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CHAPTER 40 
Jarvis Island 
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JARVIS ISLAND 
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One Nautical Mile 
Jarvis Island is located a little more than 22 nautical miles south 
of the equator. It is 400 miles northwest of Starbuck, 373 miles north¬ 
west of Malden, 200 miles southwest of Christmas, 260 miles a little 
west of south from Fanning, 310 miles south and a little east of 
Washington, and 395 miles south-southeast of Palmyra. 
It is a low, basin-shaped, coral island, measuring 1}£ miles east 
and west by a mile greatest width. The highest point on the rim is 23 
feet (at Millersville) and portions of the east rim are less than 12 
feet. The rim is quite narrow, enclosing an extensive basin, one point 
being at sea level, although there is no permanent lagoon. 
On the map we have drawn the five-foot depression contour within 
this basin, connecting points which are just five feet above sea level. 
In 1938, in making a study of plant distribution on Jarvis, the writer 
noted that most of the area within this line, and hence lower than five 
feet, was covered by a meadow of Sesuvium or pickle weed. Outside 
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the line (elevation 5 to 15 feet) the ground is sparsely covered with 
Portulaca or purslane. 
The entire ridge was covered by a narrow belt ei Lepturus bundt- 
grass. On die low east ride were scattered bushes of Boerhamm and 
Sida; and on the west side was a patch of very dry Tribulus (puncture 
vine) and a little Eragrostis bunchgrass. On the steep beach west of 
Millersville were a few bushes of Abutilon, abouk three feet tall, the 
highest vegetation on the island. 
The steep beach is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef, about 100 
yards wide. Off this platform reef, which dries at low water, the water 
is shoal for another 200 yards, on the south, west, and north,*and then 
deepens rapidly. Off the east side, however, is quite an area of shoal, 
sounded by the Itasca in 1935. The direction of the wind does not make 
this a good anchorage. A narrow channel which was blasted through the 
reef on the west side by the guano diggers makes landing comparatively 
easy. In good weather a small boat also might land through two similar 
small breaks in the reef just north of the southwest point. 
The usual sea birds are numerous, as well as hermit crabs, lizards, 
and small field mice. Highly colored fishes and other marine life abound 
in pools on the reef. 
Jarvis is said to have been discovered by Captain Brown of the 
English ship Eliza Francis, August 21, 1821. The island also has been 
called Bunker, Volunteer, Jervis, and Brook or Brock, and some of 
these names appear on charts or occur in lists of discoveries prior to 
1821. Captain Michael Baker made landings from the ship Braganza 
in 1835 and 1836, and from the Desdamona in 1845. The U. S. Exploring 
Expedition’s ships Peacock and Flying Fish surveyed the island in 
December, 1840. 
It is stated that guano samples were taken in 1855. In March, 1857, 
Alfred G. Benson, of New York, and Charles H. Judd, of Honolulu, 
landed from the Hawaiian schooner Liholiho (Captain John Paty) and 
claimed it for the American Guano Co., under the Guano Act of 1856. 
A few months later the U.S.S. St. Mary’s under Commander Charles 
Henry Davis, surveyed the island and made formal claim in the name 
of the United States. 
February 27, 1858, C. H. Judd took 23 native workmen to Jarvis 
on the ship John Marshall, Capt. Pendleton, to commence digging opera¬ 
tions. Buildings were erected and moorings laid. From 1858 to 1879 
there is continuous record of guano shipments from this island, one of 
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