Winslow Reef is an underwater feature of the

Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Kiribati, Republic ...

Republic of Kiribati Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...

, located north-northwest of

McKean Island McKean Island is a small, uninhabited island in the Phoenix Islands, Republic of Kiribati. Its area is . Kiribati declared the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in 2006, with the park being expanded in 2008. The 164,200-square-mile (425,300-squar ...

at . It is the northernmost and westernmost feature of the Phoenix Islands, not counting the outlying

Baker A baker is a tradesperson who baking, bakes and sometimes Sales, sells breads and other products made of flour by using an oven or other concentrated heat source. The place where a baker works is called a bakery. History Ancient histo ...

and

Howland Island Howland Island () is a coral island and strict nature reserve located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an Territories of the ...

s. It has a least depth of . The reef is about long east–west, and about half that wide. The bottom is pink coral and red sand.

History

Winslow Reef is mentioned by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

, who sailed over an area thought to be Winslow Reef in late 1889, but did not find it. For long it had been thought that a Perry Winslow (1815-1890), Capt. of the Nantucket whaler ''Phoenix'', was its discoverer in 1851 and that the name of his ship also became attached to the entire group of islands. Entry November 9, 1840, of the log of whaler “Gideon Howland” of New Bedford, Capt. Michael Baker (1802-1860)], however, might suffice as evidence to an even earlier sighting, an entire decade earlier: "Monday 9th, fine weather light trades all hands severely engaged doing nothing. At 11 AM passed over a reef apparently not more than ... 5 or 6 fathoms of water on it in Lat 1° 36 S Longitude 175° 24 W Lat Meridian..." The etymology behind the toponym Phoenix Islands Protected Area, Phoenix Islands is likely more indebted to the British whaler ''Phœnix'' of London, Capt. John Palmer, than it is to Perry Winslow's ship with the same name, because on February 23, 1824, the former captain had spotted a low and sandy island covered with “''tropical birds, men of war hawks and other sea fowl in latitude 3° 39′ South and Longitude 170° 30′ West''." This was no doubt modern Rawaki. It was named “''Phœnix Island”'' that day, after the whale ship. The ''Phœnix'' was merely one of many ships owned by the firm '' Daniel Bennett & Son'', the largest whaling merchant of its day. It is part of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area and is, therefore, a protected nature reserve. The Winslow Reef borders the U.S. Howland-Baker EEZ. The

PacIOOS The Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) is a nonprofit association and one of eleven such associations in the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System, funded in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Pa ...

mentions that Winslow Reef is "on the southeast boundary line of the EEZ".

References

External links

*
Seamount Catalog
— Winslow Reef

Seamount A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly a ...

listing Reefs of Kiribati Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean Pacific islands claimed under the Guano Islands Act {{Kiribati-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links