Phantom Islands

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 navigational errors, mistaken observations, unverified misinformation, or deliberate fabrication. Some have remained on maps for centuries before being "un-discovered."

Unlike lost lands, which are claimed (or known) to have once existed but to have been swallowed by the sea or otherwise destroyed, a phantom island is one that is claimed to exist contemporaneously, but later found not to have existed in the first place (or found not to be an island, as with the Island of California).

Examples

Some may have been purely mythical, such as the Isle of Demons near Newfoundland, which may have been based on local legends of a haunted island. The far-northern island of Thule was reported to exist by 4th century BCE Greek explorer Pytheas, but information about its purported location was lost; explorers and geographers since have speculated that it was the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Scandinavia, or possibly nonexistent. The island of Hy-Brasil was sometimes depicted on maps west of Ireland, but all accounts of it have been fanciful.

Some phantom islands arose through the faulty positioning of actual islands, or other geographical errors. Pepys Island was a misidentification of the Falkland Islands. The Baja California Peninsula and the Banks Peninsula in New Zealand each appear as islands on some early maps, but were later discovered to be attached to their mainlands. Isle Phelipeaux, an apparent duplication of Isle Royale in Lake Superior, appeared on explorers' maps for many years, and even served as a landmark for the border between the United States and the territory that would become Canada, before subsequent exploration by surveyors determined that it did not exist.

Sandy Island appeared on maps of the Coral Sea beginning in the late 19th century, between the Chesterfield Islands and Nereus Reef near New Caledonia, but was "undiscovered" in the 1970s. Nonetheless, it continued to be included in mapping data sets into the early 21st century, until its non-existence was re-confirmed in 2012.

Other phantom islands are misidentifications of breakers, icebergs, fog banks, pumice rafts from underwater volcanoes, or optical illusions. Observed in the Weddell Sea in 1823 but never again seen, New South Greenland may have been the result of a superior mirage. Some such as Thompson Island or Bermeja may have been actual islands subsequently destroyed by volcanic explosions, earthquakes, submarine landslides, or low-lying lands such as sand banks that are no longer above water. Pactolus Bank, visited by Sir Francis Drake in 1578, may fit into this former sand bank category.

In some cases, cartographers intentionally include invented geographic features in their maps, either for fraudulent purposes or to identify plagiarists.

List of phantom islands

}) lying in the Arctic Ocean around 80°00´N 10°00´W between NE Greenland and Svalbard. This elusive land was allegedly seen as well by Lauge Koch from the air in 1933.
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, Filippo Reef , , 1886 , , This reef, part of the Line Islands, was first seen by the ship ''Filippo'' and was seen again in 1926 when both ships saw breakers in the same area, suggesting a depth of . Current observations show the reported location to have a depth of , and the nearest shallow seamount is about deep, disproving the existence of the island.
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, Frisland , , 1558 , , Another island on the Zeno map, possibly a renamed Iceland.
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, Ganges Island to the southwest of the Shatsky Rise.
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, Groclant , , 1569 , , An island to the west of Greenland, perhaps a misreading of the island's name, or Baffin Island.
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, Ilha de Vera Cruz , , 1500 , , A supposed 'island' found by Portuguese explorers, which turned out not to be an island but rather what is currently known as Brazil.
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, Jacquet Island , , , , An island just to the east of the Flemish Cap; it was believed to exist into the 19th century, during which cartographers discussed it as a possible midway point for the Transatlantic telegraph cable.
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, Juan de Lisboa , , , , Reported on maps as being southeast of Madagascar.
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, Jupiter Reef , , 1878 , , Nonexistent reef in the Line Islands (in fact Line Islands are more than away), to the south of the also nonexistent Ernest Legouve Reef (see above).
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, Kantia , , 1884 , , Found in 1884 by Johan Otto Polter, who, in four later expeditions through 1909, disproved the island's existence.
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, Kianida Island
or ''Cianeis Insula'' , , 1467 , , Supposedly known in Antiquity, a large island the size of Thassos but situated off the Black Sea coast of Thrace in the present Bulgaria-Turkey border area. Depicted on the 1467 map ''Nona Europae Tabula'' by Nicolaus Germanus based on Claudius Ptolemy's Geography. According to Bulgarian geomorphologist Dinyo Kanev, probably destroyed by sea in the Middle Ages.
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, Krusenstern Rock
, 1804
, Reported as a breaker at 22° 15' N, 175° 37' W. Capt. R. Suffern of the ''Craigerne'' reported that he was at these exact coordinated in 1897 but there was no sign of the rock.
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, Los Jardines , , 1528 , , A pair of phantom islands to the east of the Marshall Islands.
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, Isle of Mam , , 1367 , , A crescent-shaped island in the North Atlantic that does not appear to exist; however, there is a crescent-shaped group of seamounts deep near its described location.
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, María de Lajara or Maria Laxar , , , , Usually located northeast from Hawaii, but perhaps originally one of the Bonin Islands.
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, Maria Theresa Reef (aka Tabor Island or Tabor Reef) , , 1843 , , Another nonexistent reef in the Line Islands (in fact Line Islands are more than away), slightly to the southwest-west of the phantom island, Jupiter Reef. It is a setting for Jules Verne's book ''In Search of the Castaways''.
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, Minnehaha Rock
, 1879
, Sighted by Capt. Beckwith of the ''Victoria'' at 25° 50' S, 106° 20' W. No subsequent sightings have been made.
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, St. Matthew Island , , 1516 , , An island near the coast of Africa, roughly east-northeast of Ascension Island and possibly confused with the same latitude Annobón Island.
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, Mount Penglai , , Antiquity , , An island thirty-thousand leagues to the east off the coast of Shandong. Associated with numerous East Asian myths and legends.
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, New South Greenland , , 1823 , , Unknown odd island near Antarctica, which captain Benjamin Morrell of the ship Wasp saw while traveling north from Antarctica. He thought it to be the Antarctic Peninsula (then called New South Greenland), but his reported location during the voyage, while perfectly copying the expected path for traveling up the peninsula, was over to the east and to the north of the actual position of the Antarctic Peninsula, suggesting either a huge miscalculation in location or sightings of icebergs and fog, typical of phantom islands in the Antarctic Circle.
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, Nimrod Islands , , 1828 , , A group of islands between Emerald Island and Dougherty Island, both of which are nonexistent. Probably a group of icebergs together.
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, Pactolus Bank , , 1885 , , An oceanic bank deep off the west coast of Cape Horn, suggested as the remains of Elizabeth Island. A 1956 search of the area turned up no shallow areas in the reported location.
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, Pepys Island , , 1683 , , In 1683, Ambrose Cowley reported an unknown island where he thought the Falklands were, but his location was 4 degrees to the north of the Falkland Islands. While it is possible that he made a mistake in seeing a nonexistent island, it is more likely he saw one of the Falkland Islands and made a 4-degree error in his location.
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, Petermannland , , , , North of Franz Josef Land, named after August Heinrich Petermann.
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, Isle Phelipeaux , , 1744 , , A nonexistent island in Lake Superior referenced in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.
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, Podesta , , 1879 , , An island to the west of El Quisco, Chile, that was discovered to be fake in 1935 and promptly removed. Other phantom islands were also found in the vicinity in 1912 and 1858 (see Sarah Ann Island).
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, Rivadeneyra Shoal , , 1842 , , A shoal in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
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, Royal Company's Islands , , , , A fictional island widely believed during the 19th century to be to the southwest of Tasmania. While not found by numerous expeditions in 1840, 1889, 1902, 1909, and 1912, the island was not officially removed from nautical charts until 1904.
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, Royllo , , 1424 , , A small island to the west of the mythical Antillia (see Antillia above).
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, Rupes Nigra , , , , A magnetic, black island at the exact Magnetic North Pole, invented as an explanation for why all compasses point north.
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, Sandy Island , , 1774 , , Another phantom, small island to the west of New Caledonia that was recorded on many maps until 2012, when a surveying ship passed by and disproved its existence. The current leading explanation is that the island was a raft of buoyant pumice from a recent nearby seamount eruption.
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, Sannikov Land , , 1809 , , An island near the De Long Islands, north of Russia, that probably did exist but was destroyed due to coastal erosion.
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, Sarah Ann Island , , 1858 , , A phantom island near Easter Island, similar to Podesta island. Se
Operational Navigation Chart
of the United States Department of Defense.
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, Satanazes , , 1424 , , This island was originally noted on maps in 1424, originating from popular legend of devils and demons attacking ships that went into the area, but the island was subsequently removed because it obviously did not exist. The island, often drawn to the north of the mythical Antillia, was purportedly full of evil demons but was sometimes called Salvaga to avoid using the profanity "devil".
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, Saxemberg Island , , 1670 , , An odd island midway between South America and Africa that numerous captains reported seeing in 1804, 1809, and 1816. While most had conflicting reports, all of them found the island in the same location; however, none of them actually made landfall. It is possible the island was volcanic and later erupted and destroyed itself. It is also possible that they were looking at Tristan de Cunha island.
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, Schjetman Reef , , 1868 , , To the west of the Hawaiian Islands, Schjetman Reef was originally found in 1868 to be an island long and wide. Later searches in 1880, 1923, and 1924 could not find the island.
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, Sefton Reef , , 1808 , , Approx. 83°W, 37°S (southwest of Robinson Crusoe Island), noted as "position doubtful" in Operational Navigation Chart of the United States Department of Defense.
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, Terra Nova Islands , , 1961 , , Thought to lie off Oates Coast, East Antarctica.
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, Thompson Island , , 1825 , , An island in the south Atlantic Ocean discovered by the whaling ship captain George Norris; it has not been seen since 1893.
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, Thule , , , , A mythical island in the far north that is mentioned many times in Roman- and Medieval-period works. Current interpretations guess it to be Norway, Orkney, Shetland, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, and even Saaremaa.
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, Torca Island , , 1693 , , A mythical island near Ambon in the Indonesia purportedly destroyed by a volcanic eruption.
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, Transit Reef , , , , A possible reef in Southern Palau. While this reef probably exists, some maps do not list it as an actual location, and, although the reef doesn't have any land, the native name of the island, Pieraurou, means 'Sandy Navigation Point', implying a sandy island or sand bar.
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, Tuanaki , , 1842 , , A vanished group of islets in the Cook Islands at which a sailor allegedly spent 6 days, but a ship traveling in the waters two years later found no island.
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, Wachusett Reef , , 1899 , , A nonexistent reef in the Line Islands – in fact Line Islands are more than away – along with Ernest Legouve Reef, Jupiter Reef, and Maria Theresa Reef. This reef, the largest of the three, was thought to be deep. None of these reefs are currently believed to have actually existed.
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, Yosemite Rock , , 1903 , , Approx. 83°W, 32°S (northwest of Robinson Crusoe Island), noted as "Existence doubtful" i
Operational Navigation Chart
of the United States Department of Defense.
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, ''(unnamed rock)''
, 1869
, Sighted by the steamer ''Great Pacific'' at 25° 40' S, 85° 0' W. The ''Sumbawa'' passed through the area in 1904 but did not see it.
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, ''(unnamed breakers)''
, 1901
, Reported at 21° 55' N, 176° 05' W. There is no indication of these breakers on modern maps.
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See also

* Former island
* Fictitious entry
* List of fictional islands
* List of lost lands
* Null Island
* Lost city
* Mythical place
* Phantom settlement
* Terra incognita
* Vigia

References

Further reading

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* Gaddis, Vincent, ''Invisible Horizons'', Chilton Books. New York. 1965.
* Clark Barnaby Firestone, ''The Coasts of Illusion: A Study of Travel Tales'', Harper Books, 1924.
* Johnson, Donald S., ''Phantom Islands of the Atlantic'', New York, Walker Publishing, 1996 (Rev. ed.).
* William Shepard Walsh, ''A Handy Book of Curious Information'', J. B. Lippincott, 1913.
* Dirk Liesemer, ''Lexikon der Phantominseln''. Hamburg, mareverlag, 2016, .
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* L. Ivanov and N. Ivanova. Phantom islands. In
''The World of Antarctica''.
Generis Publishing, 2022. pp. 74-77.

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