A phantom island is a purported island which has appeared on maps but was later found to not exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigational errors, mistaken observations, unverified misinformation, or deliberate fabrication. Some have remained on maps for centuries before being "un-discovered". Unlike lost lands, which are claimed (or known) to have once existed but to have been swallowed by the sea or otherwise destroyed, a phantom island is one that is claimed to exist contemporaneously, but later found not to have existed in the first place (or found not to be an island, as with the Island of California).
Discovery Notable phantom islands were discovered at various points, mostly during the 19th century. Dougherty Island was first spotted in 1841 by Captain Daniel Dougherty of the James Stewart, an Irish whaler, who reported discovering it at 59°20′S 120°20′W. He described it as 5–6 miles long with a high bluff to the northeast and covered in snow. Dougherty's discovery was confirmed by Captain Keates of the Louise in 1860, giving its coordinates as 59°20′S 120°18′W, and by Captain Stannard of the Cingalese in 1886, giving the location as 59°21′S 119°7′W. The island continued to appear on maps as late as 1934. Emerald Island was first sighted by the British sealing ship Emerald, captained by William Elliot, in December 1821, and the name of the supposed island is derived from the name of this ship. It was presumed to be a small (but high and mountainous) island located at 57°30′S 162°12′E. No trace of the island was found by the 1840 United States Exploring Expedition. Although a captain visiting Port Chalmers reported seeing it sometime before 1890, a search by the Nimrod in 1909 turned up nothing. Nevertheless, it appeared on a map as late as 1987 in a desk calendar book (with atlas) published by American Express. The Royal Company's Islands were reported by some early explorers to lie southwest of Tasmania. They were first heard of before 1840, but the original report cannot be traced. Many old charts show them at 50°20′S 140°0′E or 52°20′S 143°0′E. The Nimrod Islands were first reported in 1828 by Captain Eilbeck of the ship Nimrod while sailing from Port Jackson around Cape Horn. Their reported location was east of Emerald Island and west of Dougherty Island, at approximately 56°S 158°W. Finally, Middle Island, once thought to be in the South Shetland Islands, was first sighted along with the rest of the archipelago by British mariner William Smith, on the vessel William, in 1819, although Dutch mariner Dirck Gerritsz in 1599 or Spanish Admiral Gabriel de Castilla in 1603 might have sighted the South Shetlands. Additionally, North or South American sealers might have also visited the archipelago before Smith, though who truly saw them first remains unclear.
Examples Some may have been purely mythical, such as the Isle of Demons near Newfoundland, which may have been based on local legends of a haunted island. The far-northern island of Thule was reported to exist by the 4th-century BC Greek explorer Pytheas, but information about its purported location was lost; explorers and geographers since have speculated that it was the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Scandinavia, or possibly nonexistent. The island of Hy-Brasil was sometimes depicted on maps west of Ireland, but all accounts of it have been fanciful. Some phantom islands arose through the faulty positioning of actual islands, or other geographical errors. Pepys Island was a misidentification of the Falkland Islands. The Baja California Peninsula and the Banks Peninsula in New Zealand each appear as islands on some early maps, but were later discovered to be attached to their mainlands. Isle Phelipeaux, an apparent duplication of Isle Royale in Lake Superior, appeared on explorers' maps for many years, and even served as a landmark for the border between the United States and the territory that would become Canada, before subsequent exploration by surveyors determined that it did not exist. Sandy Island appeared on maps of the Coral Sea beginning in the late 19th century. Purportedly, it existed between the Chesterfield Islands and Nereus Reef near New Caledonia; however, it was "undiscovered" in the 1970s. Nonetheless, it continued to be included in mapping data sets into the early 21st century, until its non-existence was re-confirmed in 2012. Other phantom islands are misidentifications of breakers, icebergs, fog banks, pumice rafts from underwater volcanoes, or optical illusions. Observed in the Weddell Sea in 1823 but never again seen, New South Greenland may have been the result of a superior mirage. Some such as Thompson Island or Bermeja may have been actual islands subsequently destroyed by volcanic explosions, earthquakes, submarine landslides, or low-lying lands such as sand banks that are no longer above water. Pactolus Bank, visited by Sir Francis Drake in 1578, may fit into this former sand bank category. In some cases, cartographers intentionally include invented geographic features in their maps, either for fraudulent purposes or to catch plagiarists.
Popular culture The American author Herman Melville mentions the phenomenon in his novel Moby-Dick. After killing and processing its first sperm whale, the sailors of the Pequod release its carcass to sea, and this prompts the narrator to claim that such floating corpses are sometimes the origins of phantom reefs and shoals:
Desecrated as the [whale] body is, a vengeful ghost survives and hovers over it to scare. Espied by some timid man-of-war or blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightaway the whale's unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log—shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabouts: beware! And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place.
List of phantom islands
See also
Former island Fictitious entry List of fictional islands List of lost lands Lost city Null Island Mythical place Phantom settlement Terra incognita Vigia
References
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