Ladd Reef ( vi, Đá Lát;
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
) is a
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
-controlled
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
in the
Spratly
The Spratly Islands ( fil, Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; zh, c=南沙群島/南沙群岛, s=, t=, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay, id, Kepulauan Spratly; vi, Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed o ...
group of islands,
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
.
China (PRC) and
Taiwan (ROC)
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...
are also claimants of the reef. Like
Spratly Island, Ladd Reef lies to the west of the Philippines-defined "
Kalayaan Islands" claim area.
Names
The English name ''Ladd Reef'' was coined by
Richard Spratly
Captain Richard Spratly (1802–1870) was a British sea captain and contributor to navigational records, after whom the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea are named.
Early life
Richard Spratly was born on 22 January 1802 in the parish of All ...
in late March 1843, after Captain Ladd of the ship ''Austen'', who seemed to be the first to have seen the reef.
The Chinese name ''Rìjī Jiāo'' was coined in 1947 to replace the 1935 name ''Lādé Jiāo'' (拉德礁), which was transliterated from the English name ''Ladd''.
Geography
Ladd Reef lies west of
Dangerous Ground in the western half of the
Spratly Islands, to the south of
Coronation Bank
A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...
, southwest of
West London Reef
West London Reef ( tl, Bahura ng Kanlurang Quezon); West Reef ( vi, Đá Tây); Mandarin , is a reef on the western part of the London Reefs of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The reef has been occupied by Vietnam since 1987. It is a ...
(West Reef) and west of
Spratly Island.
This coral reef lies on a northeast-southwest axis, in length, in width, and spans over an area of . It is entirely submerged during high tide, but there are some stones jutting out of the sea during low tide.
Structures
The reef is uninhabited but contains a Vietnamese
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
(built in 1994)
with the inscription ''Hải đăng đá Lát'' (literally "Ladd Reef Lighthouse"). The lower portion of the lighthouse consists of quarters for a handful of Vietnamese soldiers and the lighthouse keeper.
Other information
In 1945, towards the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, a Dutch submarine (
HNLMS O-19
''O 19'', laid down as ''K XIX'', was an of the Royal Netherlands Navy that saw service during World War II. ''O 19'', along with her sister ship , were the first submarines in the world to be equipped with a submarine snorkel that allowed the su ...
) ran aground on Ladd Reef.
References
External links
Maritime Transparency Initiative Island Tracker
Reefs of the Spratly Islands
Reefs of Vietnam
{{vietnam-geo-stub