M i 
3 ' * Great Britain to the Pacific Islands Co., but there is no record available 
of its having been used. 
Various British vessels visited the island, including H.M.C.S. Nmia- 
noa, with H. E. Maude, administrator for the Gilbert and Ellice Islan s 
Colony, October, 1937. 
The total eclipse of the sun, July 8, 1937, was a little better for ob¬ 
servation from Enderbury than from Canton, but landing and anchorage 
facilities outweighed the slight advantage to the astronomers. 
On March 3, 1938, Enderbury, like Canton, was placed under the 
U S. Department of the Interior, by administrative order of President 
Franklin D. Roosevelt. The American colonists landed from the U. b. 
Toast Guard Cutter Taney and established their camp there on March 6, 
1938. Now they have substantial stone and frame buildings and a li & ht- 
house. . , , . 
Enderbury is of slight use as a landing place for seaplanes, but there 
is plenty of room for the development of an airport for land planes. 
For the next fifty years or more it is to be under joint control o 
America and Great Britain. 
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CHAPTER 16 
Plioemx Island 
no*43’WL 
" 
;&8^r#rs 
Bunchgrass 
Boerhaavia 
PHOENIX ISLAND 
Modified, from HO. 1211 
bgEH.Brijan.Jr 
cS*. 
Lag 
ocm 
[Sida 
ilHu-mfe 
(Former (ver 3 
Guam 
.shallop 
Landing 
Camp) 
^Boerhaavia" 
and Bar tube a 
^ ’ -Breaker* / J 
3° 43 & ~ 
One Nautical Mile 
Phoenix island lies 40 nautical miles in a direction 30 degrees east of 
south from Enderbury Island, 77 miles from Canton Island, and 222 
miles south of the equator. It is about 1,650 miles from Honolulu* and 
640 miles due north of Pago Pago, American Samoa. It is the most west¬ 
ern of the Phoenix group. 
It is a sand and coral island, which might be described as ham-shaped 
or pear-shaped. It measures a little less than 3/4 mile long, from N.W. 
to S.E., by less than half a mile wide. The highest elevation is about 18 
feet, at the beach crest, the rest of the surface being much lower. 
The lowest part of the inclosed basin is occupied by a very shallow 
salty lagoon. This is now triangular in outline, measuring one-third mile 
north and south by not over 400 yards wide. Its size fluctuates greatly. 
