It’s Island Week 4 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.

The last remaining fragments of the formerly immense French Empire in North America are the islands which make up the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, located 25km off the coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

Of the eight islands which make up the archipelago, only Saint Pierre and Miquelon-Langlade are inhabited today, though history traces populations back to the early 16th century, and possibly even earlier. Control of the islands switched between England and France numerous times before France took permanent ownership in 1815.

Saint Pierre houses the capital (of the same name) of the collectivity, and the bulk of the population – about 5,500 people. Five much smaller islands off the north and east coasts are also part of the territory.

The waterfront of Saint Pierre is dominated by the Customs House and General Charles de Gaulle Square where the Tricolor is raised on Bastille Day.

Miquelon-Langlade comprises two formerly separate islands now joined by a 12km long sandspit called La Dune, which local lore explains was built up by the 500 ships which wrecked in the area.

Despite their larger size, these islands are home to less than 700 permanent residents on Miquelon. The last remaining Langlade resident passed away a couple of years ago, though many islanders do keep summer homes here.

The sandbar also protects Grand Barachois – a large lagoon on Miquelon which supports a colony of seals and other wildlife.

The collectivity has been a sore point for Canada on occasion. During World War II, Canada contemplated invading the islands when they were suspected of assisting German submarines. More recently a conflict over fishing rights had to be resolved by the International Court of Arbitration, which awarded France territory surrounding the islands in addition to 19km wide corridor stretching 370km to the south.

To help preserve fishing as a traditional way of life, the government built Les Salines – cabins where fishermen keep their boats and process their catches.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is renowned as the only place in North America where Euros are legal tender¹, and for the quality of the baguettes, for which French flour is specially imported!

The islands have a couple of notable historical moments: In 1889 a convicted murderer became the only person ever to be executed by guillotine in North America. And from 1920 to 1933, they experienced a significant period of economic prosperity caused by alcohol smuggling during Prohibition in the US.

Thanks to Rob Shostak, Thomas Paul and Josh Simons.

It’s Island Week 4 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.

Far out in the South Atlantic, more than 2,500km from the coast of South Africa, Bouvet Island is the loneliest chunk of land on Earth. With the exception of a few tiny rocks just offshore, its nearest neighbour is Antarctica, 1,750km to the south. Despite being so remote, and totally uninhabited¹, it is covered by some beautiful high-resolution imagery.

Bouvet Island is a dependency of Norway, although it was discovered by (and named after) a Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier, in 1739. It’s a volcanic island, almost entirely covered by snow and ice — you can make out the central crater surrounded by cloud-covered peaks, with the highest, Olavtoppen, casting a shadow from the northeast.

Landing here is a very tricky prospect, unless your ship’s equipment includes a helicopter: the coastline mainly consists of high cliffs, with stormy seas foaming at the base and carving out sheer stacks of rock. In places, glaciers tumble over the edge in jagged blocks of ice, while submerged rocks lie in wait for unwary sailors. It’s no surprise that the island remains uninhabited, although a group of hardy Norwegians did spend a whole month there in the 1920s, confirming the nation’s claim on the island.

It seems Bouvet is still volcanically active. During the 1950s, an eruption on the west coast created a low shelf of lava — just about the only convenient flat spot on the island. The Norwegian Polar Institute installed a research station there in 1994 for use during field trips to the island, but by 2007 (and on Google’s pictures) no trace of it remained. The official story is that an earthquake caused a landslide that swept the portable building away — or broke the guy lines that anchored it, allowing gales to blow it into the sea — but bearing in mind that Bouvet Island was the setting for the 2004 film Alien vs Predator, the real explanation seems obvious…

One final mystery: can anyone tell us why, according to the map at Wikipedia, this headland is called Cape Circumcision?

It’s Island Week 4 here at GSS, which means we’ll mostly be posting about Islands. For about a week.

North Brother Island, home to many decaying and abandoned structures, sits just off shore of New York’s Manhattan borough in the East River. Now home to a few crumbling Gothic buildings, it once housed the Riverside Hospital, and is undoubtedly the creepiest island in New York City.

Largely ignored until the late 19th century, North Brother Island did not see permanent settlement until the construction of the Riverside Hospital was completed in 1885. The hospital was built to house those suffering from infections diseases like cholera, typhoid, and smallpox as well as a constantly rotating staff of doctors and nurses.

In order to keep the island’s patients from infecting the rest of the city’s population, it was kept relatively isolated – a small ferry was the only mode of transport for hospital staff and supplies.

As the island’s population grew, additional dormitories and a tuberculosis pavilion were constructed. At its height during an 1892 typhus outbreak, North Brother Island held over 1,200 patients, many housed in makeshift tents.

Perhaps the most infamous patient of the Riverside Hospital was Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary. A cook at various Manhattan restaurants in the early 1900s, Mary also carried Typhoid. After infecting a total of 53 people she was committed to Riverside Hospital and lived out the rest of her life in an isolated cottage on the island.

Riverside Hospital continued to treat victims of infectious disease and later, drug addiction, until it was permanently shut down in 1963 due to a staff corruption scandal. Over the past 40 years, North Brother has been left to decay into its current horror-movie-esque state and is now off limits to the public.

For more information and some great pictures, check out this blog.

Thanks to Edvado, yusaku and Katerina Korch.

We’ve tagged this sight as “India”, but in truth North Sentinel Island is hardly even a part of the world as we know it.

Although it is barely 40km away from the well populated South Andaman Island, North Sentinel is home to what is probably the last “uncontacted” tribe on Earth. The islanders are fiercely independent and have shunned all attempts to contact them, although in 1991 a few intrepid tribesmen did go as far as accepting gifts of coconuts from Indian government officials who approached the island in a dinghy. They survive as hunter-gatherers, armed with bows and arrows tipped with metal scavenged from whatever flotsam and jetsam washes up on shore.

Nobody knows how many people live on the island – the official 2001 census figure, recorded from aerial surveys, was 39, but some estimates are as high as 400. What we do know is that the tsunami of December 2004 had a devastating impact on much of the Andaman region, and North Sentinel was no exception. For a dramatic illustration of its effects, compare these two images:

The first picture, taken from Google Earth, was captured before the tsunami (the exact date isn’t recorded but it was circa 2000). The second image was taken in April 2005 by the European Space Agency’s Proba satellite, and shows that the island’s fringing reefs have been lifted considerably, exposing large areas of coral and destroying much of the shallow lagoon.

The Indian government, worried that the North Sentinelese¹ had been wiped out by the disaster, dispatched a helicopter to investigate. They found that at least some of the islanders were still alive and kicking – and when the chopper got too close, it came under attack from a hail of rocks and arrows. How the islanders will cope with the damage to their ecosystem remains to be seen, but they will at least be left to do it in peace: India’s official policy is now to make no further attempt to contact or “assimilate” the islanders, so although they remain notionally “Indian”, they are still essentially untouched by the outside world.

Read more about the island and its people at Wikipedia, and at EVS-Islands, which also has an excellent map.

In the world of high-end real estate, nothing says “I’m richer than you” like your very own private island. In the Florida Keys, an archipelago made up of more than 1,700 islands, it is relatively easy to find your own personal tropical retreat for sale or rent… provided you can afford it!

First we have Melody Key, former home of 311 vocalist Nick Hexum¹. This 5.5 acre key can be yours for the low price of 3.8 million dollars and includes a fully furnished home with 2 boats, as well as a mainland dock for launching island expeditions.

The future owner of Coupon Key will inherit a 9 bedroom house with separate caretaker’s quarters as well as 14.6 acres of island to explore. Plenty of room to pretend you’re a pirate, or even roam around without any clothes on… if you’re into that sort of thing.

Finding yourself a bit strapped for cash? Fear not, there is a luxury island for everyone!² Though not quite a key or an island, sprawling 0.5 acre East Sister Rock is available for rent on a weekly basis. With its very own dock, pool, and helicopter pad, East Sister Rock is a perfect choice for the millionaire on a budget.

Though the Florida Keys tend to have beautiful weather during the spring and summer months, it would be wise to exercise caution when visiting East Sister Rock during hurricane season as the island’s house sits only 5 metres above mean sea level.

Thanks to Eric.