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Sarah Ann Island (also spelled Sarah Anne) is a vanished island, previously located at (though sometimes listed at about 175° W). It was supposedly discovered in 1858 by Captain William W. Taylor and reported to the U.S. State Department on February 12, 1859, along with 41 other atolls and islands he claimed under the
Sarah Ann Island (also spelled Sarah Anne) is a vanished island, previously located at (though sometimes listed at about 175° W). It was supposedly discovered in 1858 by Captain William W. Taylor and reported to the U.S. State Department on February 12, 1859, along with 41 other atolls and islands he claimed under the Guano Islands Act
The Guano Islands Act (, enacted August 18, 1856, codified at §§ 1411-1419) is a United States federal law passed by the U.S. Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession, in the name of the United States, of unclai ...
. Taylor assigned his interest in Sarah Ann Island (referred to as Sarah Anne) and the other islands to the U.S. Guano Company of New York, which bonded them with the U.S. Treasury Department in February 1860; however, a 1933 review of Guano Islands Act claims found no evidence that the island was ever mined. Furthermore, the report noted that no island could be found at the reported coordinates of 4° 0' N, 154° 22' W.
A search in 1932 by German astronomers was unsuccessful. In 1937, the United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harborâ ...
attempted to locate the island, intending to establish an observatory there to view the solar eclipse of June 8, 1937
A total solar eclipse occurred on June 8, 1937. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's app ...
, but was also unsuccessful. The island, which had been observed 15 years before, was nowhere to be found. Instead, observations were made on the nearby Canton and Enderbury Islands
The Canton and Enderbury Islands consist of the coral atolls of Canton Island (also Kanton) and Enderbury in the northeastern part of the Phoenix Islands, about 1,850 miles (3,000 km) south of Hawaii in the central Pacific Ocean. History
...
and Sarah Ann was quietly removed from Naval charts and has become a phantom island.
One explanation is that Sarah Ann Island was actually Malden Island
Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the 19th century, is a low, arid, uninhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, about in area. It is one of the Line Islands belonging to the Republic of Kiribati. The lagoon is enti ...
, but due to a clerical error it was listed at 4° N instead of 4° S.
References
{{Reflist Former islands of the United States Uninhabited Pacific islands of the United States Pacific islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act Phantom islands 1858 in the United States 1858 establishments