Namu Atoll (
Marshallese: , ) is a coral
atoll
An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...
of 54 islands in the Pacific Ocean, and forms a legislative district of the
Ralik Chain
The Ralik Chain ( Marshallese: , ) is a chain of islands within the island nation of the Marshall Islands. Ralik means "sunset". It is west of the Ratak Chain. In 1999 the total population of the Ralik islands was 19,915. Christopher Loeak, who b ...
of the
Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...
. Its total land area is only , but that encloses a lagoon of . It is located approximately south-southwest of
Kwajalein Atoll
Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civilia ...
.
There are four main population centres, the islands of Namu, Majkin, Loen and Mae. The population of Namu Atoll was 780 in 2011.
History
The Spanish expedition of
Álvaro de Mendaña made the first recorded sighting by Europeans of Namu Atoll on 17 September 1568. The pilot,
Hernán Gallego Hernán is a Spanish masculine given name, originating from Germanic Hernan in the Visigoth culture in Spain. It is the Latinized version of the compound name ''Fard-nanth'', which seems to mean "gentle traveler" or "spiritual traveler". The House ...
, mistook it for ''San Bartolome'' (
Bokak Atoll), which
Toribio Alonso de Salazar had seen in 1526, although Bokak was a long way to the north. Mendaña says they named them ''San Mateo Shoals''. The islands were inhabited, with many houses. A landing party found a
chisel
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
made of a nail and pieces of rope which were presumably gifts left there on 3 July 1566 by the
galleon
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch War ...
''San Jerónimo'', then commanded by the rebel pilot
Lope Martín
Lope Martín was an Afro-Portuguese seafarer who served as the pilot of the patache ''San Lucas'', commanded by Alonso de Arellano, in the Legazpi- Urdaneta voyage to the Philippines. They were the first European explorers to complete a round tr ...
. Captain Thomas Dennet of the British vessel ''Britannia'' sighted the atoll in 1797 on route from Australia to China and named it Ross Island.
The
Empire of Germany
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
claimed Namu Atoll along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1884, and the Germans established a trading post. After World War I, the island came under the
South Seas Mandate of the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...
. The base became part of the vast US
Naval Base Marshall Islands
Naval Base Marshall Islands were United States Navy advance bases built on the Marshall Islands during World War II to support the Pacific War efforts. The bases were built by US Navy after the Marshall Islands campaign that captured the islan ...
. Following the end of World War II, it came under the control of the United States as part of the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994.
History
Spain initially claimed the islands that later composed the territory of the Trus ...
until 1986 when the Marshall Islands achieved their independence.
Education
Marshall Islands Public School System
Republic of Marshall Islands Public School System (PSS) is the public school system of the Marshall Islands, headquartered in Majuro. It was established in November 2013 by Public Law 2013-23.
It is a part of the Ministry of Education, Sports and ...
operates public schools:
* Loen Elementary School
* Mae Elementary School
* Majkin Elementary School
* Namo Elementary School
Students are zoned to
Jaluit High School
Jaluit High School (JHS) is a secondary school in Jabor, Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands. It is a part of the Marshall Islands Public School System.
The school serves the following atolls and islands in the south of the country: Jaluit, Ailinglapl ...
in
Jaluit Atoll
Jaluit Atoll ( Marshallese: , , or , ) is a large coral atoll of 91 islands in the Pacific Ocean and forms a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is , and it encloses a lagoon with an area of . Mos ...
.
[Annual Report 2011-2012]
" Ministry of Education (Marshall Islands)
Ministry of Education, or the MOE, is a government branch in the Marshall Islands that controls and takes care of education, as well as all public schools in the Marshall Islands. The Minister of the MOE is one of the senators of the Marshall Is ...
. Retrieved on February 22, 2018. p. 54 (PDF p. 55/118). "As such, Jaluit High School enroll students from the Ralik and Iolab school zones including schools from Ebon, Namdrik, Kili, Jaluit, Ailinglaplap, Jabat, and Namu."
In the 1994–1995 school year Namu had one private high school.
[McMurray, Christine and Roy Smith. ''Diseases of Globalization: Socioeconomic Transition and Health''. ]Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
, October 11, 2013. , 9781134200221. p
127
References
External links
*
Atolls of the Marshall Islands
Ralik Chain
Municipalities of the Marshall Islands
{{Marshalls-geo-stub