Clipperton Island (French: Île de Clipperton and as the real French name Île de la Passion) is a nine-square-kilometer coral atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, southwest of Mexico and west of Costa Rica, at 10°18′N, 109°13′W. It has no permanent inhabitants.

It is an overseas possession of France administered by the Minister of Overseas France.

History

Some say that Clipperton was discovered by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, but there is no evidence of this. Some historians believe it unlikely that Magellan would have been so far north, and so far east in the Pacific. Magellan's first confirmed landfall in the Pacific was Guam.

Clipperton's name comes from John Clipperton, an English pirate and privateer who in 1704 fought the Spanish during the early 18th century and is said to have passed by the island. Some others say he used the island as a hidden base for his raids on shipping, yet there is no text that ever proved the version. The legend might have helped keep his name alive to the present day.

Its real name, Île de la Passion ("Passion island"), was officially given in 1711 by French discoverers Martin de Chassiron and Michel Du Bocage, commanding the French ships La Princesse and La Découverte, who reached the island, drew the first map, and annexed it for France. The first scientific expedition took place in 1725 by the Frenchman M. Bocage, who lived on the island for several months. In 1858 it was formally claimed by France.

The American Guano Mining Company, under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, claimed the island for the United States of America, with earlier claim disputes to island guano tracing back to the Oceanic Phosphate Company with Mexico in 1848-49.

On November 17, 1858, under Emperor Napoleon III, the French annexed Clipperton as part of their South Sea colony Tahiti. Mexico reasserted its claim over the island, on December 13, 1897, occupying and annexing it, and established a military outpost on the island; it appointed military governors from that time, including Ramón Arnaud (1906-15) and Victoriano Álvarez (1917). The US again held it briefly during the Spanish American War of 1898.

The British Pacific Island Company acquired the rights in 1906 to Clipperton's guano deposits and, in conjunction with the Mexican government, built a mining settlement. That year, a lighthouse was erected under the orders of President Porfirio Díaz, and a military garrison under Captain Arnaud of the Mexican army was sent to the island. By 1914, about 100 people – men, women, and children – were living on the island. Every two months, a ship from Acapulco sailed to Clipperton with provisions. However, with the escalation of fighting in the Mexican Revolution, the atoll was no longer reachable by ship, and the island's inhabitants were left to their own devices.

By 1915, most of the inhabitants had died, and the last settlers wanted to leave on the US Navy warship Lexington, which had reached the atoll in late 1915. However, the Mexican military governor declared that evacuation was not necessary.

By 1917, all but one of the males on the island had died, some in a failed attempt to sail to the mainland and fetch help. The lighthouse keeper, Victoriano Álvarez, found himself the last man on Clipperton island, along with 15 women and children. Álvarez promptly proclaimed himself king and began a rampage of rape and murder, before being killed by one of the recipients of his attentions, the widow of garrison commander Captain Ramón Arnaud. On July 18, 1917, almost immediately following Álvarez's death, four women and six children, the last survivors, were picked up by the US Navy gunship USS Yorktown.

Ownership of Clipperton was then disputed between France and Mexico. France approached the Vatican for a decision on ownership and, in 1930, the Vatican assigned the arbitration to the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel, who on January 28, 1931, declared Clipperton a French possession. The French rebuilt the lighthouse and settled a military outpost on the island, which remained for seven years before being abandoned. In 1935 France took possession; it has since been administered by the French colonial high commissioner for French Polynesia.

In the late 1930s, Clipperton was visited twice by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wanted it to become a US possession for use as an airbase for Pacific Ocean operations. In 1944, he ordered the US Navy to occupy the island (until 1945) in one of the most secret US operations of World War II. Rear Admiral Byrd undertook several expeditions to the island to assess its potential as an airbase.

The island has been abandoned since WW II; since then it has only been visited by sport fishermen, regularly scheduled patrols by the French Navy, and Mexican tuna and shark fishermen. There have been infrequent scientific and amateur radio expeditions, and, on one occasion, Jacques-Yves Cousteau visited with his team of divers and a survivor from the 1917 evacuation.

In 1962, the independence of Algeria threatened further French nuclear testing at Algerian sites. The French Ministry of Defence considered Clipperton as a possible replacement test site; however, due to the island's hostile climate and remote location, this was eventually ruled out.

The French explored reopening the lagoon and developing a harbour for trade and tourism during the 1970s. An automatic weather installation was completed on April 7, 1980. The data collected by this station are transmitted directly by satellite to Brittany. (quoted from Wikipedia)

NA-011 from space

Dxpedition History: IOTA NA-011

Some photos from past Dxpeditions:

1954 FO8AJ

FO8AJ OPERATORS

1978 FO0XA-FO0XH

1986 FO0XX

1992 FO0CI

FO0CI OPERATING SITE

FO0CI

2000 FO0AAA

 More qsl cards from Clipperton from the French website "Les Nouvelles DX"

hits:  15055