Flint Island
Flint Island is an uninhabited coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the Southern Line Islands belonging to Kiribati.
Geography
Flint Island is located about 400 miles (640 km) northwest of Tahiti, 86 miles (138 km) south-southeast of Vostok Island, and 125 miles (201 km) southwest of Caroline Island. The island is about 2.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide at its widest point. It has a land are of area of 1 mi² (3 km ²) and rises to a height of 25 feet (8 m) above sea level. The island is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef and with no safe anchorage landing is difficult.
According to the U.S. Exploring Expedition (February 5, 1841), the island was thickly wooded, however the island is now mostly covered with planted coconut palms.
History
The island was first sighted in 1801 and named by Capt. Keen in 1835. It was claimed under the 1856 U.S. Guano Act but apparently never occupied. The island was leased by the British to Houlder Brothers and Co., of London who carried out guano digging in the central part of the island from 1875 to 1880 under field manager John T. Arundel. The excavated areas have since filled with brackish water, forming two or three small lagoons. Coconut palms were planted on the island by Arundel in 1881 and copra was produced until 1891. The island was leased in 1911 to S.R. Maxwell and Co., Ltd. who employed 30 men and one manager to harvest copra from the approximately 30,000 coconut palms.
On January 3, 1908 a total eclipse of the sun was observed on the island by an expedition from the Lick Observatory in California. The observation point on the island was determined to be at 11°25'27" South longitude, 151°48'15" West latitude.