- Palmerston Island
Palmerston Island is a
coral atoll in theCook Islands in thePacific Ocean about 500 km northwest ofRarotonga . It was discovered byJames Cook onJune 16 ,1774 .Overview
A true atoll, Palmerston Island consists of a number of sandy islets on a continuous ring of
coral reef enclosing alagoon . The largest of the islets include Palmerston, North Island, Lee To Us, Leicester, Primrose, Toms, and Cooks. The total land area of the islets is approximately one square mile (2.6 km²). The coral reef covers about 3,600 acres (15 km²). Thelagoon is some seven miles (11 km) across, covering an area of 56 km². There are several small passages through the reef forboats , though there is no safe entry for largeships . At a latitude of 18 degrees south, Palmerston enjoys atropical climate but is exposed to severehurricanes . A particularly destructive series of storms occurred during the 1920s and 1930s.All the islets are wooded with
coconut palms,pandanus , and nativetree s. There is no natural water on the islets except that captured from rainfall.Shellfish inhabit the reef, andfish are abundant although there are concerns aboutoverfishing . The population consists of approximately fifty inhabitants, all descended from anEnglishman namedWilliam Marsters (see history, below). The economy is based onfishing ,tourism ,copra , and bird feathers, though Palmerston’s extreme remoteness makes acash market difficult to maintain.Electricity and other modern utilities are available on the island. A recently builttelephone station provides the only permanent link to the outside world. A research vessel, the "Bounty Bay", maintains a tourist service from Rarotonga to Palmerston, but the island has noairport or regular air service.History
Palmerston was discovered by Captain Cook in 1774, but he did not land on the island until April 13, 1777. He found the island uninhabited, though some ancient graves were discovered. Cook named the island after
Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston , then lord of theadmiralty . The ancient name of the island was supposedly "Avarau", meaning “two hundred harbours.” In 1863William Marsters , a ship'scarpenter and barrel maker, arrived on Palmerston from Manuae with twoPolynesia n wives and annexed the island from theBritish government . He added a third wife and sired a large family of some 17 children, whose descendants now inhabit Palmerston.Marsters is said to have originally come from
Gloucestershire , and his descendants now spell the name "Marsters", possibly due to the Gloucestershire accent. By the time his youngest daughter Titana Tangi died in 1973, there were over a thousand Ma(r)sters descendants living in Rarotonga orNew Zealand . Though only some sixty family members remain on Palmerston, all Marsters descendants consider the island their ancestral home. In 1954 the family was granted full ownership of the island. Three branches of the family remain on Palmerston, each branch being descended from one of Marsters's three wives, andmarriage within a family group is prohibited. Alleyne, Richard:" [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/29/watoll129.xml 'Islanders speak with a West Country accent'] "The Daily Telegraph ",April 29 , 2008.] Palmerston is now administered by the Cook Islands government in association with New Zealand.References
External links
* [http://www.cookislands.org.uk/palmerston.html The English legacy of Palmerston Island]
* [http://www.ck/palmston.htm Cook Islands website page on Palmerston Island] RevisedJanuary 20 2007
* [http://www.janeresture.com/palmerston/index.htm Jane's Cook Islands website page on Palmerston Island] Rev.30 November 2007
* [http://www.santotoday.com/gowestsf/palmerst.htm Tourist account of Palmerston Island]
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