Higgins told ABC Radio: that a ship called Velocity registered the “presence” of Sandy Island, logging
“heavy breakers” and “sandy Islets”.
“My supposition is that they simply recorded a hazard at the time,” Higgins said. “They might have recorded a low-lying reef or thought they saw a reef. They could have been in the wrong place. There is all number of possibilities.”
“But what we do have is a dotted shape on the map that’s been recorded at that time and it appears it’s simply been copied over time.”
Sandy Island is supported to be between Australia and New Caledonia, and can be found on marine charts and Google Earth, but there is nothing but open ocean. It’s been erased by Google.
The island has also been called Sable Island by the Times Atlas of the World.
Higgins admits this may not be the difiinitive explanation for the mystery of Sandy Island, but it’s better than anyone’s come up with so far.
“The chart does give a disclaimer that says some of the information is not completely reliable,” Mr Higgins said.
Image via Thinkstock
