text: ducie island ducie island / / is an uninhabited atoll in the pitcairn islands . it lies 535 kilometres ( 332 mi ) east of pitcairn island , and 354 kilometres ( 220 mi ) east of henderson island , and has a total area of 1 . 5 square miles ( 3 . 9 km2 ) , which includes the lagoon . it is 1 . 5 miles ( 2 . 4 km ) long , measured northeast to southwest , and about 1 mile ( 1 . 6 km ) wide . the island is composed of four islets : acadia , pandora , westward and edwards . despite its sparse vegetation , the atoll is known as the breeding ground of a number of bird species . more than 90 % of the world population of murphy 's petrel nests on ducie , while pairs of red - tailed tropicbirds and fairy terns make around 1 % of the world population for each species . ducie was first discovered in 1606 by pedro fernandes de queirós , who named it luna puesta , and rediscovered by edward edwards , captain of hms pandora , who was sent in 1790 to capture the mutineers of hms bounty . he named the island ducie in honour of francis reynolds - moreton , 3rd baron ducie . in 1867 it was claimed by the united states under the guano islands act , but the united kingdom annexed it on 19 december 1902 as part of the pitcairn islands . due to its inaccessibility and the distance from pitcairn island , ducie is rarely visited today . history the island was discovered by a spanish expedition led by portuguese sailor pedro fernandes de queirós on 26 january 1606 , during an expedition that began in callao , peru . supported by pope clement viii and philip iii of spain , queirós was given the command of the san pedro , san pablo and . the fleet was nicknamed los tres reyes ( " the three wise men " ) . the objective of the expedition was to take soldiers , friars and provisions to establish a colony in the santa cruz islands . ducie island was the first of eighteen discoveries on the trip . queirós named the island luna puesta ( roughly , " moon that has set " ) . on the same day , he also sighted two more islands , one that he named san juan bautista ( " st john the baptist " ) , and the other la encarnación ( " the incarnation " ) . it is unclear which one was henderson island and which one pitcairn . the confusion was later compounded when a chart produced by admiral josé de espinosa marked ducie as la encarnación , rather than as luna puesta . the island was rediscovered and named ducie island on 16 march 1791 by captain edward edwards , of hms pandora , who had been despatched from britain in 1790 to arrest the bounty mutineers . edwards named it in honour of francis reynolds - moreton , 3rd baron ducie , under whom he had served earlier in his career . hms pandora turned northwards from ducie and , because of this change of course , edwards did not sight the other islands of the group . if hms pandora had maintained its course , it would eventually have reached pitcairn island and found the bounty mutineers . the crew of the whaleship essex , which a whale had attacked and sunk in november 1820 , mistakenly believed that they had reached ducie after a month at sea in two whaleboats . in fact they had reached henderson island . captain thomas raine of surrey , who was searching for the survivors of essex , in 1820 made the first recorded landing on ducie . frederick william beechey , who arrived in hms blossom during november 1825 , wrote the first comprehensive description of the island . beechey 's expedition did not land in the atoll , but members of the crew sailed around it in small boats . based on beechey 's survey , the first admiralty chart of the island was published in 1826 . for nearly a hundred years it was the only available map of the island . on 5 june 1881 the mail ship acadia ran aground on the island while returning from san francisco , peru after unloading its cargo . on the way to queenstown or falmouth for new orders , master stephen george calculated a route passing 15 to 20 miles ( 24 to 32 km ) to the east of ducie . george left the first mate in command at 6 am . half an hour later , the first mate saw a white line , which he disregarded on the assumption that it was phosphorescence in the water . later , realising that it was land , he manoeuvred to avoid running aground , but failed . the look - out excused himself by saying that he thought that the white land was a cloud . the crew made several unsuccessful attempts to re - float the ship , after which the master sailed one of the ship 's boats to pitcairn island . he was assisted there by the local inhabitants and returned aboard the edward o 'brien , an american boat , to rescue the rest of the crew . the incident was later investigated in a court in liverpool , where the ultimate cause of the wreck was left undetermined , though possible causes included a calculation error by the master or an unknown current that carried the ship to the island . the court declared the master not guilty of any wrongdoing . a stone marker with a memorial inscription is located at the landing point on acadia islet . it was unveiled to commemorate the recovery of the anchor in 1990 . the wreck lies offshore from the memorial stone in about 10 metres of water . in 1969 the atoll was proposed as an " island for science " , and was later recommended as a ramsar site . major expeditions that came to the island to record its biota include the whitney south seas expedition in 1922 , the national geographic society - oceanic institute expedition to southeast oceania of 1970 – 71 and the smithsonian expedition of 1975 . more recent expeditions include a new expedition by the smithsonian in 1987 , one by raleigh international in the same year , the sir peter scott commemorative expedition of 1990 – 91 and the pitcairn scientific expedition of 1991 – 92 . in 2012 , national geographic explorer - in - residence enric sala produced sharks of lost island including ducie and all the pitcairn islands . because of its inaccessibility , ducie is rarely approached , but cruise ships make one or two landings per year . in addition , unrecorded visits are known to be made by freighters and tankers that dump residues on the island or in the nearby waters . sovereignty although captain edward edwards discovered the atoll in 1791 , ducie was not considered a british possession . in 1867 ducie was claimed by the united states under the guano islands act , which established that an uninhabited territory with guano deposits could be claimed as a us possession , so long as it was unclaimed by any other country . despite claims on several other territories , based on various documents such as the guano islands act , neither the united states nor the united kingdom recognised the sovereignty claimed by each other . neither of the two considered that the mere discovery of an island was sufficient to claim sovereignty over it , and often a formal act of possession was considered the proper procedure to claim rights over a territory . ultimately , the united states did not assert its sovereignty over most of its claimed territories . under the 1893 pacific order in council , pitcairn island was governed by the high commissioner of the british western pacific territories in fiji . on 19 december 1902 , commissioned by r. t. simmons , the british consul in tahiti , captain g. f. jones and a group of visited the nearby islands and annexed them to the united kingdom . in 1903 ducie was annexed by the same procedure and placed under the authority of the western pacific high commissioner . r. t. simmons stated in a dispatch to the foreign office that james russell mccoy had assured him that the islands had always been considered as dependencies of pitcairn , and that he and other had frequently visited them in the past . this claim is contested by donald mcloughlin on grounds of the distance between pitcairn island and ducie island and the lack of a suitable boat to navigate the distance between the two , casting doubt on whether they had ever visited ducie . on 4 august 1937 captain j. w. rivers - carnac , commander of hms leander , reaffirmed british sovereignty over ducie by hoisting the union flag and placing boards proclaiming the island to be the property of king george vi . ducie was one of several islands thought valuable for potential seaplane bases , though they did not materialise . in 1953 the pacific order in council ceased to have effect and the british governor of fiji was appointed governor of the pitcairn islands , which became a separate british colony . a new constitution for the pitcairn islands was enacted on 10 february 2010 , establishing that ducie and the rest of the islands are ruled by a governor designated by the british monarch , presently ( as of 23 july 2016 ) elizabeth ii . the governor has a duty to enforce the provisions of the constitution . geography ducie lies 290 miles ( 470 km ) east of pitcairn island and is claimed by some to be the southernmost atoll in the world at 24 degrees south latitude . however , middleton reef is at 29 degrees south latitude , so the assertion on behalf of ducie island is doubtful . ducie island 's land area is 170 acres ( 1 km2 ) and its maximum elevation , occurring on the westward islet , is 15 feet ( 4 . 6 m ) . ducie is located 620 miles ( 1 , 000 km ) west of the edge of the easter plate . it was formed approximately 8 million years ago , after oeno island was formed by a hotspot that later caused a magma leak generated in the oeno . the leak spread over fracture zone , which was formed by the third movement of the pacific plate . the atoll is part of the oeno - henderson - ducie - crough seamount , speculated to be part of the southern tuamotus . the atoll consists of four islets : acadia , pandora , westward and edwards . the last three of these can be accessed on foot from acadia at low tide . the islets were named by harald rehder and john randall , who visited the atoll during an expedition by the smithsonian institution in 1975 . acadia islet , along the atoll 's north and east rim , is larger than the other three islets combined , measuring 140 acres ( 57 ha ) . very long and thin , the islet is largely forested and is composed of ridges of coral rubble . it is named after the acadia , a ship that was wrecked on ducie in 1881 . pandora islet , in the south , is the second largest . it is composed of sand and coral rubble that borders the lagoon . it is named after hms pandora . edwards islet lies immediately to the east of pandora islet and has the same characteristics . it is named after edward edwards , captain of hms pandora . westward islet , west of pandora islet , is the smallest . it appears sandy from a distance , but the soil is composed of coral rubble and dead shells . its highest point rises 15 feet ( 4 . 6 m ) above average sea level . it is named after the westward , the ship that carried the members of the national geographic society and the oceanic institute during their 1970 – 71 expedition . the atoll has a central lagoon , accessible by boat only by way of a channel 100 yards ( 91 m ) wide located in the southwest , between pandora and westward islets . it has a maximum depth of 52 feet ( 16 m ) and its bottom consists of sand and coral . in the lagoon are common , caused by tunnels that drain the water from the lagoon into the ocean . flora the vegetation in the atoll is sparse , because of the lack of fresh water . only two species of vascular plant are currently known to grow there – one of the smallest such floras on any island . acadia , pandora and edwards islets are forested with heliotropium foertherianum , but westward islet is not . has also been recorded on ducie ; specimens were found during an expedition in 1991 . during the expedition of hugh cuming in 1827 and the 1922 whitney south sea expedition , grass was found on acadia islet . however , it disappeared when storm waves deforested the island some time before the smithsonian expedition of 1975 . thus h. foertherianum now dominates the vegetation of the islets . additionally , there are a number of species of coralline algae , including , , and caulerpa racemosa . fauna the atoll is populated by several species of birds , fish and reptiles . in the lagoon , sparse living coral still can be found ; the dominant species is ( family ) . most of the coral in the lagoon is dead , presumed to have been killed by influxes of cold water . birds though no terrestrial birds are found on the atoll , ducie island is well known for the seabirds that breed there . birds that have been recorded nesting on the atoll include the red - billed , red - tailed , fairy tern , great frigatebird , bristle - thighed curlew , masked booby and red - footed booby . a number of gull species , including the sooty tern , blue noddy , brown noddy , lesser noddy and white tern , have been recorded , as have several members of the procellariidae family : kermadec petrel , trindade petrel , murphy 's petrel and christmas shearwater . the island is particularly important for murphy 's petrel , as more than 90 % of its world population breeds on ducie . around 3000 pairs of christmas shearwaters , about 5 % of the world 's total population , can be found on the island too . meanwhile , the red - tailed tropicbirds and fairy terns that breed on ducie are around 1 % of the world population of each species . phoenix petrels , which previously inhabited the atoll , apparently disappeared between the whitney expedition in 1922 and the 1991 – 92 pitcairn scientific expedition . the island has been identified by birdlife international as an important bird area ( iba ) principally for its colonies of murphy 's , herald and kermadec petrels , and christmas shearwaters . fish in the lagoon there are around 138 fish species , which also inhabit southeastern oceania , the western pacific and the indian ocean . the lagoon is noted for its poisonous fishes and dangerous sharks . the yellow - edged , the blacktip grouper , and the greasy grouper are known to cause ciguatera poisoning . the lagoon is also inhabited by galápagos sharks and the whitetip reef shark . the galápagos shark is dangerous to humans , while the whitetips are seldom aggressive unless provoked . five species are found exclusively around the pitcairn islands : ( a species of ) , the spiny , the henderson ( a species of blenny ) , an unnamed species of ( a genus of combtooth blenny ) and an unnamed species of ammodytes ( a genus of sand lance ) . terrestrial vertebrates lizards that inhabit the island include the white - bellied skink ( ) , photographed by e. h. quayle during an expedition in 1922 , and a lizard reported in the journal of an expedition in 1935 by james chapin . the species of the latter was uncertain , but it was thought to be a gecko , possibly either an oceanic gecko ( oceanica ) or a mourning gecko ( lugubris ) . the 1991 – 92 pitcairn scientific expedition found specimens of both the mourning gecko and the white - bellied skink . the only mammal known to inhabit ducie is the polynesian rat ; there has been a successful programme to eradicate these , to aid the conservation of bird species threatened by the increasing rat population . green sea turtles feed on ducie , but have not been seen to breed there .