Penrhyn
| Penrhyn (Tongareva) | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| archipelago | Cook Islands | |
| Geographical location | 9 ° 0 ′ S , 157 ° 58 ′ W | |
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| Number of islands | over 30 | |
| Main island | Moananui | |
| length | 24.1 km | |
| width | 11.2 km | |
| Land area | 9.8 km² | |
| Lagoon area | 208 km² | |
| total area | 234 km² | |
| Residents | 213 (2011) | |
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Penrhyn , other names: Tongareva (German: "south of empty space"), Te Pitaka (German: "the circle"), Fararauga or Bennett Island , is a remote, sparsely populated atoll in the Pacific Ocean , geographically part of the northern group belongs to the Cook Islands . The closest neighbors are the islands of Rakahanga and Manihiki , around 350 km to the southwest. Politically, Penrhyn is part of the island nation of the Cook Islands.
geography
Penrhyn is a geologically advanced atoll , the volcanic central mountain of which has sunk under the sea surface for a long time. Only the 53 reef islands ( Motus ) from the late Tertiary, consisting of coral sand and rubble, have remained . They rise only a few meters above sea level. The coral reef with the motus sits on top of an old, submarine volcano, which rises steeply 4800 m from the sea floor. At 11.2 km wide and 24.1 km long, Penrhyn is one of the largest atolls in the Pacific.
The total land area of the reef islands is only 9.8 km², while the large lagoon covers 233 km². In the up to 70 m deep lagoon there are numerous coral reefs and rocks, only partially protruding above the sea surface, which make boat traffic problematic.
Access to the lagoon is provided by three passages for smaller boats: The Siki-Rangi-Passage in the north, the Taruia-Passage, the widest one, in the northwest and the Takuua-Passage near the village of Tautua in the east.
The annual average temperature is relatively high at 28 ° C, but is tempered by a constantly blowing breeze. On average, precipitation falls 2130 mm per year, the rainiest months are December to March.
The total of 213 inhabitants are spread over two villages, the main town Omoka on the Motu Moananui in the west and the much smaller village Tautua on the Motu Pokerekere in the east.
flora
The flora of the northern Cook Islands was significantly changed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the large-scale creation of coconut plantations. The coconut palm is also the plant that characterizes the landscape on Penrhyn.
Remnants of the original vegetation are only preserved on a few small motus. It corresponds to the typical composition also found on other atolls in the Pacific. The beach vegetation consists of creeping plants as well as bushy growing heliotropes , pemphis acidula and Tournefortia argentea (synonym: Heliotropium foertherianum ). The low-growing forest that adjoins inland consists mainly of Pisonia grandis , coconut palms and pandanus trees.
history
Penrhyn was originally settled by Polynesians who, according to legend, came from Tahiti . The legend is likely to be based on a true core, because recent research suggests that the northern Cook Islands were settled from the Society Islands. Radiocarbon dating of Mangaia , Aitutaki and Pukapuka show that settlement was already established around 1000 AD. No data are available from Penrhyn itself, the remote island may have been settled a little later.
Observations by early European visitors suggest that the population was once more numerous than it is today. According to tradition, there were originally two warring tribes that settled on both ends of the Motu Moananui, the largest Penrhyn in the west of the atoll.
According to reports and traditions, there used to be numerous ceremonial sites of the indigenous people on several of the reef islands. The holiest of all, with the grave of the legendary founding father Mahuta, is said to have been on the Motu Tepuka in the west. The remains of such a ceremonial platform ( marae ) are still preserved on the Motu Nuitikainga in the north . The rectangular complex once consisted of a leveled area delimited by vertical stone slabs, at the end of which a low, stone platform rose. The age of the ceremonial site is not known.
Penrhyn was only discovered for Europe in 1788. British merchant captain William Cropton Sever, in command of the Lady Penrhyn , a convict carrier that belonged to the association of eleven ships that brought the first settlers to Australia ( First Fleet ), sailed back from New South Wales to England. He chose the route via China because he hoped to be able to pick up goods for the British Isles there. After a stopover in Tahiti and Huahine , Sever sighted a flat island on August 8, 1788, which he named "Penrhyn's Island" after his ship.
The next European visitor was Otto von Kotzebue who reached the atoll on April 30, 1816 during his second world tour with the Rurik . His stay was short, but he describes it euphorically:
“Nowhere have I seen the palm forest more beautiful than on the Penrhyn. Between the high, windy canopy of the crowns and the ground, one could see the sky and the distance through the trunks. It seemed, at least in places, to be missing the low bushes and the embankment which the islands of this formation tend to enclose and protect from the outside. Relatively numerous, strong and well-fed, peaceful and yet trusting their weapons, unknown to ours, were the people who surrounded us; every family, it seemed, led by the old man in their own boat. They bought iron from us, the precious metal, and when we continued our course they could hardly be persuaded to leave us. "
The arrival of the American whaling ship Glide sparked a bloody conflict with the residents of Penrhyn . The Glide was sailing from Hawaii to the Fiji Islands when Penryn came into view on October 5, 1830. Numerous armed islanders, described as wild and warlike, surrounded the ship with their boats and while trying to get on board, a man wounded Captain Henry Archer with a spear in the neck. Archer opened fire, killing five or six islanders and wounding several others. Immediately the Glide sailed away again.
In 1839 the United States sent a research expedition to the Pacific, the United States Exploring Expedition , under the command of Charles Wilkes . The brig Purpoise , one of the six ships of the association, reached Penrhyn on February 15, 1841. There was brief contact with the inhabitants who approached with numerous, sometimes quite large, canoes. Lieutenant Commander Cadwalader Ringgold had a map drawn and determined the exact position of the island.
From 1821 the Cook Islands came increasingly under the influence of the London Missionary Society , but it was not until 1854 that the first missionaries, four local lay preachers from Rarotonga, reached the remote Penrhyn.
On January 6, 1853, the brig Chatham stranded under the command of the merchant ship Edward Henry Lamont in a storm on Penrhyn. The few rescued crew members lived among the islanders for a year. Lamont was respected and married three local women. After his return he published a book about his experiences.
From 1862 there were a number of recruitments by Peruvian traffickers that almost completely depopulated the island. The first of several ships to haunt Penrhyn was the armed barque Adelante . It came from Callao and reached Penrhyn in July 1862. A few years earlier, an illness had attacked the coconut palms, which are so important for the food supply, so that Penrhyn became short of food. The missionaries had already considered evacuating all residents to the uninhabited Nassau . In this situation the islanders were only too happy to believe the promises of the traffickers and willingly signed long-term labor contracts without understanding their content. 253 men, women and children left their island with the Adelante to work as farm workers and domestic servants in Peru. None of them returned.
When word of this successful recruitment got around in Callao, at least three more ships arrived and it is estimated that a total of almost 500 islanders kidnapped more or less voluntarily. When the missionary Wyatt Gill arrived at Penrhyn on March 11, 1864 with the mission ship John Williams , he found only 40 people there.
In 1856 the United States made territorial claims under the Guano Islands Act .
Captain Sir William Wiseman of HMS Caroline annexed Penrhyn on March 22, 1888 for Great Britain as a possible relay station for the planned trans-Pacific cable from Canada to Australia as part of the so-called "All Red Line", a system of electrical telegraphs that should unite the entire British Empire.
The writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his family visited Penrhyn on May 9 and 10, 1890 during a trip with the steamship Janet Nicoll to the Cook, Gilbert, Ellis and Marshall Islands.
In July 1942, a wasserte "Catalina" the US Navy in the lagoon of Penryn to the usefulness of the island as an air force base for the Pacific War explore. The first soldiers arrived on November 8, 1942 and set up an airfield, accommodation and supply facilities, the so-called "Point Durant Camp". Heavy bombers Consolidated B-24 “Liberator” were stationed on the base and at times up to 1,000 US soldiers. They stayed until September 30, 1946. The wreckage of a crashed bomber is still on the airfield today.
Infrastructure
The main means of transport is still the boat today. In both villages there are suitable jetties for small boats on the lagoon side. There are no paved roads, only the largest island in the west is crossed by a dusty runway, which also connects the village of Omoka with the airport.
Penrhyn has an airfield with a dirt runway ( ICAO code : NCPY, IATA code : PYE) of 2295 m in length south of Omoka, the former US military airfield from the Second World War. However, there are no regular scheduled flights, the island can only be reached with Air Rarotonga charter flights.
The electricity supply with diesel generators is not guaranteed 24 hours a day. The generator remains switched off on Sundays. Rainwater is stored in cisterns that belong to every household.
A small shop in Omoka with a very limited supply, which is open at the discretion of the owner, supplies the islanders with the goods that are not made on the island. They are brought from Rarotonga by a supply ship, which usually operates every three months. If the ship is delayed or if it does not happen at all, which often happens, there are supply bottlenecks.
An administration "building", more like a hut, and a building for the bank post phone in Omoka complete the infrastructure. There are also two churches in Omoka.
The infrastructure for tourists is limited to a few simple private rooms in “guesthouses” in the main town. There are no hotels or restaurants.
economy
The residents live mainly from subsistence farming. Sweet potatoes, taro and yams, important staple foods on all Pacific islands, were still unknown on Penrhyn in the 19th century. Even today, vegetables and tubers have to be mulched and fertilized because the soils are relatively poor in nutrients and do not contain enough water. The staple foods on Penrhyn are still coconuts, breadfruits and bananas. Important sources of protein are fish, mussels, crustaceans and pigs, which are fattened with domestic waste and coconuts. The main source of income is the cultivation of black pearls , the floating pearl farms are anchored all over the lagoon. A little copra is also exported. The women of Penrhyn make artfully woven hats, baskets and mats from young palm fronds, which are exported to Rarotonga and sold to tourists there. The men make jewelry from the shells of the pearl oyster.
Others
Penrhyn belongs administratively to the Cook Islands, but issues its own postage stamps.
Individual evidence
- ^ William G. Coppell: About the Cook Islands - Their Nomenclature and a Systematic Statement of Early European Contacts , in: Journal de la Société des Océanistes, No. 38 (1973), pp. 23-56
- ^ Tourism website of the Cook Islands [1] , accessed on January 9, 2013
- ^ Dieter Mueller-Dombois & F. Raymond Fosberg: Vegetation of the Tropical Pacific Islands , Springer-Verlag, Berlin-New York 1998, p. 394
- ↑ Peter H. Buck ( Te Rangi Hīroa ): Ethnology of Tongareva , Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 92, Honolulu 1932
- ↑ Patrick V. Kirch: On the Road of the Winds - An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact, University of California Press, Berkeley 2000, p. 234
- ^ Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hīroa): Vikings of the Sunrise , Whitcombe and Tombs, New York 1938
- ^ A b E. H. Lamont: Wild Life amongst the Pacific Islanders , London 1867; Reprint: Institute of Pacific Studies 1994, ISBN 978-9823150031
- ^ John Dunmore: Who's Who in Pacific Navigation , University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 1991, pp. 226-227
- ↑ James Oliver: Wreck of the “Glide” with recollections of the Fijis and Wallis Island , Wiley & Putnam, New York-London 1848, pp. 70-71
- ^ Henry Evans Maude: Slavers in paradise: the Peruvian slave trade in Polynesia , 1862-1864, University of the South Pacific, Suva (Fiji) 1986, pp. 5-11
- ↑ William Thomas Strutt (ed.): Journals and Printed Papers of the Federal Council of Australasia (Vol. VI) , Hobart, Tasmania, 1891, Appendix III, pp. 47-49
- ^ William Parker Morrell: Britain in the Pacific Islands, Clarendon P., Oxford 1960
- ↑ Air Rarotonga website [2] accessed on January 10, 2013
- ↑ Stephenson Percy Smith : Tongarewa, or Penrhyn Island, and its People, in: Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1868-1961, Volume 22, Auckland 1889, pp. 85-103
Web links
- Information about Penrhyn ( English )
