Nimrod Islands: The islands which didn't exist.

Map of the Atlantic, featuring the Nimrod Islands.

The year was 1828, Captain Elibeck of the ship Nimrod has embarked on a journey from Australia, and was travelling into the South Pacific Ocean. The ship sails into the open seas and it was a typical journey, just like other voyages. This was until he came across a group of islands during the journey. The islands didn't seem special in any way, perhaps a few of the many, many uninhabited islands in the sea, undiscovered until now. After all, the sea is extremely large and a lot of it is unexplored.

However, encountering a bunch of undiscovered islands is great! After all, this is the perfect time for the discoverer to name the islands! This group of islands were named after the ship and thus became known as the Nimrod Islands. However, it was discovered that the islands didn't actually existed! So how has the Nimrod came across the islands in the first place?

The Nimrod Discovery

Sight of the phantom islands

One fateful day in 1828, the ship Nimrod sets sail. Embarking from Port Jackson in Australia, the ship travels into the Pacific Ocean. During the trip, Captain Elibeck of the Nimrod came across a group of islands, which were then named after the ship. The Nimrod islands were just like your typical islands, except for one detail: they didn't exist! At least not in the form and location the discoverer thought it was.

Anyways, people believed in the Nimrod Islands until later expeditions set out to confirm the locations of the islands, but didn't find them in the supposed reported location.

Wikimedia

The search for Nimrod

The expeditions

Over many different years, there were many expeditions set out with the goal of searching for the locations of the Nimrod Islands. However, none of them were successful, and the Nimrod Islands continued to elude them.

An explorer named John Biscoe set sail on a brig, which were common in the past despite being long since outdated nowadays. The brig was called Tula, and he embarked on this journey in an attempt to find the Nimrod Islands in 1831. Yet, he was unsuccessful, and the mysterious islands weren't found.

Another expedition in 1909, sailed by John King Davis searched for the island, but he was also unsuccessful. In the supposed location of the Nimrod Islands, only the vast open seas were found. The ship that he set sailed in on this trip was also called the Nimrod, though not the same ship as the one that discovered the islands, that was from a different time entirely!

That wasn't the last expedition either. Later on in 1930, Lars Christensen embarked on a journey to find the elusive Nimrod Islands on the ship Norvegia, but he too was unsuccessful. He was greeted only by the empty seas, same with John King Davis.

So, how exactly had the Nimrod and its captain sighted the islands?

The Theories

An illusion?

The phantom Nimrod Islands that were sighted might have been an illusion at sea, caused by atmospheric conditions. Mirages of many different types were not a rare phenomenon after all.

Navigation Errors?

With the limited technology of the past, the reported sightings of the Nimrod Islands might has well been a navigation error. Perhaps the group of islands exists somewhere, just that somewhere wasn't the location the expeditioners thought it was. Not even close, probably, since the reported locations contains only the empty seas.

Not Exactly Islands?

Perhaps, the explorers has sighted something. It's just that something wasn't a group of islands. A theory suggests that the ship Nimrod came across a group of massive icebergs. At a distance, they might've been mistaken for islands, and thus has been reported as such. As for why later expeditions turned out to be unsuccessful, the icebergs might've not been there anymore since they might have moved or melted after the first sightings.

Officially a Phantom Island

The Nimrod Islands are Un-discovered

Nowadays, the Nimrod Islands doesn't appear on maps like it used to. Try it, get any modern map of your choosing and see if it contains the islands. Probably not, at least not in the form of actual islands. They had became phantom islands.