Disappointment Island is one of seven uninhabited islands in the Auckland Islands archipelago, in New Zealand. It is 475 kilometres (295 mi) south of the country's main South Island and 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the northwest end of Auckland Island.
It is home to a large colony of white-capped albatrosses: about 65,000 pairs – nearly the entire world's population – nest there.[1] Also on the island is the Auckland rail, endemic to the archipelago; once thought to be extinct, it was rediscovered in 1966.[2] The island is known for being one of the least-modified subantarctic islands in New Zealand.
History
On 7 March 1907, the Dundonald, a steel, four-masted barque, sank after running ashore on the west side of Disappointment Island. Twelve men drowned and seventeen men made it ashore.[3] Two of the men died, and fifteen survivors waited seven months for rescue.[4] They survived by eating mainly white-capped albatrosses (mollymawks), seals, and roots of the plant Azorella polaris.[3] They built coracles out of veronica trees and used it to paddle to the mainland, where they eventually found the supplies and boat at Port Ross, a castaway depot, on Auckland Island.[5]
The island was visited by a scientific expedition aboard the Hinemoa in November 1907, after the crew rescued the Dundonald survivors from Auckland Island.[6][3] It was this ship which took the stranded men of the Dundonald home.[5]
Etymology
British mariner Abraham Bristow, who was the first European to reach the Auckland Islands, named the island Disappointment Island.[7][8] Whilst aboard the ship Sarah in 1807, he unsuccessfully surveyed the island for fur seals and a base to reach the nearby fur seal rookeries on the western cliffs of Auckland Island.[7][8]
