Palmerston Island

Palmerston Island is a coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean about 500 km northwest of Rarotonga. It was discovered by James Cook on June 16, 1774.

Overview

A true atoll, Palmerston Island consists of a number of sandy islets on a continuous ring of coral reef enclosing a lagoon. The largest of the islets include Palmerston, North Island, Lee To Us, Leicester, Primrose, Toms, and Cooks. The total land area of the islets is approximately one square mile (2.6 km²). The coral reef covers about 3,600 acres (15 km²). The lagoon is some seven miles (11 km) across, covering an area of 56 km². There are several small passages through the reef for boats, though there is no safe entry for large ships. At a latitude of 18 degrees south, Palmerston enjoys a tropical climate but is exposed to severe hurricanes. A particularly destructive series of storms occurred during the 1920s and 1930s.

All the islets are wooded with coconut palms, pandanus, and native trees. There is no natural water on the islets except that captured from rainfall. Shellfish inhabit the reef, and fish are abundant although there are concerns about overfishing. The population consists of approximately fifty inhabitants, all descended from an Englishman named William Marsters (see history, below). The economy is based on fishing, tourism, copra, and bird feathers, though Palmerston’s extreme remoteness makes a cash market difficult to maintain. Electricity and other modern utilities are available on the island. A recently built telephone station provides the only permanent link to the outside world. A research vessel, the "Bounty Bay", maintains a tourist service from Rarotonga to Palmerston, but the island has no airport or regular air service.

History

Palmerston was discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, but he did not land on the island until April 13, 1777. He found the island uninhabited, though some ancient graves were discovered. Cook named the island after Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston, then lord of the admiralty. The ancient name of the island was supposedly "Avarau", meaning “two hundred harbours.” In 1863 William Marsters, a ship's carpenter and barrel maker, arrived on Palmerston from Manuae with two Polynesian wives and annexed the island from the British government. He added a third wife and sired a large family of some 17 children, whose descendants now inhabit Palmerston.

Marsters is said to have originally come from Gloucestershire, and his descendants now spell the name "Marsters", possibly due to the Gloucestershire accent. By the time his youngest daughter Titana Tangi died in 1973, there were over a thousand Ma(r)sters descendants living in Rarotonga or New Zealand. Though only some sixty family members remain on Palmerston, all Marsters descendants consider the island their ancestral home. In 1954 the family was granted full ownership of the island. Three branches of the family remain on Palmerston, each branch being descended from one of Marsters's three wives, and marriage within a family group is prohibited. Alleyne, Richard:" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/29/watoll129.xml 'Islanders speak with a West Country accent'] "The Daily Telegraph",April 29, 2008.] Palmerston is now administered by the Cook Islands government in association with New Zealand.

References

External links

* [http://www.cookislands.org.uk/palmerston.html The English legacy of Palmerston Island]
* [http://www.ck/palmston.htm Cook Islands website page on Palmerston Island] Revised January 20 2007
* [http://www.janeresture.com/palmerston/index.htm Jane's Cook Islands website page on Palmerston Island] Rev. 30 November 2007
* [http://www.santotoday.com/gowestsf/palmerst.htm Tourist account of Palmerston Island]