The Aurora Islands was a group of three

phantom island A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigati ...

s first reported in 1762 by the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

merchant ship ''Aurora'' while sailing from

Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...

to Cadiz. The Aurora's officers reported sighting them again in 1774. The Spanish ship ''San Miguel'' fixed their location at 52°37'S, 47°49'W. On 20 February 1794, they were sighted again by a Spanish

survey ship A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

, the corvette ''Atrevida'', which as part of the

Alejandro Malaspina Alejandro Malaspina (November 5, 1754 – April 9, 1810) was a Tuscan explorer who spent most of his life as a Spanish naval officer. Under a Spanish royal commission, he undertook a voyage around the world from 1786 to 1788, then, from 1789 t ...

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circ ...

had been sent to confirm them. Their reported location was approximately halfway between the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

and South Georgia at . The

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

is considered perfect; the

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

was based on the

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

of the

astronomical observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

, San Fernando, Cádiz. The

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

s were last reportedly sighted in 1856, but continued to appear on maps of the

South Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

until the 1870s. It is possible that the Aurora islands were "discovered" by Amerigo Vespucci in his 1501/1502 voyage with a Portuguese expedition. In his "Lettera" of 1504, his most detailed note, he states that he left the coast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

from Cabo Frío and followed the path of the Sirocco south-east covering 500 leagues (about 3000

kilometre The kilometre ( SI symbol: km; or ), spelt kilometer in American English, is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand metres (kilo- being the SI prefix for ). It is now the measurement unit used for ex ...

s) by sea down to 50°S or 52°S. The probability is confirmed by Vice-Admiral Ernesto Basilico in ''The Third Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci'' (

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, 1967) and by Lt-Cdr Barreiro Meiro (''General Journal of Navy'', October 1968,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

). At latitude 52°S Vespucci discovered an island 20 leagues (118 kilometres) long: The only large islands in 52°S latitude were the as then undiscovered Falklands, but Vespucci's description does not fit the Falklands, whose low-lying

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

s are full of

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

s for shelter and are not "wild". 3 April is not winter but the first month of

autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

and a night of fifteen hours duration implies a mysterious shift of the sun; furthermore,

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

s would not find the

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

intolerable at that season of the year in 52°S. The suggestion of aberrant conditions accompanying a fierce storm is typical of a number of phantom islands, particularly

Saint Brendan's Island Saint Brendan's Island, also known as Saint Brendan's Isle, is a phantom island or mythical island, supposedly situated in the North Atlantic somewhere west of Northern Africa. It is named after Saint Brendan of Clonfert. He and his followers a ...

. Raymond Ramsay suggests several possible explanations for the persistent reports of sightings over the century from 1762, including a massive

iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

, the possibility that the Aurora Islands are the Shag Rocks, and the possibility that they sank, but dismisses them all. He concludes that "there is actually no wholly satisfactory explanation for the Aurora Islands and they remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of the sea". Commenting on Ramsay's dismissal of the possibility that they sank, Stephen Royle notes that several

volcanic islands Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

have been known to have disappeared in recent times. They are the subject of a 2001 novel entitled ''Hippolyte's Island'', by Barbara Hodgson, during which they are rediscovered by the book's protagonist. In an episode in

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

's novel, ''

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'' (1838) is the only complete novel written by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The work relates the tale of the young Arthur Gordon Pym, who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the ''Grampus' ...

'', Pym and his crewmates search for but fail to find them.

Citations

References

* Gould, Rupert T. (1944), "The Auroras, and other doubtful islands", in ''Oddities: A Book of Unexplained Facts'', revised ed., Geoffrey Bles, pp. 124–162. Reprinted by Kessinger Pub Co., 2003, . * Ramsay, Raymond (1972). ''No Longer on the Map.'' Ballantine Books, pp 78–80. * Royle, Stephen A. (2001). ''A geography of islands: small island insularity'' Routledge . * Stommel, Henry (1984). ''Lost Islands: The Story of Islands That Have Vanished from Nautical Charts.'' Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, pp 84–97. {{ISBN, 0-7748-0210-3. Phantom subantarctic islands History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands History of the Falkland Islands Islands of the South Atlantic Ocean Archipelagoes of the Atlantic Ocean 1762 in Southeast Asia Phantom islands of the Atlantic

See also

Citations

References