Category Archives: Minerva Reefs

The skill and professionalism of the chopper crew who carried out a dramatic sea rescue far off the Northland coast was nothing short of mindblowing, the vessels skipper says.

Phil Dent, the Melbourne-based owner and skipper of PatriotX, had to perform emergency surgery on a crewmate who fell seriously ill more than 300km offshore guided by a surgeon watching via satellite internet then witnessed an extraordinary rescue that pushed the Northland Rescue Helicopter to its limits.

Dent left pua Marina last Thursday on what was supposed to be a trip to Fiji via Minerva Reefs with an old mate among his crew. By the next morning, however, James, 75, had developed a serious medical problem. By then the 18-metre boat was already 185 nautical miles (340km) out to sea.

When antibiotics didnt help, Dent called a surgeon friend in Australia, using a Starlink satellite internet receiver he dubbed Musky after company founder Elon Musk. Dent had also prepared for long ocean voyages by assembling, with a doctors advice, a trauma kit packed with emergency medical equipment.

As James condition became increasingly painful and life-threatening, and with the surgeon guiding him via the FaceTime video app, Dent who described himself as a bad mechanic on a good day carried out an emergency surgical procedure using a piece of equipment he likened to a 12-gauge needle.

The improvised surgery was a success but James was still in agonising pain. By then the vessel had already turned around and was heading back to pua into a horrendous head-on sea.

Dent contacted Maritime NZ to request an ambulance as soon they reached land; next thing he knew a paramedic was on the phone, and a decision was made to get James off the boat as soon as possible.

Around 9.30pm Dent was told the Northland Rescue Helicopter was being readied for a rescue mission with a Westpac chopper as backup.

Northlands Sikorsky S-76 choppers have the longest range of any rescue helicopter in New Zealand but the location of PatriotX was at its limit, even after a refuelling stop in Kerikeri.

Dent said his first radio contact with the chopper crew, spelling out exactly what he had to do, was about 11.15pm on Friday. When he turned around, the vessel was buffeted by 20-30 knot winds and swells of up to 4m. Fortunately, conditions had eased by the time the chopper arrived but the wind was still around 20 knots. At that point the boat was 240km northeast of the Bay of Islands.

The rescue was just mindblowing, Dent said.

The chopper had to come in so low he estimated it was 12-15 metres above the vessel he was asked to take down the boats aerials, which he was unable to do.

A couple of times I thought he was going to land on the roof ... then at one stage we thought wed lost him and hed have to abort, but he came back again and slotted the paramedic straight into the back of the boat. He just slid down the rope, boom! And 30 seconds later he was inside the cabin.

Dent said hed expected the paramedic to examine James and ask questions. Hed even prepared a bag with James essentials to take along.

But the paramedic said, Mate, weve got two minutes to get him out. Were low on fuel and we cant muck around. He took James passport and medical notes, slapped the harness on him, and the two of us helped him to the back of the boat. Then, poof!, he was gone. It was quite extraordinary.

Within seconds the pair were in the helicopter and on their way to Whangrei Hospital.

Dent couldnt praise the rescue crew or Maritime NZ enough.

They were f****** amazing. Their courage and professionalism were just outstanding. When you see it on TV its exciting enough but to see it and experience it first-hand is exceptional. You realise then what they deal with and the complexity of what they do.

Dent said one of the lessons from the experience was that anyone heading out to sea needed to be prepared for anything. Without the trauma kit and the Starlink receiver he believed James may not have survived.

However, even the best-prepared boaties needed help sometimes, and for that he was grateful to the Northland Rescue Helicopter crew.

James was now at home on Flinders Island, Tasmania, and recovering well.

Ironically, the veteran maritime operator was due to give a talk next month for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority about the many water rescues he had carried out in Bass Strait.

Now hes got a great story to finish on, Dent said.

Paul Davis, the hoist operator and critical care paramedic that night, rated it among the top-three most challenging rescues of his career so far.

That was because of the range, which put a tight limit on how long the helicopter could stay on scene; the sea conditions, which were worse than forecast; the vessels movement; and limited night-time visibility.

With all of those things combined its not a simple task to winch someone onto a vessel and then retrieve them and another person, Davis said.

Once the crew arrived they went through several dummy runs to make sure the pilot could maintain a stable hover and good clearance above the vessel, and place a rescue swimmer at the right spot on board.

The Enchanter rescue, near North Cape in March last year, was even more difficult because it involved multiple patients and only pieces of debris as a target for the pilot.

The other crew members were captain Murray Plowright, co-pilot Joel Higgie and rescue medic Blake Murray.

Excerpt from:

Just mindblowing: Northland chopper crews courage, skill praised ... - Northern Advocate

As you can see on the above satellite image, the Minerva Reefs are on a major under ocean ridge line. They are a couple of coral lagoon with almost nothing above the water at high tide and a substantial wall of coral deadening the ocean swell at low tide.

There isno land within 400miles, to wash sediment into the water, so the underwater visibility is like gin.

Both North and South Minerva Reefs lagoons has a small break in thecoral wall to allow a boat to access. The access passages into the lagoonsare notbig, sodaylight is essential to make sure I do not add Logic to the numerous boat that have been wreck on the reefs.

North Minerva Reef has a more substantial coral rim to the lagoon, which makes it a better protected anchorage from the ocean swell. We ended up being able to make it into South Minerva Reefs lagoon, in daylight, which would have not been the case if we had of continued the additional 24miles to North Minerva.I took the boat into the western lee of the island to try and catch a fish as we motored around to the entry of the lagoon. Which proved to be an ideal call as we caught a 4kg Big Eye Tuna, the Rolls Royce of sashimi tuna species.Compared to the coral reefs I had anchored in amongst , in the Great Barrier Reef, off the Australian coast, it was relatively easy to entre to South Minerva Reefslagoon, but I still would not have liked todo it without daylight to confirmthere were no coral bommies in our path.

We located a sandy patch to drop the anchor in, set the anchor alarm and had a very enjoyable nights sleep, not interrupted by having to alternate watches.

At high tide the reef was no visible, resulting in a swell, that has us postponing jobs until the stiller waters at low tide.

After the cold of a New Zealand autumn it was great to be able to go for a swim in the crystal clear watersand take Albert ashore to check out the reef at low tide

a walk took us to the outer edge, where the power of waves was very evident

The sunrises out in the middle of ocean where spectacular

after 2 nights in South Minerva we motored the 25 miles up to North Minervaagain staying close to the reef in the hope of catching a fish, but no luck this time.

An aerial photo of North Minerva, could well be off a human egg, taken from a paper on artificial insemination, with the NWen entry in thelagoon, where the replacement nucleusis to be inserted.

there was a very surreal feel to the lagoon. like a still pond in the middle of the ocean.

we anchored on the eastern side of the lagoonclose to what was left of the wreck of a trawlerdown one of the anchor chain tubes was a good size crayfish

so the plan was hatched, Mat would spear it from the top, Jemma would patrol the bottom, incase it tried to escape and I would be the cameraman.

success!!!

I also speared a good size tooth fish (nice eating)

We then went ashore, to find that under the big rocks there were crayfish

It took a quick bit of fine tuning and we had worked out how to stick a gloved hand under the rock, feel around for the crayfish, make sure it was a big one, then pull it out (great fun, in a hunter gather way).

They were good eating, just the legs and base of the antennas had us full after eating them for dinner.primate grooming Logic style

The next front moved over and the breeze changed from a northerly to a southerly, so it was time to reluctantly leave the Minervas and continue on our way to Fiji.

Initially the wind was too light, forcing us to motor

as it increased we were able to pull out the Screecher

Usually we heard the flying fish landing on the boat at night and threw them back, unfortunately nobody heard this one We had run out of fresh fruit and veg, so the germinated lentils were a welcome addition to our diet

As we approached Fiji it was time to put up the yellow quarantine flag and the Fijian cutesy flagUpon arrival, we were first visited by La from heath to make sure we were not a health risk to the Fijian population.We passed and the yellow flag could now come down. The next step in the paperwork for entering Fiji was Customs. Which again went smoothly.

with the paperwork out of the way, we then moved Logic into the Vuda Point Marinawe ended up covering the 440miles from North Minerva to Nadi in 2 days and 10hrs for a more respectableaverage speed of 7.5kt

The rest is here:

4 days on the Minerva Reefs, then onto Fiji Sailing Logic

The reefs were put on the charts by Captain John Nicholson of LMS Haweis in December 1818 as reported in The Sydney Gazette 30 January 1819[4] and had been marked on charts as "Nicholson's Shoal" since the late 1820s. Captain H. M. Denham of HMS Herald surveyed the reefs in 1854 and renamed them after the Australian whaler Minerva, which collided with South Minerva Reef on 9 September 1829.[5]

In 1971 barges loaded with sand arrived from Australia, bringing the reef level above the water and allowing construction of a small tower and flag. The Republic of Minerva issued a declaration of independence on 19 January 1972,[6] in letters to neighboring countries and even created their own currency. Morris C. "Bud" Davis was elected as President of the Republic of Minerva.[7]

Prior to 1972, Tonga had not claimed sovereignty over the Minerva Reefs. In 1887, when King George Tupou I of Tonga first proclaimed Tongas territory, the Minerva Reefs were not included. When asked about the Minervan's project, the King of Tonga, Taufaahau Tupou IV, denied rumors that Tonga meant to claim sovereignty over it, yet said "it was in the best interest of Tonga not to allow a group of people, whose objects were to make money and whose activities could be harmful, to become established on the reefs." Neighboring countries agreed; Fijis Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, claimed the actions of the Minervans set a dangerous precedent: "If these people can claim Minerva, what would stop them from doing it here?"[8]

Consequently, a conference of the neighboring states (Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Nauru, Samoa, and territory of Cook Islands) met on 24 February 1972 at which Tonga made a claim over the Minerva Reefs, and the rest of the states recognized its claim.

On 15 June 1972 the following proclamation was published in a Tongan government gazette:

PROCLAMATION

A Tongan expedition was sent to enforce the claim, arriving on 18 June 1972. The Flag of Tonga was raised on 19 June 1972 on North Minerva and on South Minerva on 21 June 1972. Tonga's claim was recognized by the South Pacific Forum in September 1972.[1] Meanwhile, Provisional President Davis was fired by founder Michael Oliver and the project collapsed in confusion. Nevertheless, Minerva was referred to in O. T. Nelson's post-apocalyptic children's novel The Girl Who Owned a City, published in 1975, as an example of an invented utopia that the book's protagonists could try to emulate.

In 1982 a group of Americans led again by Davis tried to occupy the reefs, but were forced off by Tongan troops after three weeks.[10]No known claimant group since 1982 has made any attempt to take possession of the Minerva Reefs[citation needed].

In November 2005, Fiji lodged a complaint with the International Seabed Authority concerning Tonga's maritime waters claims surrounding Minerva. Tonga has lodged a counter claim.[11] The Minerva "principality" group also claims to have lodged a counter claim[citation needed].

See more here:

Republic of Minerva - Wikipedia

The latest confrontation between Tonga and Fiji adds to the significance of an odd incident on an unpopulated reef 1500 kilometres north of New Zealand.

The Minerva Reefs have been part of Tonga for 40 years, but last year Fiji claimed them and sent its navy there to destroy navigation lights on the entrance to the lagoon.

Meanwhile, last week a Tonga navy vessel sailed into Fiji waters to take Fiji Lieutenant Colonel Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara to Nuku'alofa. Mara was facing charges of plotting to overthrow dictator Voreqe Bainimarama.

Mara is from the Lau Islands, part of Fiji, but culturally and historically part of Tonga. In the 1850s one of his Tongan forefathers, Ma'afu'otu'itonga, a Methodist, waged war on the Fijian Seru Cakobau who was based on the island of Bau, just off shore from Fiji's main island of Viti Levu.

Cakobau ultimately won and Lau became part of Fiji. Bainimarama comes from the Bau line.

However, the Lau Islands provided the leader crucial to modern Fiji: Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara was Fiji's founding prime minister and later president. The runaway colonel is his youngest son.

The first broadside in the latest skirmish might well have occurred in 2009, when several yachts bound for New Zealand were chased out of Minerva Reefs' lagoon, a stopping point for those travelling here, by Fijian navy boats.

Minerva Reefs were claimed by Tonga in 1972 after the shadowy US Phoenix Foundation shipped in dirt and declared it a republic.

The late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV loaded a ferry with soldiers, a convict work detail and a four-piece brass band and sailed the 500 kilometres to personally haul down the "Republic of Minerva" flag.

As he raised his own banner, he declared it a Tongan island.

The reefs have taken on more significance as their possession gives rights to lucrative undersea minerals. South Korean, Chinese and Australian interests are seeking prospecting rights in the area.

Fiji's Foreign Affairs deputy permanent secretary Sila Balawa said last year it objected to Tonga building structures on Fiji territory.

In November 2009 the Fiji patrol boats arrived in the lagoon and chased yachts away.

Coincidentally, an RNZAF Orion was flying over the lagoon as the events were taking place.

Canadians Paul and Mary Major, of the yacht Bella Via, blogged on their arrival of the Orion over the reef: "It was very comforting to know that the plane was out there looking out for us."

Peter Sidler, on the Swiss-registered yacht Green Coral heading for the Bay of Islands, told of the Fijians challenging three yachts: "We were given 30 minutes to prepare for departure and leave. We left the Minerva Reefs angry and frustrated and continued our journey towards Opua."

Tonga's Ministry of Lands CEO Dr Sione Nailasikau Halatuituia said at the time that a dispute was taking place but they were surprised by Fiji's actions.

"The king claimed in it 1972. Since then we have been maintaining patrol and put up a lighthouse for the safety of seafarers," he said.

"We have developed a lot, and we are surprised at what is happening."

The Pacific Forum recognised Tonga's annexation of Minerva in 1972 but Fiji, which is now suspended from the 16-nation body, has not formally accepted it.

See the original post:

Fiji, Tonga war over Minerva Reef | Stuff.co.nz

1810 naval battle between the French Navy and the British Royal Navy

The Battle of Grand Port was a naval battle between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. The battle was fought during 2027 August 1810 over possession of the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France (now Mauritius) during the Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to blockade the port to prevent its use by the French through the capture of the fortified le de la Passe at its entrance. This position was seized by a British landing party on 13 August and, when a French squadron under Captain Guy-Victor Duperr approached the bay nine days later, the British commander, Captain Samuel Pym, decided to lure them into coastal waters where his forces could ambush them.

Four of the five French ships managed to break past the British blockade, taking shelter in the protected anchorage, which was only accessible through a series of complicated routes between reefs and sandbanks that were impassable without an experienced harbour pilot. When Pym ordered his frigates to attack the anchored French on 22 and 23 August, his ships became trapped in the narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded; a third, outnumbered by the combined French squadron, was defeated; and a fourth was unable to close to within effective gun range. Although the French ships were also badly damaged, the battle was a disaster for the British: one ship was captured after suffering irreparable damage, the grounded ships were set on fire to prevent their capture by French boarding parties and the remaining vessel was seized as it left the harbour by the main French squadron from Port Napoleon under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.

The British defeat was the worst suffered by the Royal Navy during the entire war and left the Indian Ocean and its vital trade convoys exposed to attack from Hamelin's frigates. In response, the British authorities sought to reinforce the squadron on le Bourbon under Josias Rowley by ordering all available ships to the region, but this piecemeal reinforcement resulted in a series of desperate actions as individual British ships were attacked by the confident and more powerful French squadron. In December an adequate reinforcement was assembled with the provision of a strong battle squadron under Admiral Albemarle Bertie, that rapidly invaded and captured the Isle de France.

During the early 19th century, the Indian Ocean formed an essential part of the network of trade routes that connected the British Empire. Heavily laden East Indiamen travelled from British Indian port cities such as Bombay and Calcutta to the United Kingdom carrying millions of pounds worth of goods. From Britain, the ships returned on the same routes, often carrying soldiers for the growing British Indian Army, then under the control of the Honourable East India Company (HEIC).[1] Following the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803, the British Admiralty had made the security of these routes a priority, and by 1807, the Dutch bases at the Cape of Good Hope and Java had been neutralised by expeditionary forces to prevent their use by enemy raiders. The French Indian Ocean possessions, principally le Bonaparte and Isle de France, were more complicated targets, protected from attack not only by the great distances involved in preparing an invasion attempt but also by heavy fortifications and a substantial garrison of French Army soldiers augmented by large local militias.[1]

The French had recognised the importance of these islands as bases for raiding warships during the French Revolutionary Wars (17931801), but by late 1807 the only naval resources allocated to the region were a few older frigates and a large number of local privateers.[2] Following the reduction of these remaining naval forces on Isle de France during 1808, by defeat in battle and disarmaments due to age and unseaworthiness, the French naval authorities made a serious attempt to disrupt British trade in the region, ordering five large modern frigates to sail to Isle de France under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.[3] Four of these ships broke through the British blockade of the French coast, arriving in the Indian Ocean in the spring of 1809, where Hamelin dispersed them into the Bay of Bengal with orders to intercept, attack and capture or destroy the heavily armed but extremely valuable convoys of East Indiamen. The first French success came at the end of the spring, when the frigate Caroline successfully attacked a convoy at the action of 31 May 1809, seizing two heavily laden merchant ships.[4]

Commodore Josias Rowley was given command of the British response to the French deployment, a hastily assembled force composed mainly of those ships available at the Cape of Good Hope in early 1809. Ordered to stop the French raiders, Rowley was unable to spread his limited squadron wide enough to pursue the roving French frigates, instead using his forces to blockade and raid the French Indian Ocean islands in anticipation of Hamelin's return. In August, Caroline arrived with her prizes at Saint-Paul on le Bonaparte and Rowley determined to seize the frigate. He planned a successful invasion of the town, launched on 20 September, which resulted in the capture of the port's defences, Caroline and the captured East Indiamen. With his objectives complete, Rowley withdrew five days later.[5] Almost a year later, Rowley returned with a larger task force and made a second landing around the capital of le Bonaparte, Saint-Denis. Marching on the seat of government, Rowley's troops rapidly overwhelmed the defences and forced the island's garrison to surrender, renaming the island le Bourbon and installing a British governor.[6]

Hamelin had used the British preoccupation with le Bonaparte to send additional frigates to sea during 1809 and early 1810, including his flagship Vnus, which captured three East Indiamen at the action of 18 November 1809, and Bellone, which took the Portuguese frigate Minerva in the Bay of Bengal a few days later.[7] Minerva, renamed Minerve in French hands, was subsequently involved in the action of 3 July 1810, when a further two East Indiamen were captured. The squadron in this action was commanded by Guy-Victor Duperr in Bellone, whose ships were so badly damaged that Duperr was forced to spend nearly a month repairing his vessels in the Comoros Islands before they were ready to return to Isle de France.[8]

With le Bourbon secured in July 1810, the British now occupied a large fortified island base within easy sailing distance of Isle de France. Even before le Bourbon was completely in British hands, Rowley had detached HMS Sirius from the invasion squadron with orders to restore the blockade of Isle de France.[9] Shortly afterwards, Sirius's captain Samuel Pym led his men in a raid on a coastal vessel moored off the southern side of the island. Two days after this successful operation, reinforcements arrived in the form of the frigates HMS Iphigenia, HMS Nereide and the small brig HMS Staunch. Nereide carried 100 specially selected soldiers from the 69th and 33rd Regiments and some artillerymen from the garrison at Madras, to be used in storming and garrisoning offshore islands, beginning with le de la Passe off Grand Port, a well defended islet that protected a natural harbour on the southeastern shore. These fortified islands could be used to block entry to the ports of Isle de France and thus trap Hamelin's squadron.[10]

Grand Port was an easily defensible natural harbour because the bay was protected from the open sea by a large coral reef through which a complicated channel meandered, known only to experienced local pilots.[9] le de la Passe was vitally important in the control of Grand Port because it featured a heavy battery that covered the entrance to the channel, thus controlling the passage to the sheltered inner lagoon. The British planned to use the troops on Nereide, under her captain Nesbit Willoughby, to storm le de la Passe and capture the battery. Willoughby would then use a local man serving on his ship named John Johnson (known in some texts as "the black pilot"),[9] to steer through the channel and land troops near the town, distributing leaflets promising freedom and prosperity under British rule in an attempt to corrode the morale of the defenders.[11]

The first attack on le de la Passe was launched on the evening of 10 August, with Staunch towing boats carrying over 400 soldiers, Royal Marines and volunteer sailors to the island under cover of darkness, guided by Nereide's pilot. During the night the pilot became lost; the boats were scattered in high winds and had not reassembled by dawn. To distract French attention from the drifting boats, Pym directed Captain Henry Lambert in Iphigenia to sail conspicuously off Port Napoleon, where the main body of the French squadron, led by Hamelin in Vnus, was based. Pym joined Lambert later in the day and the frigates subsequently returned to the waters of Grand Port by different routes, confusing French observers from the shore as to British intentions.[10] By 13 August, the boats originally intended for the attack had still not been assembled and Pym decided that he could not risk waiting any longer without the French launching a counterattack.[12] Launching his own boats at 8:00pm, guided by the pilot and commanded by Pym's second in command, Lieutenant Norman, Pym's marines and sailors landed on the island in darkness under heavy fire from the defenders. Norman was killed in the initial exchange of fire, but his deputy, Lieutenant Watling, seized the island by storming the fortifications surrounding the battery. Seven British personnel were killed and 18 wounded in the battle, in which the storming party managed to seize intact French naval code books and took 80 prisoners.[13][14] Willoughby was furious that Pym had assumed command of the operation without his permission and the officers exchanged angry letters, part of an ongoing disagreement between them that engendered mutual distrust.[15]

With le de la Passe secure, Pym gave command of the blockade of Grand Port to Willoughby and returned to his station off Port Napoleon with Iphigenia. Willoughby used his independent position to raid the coastline, landing at Pointe du Diable on 17 August on the northern edge of Grand Port with 170 men and storming the fort there, destroying ten cannon and capturing another.[16] Marching south towards the town of Grand Port itself, Willoughby's men fought off French counterattacks and distributed propaganda pamphlets at the farms and villages they passed.[17] Willoughby re-embarked his troops in the evening but landed again the following day at Grande Rivire to observe the effects of his efforts. Burning a signal station, Willoughby advanced inland, but was checked by the arrival of 800 French reinforcements from Port Napoleon and returned to HMS Nereide.[11] The brief expedition cost the British two men wounded and one missing, to French casualties of at least ten killed or wounded. Willoughby followed the attack on Grande Rivire with unopposed minor landings on 19 and 20 August.[14]

Willoughby's raiding was interrupted at 10:00am on 20 August when five ships were sighted, rapidly approaching from the southeast.[18] These ships were Guy-Victor Duperr's squadron of Bellone, Minerve, corvette Victor and prizes Windham and Ceylon returning from the Comoros Islands. Following a month of repairs on Anjouan, Duperr had sailed for Isle de France without encountering any opposition on his return passage, and was intending to enter Grand Port via the channel protected by le de la Passe.[19] Duperr was unaware of the British occupation of the island, and Willoughby intended to lure the French squadron into the channel by concealing the British presence off the harbour. Once there, Willoughby hoped to defeat them or damage them so severely that they would be unable to break out unaided, thus isolating Duperr's squadron from Hamelin's force in Port Napoleon and containing the French in separate harbours to prevent them from concentrating against the British blockade squadrons.[20] Willoughby brought Nereide close to le de la Passe to combine their fire and protect his boats, which were carrying 160 men back to Nereide from a raid near Grand Port that morning.[19]

Raising a French tricolour over le de la Passe and on Nereide, Willoughby transmitted the French code captured on the island: "L'ennemi croise au Coin de Mire"[note 1] and received an acknowledgement from Duperr.[21] The use of these signals convinced Duperr, over the objections of Captain Pierre Bouvet on Minerve, that Nereide was Surcouf's privateer Charles, which was expected from France.[22] The French squadron closed with the harbour during the morning, Victor entering the channel under le de la Passe at 1:40pm.[11] As Victor passed Nereide and the fort Willoughby opened fire, Lieutenant Nicolas Morice surrendering the outnumbered corvette after the first volley. Willoughby sent boats to attempt to take possession of Victor, but they were unable to reach the vessel.[23] Behind the corvette, Minerve and Ceylon pushed into the channel and signalled Morice to follow them, exchanging fire with the fort. As Morice raised his colours again and followed Minerve, a large explosion blasted out of le de la Passe, where the false French flag had ignited on a brazier as it was lowered and set fire to a nearby stack of cartridges, which exploded in the close confines of the fort. Three men were killed and 12 badly burned, six cannon were dismounted and one discharged unexpectedly, killing a British sailor in a boat attempting to board Victor.[23] With the fort out of action and a significant number of her crew scattered in small boats in the channel, Nereide alone was unable to block French entry to Grand Port.[19]

With Willoughby's ambush plan ruined, the scattered boats sought to rejoin Nereide, passing directly through the French squadron. Although several boats were in danger of being run down by the French ships and one even bumped alongside Minerve, all eventually rejoined Nereide safely. The opportunity to cause significant damage to the French in the narrow channel had been lost, with Bellone joining the squadron in passing through the channel with minimal resistance. In addition to British losses in the explosion at the fort, two men had been killed and one wounded on Nereide.[20] French losses were more severe, Minerve suffered 23 casualties and Ceylon eight.[19] With both sides recognising that further action was inevitable, Willoughby sent a boat to Sirius requesting additional assistance and Duperr sent a message overland with Lieutenant Morice, requesting support from Hamelin's squadron (Morice fell from his horse during the mission and was severely injured).[24] Command of Victor passed to Henri Moisson.[25] In the afternoon, Willoughby used mortars on le de la Passe to shell the French squadron, forcing Duperr to retreat into the shallow harbour at Grand Port and Willoughby subsequently sent officers into Grand Port on 21 August under a flag of truce, demanding the release of Victor, which he insisted had surrendered and should thus be handed over to the blockade squadron as a prize.[21] Duperr refused to consider the request.[26] One French ship had failed to enter the channel off Grand Port: the captured East Indiaman Windham. Early on 21 August, her French commander attempted to shelter in Rivire Noire. Sirius spotted the merchant ship under the batteries there and sent two boats into the anchorage, stormed the ship and brought her out without a single casualty, despite the boarding party having forgotten to take any weapons with them and being only armed with wooden foot-stretchers wielded as clubs.[27]

From prisoners captured on Windham, Pym learned of the nature and situation of Duperr's squadron and sent orders to Port Napoleon with Captain Lucius Curtis in the recently arrived HMS Magicienne for Iphigenia to join Sirius and Nereide off Grand Port.[28] Sirius and Nereide met on the morning of 22 August, Willoughby welcoming Pym with signals describing an "enemy of inferior force".[29] Although Duperr's squadron was technically weaker than the four British frigates combined, Willoughby's signal was misleading as the French had taken up a strong crescent shaped battleline in the bay and could cover the mouth of the channel through which the British ships could only pass one at a time.[30] Duperr also anticipated the arrival of reinforcements from Port Napoleon under Governor Charles Decaen at any time and could call on the support of soldiers and gun batteries on shore. In addition, French launches had moved the buoys marking the channel through the coral reef to confuse any British advance.[24]

On 22 August, at 2:40pm, Pym led an attack on Duperr's squadron without waiting for Iphigenia and Magicienne, entering the channel that led to the anchorage at Grand Port.[31] He was followed by Nereide, but Willoughby had refused to allow Pym to embark the harbour pilot: the only person in the British squadron who knew the passage through the reefs. Without guidance by an experienced pilot, Sirius was aground within minutes and could not be brought off until 8:30 am on 23 August. Nereide anchored nearby during the night to protect the flagship.[32] At 10:00 am, Iphigenia and Magicienne arrived and at 2:40 pm, after a conference between the captains as to the best course of action, the force again attempted to negotiate the channel.[33] Although the squadron was now guided by Nereide's pilot, Sirius again grounded at 3:00 pm and Magicienne 15 minutes later after over-correcting to avoid the reef that Sirius had struck.[34] Nereide and Iphigenia continued the attack, Iphigenia engaging Minerve and Ceylon at close range and Nereide attacking Bellone. Long-range fire from Magicienne was also directed at Victor, which was firing on Nereide.[32]

Within minutes of the British attack, Ceylon surrendered and boats from Magicienne sought but failed to take possession of her.[35] The French crew drove the captured East Indiaman on shore, joined shortly afterwards by Minerve, Bellone and later by Victor, so that by 6:30 pm the entire French force was grounded and all but Bellone prevented from firing their main broadsides by beached ships blocking their arc of fire.[36][37] Bellone was ideally positioned to maintain her fire on Nereide from her beached position, and at 7:00 pm a cannon shot cut Nereide's stern anchor cable. The British frigate swung around, presenting her stern to Bellone and pulling both her broadsides away from the French squadron.[38] Raked by Bellone and desperate to return fire, Willoughby had the bow anchor cable cut, bringing a portion of his ship's starboard broadside to bear on Bellone.[31] At 8:00pm, Duperr was seriously wounded in the cheek by shrapnel from a grape shot fired by Nereide; Ensign Vigoureux concealed his unconscious body under a signal flag and discreetly brought him below decks while Bouvet assumed command of the French squadron on board Bellone, placing Lieutenant Albin Roussin in charge of Minerve.[39] Building an improvised bridge between the French ships and the shore, Bouvet increased the men and ammunition reaching Bellone and thus significantly increased her rate of fire.[40] He also had the rail removed between the foredeck and the quarterdeck of Minerve, and had iron hooks nailed to the freeboard below the starboard gangway as to provide attachment points for additional guns, thus building a continuous second deck on his frigate where he constituted a complete second battery.[41] By 10:00pm Nereide was a wreck, receiving shot from several sides, with most of her guns dismounted and casualties mounting to over 200: the first lieutenant was dying, the second was severely wounded and Willoughby's left eye had been dislodged from its socket by a wooden splinter.[42] Recognising her battered state, Bouvet then diverted fire from Nereide to concentrate on Magicienne.[43]

Refusing to surrender until all options had been exhausted, Willoughby dispatched boats to Sirius, asking Pym if he believed it would be practical to send boats to tow Nereide out of range. Pym replied that with the boats engaged in attempting to tow Sirius and Magicienne off the reef it was not possible to deploy them under fire to tow Nereide. Pym also suggested that Willoughby disembark his men and set fire to his ship in the hope that the flames would spread to the French ships clustered on shore. Willoughby refused this suggestion as it was not practical to disembark the dozens of wounded men aboard Nereide in the growing darkness and refused to personally abandon his men when Pym ordered him to transfer to Sirius.[44] At 11:00pm, Willoughby ordered a boat to row to Bellone and notify the French commander that he had surrendered. Willoughby's boat had been holed by shot and was unable to make the short journey.[37] The message was instead conveyed by French prisoners from Nereide who had dived overboard and reached the shore during the night. Recalling the false flags used on 20 August, Bouvet resolved to wait until morning before accepting the surrender.[40]

At 1:50am on 24 August, Bellone ceased firing on the shattered Nereide. During the remaining hours of darkness, Pym continued his efforts to dislodge Sirius from the reef and sent orders to Lambert, whose Iphigenia had been blocked from firing on the French by Nereide and also prevented from pursuing the Minerve by a large reef blocking access to the beach.[45] With Iphigenia now becalmed in the coastal waters, Pym instructed Lambert to begin warping his ship out of the harbour, using anchors attached to the capstan to drag the ship slowly through the shallow water.[46] Magicienne, like Iphigenia, had been stranded out of range of the beached French ships and so had instead directed her fire against a battery erected on shore, which she had destroyed by 2:00am. When daylight came, it showed a scene of great confusion, with Sirius and Magicienne grounded in the approaches to the harbour, the French ships "on shore in a heap" in the words of Pym,[37] Iphigenia slowly pulling herself away from the French squadron and Nereide lying broken and battered under the guns of Bellone, a Union Flag nailed to her masthead. This flag prompted a fresh burst of cannon fire from Bouvet, and it was not until Willoughby ordered the mizenmast to be chopped down that the French acknowledged the surrender and ceased firing.[47]

At 7:00am, Lambert notified Pym that he had cleared the reef separating Iphigenia from the French ships and suggested that if Pym sent reinforcements from Sirius he might be able to board and capture the entire French squadron. Pym refused permission, insisting that Lambert assist him in pulling Sirius off the reef instead.[48] Although Lambert intended to subsequently attack the French alone, Pym forbade him and sent a direct order for Lambert to move out of range of the enemy.[44] At 10:00am, Iphigenia reached Sirius and together the ships began firing at French troops ashore, who were endeavouring to raise a gun battery within range of the frigates. Magicienne, irretrievably stuck on the reef, rapidly flooding and with her capstan smashed by French shot, now bore the brunt of long-range French fire from both Bellone and the shore until Pym ordered Curtis to abandon his ship, transferring his men aboard Iphigenia.[49] At 7:30pm Magicienne was set on fire, her magazines exploding at 11:00pm.[50] On the shoreline, Duperr had been unable to spare any men to take possession of Nereide until 3:00pm. A party under Lieutenant Roussin, second in command on Victor and temporarily in command of Minerve,[51] was sent but had orders to return once the ship had been disarmed: freeing the remaining French prisoners, Roussin spiked the guns to prevent their further use, administered basic medical care and returned to shore, recounting that over 100 men lay dead or dying aboard the British frigate.[44]

At 4:00am on 25 August, the newly erected French gun battery opened fire on Sirius and Iphigenia, which returned fire as best they could. Accepting that Sirius was beyond repair, Pym removed all her personnel and military supplies, setting fire to the frigate at 9:00am, shortly after Iphigenia had pulled beyond the range of the battery, using a cannon as an anchor after losing hers the previous day.[52] French boats attempted to reach Sirius and capture her before she exploded, although they turned back when Pym launched his own boats to contest possession of the wreck.[53] The frigate's remaining munitions exploded at 11:00am.[54] During the morning, Duperr sent an official boarding party aboard Nereide, who wet the decks to prevent any risk of fire from the ships burning in the harbour and removed 75 corpses from the frigate.[53]

When news of the arrival of Duperr's squadron reached Decaen at Port Napoleon, he immediately despatched fast couriers to Grand Port and ordered Hamelin's squadron, consisting of the frigates Vnus, Manche, Astre and the brig Entreprenant, to make ready to sail in support of Duperr.[55] Hamelin departed Port Napoleon at midnight on 21 August, intending to sail northeast and then south, down the island's eastern shore. On 23 August, Hamelin's squadron spotted and captured a British transport ship named Ranger, sent 24 days earlier from the Cape of Good Hope with 300 tons of food supplies and extensive naval stores for Rowley on le Bourbon.[55] On rounding the northern headlands of Isle de France, Hamelin found he could make no progress against the headwinds and reversed direction, passing the western shore of the island and arriving off Grand Port at 1:00pm on 27 August.[56]

The two extra days Hamelin had spent rounding Isle de France saw activity from the British forces remaining at Grand Port. There had been no strong winds in the bay and Iphigenia was forced to resort to slowly warping towards the mouth of the channel in the hope of escaping the approaching French reinforcements.[35] Boats had removed the crews of Sirius and Magicienne to le de la Passe, where the fortifications had been strengthened, but supplies were running low and Magicienne's launch was sent to le Bourbon to request urgent reinforcement and resupply from Rowley's remaining squadron.[55] On the morning of 27 August, Lambert discovered the brig Entreprenant off the harbour mouth and three French sail approaching in the distance. Iphigenia was still 1.2 kilometres (34mi) from le de Passe at the edge of the lagoon and was low on shot and unable to manoeuvre in the calm weather without anchors. Recognising that resistance under such conditions against an overwhelming force was futile, Lambert negotiated with Hamelin, offering to surrender le de la Passe if Iphigenia and the men on the island were given permission to sail to le Bourbon unmolested.[57]

On the morning of 28 August, Lambert received a message from Hamelin, promising to release all the prisoners under conditions of parole within one month if le de la Passe and Iphigenia were both surrendered without resistance. The message also threatened that if Lambert refused, the French would attack and overwhelm the badly outnumbered British force. Recognising that food supplies were low, reinforcements had not arrived and that his ammunition stores were almost empty, Lambert agreed to the terms.[52] Lambert later received a message from Decaen proposing similar terms and notified the French governor that he had surrendered to Hamelin. Decaen was furious that Hamelin had agreed terms without consulting him, but eventually agreed to accept the terms of the surrender as well.[56] The wounded were treated by French doctors at Grand Port and later repatriated, although the remainder of the prisoners were placed in a cramped and unpleasant prison at Port Napoleon from which, despite the terms of the surrender, they were not released until British forces captured the island in December.[58]

Rowley first learned of the operations off Grand Port on 22 August, when Windham arrived off Saint Paul.[59] Eager to support Pym's attack, Rowley immediately set sail in his frigate HMS Boadicea, with the transport Bombay following with two companies of the 86th Regiment of Foot to provide a garrison on any territory seized in the operation.[60] The headwinds were strong and it was not until 29 August that Rowley arrived off Grand Port, having been notified of the situation there by Magicienne's launch the previous day.[60] Sighting a cluster of frigates around le de la Passe, Rowley closed with the island before turning sharply when Vnus and Manche raised their colours and gave chase. Rowley repeatedly feinted towards the French ships and then pulled away, hoping to draw them away from Grand Port in the hope that Bombay might board the now unprotected Iphigenia and capture her. Bombay was thwarted by the reappearance of Astre and Entreprenant and Rowley was chased by Vnus and Manche back to Saint Denis, anchoring there on 30 August.[61] Rowley attempted a second time to rescue Iphigenia from Grand Port the following week, but by the time he returned Bellone and Minerve had been refloated and the French force was far too strong for Rowley's flagship to attack alone.[54]

The battle is noted as the most significant defeat for the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Not only had four frigates been lost with their entire crews, but 105 experienced sailors had been killed and 168 wounded in one of the bloodiest frigate encounters of the war.[46] French losses were also heavy, with Duperr reporting 36 killed and 112 wounded on his squadron and among the soldiers firing from the shore.[56]

The loss of such a large proportion of his force placed Rowley at a significant disadvantage in September, as Hamelin's squadron, bolstered by the newly commissioned Iphignie, now substantially outnumbered his own (the ruined Nride was also attached to the French squadron, but the damage suffered was so severe that the ship never sailed again). Withdrawing to Isle de France, Rowley requested that reinforcements be diverted from other duties in the region to replace his lost ships and to break the French blockade of le Bourbon, led by Bouvet.[54] These newly arrived British frigates, cruising alone in unfamiliar waters, became targets for Hamelin, who twice forced the surrender of single frigates, only for Rowley to beat his ships away from their prize each time.[62] On the second occasion, Rowley was able to chase and capture Hamelin and his flagship Vnus, bringing an end to his raiding career and to the activities of his squadron, who remained on Isle de France until they were all captured at the fall of the island in December by an invasion fleet under Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie.[63]

In France the action was greeted with celebration, and it became the only naval battle commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe. The British response was despondent, although all four captains were subsequently cleared and praised at their courts-martial inquiring into the loss of their ships. The only criticism was of Willoughby, who was accused of giving a misleading signal in indicating that the French were of inferior force on 22 August.[59] Contemporary historian William James described British reaction to the battle as "that the noble behaviour of her officers and crew threw such a halo of glory around the defeat at Grand Port, that, in public opinion at least, the loss of four frigates was scarcely considered a misfortune."[60] He also notes that "No case of which we are aware more deeply affects the character of the Royal Navy than the defeat it sustained at Grand Port."[64] On 30 December 1899, a monument was erected at the harbour of Grand Port in the memory of the British and French sailors who were killed in the engagement.[56]

The battle attracted the attention of authors from both Britain and France, featuring in the 1843 novel Georges by Alexandre Dumas,[65] "Dead Reckoning" by C. Northcote Parkinson and the 1977 novel The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian.[66]

On 30 December 1899, a monument was erected at the harbour of Grand Port in the memory of the British and French sailors who were killed in the engagement.[56]

Grand Port in 2007. The memorial to the battle is in the centre.

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Battle of Grand Port - Wikipedia

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AP News Digest 3 am - Newsday

Sparky Aaron Sanderson has taken on the 170-year-old title of the King of Piel Island, as we reported this week.

The 33-year-old electrician has become landlord of the Ship Inn on the 26-acre islet, off the Cumbrian coast, which comes with the ceremonial moniker. He will be officially crowned by having beer poured over his head while wearing a helmet and sword.

And hell have the power to knight those who have benefited the island, which also boasts a ruined castle, but some intrepid folk have even tried to start their own countries from scratch.

READ MORE: Sultan of Brunei's lavish lifestyle including 7,000 luxury cars and gold-plated private jet

Here James Moore reveals some amazing tales of so called micronations

Where: Principality of Sealand

Former British Army major Paddy Roy Bates decided to occupy a disused Second World War anti-aircraft platform called Roughs Tower in 1967, planning to set up a pirate radio station.

Located in the North Sea, seven miles off the Suffolk coast, he declared the 120x60ft concrete platform - which was then outside UK territorial waters - the Principality of Sealand and raised his own flag.

Bates, styling himself 'Prince Roy' set up a home there with wife Joan and his two children eventually creating a chapel and prison and keeping firearms to ward off intruders.

They even managed to retake Sealand when a group of mercenaries stormed it in a bizarre row with a German entrepreneur over a proposal to turn the place into a resort and casino.

Stamps and coins were issued, but in 1997 Sealands passports were cancelled after the Bates family discovered fake ones were found to be involved in a money laundering ring.

Despite an extension of the UKs territorial waters around Sealand and the death of Roy, aged 91 in 2012, his son Prince Michael still runs it.

Where: Republic of Minerva

American property mogul Michael Oliver dreamt of founding a new nation with no taxes for 30,000 people in the apparently unclaimed Minerva Reefs in the Pacific Ocean.

From 1971 he had sand dumped there to build up the land, created a flag on top of a tower, appointed a president and began producing Minerva dollar coins.

But the following year the unnerved monarch in nearby Tonga, suddenly claimed the land as part of his kingdom and arrived with troops, pulling down the Minervan flag.

An international summit eventually had the reefs declared Tongan territory, ending Olivers dream.

Where: Republic of New Atlantis

In 1964 Leicester Hemingway, the brother of writer Ernest, declared a 240sq ft bamboo raft located off the coast of Jamaica a republic.

He claimed sovereignty from an old US law allowing citizens to take possession of unclaimed islands with guano deposits and by 1965 there were six inhabitants including his family.

Hemingway began minting his own stamps, designed a flag and aimed to create an island on the spot by building up rocks from the seafloor.

But the fantasy eventually failed when the raft was destroyed by tropical storms.

Where: Frestonia

Inspired by the 1949 movie Passport to Pimlico, a group of squatters living in Freston Road, west London, decided to declare their independence from Britain when threatened with eviction.

On Halloween 1977 their two-acre enclave became the Free and Independent Republic of Frestonia.

It appealed to the United Nations for help, boasted Time Bandits star David Rappaport as foreign minister and created its own flag, national anthem and stamps - often honoured by the Post Office!

Backed by shadow chancellor Geoffrey Howe, Frestonias publicity campaign meant the council backed down on the eviction, delaying demolition of their homes for five years.

They eventually agreed to redevelop the site and let them staybut Frestonia was no more.

Where: Republic of Molossia

Ex US soldier Kevin Baugh is the self-proclaimed president of this micronation, set up in 1998 and covering just an acre of land in Dayton, Nevada.

He dresses in dictator chic regalia and claims to rule his 35 citizens undemocratically.

The countrys currency, the valora, is pegged to the value of cookie dough and while it does pay local US taxes, it dubs the cash foreign aid.

Molossia has even hosted the Micronational Olympic Games and is at war with East Germany, even though that state no longer exists. Theres also an inflatable kayak navy.

Where: Kingdom of Redonda

Back in 1865 trader Matthew Dowdy Shiell, from nearby Montserrat, landed on the one mile long, unclaimed volcanic island of Redonda in the Caribbean.

He even wrote to Queen Victoria asking if he could have the title of King there and she apparently gave her approval.

His son, the novelist MP Shiel was crowned king there, at 15, by a local bishop, in 1880.

He later passed the title to a friend, John Gawsworth, but since then there have been rival royal claims and, since the 1960s, the island has technically been part of Antigua.

Where: Principality of Hutt River

Angered by wheat production quotas, farmer Leonard Casley declared his 29-square mile landholding in Western Australia, independent in 1970.

Calling himself His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt he issued passports, drivers licences and currency to the 30-strong population and even declared war on Australia for several days.

Casley claimed loopholes in the law made it possible for him to break away from the mother country while still being loyal to Queen Elizabeth II. But Australia never recognized Hutts legitimacy.

In 2020, following Leonards death and the economic impact of the pandemic, his family were forced to sell the land, ending the micronations existence.

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People who tried to start own countries including squatters, farmers and icon's brother - Daily Star

The North and South Minerva reefs are used as anchorages by yachts travelling between New Zealand and Tonga or Fiji and is reportedly an excellent place for scuba diving, snorkeling and fishing. The reef is submerged at high tide and partially dries at low tide. It is a magical place -- there's nothing but reef... and no stuff to buy.

The ownership of Minerva Reefs (2340'S., 17900'E.) has been an unresolved issue between Fiji and Tonga for quite a while. Tonga is one of Fiji's closest friends and they hope to resolve the issue through peaceful dialogue.

The reef is actually a group of two submerged atolls named after the whaling ship Minerva that wrecked there in 1829. These reefs appear to stand on a submarine plateau which is from 300 to 500 fathoms below the surface of the sea, and which extends about 28 miles in a N.N.E. and S.S.W. direction. They are 18 miles apart, and are situated towards the extremes of this plateau, which, except near the reefs, is formed of hard ground with a little broken shells, coral, and volcanic cinders.

Tonga's claim to the Minerva Reefs, situated south of Fiji's archipelago, may complicate Tongan-Fijian maritime boundary negotiations. In 1972, King Taufaahau Tupou IV made a royal proclamation that Minerva belongs to Tonga, the two atolls were named Teleki Tokelau (North) and Teleki Tonga (South). Tonga constructed two structures in each of the reefs where beacons were placed.

Although Fiji acknowledges Tonga's claim to these reefs (as noted on its Chart 81/3), Fiji's economic zone limits enclose the reefs. North and South Minerva Reef are about 18 nautical miles apart and more than 165 nautical miles from the nearest Tongan island.

The Tongan Government has built an artificial island and installed navigation beacons on each. If indeed the reefs themselves are only low-tide elevations, they would not have a territorial sea (LOS Convention, Article 13(2)). Tonga's rights, under the LOS Convention, to construct, operate, and use an artificial island, such as North or South Minerva Reef, within its economic zone, may be complicated by the fact that these reefs, under Fiji's claims, are situated in the Fiji EEZ.

In February 2011 the Fiji and Tonga governments continued talks over the disputed Minerva Reef, which they both claim rights to. Fiji's deputy permanent secretary of foreign affairs, Sila Balawa, statedt the two countries' ambassadors to the United Nations are leading discussions on the issue. Balawa said Fiji received a report in late 2010 that Tonga was constructing two structures on the reef. The ministry of foreign affairs then complained to the Tonga government that the structures were being built on Fiji's territory.

In Fijian history the reef is regarded as the fishing ground of the ancestors of the people of Ono-i-Lau. Tonga's claim is founded on a Royal Declaration by the late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV - when he declared the reef as Tongan territory in 1972. In July 2014 Tonga's's Lands Minister Lord Ma'afu revealed a proposal for the island kingdom to give up the disputed Minerva Reef to Fiji in exchange for the Lau Group. But the government of Fiji would lose a major portion of their country for some uninhabited reef.

Two reefs are marked upon Arrowsmith's chart, near together, stated to have been discovered in 1818, by Capt. Nicholson. According to Norie's chart, the ship Minerva was lost here in 1831, on the southern of these reefs; they had been therefore called Minerva Reefs. Their character and position were accurately established by Captain Denham, R.N., in the Herald, August, 1854.

Minerva Reef by Olaf Ruhen is a great book about 17 Tongans who were shipwrecked on South Minerva in 1962. Croz Walsh relates that "a Tongan boat, the Tuaekaepau [was] wrecked there on its way to Gisborne in NZ, and its 17 crew [were] marooned for 102 days, where they were given up for dead and some died. Realized that they were assumed dead and could not expect rescue, and knowing that if they stayed much longer on the reef all would die, they built a crude outrigger canoe, the Malo e lelei, from wood found in the wrecked Japanese fishing boat in which they lived, and Captain Tevita Fifita, his son and another crew member sailed for help. Blown off course close to Kadavu, 570 kilometres to the north, they abandoned the outrigger and swam over the reef. The son was totally exhausted, and his father nearly so. They held on to each other, prayed and then the son drowned."

The Republic of Minerva was conceived by wealthy Nevada real estate mogul Michael Oliver. According to Oliver, by 1971 his organization the Ocean Life Research Foundation claimed to have raised $100 million to create a utopian society on Pacific reefs. The King of Tonga rejected the new countrys legitimacy, and issued a document laying official claim to the reefs.

The northern reef has a passage, a cable wide with a depth of 15 fathoms, on its N.W. side leading into tranquil water within. At 2 cables off the entrance to this passage is a depth of 55 fathoms. The northern reef is circular, about 3.5 miles in diameter, enclosing a space in which the depths vary from 3 fathoms at 3 cables from the edge of the reef to 15 and 17 fathoms in the center of the enclosed space.

The reef is awash at half-tide, and the rise being 6 feet, it is, therefore, about 3 feet dry at low water. It is difficult to approach it from the lagoon side on account of the clusters of coral, which extend 300 to 400 yards from the edge, with deep water and sand between them.

The southern reef resembles the figure 8 in shape, and encloses two separate lagoon. Its greatest length is E.N.E. and W.S.W. 5 miles, with a mean breadth of 2 miles. There is an entrance into the easternmost of the lagoons called Herald Bight, on its N.W. side, and off the entrance is a sheltered anchorage during the S.E. trade. This entrance is a mile wide between the reefs, but several patches of 9 to 12 ft. extend three-quarters across from the northern side. The navigable passage, with a depth of 15 fathoms, lies to the southward of these, and is 2 cables wide. Inside is a circular space of tranquil water, 1.5 mile in diameter.

At the junction of the two atolls, the reef is about three-quarters of a mile broad, and here depths of 10 to 20 fathoms are found off the reef to the north-west about 2 cables, affording protected anchorage in Herald bight during the south-east trade wind.

The western atoll, which has a lagoon almost completely cut off from the sea at low water, has large detached blocks of coral lying on the reef on its south-wesl side. This reef is awash at half-tide, and at the time of the Egeria's visit (1889) might have been landed on at low water.The two atolls are connected at low water by narrow shallow channels amongst coral knolls. Two sunken dangers lie within half a mile from the entrance, each about 3 cables from the southern shore of the lagoon; and a third lies 2 cables S.S.E. from the innermost of these, and 1.5 cable distant from the reef.

The reef of the northern atoll is from 300 to 500 yards broad, bordered on the lagoon side- for nearly a quarter of a mile by knolls of live and dead coral, having channels between them with a bottom of sand. At low water there is difficulty in approaching the reef in a boat on the lagoon side on account of these knolls, but at high water there is sufficient water over them. There is an entrance about one cable in width on the western side of this lagoon.

On the weather or south-east side of the junction of the two atolls, there is a collection of blocks of coral thrown up from the edge of the reef; these are just covered at high water, and will probably eventually emerge above the level of the sen. The weather or eastern side of the northern atoll is broader than the lee, and very slightly the higher.

They both partake of the coral reef, or atoll, character. A sounding of 967 fathoms was found between them, the bottom consisting of shells and microscopic animalculae.

It is evidently the southern reef on which the whale ship Canton, Captain Folger, struck a few days after Captain Denham left, but it is stated that they saw a few black volcanic rocks scattered over it. The whale ship Caroline, Captain Giford, was probably also lost on the southern part in 1865.

Northern Reef observation spot on N.E. side of reef, lat. 2337'19"S., 17849'39" W. Southern Reef observation spot, just within Herald Bight, on South side of entrance, lat. 2356'22" S., long. 1794'57" W.

Minerva Reefs is not to be confused with Minerva Reef (3815'S., 14140'E.), with depths of less than 5.5m, extends about 0.7 mile from the greater part of the NW shore of Portland Bay, from about 1 mile N of Anderson Point to the entrance of the Surrey River. The whole area forms an uneven bottom, over which the sea breaks heavily at times.

Minerva Reefs is not to be confused with Minerva Shoal (2055'S., 15922'E.), with a least charted depth of 14.6m, lies 46 miles E of Bellona Shoal. Shallower depths were observed SW of Minerva Shoal. A small drying reef lies about 20 miles WNW of Minerva Shoal. A reef, 1 mile in diameter, which never covers, lies about 10 miles NW of Minerva Shoal. A below-water rock lies 33 miles ENE, and a 9.1m rocky patch lies 40 miles NE, respectively, of Northwest Bellona Reef. Between the last two shoals, and the charted 200m curve 32 miles W, there is dangerous ground, which has not been surveyed.

NEWSLETTER

Link:

Minerva Reefs - GlobalSecurity.org

We arrived at the South Minerva Reef on May 6th. North and South Minerva are atolls about 18 miles apart, set roughly 800 miles from New Zealand, 250NM from Tongatapu and 350NM from Suva, Fiji . The reefs are submerged at high tide but provide a spot to take refuge (and do boat repairs) on the passage north or south. Today, Tonga lays claim to the Minervas, though ownership has been hotly debated between Fiji and Tonga for many years. In the 1970s and 1980s, two groups of Americans tried to lay claim to the reefs but were forced off by Tongan troops.

Discovered in 1818, the reefs became known as Minerva Reefs when a ship called Minerva was wrecked in 1831 on the southern reef. It was not the last ship to be lost on the reef.

Belena, a German catamaran, was anchored as we arrived in the lagoon.

We anchored on the eastern edge of the reef for the best protection. Midnight Sun came in just behind us.

Midnight Sun, Kupere, Sea Spray and Pilgrim were company for several days in the lagoon.

We stayed on the boat for a few days as it was too rough and dangerous to try to lower the outboard onto the dinghy. It was also pretty sloppy at anchor especially at high tide when the waves came over the reef.

After watching other dinghies go ashore one morning, we decided it had calmed down enough to attempt to get the outboard mounted on the dinghy. It was time to explore the reef.

One morning, we were looking at the reef and noticed at large object had washed ashore, not far from the navigation light.

I reported the buoy to Gulf Harbour Radio who passed the message along to NZ MetService. I was asked to send photos when we got to Tongatapu, which I did. Apparently it has been reported to some international buoy organization to try to determine its origin. No plans are in the works to recover it. From recent cruiser reports, it is still on the reef at South Minerva. We hope it stays put as it would be quite a hazard at sea.

Monty, like all visiting cruisers, was on a mission to find some lobsters or crays as they are more commonly known here. The correct name is Pronghorn Spiny Lobster. John and Wendy from Midnight Sun thankfully gave Monty a few tips.

Unfortunately, I dared not eat these lobsters as I have had a stomach upset the last three times I did. I can eat East Coast Lobster but something in these South Pacific varieties doesnt agree with me. Didnt want to risk getting sick in such an isolated place!

On the calmest clearest day while at the reef, John and Wendy from Midnight Sun suggested a dinghy brigade to a snorkel spot. We dinghied a few miles across the lagoon to the western entrance and dropped anchors in a little nook in the reef.

Monty and I decided it was better to just go for a snorkel near the dinghy. We were not disappointed. Lots of colourful corals and fish.

Our snorkel adventure was cut short when we saw a black tip shark. I was wary after warnings we had had from other cruisers that even black tips can be aggressive in the Minervas, especially when they are in a pack. It was just one shark, but I thought it was better just to get back in the dinghy in any case. Monty was getting cold and joined me in the dinghy. We headed back to Whistler once Midnight Sun made it back to their dinghy. Didnt want to leave anyone behind.

We were awaiting good conditions for heading north-east to Tonga. Eight days later, the winds eased a bit and went to a slightly more favourable direction. Whistler and Midnight Sun headed out the channel together with Tongatapu as the destination.

We had mixed feelings about leaving South Minerva and wished we could have done more exploring in calmer conditions. There was so much more to see! And we never got to North Minerva Reef!

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South Minerva Reef SVWHISTLER

The Republic of Minerva was one of the few modern attempts at creating a sovereign micronation on the reclaimed land of an artificial island in 1972. The architect was Las Vegas real estate millionaire and political activist Michael Oliver, who went on to other similar attempts in the following decade. Lithuanian-born Oliver formed a syndicate, the Ocean Life Research Foundation, which allegedly had some $100,000,000 for the project and had offices in New York and London. They anticipated a libertarian Society with "no taxation, welfare, subsidies, or any form of economic interventionism." In addition to tourism and fishing, the economy of the new nation would include light industry and other commerce. According to Glen Raphael, "The chief reason that the Minerva project failed was that the libertarians who were involved did not want to fight for their territory."[1] According to Reason, Minerva has been "more or less reclaimed by the sea".[2]The site chosen for the Republic was the Minerva Reefs in the Pacific Ocean.

It is not known when the reefs were first discovered but had been marked on charts as "Nicholson's Shoal" since the late 1820s. Capt H. M. Denham of the HMS Herald surveyed the reefs in 1854 and renamed them after the Australian whaler Minerva which collided with South Minerva Reef on 9 September 1829.[3]

In 1971, barges loaded with sand arrived from Australia, bringing the reef level above the water and allowing construction of a small tower and flag. The Republic of Minerva issued a declaration of independence on 19 January 1972, in letters to neighboring countries and even created their own currency. In February 1972, Morris C. Davis was elected as Provisional President of the Republic of Minerva.

The declaration of independence, however, was greeted with great suspicion by other countries in the area. A conference of the neighboring states (Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, Nauru, Samoa, and territory of Cook Islandss) met on 24 February 1972 at which Tonga made a claim over the Minerva Reefs and the rest of the states recognized its claim.

On 15 June 1972, the following proclamation was published in a Tongan government gazette:

His Majesty King Taufaahau Tupou IV in Council DOES HEREBY PROCLAIM:

WHEREAS the Reefs known as North Minerva Reef and South Minerva Reef have long served as fishing grounds for the Tongan people and have long been regarded as belonging to the Kingdom of Tonga has now created on these Reefs islands known as Teleki Tokelau and Teleki Tonga; AND WHEREAS it is expedient that we should now confirm the rights of the Kingdom of Tonga to these islands; THEREFORE we do hereby AFFIRM and PROCLAIM that the islands, rocks, reefs, foreshores and waters lying within a radius of twelve miles [19.31 km] thereof are part of our Kingdom of Tonga.

A Tongan expedition was sent to enforce the claim. Tongas claim was recognized by the South Pacific Forum in September 1972. Meanwhile, Provisional President Davis was fired by founder Michael Oliver and the project collapsed in confusion. Nevertheless, Minerva was referred to in O. T. Nelson's post-apocalyptic children's novel The Girl Who Owned a City, published in 1975, as an example of an invented utopia that the book's protagonists could try to emulate.

In 1982, a group of Americans led again by Morris C. Bud Davis tried to occupy the reefs, but were forced off by Tongan troops after three weeks.In recent years several groups have allegedly sought to re-establish Minerva.No claimant group has to date made any attempt to take possession of the Minerva Reefs territory.

In November 2005, Fiji lodged a complaint with the International Seabed Authority concerning territorial claim over Minerva.Tonga has lodged a counter claim. The Minerva "principality" group also claims to have lodged a counter claim.

Area: North Reef diameter about 5.6km, South Reef diameter of about 4.8km.Cities: CapitalPort Victoria.Terrain: 2 island atollsmainly raised coral complexes on dormant volcanic islands.

Both Minerva Reefs are about 435km southwest of the Tongatapu Group.The atolls are on a common submarine platform from 549to1097meters (1800to3600feet) below the surface of the sea. Cardea is circular in shape and has a diameter of about 5.6km. There is a small island around the atoll, with a small entrance into the flat lagoon with a somewhat deep harbor. Aurora is parted into The East Reef and the West Reef, both circular with a diameter of about 4.8km. Around both atolls are two small sandy cays, vegetated by low scrub and some trees. Several iron towers and platforms are reported to stand near the atolls, along with an unused light tower on Aurora, erected by the Americans during World War II. Geologically the Minervan islands are of a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations elevated by now-dormant volcanic activity.

The climate is basically subtropical with a distinct warm period (DecemberApril), during which the temperatures rise above 32C (90F), and a cooler period (MayNovember), with temperatures rarely rising above 27C (80F). The temperature increases from 23C to 27C (74F to 80F), and the annual rainfall is from 170 to 297 centimeters (67-117 in.) as one moves from Cardea in the south to the more northerly islands closer to the Equator. The mean daily humidity is 80%.

The obverse of the 35 Minerva Dollar coin

The reverse of the 1973 35 Minerva Dollar coin

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Republic of Minerva - MicroWiki