<?y IBtytk 
elder hmt!!^/' E '!' S tdls , how ’ about the middle of 1887, he and his 
for John T A Jame 'i , (SO "f ? *!* mana S er of Baker and Howland Islands 
J n T. Arundel and Co.) arrived at Hull, established a camp and 
set mrt some 20000 coconuts which they had brought with them. Many 
more were planted later. y 
• i T! 1 ' Bnt ‘ Sh flag was hoisted on Hull, July 11, 1889. In 1916 the 
is and was among those leased for 87 years to Captain Allen and used by 
e Samoan Shipping and Trading Co. for the production of copra, to 
19*4, when the writer visited Hull, the 17 Tokelau native workmen 
were in charge of Wyllie Shafer, Yankee ex-marine, with Samoan wife 
and family. After the death of Captain Allen, 1925, the group nearly 
Feb^ty lTl93i a ‘ 1Ure t0 reCdVe SUPPliCS ‘ Mr ' ShafCr di6d 011 HuI ^ 
r • T\*Tt made ° f the ISland during the next seven y«rs. Then 
• P j* ln l° neS went there as meager for Bums, Philp Co. He ar¬ 
rived in May, 1937, on the Makoa, which went aground on the west 
point on May 22, the wreck, in two pieces, being still visible, July 28 
1938, when the writer passed on the Taney. Captains Jones is an amateur 
radio enthusiast, as well as an expert radio engineer. 
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony took over the lease in 1938 
retaining Captain Jones as administrator of the island. In July 1939 
t ere was a well ai ranged village, where the copra camp used to be at 
the west end, occupied by about 80 natives from the Gilbert Islands, 
with promise of about 200 more before the end of 1939. At that time the 
wells were brackish, due to drought, but a large concrete cistern was to 
be built. 
As on Sydney Island, the 14,000 coconut palms have been apportion- 
ed among the settlers at the rate of about fifty bearing trees to each adult 
ihe Gilbertese name of this island is Orona. 
The lagoon at Hull presents one of the best seaplane landings in the 
imoT group- The isIand was surveyed December, 1938 to January, 
1939, by a party from New Zealand, the principal coral heads in the 
lagoon being marked with empty gasoline drums, and claim being made 
for the British Pacific Airways. In July, 1939, the U.S.S. BushneU also 
surveyed the island. 
m 
CHAPTER 20 
McKean Island 
M C KEAN 
UO 
i74°orr3o*w. 
A 
4 Nautical 
1 Mile. 
McKean is the northwestern island of the Phoenix group. It lies 216 
nautical miles south of the equator, 135 miles W.N.W. of Hull Island, 
150 miles W.S.W. of Canton Island, and 70 miles N.N.E. of Gardner 
Island. 
It is a flat sand and coral island with an oval outline, less than half 
a mile long (north and south), by 800 yards wide. Like other “pancake” 
islands, the beach, which is largely composed of beach rock and coral 
66 ' 
