Saxemberg or Saxemburg Island was a

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 ...

believed to have existed in 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 ...

. It appeared intermittently on charts between the 17th and the 19th centuries. Saxemberg was reportedly discovered by

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

seafarer John Lindestz Lindeman in 1670. Lindeman reported the island's

coordinates In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sig ...

as .(perhaps references found here)
/ref> Lindeman made a sketch which depicted the island as being low lying, but with a somewhat pointed mountain in the middle. Other sketches, of unidentified authorship, presented a more detailed view of Saxemberg. Major General

Alexander Beatson Alexander Beatson (1758–1830), was an officer in the East India Company's service, governor of St. Helena, and an experimental agriculturist. Life He was second son of Robert Beatson, Esq., of Kilrie, Fife County, Scotland, and a nephew or cous ...

, a resident of

St. Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

, reported that he had drawings of the island depicting different forms of plant life. Another resident of St Helena, James Wathen, wrote a book where he surmised that Ascension,

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...

Gough Gough ( ) is a surname. The surname probably derives from the Welsh (English: "red"), given as a nickname to someone with red hair or a red complexion or as a reduced form of the Irish McGough which itself is an Anglicized form of Gaelic , a patro ...

, and Saxemberg constituted an island chain extending in length and in breadth. Despite Lindeman's original report, many sailors were apparently unable to locate the island at the coordinates provided by the Dutchman. There appears to have been some skepticism about the existence of Saxemberg, and the island was not always depicted on charts. The next reported sighting of Saxemberg was made in 1804, when Captain Galloway of the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

ship ''Fanny'' reported seeing the island and keeping it in view for four hours. Galloway observed that the island did indeed have a peak in the middle, as reported by Lindeman. In 1816, Captain Head of the ''True Briton'' found the island and kept it in view for six hours. His account corroborated Galloway's. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

explorer

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

, known for his explorations of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, attempted to find Saxemberg during his cruise on the ship ''Investigator'', in September 1801. Flinders concluded in his book, ''A Voyage to Terra Australis'', that he did not believe Saxemberg existed at all. However, he noted sometime later that he met the Earl of Caledon in 1810, who showed Flinders a log extract from Captain Long of the sloop ''Columbus''. The log, dated 22 September 1809 noted:Project Gutenberg'
A Voyage to Terra Australis, by Matthew Flinders
/ref> None of the captains who reported seeing Saxemberg actually landed.

References

Sources

*Ramsay, Raymond H. ''No Longer on the Map. Discovering Places That Never Were''. New York: Viking, 1972. . * Stommel, Henry (1984). ''Lost Islands: The Story of Islands That Have Vanished from Nautical Charts''. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, pp 22–25. {{ISBN, 0-7748-0210-3. Phantom islands of the Atlantic Islands of the South Atlantic Ocean

See also

References

Sources