The Clipperton Island, where 100 people were sent, and never truly returned

France owns the small tropical island of Clipperton, located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, at a distance of almost a thousand kilometers from the nearest land. It is completely uninhabited, has no infrastructure, but is considered strategically important due to its location and is considered by the French government as a possible site for the construction of a spaceport in the future. This island has a dark past; it is notorious not only for its pirate havens, challenging the belonging of its territory to different states, attempts to colonize it, but also for the tragic story of the forgotten people on it, which occurred at the beginning of the twentieth century.

An island unsuited for habitation but valued for its ocean location and guano mining

This remote coral island, lost in the Pacific Ocean, got its name from the English pirate John Clipperton, who sailed past it or perhaps used it as a base in the early 18th century. In the following years, Clipperton Island became a place of attraction for travelers and explorers, and due to its ideal strategic location in the ocean, for rulers of different countries.

It is a coral ring-shaped atoll with an area of just under nine square kilometers, with a large freshwater lagoon in the middle that has no connection with the ocean waters. The island is poorly habitable due to limited fresh water supplies, sparse vegetation, and poor fauna. Coconut palms are almost the only plants on the island, and its main inhabitants are bright orange crabs, seabirds, and sharks that swarm in the coastal waters.

Nevertheless, its territory has been claimed by the French, Mexicans, Americans, and the British for many decades. The Spanish explorers mentioned it in the ship’s logs, although they did not talk about their rights to the island.

Island settlement and mining

In 1821, Mexico declared its independence from Spain and possession of Spanish lands, including the island. In 1858, Napoleon III declared the island a French possession. In 1895, an American company began mining phosphates and guano – concentrated bird droppings on the island, which was considered a valuable fertilizer due to its high nitrogen and phosphorus content. This did not please the Mexicans and the French, who went to the island, ousted the Americans from there, and also began mining minerals and guano, trying to agree among themselves.

They were joined by the British, who said they didn’t care who owned the island. They built houses, planted more palm trees, and even tried to cultivate vegetable gardens, but the island remained inhospitable, and mining soon proved unprofitable. By 1910, the British had decided that these efforts were futile and fired all of their workers except one island caretaker.

The French also left the island, and the Mexicans continued to stay there the longest, because at that time the revolution was raging in Mexico, which lasted from 1910 to 1920, and Clipperton Island, far from the unrest, seemed to them a safe haven. In addition, at first, every two months, they met a ship from Mexico with food and basic necessities. But at some point, the political situation in Mexico worsened, and the ship, on which the islanders were completely dependent, stopped coming to the island; the government forgot about its citizens.

Hell in paradise, which arose after food ships stopped arriving on the island

By that time, there were about a hundred people on the island-men, women, and children, some of whom had already been born there. Everyone had to obey the island’s de facto governor, Captain Ramón Arnaud, who had thirteen guards. In 1914, a wrecked American ship moored at the island. The sailors, having corrected the consequences of the accident, advised the Mexicans to leave the island with them, but Arnaud refused. All he did was send the last remaining Briton off the island. After that, England stopped being interested in what was happening on Clipperton Island.

And the lives of its inhabitants worsened every day, supplies ran out, and soon the islanders realized that it was useless to wait for a rescue ship. They had to catch crabs, feed on coconuts, and eggs of seabirds that built nests on the island. Fishing was almost impossible due to the fact that the fish were found at some distance from the island, and it was impossible to catch them with nets. The inhabitants of the island began to suffer from vitamin deficiency, suffered from scurvy and rickets, and some died of hunger.

Lighthouse keeper Alvaris declared himself ruler of the island after Captain Ramón Arnaud’s death

One day, Captain Arnaud saw a ship on the horizon. Together with the surviving men, he boarded a small boat preserved on the island and went to the ship. There are two versions of what happened next. According to one story, when the boat went out into the open ocean, everyone realized that there was no ship on the horizon. Visit . A F I R I N K . C O M . For the full article. Whether Captain Ramón Arnaud was hallucinating or had deceived the men didn’t matter to them. They attacked him, the boat capsized, and all the people on board drowned.

The second version says that there was a ship after all, the men tried to reach it by boat, but the waves of the Pacific Ocean were so strong that the weakened people could not cope with them. The boat crashed into a coral reef, and everyone on board was killed. Regardless of what really happened, there are only 15 women and one man left on the island, lighthouse keeper Victoriano Alvarez. After the deaths of the men, he proclaimed himself the “king of Clipperton Island,” and the lives of the women who survived on the island turned into a living hell. According to the testimony of miraculously surviving eyewitnesses, Alvarez was mentally ill and ruled with an iron fist.

First of all, he collected all the weapons available on the island, except for one gun, and threw them into the sea. He then announced that the women on the island now belonged to him and would serve him and satisfy his needs. He raped women and teenage girls, turning them into slaves, forcing them to do whatever he ordered. Those who did not obey Alvarez were demonstratively beaten to death or shot with a rifle.

The murder of Alvaris, 11 survivors, and a miraculous rescue many years later

This brutality continued for three years, until two women, one of whom, Alicia, was Captain Arnaud widow, decided to end it. They went to the lighthouse and killed Alvarez, leaving his body on the shore. This brought moral relief to the surviving women, but did not change their plight on the island.

However, a few months later, a miracle happened – they saw a ship in the distance. Unlike the ghost ship that Captain Arnaud had once seen, it was the real American warship Yorktown. The sailors also noticed the presence of people on the island, which they considered uninhabited.

The captain of the ship ordered the boat to be lowered into the water, and soon several soldiers landed on the island and brought 11 exhausted women to the ship. Everyone was horrified by their stories. All the women looked like haggard old women, although the oldest of them was just over thirty years old. But almost a decade spent on the guano-covered island, in conditions of starvation, disease, and torture, had a major impact on their appearance and health.

The sailors took the women to the shores of Mexico and raised a small fund to help them start a new life on the mainland. The Mexicans were so moved by the sailors’ actions that a big celebration was held in honor of the 11 surviving women and the sailors who saved them.