Anyone who has happened to hold navigational charts in their hands, most likely, met near some of the islands marked on them PD (position doubtful) or ED (existence doubtful).
The position of the cartographers in this case deserves only praise: it is better not to find the island at the designated place than to pave a way through the dubious and therefore not indicated on the map land and run into it at night.
The mysterious emerging and disappearing islands have a rich history. The history of their occurrence in each case is unique and curious, so right now we will plunge into the abyss of secrets and intrigues that wash over these legendary pieces of land …
Mysterious Aurora
In 1762, sailors from the Spanish ship Aurora southwest of the Falkland Islands, halfway to South Georgia, discovered three small islands, which they named after their ship. In 1774 the officers of the Aurora confirmed once again that they were sailing past these islands again. Another Spanish ship, the São Miguel, pinpointed the islands at 52 ° 37 ′ S and 47 ° 49 ′ West between these two observations, and the captains of several other ships also recorded these landmarks in their logbooks.
In 1794, J. de Bustamento, commander of the Spanish corvette Atrevido, compiled a more accurate description of the islands. According to the records made, the central, largest island has a top similar in shape to a tent; on the south side it is white with snow, and on the north it has a dark color. The second island, to the north of the first, is a smaller peak, also covered with snow, and, finally, the southernmost of the three islands is a large rock in the shape of a saddle, which at first the sailors mistook for an iceberg.
No one doubted the existence of the Aurora Islands, and Edgar Poe even mentioned them in his "The Tale of Arthur Gordon Pym", where one of the heroes' goals was to find these very scraps of land. The reason for the search was the belief about a Spanish galleon, stuffed with gold and washed ashore on one of the islands. Apparently, the prototype of the legend was the Spanish ship "San Telmo", which really crashed in these waters in 1819.
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However, in the 19th century, the islands that were firmly entrenched on the map disappeared! James Weddell, a renowned Antarctic explorer, went looking for them in 1820, but found nothing in the area. The search, undertaken in 1822 by the crew of a fishing vessel led by Benjamin Morrell, ended in failure.
But where could they have gone then? Maybe icebergs were mistaken for islands? But it is unlikely that experienced sailors would confuse the islands with blocks of ice that locked in one place at the end of the 18th century and disengaged at the beginning of the next century. It is very shaky and the assumption that the Shag Rocks, located approximately at 53 ° south latitude and 43 ° west longitude, were taken for the Aurora Islands.
They are a group of three rocks visible above the water at a distance of about one mile. Chances are too small that these small ledges were mistaken for the large rocks described by the commander of the Atrevido, and they are far to the east of the location of the Aurora Islands. Since then, these islands have been mentioned only once: in 1856, the captain of the ship "Helen Baird" recorded the observation of five islands instead of three, placing them at 52 ° 41 'south latitude and 48 ° 22' west longitude, which is quite close to previously specified coordinates. According to the captain's description, the islands were covered with snow and stretched for 20-25 miles. However, this message was not believed, and the mystery of the disappeared islands has not yet been solved …
THE UNCATCHABLE SAXEMBERG
Saxemberg Island was discovered by the Dutch captain Lindemann in 1670 at 30 ° 40 'south latitude and 19 ° 30' west longitude. The captain also attached a sketch to the message of the discovery, depicting a lowland with an unexpectedly high peak in the middle, very much like a witch's cap. However, geographers were skeptical about Lindemann's words and remembered him only in 1804, when Galloway, the captain of the American ship Fanny, reported that he also observed the island for four hours. The description of the land completely coincided with the description of Lindemann, the latitude coordinates also coincided, but the American indicated the longitude two degrees east. However, this is understandable - Galloway used a chronometer, which Lindemann did not have, so an error crept into the definition.
In 1816 Captain Head again saw Saxemberg at the indicated location and observed it for six hours. The description also completely coincided with the previous ones. However, Head was the last one to observe this piece of land with his own eyes - after 1816 the island … disappeared. Moreover, the inhabitants of the island of Tristan da Cunha in the southern part of the Atlantic, 500 miles from which Saxemberg was located, do not know anything about this island - although, in theory, they should have stumbled upon it long ago. But, on the other hand, it is unlikely that the three captains mistook something else for the island. But we know for sure that there is no island in that place (already?). Where could he go?..
ISLAND OF THE ARTIST'S WIFE
I would like to finish my review of the mysterious islands with a funny story about the “island of the artist's wife”. Here is what Peter Heilin wrote in his 1659 Cosmography:
The Artist's Wife Island is the island mentioned by Sir Walter Rayleigh in his History of the World. About him Sir Walter was told by Pedro de Sarmiento, a Spaniard who, on behalf of the king, was to establish several colonies near the Strait of Magellan. On the way home, he was captured by Sir Walter, and he asked him about some of the islands depicted on the maps in the strait area that would be very useful to him. To this, Sarmiento cheerfully replied that they should be called the "Islands of the Artist's Wife", because when the artist was drawing this map, the wife sitting next to him asked him to map one land for her, so that she could become the owner of the island in her imagination.
In all likelihood, the artist's wife has many islands, and perhaps there are also countries on the continent that are depicted on our ordinary maps, but which cannot be found even as a result of the most careful searches."