Clipperton Island (Fr: Ile de la Passion) is a low lying atoll in the eastern Pacific with an incredible history which encapsulates international intrigue, human tragedy, a unique ecosystem and – if that wasn’t enough – a history of rape, murder and guano.
Named after the British pirate John Clipperton, Clipperton has undergone claim and counterclaim from various countries over the course of the last two hundred years, mostly revolving between two countries, France and Mexico, the former of which now administers it from French Tahiti since it was granted ownership by the arbitration of the Italian King, Victor Emanuel, in the 1930′s.
For more information, the most complete sourcebook is Jimmy M. Skaggs’ Clipperton: A History of the Island the World Forgot. Also, for a fascinating history piece, there is The Birds of Clipperton and Cocos Islands from 1910.
| 1521 | Sighted by Ferdinand Magellan. |
| 1705 | “Discovered” by British pirate John Clipperton. |
| 1825 | American Benjamin Morrell likely lands on the island – the first person to have done so. |
| 1839 | Captain Belcher (UK) surveys Clipperton. |
| 1849 | Belcher’s map is published by the British Admiralty, the first known map of the island. |
| 1856 | President Franklin Pierce signs the Guano Islands Act, allowing any American citizen to take over any territory containing guano which is not already claimed by another country. |
| 1858 | Lieutenant Kerveguen of France declares French ownership of the island. |
| 1892 | Under the Guano Islands Act, Captain Frederick W. Permien takes possession of Clipperton for the Stoningham Phosphate Company. |
| 1893-98 | The Oceanic Phosphate Company of San Francisco mine Clipperton for guano. |
| 1897 | After a historically disputed encounter with a Mexican vessel, Theodore Gussmann is marooned on the island, an incident which brings to light the contentious ownership of the island. |
| 1898 | New York Times – January 3rd 1898
“If Mexico and the United States are looking for an excuse on which to found a quarrel, the incident reported from Clipperton Island will meet all requirements. In a few days we shall hear from France, which has long maintained a vague title to this speck of coral rock, and then there will be at least four parties to the dispute.” |
| 1898 | As the international incident deepens, Theodore Gussmann continues to languish alone on the island. How or when he managed to leave the island in unknown, but by May, having bought rights to the island from the Oceanic Phosphate Conpany of San Francisco, the Pacific Islands Company of London arrive to begin their own mining project. |
| 1898+ | Over the next few years, in a stroke of pragmatic genius, Mexico recognise the rights of the Pacific Islands Company of London and issue their own permissions to the company, thus ensuring a steady and productive relationship with the company which at that point is in possession of Clipperton. |
| 1906 | French Chargé d’Affaires in Mexico Peretti de la Rocca presents the Mexican government with a proposal to submit the dispute to international arbitration. For inexplicable reasons, Mexico accepts the proposal. |
| 1908 | Mexico stations an army detachment on Clipperton, led by Captain Ramon de Arnaud. |
| 1909 | King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, agrees to act as arbiter in the dispute between France and Mexico. |
| 1914 | The Tampico, Clipperton garrison’s regular visitor and bringer of provisions, is sunk off the coast of Mexico. Soon afterwards the USSS Cleveland passes by Clipperton and offers to take the colony – soldiers, wives and children numbering about thirty – off the island to the mainland. Captain Arnaud refuses, and also expels Mr.G.Schulz, the Pacific Islands Company of London’s final representative. Thus, all ties with the outside world. Over the next few years, the castaways – it is later learned – had been totally unaware of the First World War. |
| 1914-17 | Over a three year period, the inhabitants of Clipperton island die off one by one, mostly of scurvy. By 1917, only three women and their children are left with Alvarez, the Lighthouse Keeper, who has declared himself King of Cipperton and has begun a reign of terror over the women. |
| 1917 | Tirza Rendon kills Alvarez, just as the USSS Yorktown sails into view, which rescues the final survivors. |
| 1931 | Victor Emanuel III declares Clipperton to be the property of France |
| 1938 | President Roosevelt first visits Clipperton. |
| 1944 | The United States seize Clipperton in a top-secret military operation sanctioned directly by Roosevelt. |
| 1980 | Jacques-Yves Cousteau visits the island. |
