Kerguelen Plateau

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The island was first spotted on 1 January 1739 by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, during a French exploration mission in the South Atlantic with the ships Aigle and Marie. They did not make landfall. He mislabeled the coordinates for the island, and it was not sighted again until 1808, when the British whaler James Lindsay encountered it and named it Lindsay Island. The first claim to have landed on the island was made by the American sailor Benjamin Morrell, although this claim is disputed. In 1825, the island was claimed for the British Crown by George Norris, who named it Liverpool Island. He also reported having sighted another island nearby, which he named Thompson Island, but this was later shown to be a phantom island. In 1927, the first Norvegia expedition landed on the island, and claimed it for Norway. At that point, the island was given its current name of Bouvet Island ('Bouvetøya' in Norwegian). In 1930, following resolution of a dispute with the United Kingdom over claiming rights, it was declared a Norwegian dependency. In 1971, it was designated a nature reserve.

Reader's Guide

Bouvet Island's history is marked by disputed sightings and claims. James Cook's second voyage set off from Cape Verde on 22 November 1772 and attempted to find the island, but also failed. The next expedition to spot the island was in 1808 by James Lindsay, captain of the Samuel Enderby & Sons' snow whaler Swan. Lindsay could confirm that the 'cape' was indeed an island. American Benjamin Morrell, by his own account, found the island with 'improbable ease' before landing and hunting 196 seals, but his description does not mention the island's permanent ice cover, causing doubt. On 10 December 1825, George Norris landed on the island, named it Liverpool Island and claimed it for the British Crown and George IV on 16 December. In 1927, the First Norvegia Expedition, led by Harald Horntvedt, was the first to make an extended stay. At Ny Sandefjord, a small hut was erected and, on 1 December, the Norwegian flag was hoisted and the island claimed for Norway. The annexation was established by a royal decree on 23 January 1928. The claim was initially opposed by the United Kingdom, but in November 1929, Britain renounced its claim. In 1964, the British naval ship HMS Protector landed a small survey team at Nyrøysa, who discovered an abandoned lifeboat in a small lagoon. The lifeboat was believed to belong to a Soviet scientific reconnaissance vessel. The Vela incident took place on 22 September 1979, on or above the sea between Bouvet Island and the Prince Edward Islands, when the American Vela Hotel satellite 6911 registered an unexplained double flash, interpreted by most independent assessments as an undeclared joint nuclear test carried out by South Africa and Israel.

Did You Know?

• Bouvet Island is the world's most remote island.
• 93 percent of the island is covered by a glacier.
• The island was first spotted on 1 January 1739 by Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
• Nyrøysa, the only easy place to land, was created by a rockslide in the late 1950s.
• The Vela incident of 22 September 1979, observed near Bouvet Island, is widely believed to have been an undeclared joint nuclear test by South Africa and Israel.