How Canton Island
pp. 31-32 · Read in the full issue
Got Its Name Epic Open-Boat Voyage That Rivalled Bligh's
FOUR years ago, Canton Island was merely the name of one of a thousand dots of land on the map of the Pacific —no one knew (or cared) much about it and the only signs of life there were the myriad of screaming sea birds wheeling above the booming surf.
To-day, Canton is an important “stop over” station on the Pan American Air ways flying-boat route from America to New Zealand, and is under the joint control of Britain and U.S.A.
The tiny island —it really is only a ring of land enclosing a pear-shaped lagoon nine miles long and three miles wide —now has a population of over 50 P.A.A. staff and five Britishers (Mr. F.
I. Fleming, British Colonial Office offi cial, Mrs. Fleming, their Gilbert Islands servant and his wife and child). , The colony is laid out in streets over which now travel cars, trucks and tractors and it boasts a 24-rooms ultra-modern hotel, complete with electric kitchen and ice making plant, for Clipper passengers.
Incidentally, Mr. and Mrs. Fleming live beside P.A.A.’s 500,000-dollar estab lishment in a home-made bungalow of packing-cases!
Lying just under the equator, Canton is the principal island of the Phoenix Group, north of Samoa and mid-way between the Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand. Its earliest recorded history indicates that Captain Andrew Johnson Wing, of the whaler “Canton”, running before a tropical storm, piled up on the barrier reef on March 4, 1854.
Apparently he was not the first whaling captain to see the atoll —a U.S.
Naval report dated 1828 refers to an island which was known to New Bed ford whalers as Mary Island and there is no doubt that it was the atoll now designated as Canton. But a vague reference in a report which he had never seen was worth less than nothing to Captain Wing, with his vessel grind ing her keel to bits on a coral reef.
The captain called for a volunteer to go ashore with a line. Mate William B.
Carrol bid for the dangerous job, and succeeded in getting every man of the crew of 32 ashore. Four boats, 30 ft. long with 6-ft. beam, loaded with water and provisions, were also saved. On the island they found no water, and nothing to eat; so they budgeted their supplies and watched the horizon for 24 days.
By March 30 the men were in a des perate situation: provisions and water were low and there seemed no prospect of rescue; so the crew of the “Canton” resolved to rescue itself.
THE immediate objective of Captain Wing was the Kingsmill Group (Gilberts) some 800 miles west ward. Whalers put in there regularly, and assistance could be relied upon. But day followed upon day without a land fall, until at length Captain Wing was forced to the conclusion that the winds and currents had carried him past the Group. Continuing north-westward, the ship’s company was rewarded on the 45th day by a glimpse of land.
Approaching, they found themselves at Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, and Captain Wing presently was conducted into the presence of the Spanish Gov ernor. When the Governor heard the Captain’s story, he flatly refused to
believe it; he said the crew might take water and coconuts if they liked—in any event, they must move on.
So the ship’s company set out again in the boats. At least, their call at Tinian gave them a “fix”. They knew exactly where they were, and the Cap tain’s navigation from that point onward enabled them to reach Guam Island on May 19, with all four boats and all hands safe. No log of the journey was kept, but Captain Wing reached Hong Kong on August 22, from where he sent a report to the owners, giving the location of the island upon which the “Canton” was wrecked.
The crew had made the journey from Canton to Guam in their open boats in 49 days, covering 2,900 nautical miles. By comparison, in 1789, Captain William Bligh, with those members of his crew who declined to participate in the mutiny of the “Bounty”, went from Tofua, in the Tongan Island, 3,618 nautical miles to Timor in an open boat 23 ft. long in 42 days. Captain Bligh went farther and faster on the open ocean, in the pages of fiction, and on the silver screen, but Captain Wing and the “Canton” put another island on the charts.
Other names variously applied later included Mary Balcout’s Island, Swallow Island, Balcout Island, and Bulcot Island, but the name Canton was used by Captain Richard W. Meade of the U.S.S. “Narragansett” in his report of 1872-73, describing a visit to the island, and this name became the official one.
FOR many years there was very little interest in the barren circle of sand. Guano collectors went to work on nearby Enderbury Island in 1858, but it was not until the 80’s that John J. Arundel and Co., of London, started similar work on Canton.
In 1884, the guano vessel “Howard E.
Troup”, anchored close to the shore, fell victim to a change in the wind, which drove her onto the reef. A steam winch, a hollow metal mast and some long heavy timbers still remain as reminders of that tragedy. Eventually the guano workers abandoned the island and left behind their rude huts, which fell to pieces in wind and weather,
leaving only corrugated roofs to mark the site of the camp.
Then the übiquitous Captain Allen entered into the picture. For his com pany, the Samoa Shipping and Trading Co. Ltd., Captain Allen seemingly took a lease on every uninhabited South Sea
island he could discover on the charts.
In 1915, he visited Canton, erected a beacon, and planted hundreds of coco nut trees. The idea, of course, was to let the trees get a good start, and then establish a copra industry. When he returned for an inspection in 1919 all but 5 or 6 of the trees had died, so the experiment was abandoned. A wistful clump of coconut palms still remains on the island.
CANTON was neglected then until 1936 when, following claims by U.S.A. to the titles of various small Pacific Islands, the N.Z. sloop “Leith” called there and a British flag was planted, together with a proclamation signed by Captain L. C. P. Tudway, declaring British sovereignty.
The following year a New Zealand scientific party decided on Canton as a base from which to observe a solar eclipse on June 8. On arrival, they found an American expedition already in possession there, having arrived in the U.S. naval tender “Avocet” to study the eclipse also. During their stay, the Americans erected a concrete plinth into which an American flag was built.
This and other incidents caused much discussion as to which nation actually owned the island, the point being even tually referred to London and Washing ton.
In August, 1938, the “Leith” again visited Canton and left two radio operators and equipment. Three months later a party of Americans, including young Hawaiian natives, arrived to occupy the island.
Shortly afterwards, it was officially announced that an agreement had been
reached between Britain and U.S.A. under which both nations would be entitled to use the island as an ocean air base, with the question of actual sovereignty postponed until later.
IT was in May, 1939, that Pan American Airways’ supply ship, “North Haven”, out of San Francisco, dropped anchor off the barrier reef of Canton Island and put ashore a con struction crew of 43, together with launch, tractor, building materials, food, gasoline, and an endless list of supplies necessary for establishing a going community and a Clipper air base.
A radio and meteorological station was erected, with permanent direction finder tower, barracks for the P.A.A. ground staff, buildings to house power plants and refrigerator units, evapora tors to obtain fresh water, warehouses, airport offices, shops, etc. High explo sives were used to destroy over 500 dangerous coral heads studding the lagoon so as to provide a smooth, safe water runway for the giant seaplanes.
By August, 1939, work had progressed to the point where the base was equip ped to receive a Clipper, and so the “California Clipper” set out for the first survey flight over this route. (The N.Z. surveys of 1937 were over the first considered route via Kingman Reef and American Samoa, which would have been a spur line connecting with the northerly trans-Pacific service at Hono lulu and which was discarded in favour of the present route when the advent of the huge Boeings of the “Yankee Clipr per” and “California Clipper” type made it possible to plan in terms of a service starting from San Francisco, and by way of the somewhat longer jumps to Canton and Noumea.) A SECOND flight over the route, for familiarising flight and ground crews with facilities and pro cedures, was completed to N.Z. and return to San Francisco in 11 days, in November, 1939, and was the means of getting members of the construction crew back to U.S.A.
Further test flights were made, using Boeing machines. Then, for many months, delay caused by U.S. officialdom and the war in Europe held up the actual commencement of the service.
Finally, on July 12, 1940, the “American Clipper” took off from San Francisco harbour and inaugurated a regular fort nightly service to New Zealand, via Los Angeles, Honolulu, Canton Island, and Noumea.
And so Canton Island, from its insigni ficant beginning, has become a stepping stone between America and the Antipo des, and now takes its place beside other important front-rank islands of the Pacific.