Pepys Island

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Pepys Island in an illustration from 1699

As Pepys Iceland one was Phantom Island called, allegedly of about 230 miles north Falkland Islands should be. It was first mentioned in 1684 by Ambrose Cowley , who probably misrepresented the coordinates of one of the Falkland Islands. He named the island after Samuel Pepys , the then secretary of the Admiralty, who is best known today as the diary author of the English restoration era . Other participants in Cowley's voyage, such as William Dampier , did not mention the island. The name was also applied to South Georgia .

In the 18th century, several expeditions tried to locate the island. Some, including John Byron , identified the island with the Falkland Islands, but others, such as Louis Antoine de Bougainville , Lord Anson, and James Cook , continued to search for it until the 1780s, when Cowley's original diary was rediscovered and his error was noticed .