Maria Est

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Maria Est
NASA image by Maria Est
NASA image by Maria Est
Waters Pacific Ocean
archipelago Tuamotu Archipelago
Geographical location 22 ° 1 ′  S , 136 ° 11 ′  W Coordinates: 22 ° 1 ′  S , 136 ° 11 ′  W
Maria Est (French Polynesia)
Maria Est
Number of islands -
Main island -
Land area 3 km²
Lagoon area 7 km²
Residents uninhabited
Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / HoeheFehlt

Maria Est (other names: Moerenhouts Island, Wright Lagoon ) is an atoll that geographically belongs to the Tuamotu Archipelago , more precisely to the Actéon Islands in French Polynesia . The closest island is Matureivavao , 56 km northwest. The atoll was given the nickname "Est" to avoid confusion with the atoll of the same name Maria (Nororotu), which belongs to the Austral Islands.

geography

The lagoon of the almost oval atoll is surrounded by an almost closed coral reef from which numerous small motus , densely overgrown with tropical vegetation, rise. The reef passages ( Hoa ) are very shallow, so that an exchange of water between the lagoon and the ocean only takes place at high water levels. The intense evaporation, combined with a water inflow that is not constantly guaranteed, leads to an increased salt content in the lagoon.

The 6 km long and 3.5 km wide atoll is covered by a dense coconut palm forest interspersed with pandanus trees . Part of the coconut trees were planted. Maria Est, which is not permanently inhabited, is visited from time to time by residents of the neighboring islands to harvest the coconuts for copra production. There is no settlement on the island.

Politics and administration

Maria Est belongs politically to the commune of Gambier ( Commune de Gambier ) and is administered by the Tuamotu-Gambier subdivision ( Subdivision des Îles Tuamotu-Gambier ) of the High Commission of French Polynesia ( Haut-commissariat de la République en Polynésie française ).

history

There are no known signs of the presence of Native Polynesian people. Because of the lack of fresh water, permanent settlement can also be ruled out. The island was only discovered in 1829 by Jacques-Antoine Moerenhout , who sailed with the schooner Volador from Valparaíso via Pitcairn to Tahiti . The atoll is still shown on old maps as "Moerenhouts Island".

Thomas Ebrill , the British captain of the schooner Amphitrite , who traded in pearls and sandalwood, landed on Maria Est in 1832. He described the island as long, low and densely forested inside. He couldn't see any signs of any residents.

The name "Wright Lagoon" was given to Maria Est by Captain Bothwick Wright (also Wight), who reached the atoll on March 27, 1837 with his ship Medway . The Medway was a British ship that brought convicts to Australia. Wright believed himself to be the first to discover it and reports that the island is uninhabited and densely forested, but that there are no coconut palms growing there.

The German ethnologist and colonial historian Dr. Georg Friederici (1866-1947) reached Maria Est on July 18, 1909 with the expedition steamer Natuna as part of a scientific expedition to German New Guinea and the English and French colonies in the South Seas. He also found the island uninhabited, but suspected that the lagoon is visited by pearl divers from time to time.

Others

Jack London describes the island in his short story "The seed of McCoy" as: "A bad place, a very bad place!"

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Henry Buck ( Te Rangi Hiroa ): Explorers of the Pacific: European and American Discoveries in Polynesia, Honolulu 1953, p. 85
  2. ^ A b Alexander George Findlay: A Directory for the Navigation of the Pacific Ocean , London 1851, Volume 2, p. 852
  3. ^ Georg Friederici: A contribution to the knowledge of the Tuamotu Islands , Leipzig 1910, p. 129
  4. ^ German: Jack London, Südseegeschichten : Feuer auf See

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