gilbert Islands

Gilbert Islands

The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert Islands...

, who reside in several of the abandoned residences left over from the Anglo-American presence.

Kanton is occasionally visited by Republic of Kiribati vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 and various fishing boats. In 2008, Kanton and the rest of the Phoenix Islands became the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), the world's largest marine protected area, covering a total area of 410,500 square kilometers of land and ocean. In 2007 it was submitted, together with the rest of the PIPA, as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In 2010 Alex Bond, a sailor delivering a yacht from Cornwall to Australia, stopped off at Kanton while sailing from Honolulu to Fiji. He discovered the 24 islanders (14 adults and 10 children) were dangerously short of food. An expected supply ship had not arrived and they had been living on fish and coconuts for several months. Bond used his satellite phone

Satellite phone

A satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites...

 to contact the UK Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard is the service of the government of the United Kingdom concerned with co-ordinating air-sea rescue.HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime Search and Rescue within the UK...

 at Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

, who contacted the U.S. Coast Guard to arrange relief supplies.

See also

• Canton Island Airport
  Canton Island Airport
  Canton Island Airport is an airport located on Kanton Island, in the Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It has no commercial airline service.-History:...
  
  
• List of Guano Island claims
• Treaty of Tarawa
  Treaty of Tarawa
  On September 20, 1979, representatives of the newly independent Republic of Kiribati and of the United States met in Tarawa to sign a treaty of friendship between the two nations, known as the Treaty of Tarawa. In this treaty, the U.S. acknowledged Kiribati sovereignty over fourteen islands...
  
  

External links

• History of the island
• Atoll Research Bulletin No. 41, Canton Island
• Kanton Island Journey. Excellent photos from one woman's journey to Kanton and nearby islands in August 2008. Kanton photos start at the bottom of pg. 1, and continue on pg. 2.
• Phoenix Islands Website Contains information on Canton and the other Phoenix Islands.
• The Phoenix Islands National Geographic article on the Phoenix Islands, including information on Kanton.
• Kanton Island HAM Trip A HAM operator's trip to Kanton in 1999, including description of the island, village and islanders.