Hungry for the true history of Diego Garcia and the Chagos Archipelago? Forget the CIA World Fact Book, Wikipedia, and all those political movies and websites. This is the real deal!
Important Dates of the Provisional People's Democratic Republic of Diego Garcia
OR
42 Flags Over Diego Garcia.
Brought to you by the PPDRDG Ministry of Propaganda, which reminds you to PAY ATTENTION! There will be a test! And come back often - this page is always under construction.
Do you know any more historical facts about our favorite island?If you do, send them to me, and I'll get them on the list!
BEFORE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT
Late Cretaceous, 65 million years before the present.
The molten core of the earth begins to push up to form the Laccadives, Maldives, and Chagos archipelagos, including the mountain that will eventually become Diego Garcia.
In the Rama Era - Before Lord Krishna
Hanuman, leader of the Vanaras (talking apes) journeys 800 miles south of India to a place he called Lanka, which is approximately the location of Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
c. 200 A.D.
The great Austronesian diaspora is in full swing. Folks from what is today Indonesia & surrounding areas set out on epic sea voyages in outrigger canoes along the Equatorian Counter Current, settling the Pacific Islands, eventually colonizing islands as far away as Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. They also traveled the South Equatorial Current of the Indian Ocean, which flows from east to west between the equator and 10 degrees south, reaching Madagascar around this time. Chances are they passed near Diego Garcia (at 7 degrees south), perhaps even landing, but did not establish permanent settlements.
1413
Cheng Ho, the Great Eunuch of the Ming Dynasty's Imperial Palace, sails close by. Or maybe not.
1502
Clusters of islands, which possibly represent the Chagos Archipelago, appear on Alberto Catino's world map. This is the first time Diego is shown or mentioned anywhere in the world. Or maybe not.
1504
The Italian Ludovico de Varthema discovers Diego Garcia during his trip from Berbera, Somalia to the Indian port of Diu in Gujarat. Or maybe not.
1512
Pedro Mascarenhas, a Portuguese Captain, is detached from the 'Armada de India', of Dom Garcia de Noronha, and sent to India with dispatches by the shortest and fastest route. He sails through the Chagos Archepelago, discovers and names Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
1532
Spanish explorers discover and name Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
1602
Sir James Lancaster, on his second voyage to India, now in command of a four-ship fleet consisting of the RED DRAGON, HECTOR, ASCENSION, and Lancaster's SUSAN, attempts to pioneer a sea route from East Africa to the East Indies to trade for pepper and nutmeg. He takes his fleet across the Indian Ocean and at about six degrees south finds himself in extremely shallow water and in danger of running aground. He spent three days picking through the reefs (probably the Great Chagos Bank) before reaching the safety of the open ocean. His tale of near disaster keeps mariners from entering the area for over 100 years. Lancaster's fleet was the very first trading expedition of the British East India Company (earlier trips - by Lancaster and Michelbourne - being essentially pirate raids).
June 19, 1605
Sir Edward Michelbourne, a British East India Company "Gentleman Adventurer", i.e., pirate, is on his way home from a two year voyage pirating Dutch traders in the East Indies in command of the TIGRE, sights the "Ile of Diego Graciosa" but cannot find a place to anchor. He described it as being ten or twelve leagues long and being covered with coconut trees, with fish and birds abundant.
1666
J. Jansson of Amsterdam publishes a map of the Indian Ocean, titled "Erythraei Sive Rubri Maris Periplus ab Arriano Descriptus nunc verio ab Abrah. Ortelio ex eodem Delineatus" which shows some islands about where Diego Garcia lies today.
1719
The British ship STRANGER sails close by, but remains a stranger.
1740
Jacques Nicolas Bellin publishes a detailed map in Paris that shows the islands of the Southwest Indian Ocean, including Diego Garcia.
1742
The French ships ELISABETH and CHARLES survey the Chagos region.
January 1745
Another British ship, the PELHAM, visits Diego Garcia, the first recorded landing. This was also the first time the F word was used on the island, when a sailor undoubtably said "How long did you say we are staying on this f---ing island?" The PELHAM departed shortly thereafter.
July 15, 1755
Yet another British ship, the HMS MARY, visits Diego Garcia.
Late 1700s
The name Diego Garcia becomes standard on maps of the time. Names on earlier maps include Deo Gratia (1537), Isle de Diego Graciosa (1641), Don Garzia, and Chagos Island.
1763
British ships SPEAKER and PITT visit Diego, and make the first map of the island. The crew, however, fails to name one single island feature for Parliamentary Speaker Pitt.
1768
A French naval ship, Captained by Dufresne, lands on Diego Garcia after sailing from the Seychelles.
1769
French Navy Lieutenant La Fontaine, visits Diego Garcia as surveyor for M. le Chevalier Grenier. This expedition consists of two ships, L'HEURE DU BERGER and VERT GALLAND.
1770
L'HEURE DU BERGER, captained this time by la Fontaine, returns and enters the lagoon through Barton Pass (an exceedingly treacherous passage). He later writes, 'A large number of vessels could anchor here in safety. The island has a great many coconut trees and is covered with jungle. Many of the trees, such as the "bios blanc" make good firewood. Fish, turtles, seabirds and wild fowl are around, but there is very little fresh water. It is possible to dig a well into the coral of which the island is mainly formed, but the water so obtained is brackish, and could in all probability cause sickness.'
1771
French Navy Captain du Roslan arrives at Diego Garcia, after plotting the postion of other Chagos islands, thus establishing Diego's relative location for the first time (everything was relative in those days).
1772
The British ship SWIFT captained by Thomas Neale enters the lagoon at Diego. For several years the British in Bombay had been dispatching ships to explore the Chagos Archepelago, but the SWIFT was the first to find any of the islands since 1768.
1774
The British ship DRAKE visits, under the command of Captain Adam Sheriff, maps the lagoon entrance, and left sheep, goats and pigs to populate the island (no sailors apparently being particularly interested) as provisions for future generations of maroons.
1776 - 1784
The British and French stop exploring the Indian Ocean, being busy with their Navies in the Americas for the period.
1778
The French Governor of Mauritius grants Monsieur Dupuit de la Faye a 'consession' for development of the entire island, but he fails to go there or colonize the island.
1785
Some 'straggling Frenchmen' build a dozen or so huts on the island.
April 27, 1786
A British East India Company colonizing expedition from Bombay enters the lagoon with the ships ADMIRAL HUGHES, DRAKE (again), VIPER, and EXPERIMENT, and claim the island for King George III and the East India Company. The purpose of the colony is to establish a 'victualing station' and six shiploads of topsoil are imported from India in which to grow food plants. Richard Thomas Price is in charge of the colony and in command of four officers, 41 craftsmen and 69 servants. Military command is assigned to Captain John Sartorius of the Engineers, who is in charge of all land and marine surveys. He has under his command eight officers and 155 soldiers, mainly Sepoys (Indian native infantry) and Lascars (Indian native artillerymen). Upon arrival of the British fleet, the staggling Frenchmen pack up a boat and sail away to report the invasion to the Governor of Mauritius, Vicomte de Souillac. NOTE: The British East India Company's flag at the time was identical to the one used by American Rebels in 1776-1777. As Lord Cornwallis, loser at Yorktown in 1781 was by this time the Dictator of India (on behalf of the King and the British East India Company), he must have had to bite his lip every time he saw it over one of his ships or factories... At any rate, the flag of the first official colonists of Diego Garcia was, in fact, an American flag!
Early May 1786
Lieutenant Archibald Blair of the East Indian Company surveys the island and produces the first reliable map of the island. He also names Eclipse (future site of Downtown Diego Garcia) and Observatory Points, which were previously called 'the two teats', no doubt by the staggling, sex-starved Frenchmen.
May 30, 1786
The East India Company ship ATLAS wrecks on the oceanside of Diego, stranding James Horsburgh and the rest of the crew on the east arm of the island at the Point which now bears his name. Horsburgh later writes, 'The charts on board were very erroneous in the delineation of the Chagos Islands and Banks, and the commander, trusting too much to dead reckoning, was steering with confidence to make the non-existent Adu or Candu for a new departure, being their longitude nearby, by account, and bound for Ceylon; but, unfortunately a cloud over Diego Garcia prevented the helmsman from discerning it, (the officer of the watch being asleep), till we were on the reef close to the shore. The masts, rudder, and everything above the deck went with the first surge; the second lifted the vessel over the outer rocks and threw her in towards the beach". Horsburgh published numerous charts and papers during his long life, but the great work by which his name still lives is the celebrated ‘Directory’ or rather "Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, and the interjacent Ports, compiled chiefly from original Journals and Observations made during 21 years' experience in navigating those Seas," The survivors of the ATLAS joined Price's colony, and would have eaten the sheep, goats and pigs left for their use by the DRAKE in 1774, except the straggling Frenchmen had already done so.
October 1786
The British experiment in growing food plants on Diego is a failure, especially considering that they have an extra 250 mouths to feed from the ATLAS, and they pack up and sail away, having learned, as thousands of others have since, that a 6 month tour of duty on Diego is long enough.
Late 1786
The French arrive in the MINERVE to chase the British off, but the British had already gone. The French leave a 'stone of ownership' on the island proclaiming that it really, after all, belonged to France. Then they sail away, there being no food on the island to speak of.
April 30, 1787
Alexander Dalrymple, Hydrographer of the East India Company, writes to Lord Mulgrave to summarize and pontificate on the visits of British Ships to Diego Garcia. Basically, he wanted to try again. As with other proposals by Dalrymple, who was eternally whining that Captain Cook (instead of Dalrymple) had been chosen to search for (and find) Australia in 1770, his suggestions were ignored. Except by Lord Cornwallis, now in charge of British India, and who previously had lost the American Colonies by underestimating his enemy. Oh, and by overestimating the staying power of the French Fleet (read your history of Yorktown for details).
1789
Lord Cornwallis sends out Lieutenant Morrsom of the Royal Navy to survey the island and determine its suitability as a staging base for fleets en route to India. Morrsom concludes that it is, but Cornwallis gets interested in other things, and the British forget about Diego Garcia for a decade or two.
THE OIL ISLANDS
Late 1780s
The French in Mauritius start marooning their Lepers on Diego Garcia. The lepers ate sea turtles, primarily, since turtle meat was believed to cure the disease. It didn't.
1792
A British merchant ship stops by, and sends two crew members ashore to talk with the inhabitants. They reported that the island was populated by '8 or 10' lepers. The captain of the ship refuses to allow the crewmembers back aboard, and sails away, leaving them marooned with the lepers.
1793
A Monsieur Lapotaire from Mauritius sets up the first coconut 'factory' concession on Eclipse Point. He also brings the first black slaves to the island. The little factory ships coconuts to Mauritius to be processed into oil, and also ships out salted fish, rope made from coconut fiber, and exports Sea Turds (Sea Cucumbers) to China, where they are considered a great delicacy.
1793
A British Ship, HAMPSHIRE, wrecks attempting to enter the lagoon through Barton Pass (still an exceedingly treacherous passage).
1801
Hearing that there were lepers getting fat on DG, the HMS VICTOR puts in to reprovision with water and the lepers' turtles. She then sailed to the Seychelles and sank the French Corvette Fleche, which had just marooned some banished Frenchmen on those islands.
April 26, 1809
The captain-general of Maurituis, a certain De Caen, gives M. Blevec and M. Chepe a 'concession' to exploit the eastern part of the atoll as a coconut oil factory.
1809
De Caen changes his mind, and forbids processing coconut oil on Diego Garcia, out of a fear that the British would come and steal it. He orders coconuts to be sent to Mauritius for processing.
December 3, 1810
The British, during one of the 'Napoleonic Wars' capture Mauritius and its 'lesser dependencies' (including Diego Garcia), thus effectively stealing the coconut oil, just as De Caen feared, just in a more dramatic way.
1812
A severe earthquake on the island shakes the coconut crabs right out of the trees.
May 30, 1814
The Treaty of Paris was signed between France and her enemies Great Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, following the (first) abdication of Napoleon. France was forced to return to the borders of 1792. England was granted the French colonies of Tobago, St. Lucia, and Mauritius (and thus it's "lesser dependencies" including Diego Garcia).
April 10, 1819
The Dutch warship ADMIRAL EVERTSEN wrecks on Diego Garcia. The officers and crew are marooned there until rescued by the U.S. merchant ship PICKERING on June 10, 1819, which takes them to Mauritius.
1819
Some Dutch artist from the ADMIRAL EVERTSEN draws the first pictures of Diego Garcia. The picture clearly shows the American Brig PICKERING from Plymouth, Massachusetts at anchor in the lagoon; the first flag shown on Diego is the good ol' Stars and Stripes. At the time, the US had 21 states, Illinois having been admitted in December, 1818. However, the 21-star flag was not adopted until December, July 4th, 1818, so this would have been the flag flown by the PICKERING.
1824
The British Governor of Mauritius, Lowry Cole, appoints the first British official to the island. He is a Frenchman named Le Camus, and must have found the assignment very existential. His duties were: Restore peace between the lepers and slaves (who had been at war with each other for several years); Act as pilot for any vessel entering Diego Garcia, except for slavers, which were to be denied access; Stop ships from dumping ballast in the main channels; Build a hospital for the lepers on Middle Island; and, Report any lawlessness by visiting ships' crews. Le Camus actually did a pretty good job, although he never builds the hospital.
1824
Two brothers, W. and C. T. Horat, arrive and produce the first completely accurate map of Diego for the Mauritius Colonial Government. They were accompanied by Mr. D. Werner, who writes a report giving information necessary for the navigation of ships entering the lagoon. Werner reports that the island is divided into four plantations: Laportaire's, M. Cayeux's, Cayeux's brother's, and Bleved and Patee's. Werner also points out that the island was of no further use for a leper colony, because they had eaten all the turtles.
1829
Le Camus asks to be paid for the five years he spent on Diego as a colonial official. The Governor of Mauritius is shocked by this outrageous request, and refuses. Le Camus sues.
1831
Le Camus settles his suit when the Governor takes Laportaire's concession of 2,590 acres and gives it to Le Camus.
August 1834
England abolishes slavery. Ex-slaves are 'apprenticed' to their former masters for six years before being set completely free in 1840. Thus ended the 41-year history of slavery on Diego Garcia.
1835
The lepers from Diego Garcia and a few of the other occupied islands in the Chagos are taken by ship to Ile Curieuse in the Seychelles to be put with other lepers in a real colony with people there to look after them medically, etc. According to inexact information, the black lepers were notably peaceful (and why not, until the previous year they were slaves, and were still indentured, and therefore "knew their place"!) while the white lepers were a lot of trouble on the ship. Two of the lepers from DG didn't want to be transfered, and escaped in a canoe, and apparently made it to Danger Island in the Chagos, where the transporting ship couldn't 'rescue' them. This is apparently the first account of people not wanting the leave Diego Garcia.
1837
Captain Robert Moresby of the {British} Indian Navy visits Diego, and conducts 'a thorough scientific survey'. He plants 30 breadfruit trees. He also is the first to report that there were cats and chickens on the island. Some of his observations were used by Darwin in his 1842 book "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the ‘Beagle.’ Under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. During the Years 1832 to 1836" - there are at least three references to Diego Garcia in Chapter 1 alone. (Darwin didn't publish "On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" until 1859). From Steve Forsberg's thesis: "As an interesting side note, one of the things Moresby found on Diego Garcia was litter. On September 18, 1837, he found a bottle with a note in it on the shore. It was signed by F.C. Montgomery, 4th Regiment and also mentioned Captain Twopenny of the 73rd Highlanders. They had been aboard a ship traveling from Plymouth, England to Ceylon when they threw their message in a bottle overboard, at a point more than 1,300 miles from Diego Garcia and two years earlier. "
August 21, 1838
The first colonial official to visit the island since Le Camus, Charles Anderson, is sent to Diego aboard the LAVERET to tell the slaves that they were freed four years earlier. He reports that there were three plantations, one at East Point, one at Minni Minni, and one at Point Marianne. He also reported that things really weren't all that pleasant for the former slaves, but that crime was nearly non-existant, a condition he attributes to the impossibility of obtaining booze on the island. Perhaps this was why he left after just two days on the island.
1840
As a result of Anderson's report, donkeys are brought ashore because British law forbade using the (now freed) slaves for work that could be done by beasts of burden. The descendants of those donkeys remain on the island to this day.
1849
From Steve Forsberg's thesis: "An article on the Chagos Islands appeared in The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine. It took a very dim view toward the progress of the islands, whose proprietors “do not themselves reside in these Islands, but live in opulence where they like, deputing the management of the affairs of the Chagos to a number of registrars, or overseers.” The article does not paint a very nice picture of life on the islands, but allowances have to be made for the British sensibilities of the authors. There is dismay that the laborers “resemble the tribes of Africa, from whom they took their origin” and that “No idea of a Supreme Being appears to exist in the Chagos Archipelago.” After all, the article points out, the proprietors are of “French descent. "Most of the islanders lived on huts set on posts 3 feet above the ground, the space below “being invariably occupied by pigs,” which abound and produced a “stench.” Sheep and cows were also to be found on the island, and poultry was “exceedingly plentiful.” There were turtles, both green and hawksbill, and the laborers were rewarded with “a piece of blue cloth worth seven or eight shillings” if they found a particularly fine example. It was noted that by this time seals and walrus were almost entirely gone from the island... "Dogs were raised on the island and their sale resulted in “considerable revenue.” The article notes a “valuable breed of pointers” being raised. The article is not too clear about when it was referring to Diego Garcia in particular or another of the Chagos Chain. It described an island called “Home of Dogs,” however, that could be one of the small islets in the mouth of Diego Garcia’s lagoon. A large number of dogs were raised there, tended only by “one Negro - generally a leper.” The dogs were reportedly fond of human attention, and at low tides some would swim across to “neighboring islands.” "
1855ish
The New Bedford whaler HARRISON stops in.
June 20, 1859
The next set of colonial officials to visit, Lt. Berkley and Mr. Caldwell, arrive and take a census. They reported a population of 338 (258 men, 39 women, and 41 children) and 350 donkeys. Working together the various species produced 25,500 gallons of coconut oil that year.
1859
Bishop Vincent, the leader of the Anglican Church in Mauritius, arrives to convert the heathen and the Catholics to the Church of England. He noted that the island had a large population of "Malabars" from the Indian subcontinent. The bishop decides not to stay, but encourages other missionaries to try. None heed the call for at least the next 14 years.
1860
The Meteorological Society recommended to the Governor for the establishment of a central observatory for hourly or two-hourly observations day and night together with a number of subsidiary observations at Rodrigues, St. Brandon, Agalega, Diego Garcia and Seychelles
November 14, 1864
Charles Farquharson, arrives aboard the RAPID to represent the Governor of Mauritius, and take another census. He reports the population of the island was 378 (267 men, 45 women, and 46 children), of whom 20 are Europeans.
1864
The Main House and several other of the main buildings at the plantation at East Point are constructed.
1866
James Spurs, 'an enlighened, despotic but benevolent man', becomes manager of the plantation at East Point a position he holds until 1883. He establishes very strict regulations concerning alcohol consumption, and forbids killing sea birds, sea turtles, or coconut crabs.
October 1875
An outbreak of cholera hits the plantation at Point Marianne, but there are no deaths. Patients are treated in the hospital there, which is made from the deck house of the ship SHANNON, which had wrecked there several years before.
1875
E. Parkenham Brooks, the first colonial official to visit since 1859, fined the Manager of the East Point Plantation, James Spurs, for imprisoning three 'labourers' without sufficient cause. He also fined an under-manager at Point Marianne for striking a labourer.
1875
Janvier, a 'Malagash' (someone from Madigascar) Voodoo Witch Doctor, is charged with killing a woman giving birth to twins, and the twins, and is sent to Mauritius for trial, where he is found not guilty.
1875
A Roman Catholic Priest visits the island, and then leaves it to the heathens. Or perhaps he recognized the prior claim made on the islanders' souls by the Anglicans.
Late 1880s
From Steven Forsberg: This one is about when "divers were REAL men." In the late 1880s it seems that famed British diver Alexander Lambert worked on Diego Garcia. Lambert was a legend in his time, among other things he was the first to use "rebreathing" gear. The following is part of a short newspaper 'filler' article that was published in the U.S. circa 1890, it describes a routine day at work for the legendary Lambert: "I can give you one of Lambert's; he once had a thrilling- fight with one at the bottom of the Indian ocean. He had been sent to the island of Diego Garcia to fbr copper sheets on a coal bunk that had been fouled by a steamer, and was annoyed during his operations by the same shark for nearly a week. "The monster was temporarily scared away, however, every time, Lambert opened the escape valve in his helmet and allowed some air to rush out. One day Lambert signaled to his I attendants for a big sheath knife and a looped rope. "Having these, Lambert used his bare hand an a bait and waited until the shark commenced to turn on its back, when he stabbed it repeatedly, passed the noose around its body and signaled for it to be drawn up. The diver brought home the shark's back- as a trophy."Read more about Lambert.
1881
The HMS ECLIPSE, commanded by Captain Garforth, surveys the island for use as a coaling station.
1882
The Orient Steam Navigation Company relocates its coaling station from Aden to Diego Garcia for its fleet of 12 ships sailing from the Suez canal to Australia. It uses the ex-sailing ships ARRAN, 962 tons, and the RONACHAN, 1,156 tons, as Coal Hulks, anchored off Minni Minni in the lagoon. Eventually, it moves its operations to Middle and East Islands. Meanwhile, W. Lund & Sons, Ltd., sets up a competing operation for its 2 ship fleet, anchoring it's hulks at East Point. James Spurs goes to work for the Orient and Pacific, and a M. LeConte takes the job of manager at East Point.
August 27, 1883
Inhabitants are shocked to hear loud booming noises. The noise is from the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa near Java, over 1,000 miles to the east. When the sonic wave reaches Rodrigues island, 800 miles west of Diego, the Police Chief reports hearing 'heavy gunfire to the east.'
October 29, 1883
The Orient Steamer LUSITANIA puts in for coal. However, so many of the laborers of the Orient Company were absent and refused to do extra work even with pay. James Spurs had to hire colliers from the rival Lund and Company.
1883
The plantations of the islands in the Chagos Archipelago combine into one company called the 'Societe Huiliere de Diego et Peros'. The effect on Diego Garcia was to close the estate headquarters at Minni Minni and combine that plantation with the one at East Point. Point Marianne remained as a separate community headed by a sub-manager.
1883
Laborers at the East Point Plantation, armed with knives and clubs, stage an insurrection, which is put down by the M. LeConte by brandishing his revolver. LeComte blames the 45 men working for Lund and Company for the troubles, since they are "without any women".
1883
A.H.S. Lucas, one of the trailblazers of phycology, spends two days paddling around the lagoon observing the seaweeds during coaling of the SS CUZCO. He gets so engrossed, that the ship's manager and Lucas' wife have to paddle out and haul him back to the ship just in time to sail away to Australia. Fluent in English, French, and German, Lucas later taught himself to read Russian, primarily to understand some papers about lizards written in that language. A life-long scientist and teacher, he authored the seminal 2-volume work "The Seaweeds of South Australia."
1883
A ship carrying 500 Japanese Moslem pilgrims destined for Mecca (the Haj pilgrimage) stops off at Eclipse Point, where they get out and wander around for a while.
February 16, 1884
The steamer NATAL belonging to Lund and Company bound from England to Australia, anchors at East Point with 90 passengers on board, 8 of whom are suffering from measles. A child died the next day from that disease, but Mr. LeConte refused to allow it to be buried ashore for fear that the disease would spread on the island. The NATAL left the next day and threw the body overboard outside the lagoon.
1884
Captain Raymond, of the sailing ship WINDSOR CASTLE, which had arrived with 1,334 tons of coal for Lund and Company, gets drunk, lands at East Point with 16 armed men, takes pot shots at what he thought was Spur's house (which was unoccupied), nails the Union Jack on a nearby palm tree, and claims the (already British) island for Great Britain. He sobers up two days later, and sails away. No one else in the history of Diego Garcia ever got quite that drunk. Except maybe one or two people once or twice.
1884
Another Roman Catholic Priest visits the island, and leaves.
1885
HMS RAMBLER under the command of the Honorable F.C.P. Vereker, carries out a detailed survey of the lagoon. Rambler Bay, on the northeast side of the lagoon is named for this ship. This is the first thorough hydrographic survey of the northern lagoon, and along with Moresby's more general survey of the southern lagoon, remains the basis of the charts today.
1885
A Mr. Butler is appointed Constable Sergeant, and arrives with six Constables to establish law and order, primarily to prevent a recurrance of Captain Raymondesque shennannigans.
July 13, 1886
Admiral Sir Frederick Richards stops at Minni Minni to coal up his fleet, comprised of HMS BACCHANTE (pictured here), TURQUOISE, REINDEER, and MARINER, en route to Zanzibar to stop the Arab Trade in African Slaves. (This was NOT the same HMS REINDEER that was captured by the USS WASP in 1814.) A description of this visit was provided by Thomas Marsh, who was an officer's servant on the MARINER: "On the 29th we left Seychelles for Diego Garcia and found that there was a very heavy swell outside the harbour, which caused the ship to roll about quite a lot. On July 5th we had a very uncomfortable night as the sea was rough and we shipped a lot of water and we were glad to get to the shelter of the harbour at Diego Garcia. We had not had a single fine day at sea from the time that we had left Zanzibar which is a distance of about 2500 miles. The harbour at Diego Garcia is well sheltered. Diego Garcia is a small Island in the middle of the Indian Ocean and almost triangular in shape with an entrance to the harbour at one of the corners. The Orient line of steamships to and from Australia used this port as a coaling station and had their own plant here. The natives were chiefly Creoles, numbering about one thousand. There were only 2 Englishmen there with their families and nobody seemed to keep more than they wanted for themselves and there was no possible way of buying anything to replace our stock. "I landed at Minny-Minny and afterwards at East Point but could not get anything. Coconut trees grow in abundance thickly together as ferns. I have never seen anything to compare with their denseness. The widest part of the island was no than 2 or 3 miles. The few Europeans came to the ship with their families to church services on the llth, just 6 of them. "The Dorunda of the British India Steam Navigation Company put in here for coal on her way home from Australia on the l2th and took our mail as far as Aden. We were also fortunate in getting a quarter of beef from her refrigerating plant which came as a God send for the officers' mess. On the l3th Admiral Sir Frederick Richards arrived in his flagship Bacchante accompanied by the Turquoise, Reindeer and Mariner. We were ordered to shift anchorage nearer Minny-Minny. The flagship brought mail for us from Colombo. Europeans from the shore and some of the flagship company came on board to a theatrical performance. On the l7th the flagships band played on shore and the Turquoise and Reindeer came down from East Point where they had coaled. On the l9th we had anchor drill and man and arm boat practice. All four ships left in company on the 2lst for Rodriguez..."
1886
Louis Fidele is imprisoned for practicing witchcraft in the cemetary at East Point. This witchcraft was intended to ensure that the ghosts would not rise up to haunt the living, which was a very real fear of the workers on the island.
1886
The Naturalist G.C. Bourne spends four months on the island studying geology and the bird and plant life. Bourne later teaches as Oxford, and lectures on his discoveries.
July 4, 1887
Thomas Marsh in the HMS MARINER returns to DG after a 4-day speed run down from Trincomalee, India. The MARINER took on 74 tons of coal at DG and left that afternoon for Mauritius.
1888
The coaling stations on the island close, their rowdy employees depart, and steamships stop stopping. No longer needed to police the wild crowds of imported Somalis, Indians and Chinese manning the stations, Mister Butler and his Constables are withdrawn, and no other police force was set up for the next 85 years. The island is left to the workers and European overseers of the plantations.
1895
The first church is built at the East Point Plantation. The settlements at Minni Minni, East Island and Middle Island were abandoned.
1899
The German warships BISMARCK and MARIE anchored in the lagoon for a while, and shortly afterwards, the British warships HMS HAMPSHIRE and HMS EMPRESS OF RUSSIA paid a visit.
1899
The Deutsche Tiefsee (German deep sea) Expedition, aboard the VILDIVIA carries out a survey of the marine fauna of the surrounding wates and the lagoon. Here is a chart of their route through the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia is in the middle of the picture.
1901
1,500 coconut trees are blown over during a typhoon.
1903
The process of drying coconut meat to make copra is introduced, and the production of oil for export ceases. Instead the copra is shipped to Mauritius for processing into oil.
July 7-13, 1905
The Percy Sladen Trust Expedition, led by J. Stanley Gardiner, studies the island's geomorphology, and the marine and land plants and animals. The Expedition was investigating the biological relationships between the Seychelles, Mascarenes and Chagos groups and tried to find evidence for former land connections between the islands. The discoveries of this expedition established that the granitic Seychelles islands are continental fragments of Gondwana, isolated from India and Madagascar 65 million years ago while the other islands are volcanic in origin, and that the Seychelles had an 'archaic' fauna, while the Mascarenes, Amirantes, Aldabra and Chagos Island groups have similar 'immigrant' taxa that traveled to the islands on the predominant marine currents.
1908
Doctor Powell arrives as head of a medical mission. He finds, literally, shitty sanitation conditions regarding latrines, and that safe water supply practices are ignored by 'both labor and management' and that they better clean up their act. He also proposes that the islanders be forbidden to take wine away from the village shop, and that they be required to drink it in the bar. He blames much of the island's crime and disease on the quality of the wine. "Only coarse wine is given, and then comes the rub, a fight and the knife".
October 9, 1914
The German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) Cruiser SMS EMDEN, 387 feet long, displacing 3,364 tons, sails into the lagoon with her collier the BURESK, and spends the next two days scraping barnacles off her hull by flooding compartments and lifting first the stern and then the bow into the air. The crew also fixed the plantation manager's motor launch, and was paid with a pig, fresh fish, and some fruit. Note: SMS means Seiner Majestat Schiff (His Majesty's Ship), comparable to HMS in the Royal Navy. Here is a first-hand account of her visit written by her executive officer:
From “The Emden” by Kapitanleutnant Helmuth von Mücke, 1917.
As there was not a merchantman of the enemy now abroad, our Commander, as has been related, decided to give the “Emden” a much needed overhauling, especially to clean the bottom of the ship. So we steered a southerly course, which took us out of the Bay of Bengal, and, one fine morning, our anchor rattled down into the sea for the first time in many a long day. We were in the harbor of Diego Garcia, a small island belonging to England, and situated in the extreme southern part of the Indian Ocean.
Hardly had we anchored when the English flag was joyfully run up on shore. A boat with an old Englishman in it put off from the island and came toward us. With his face beaming with the pleasure of seeing some one from the outside world, he came on board, bringing with him gifts of fresh eggs, vegetables, etc. He gave eager expression to the delight it afforded him to have the opportunity, after many years, once more to greet some of his German cousins, so dear to his heart, and so highly esteemed. He assured us that he was always so glad to see the Germans, especially those that came in their fine war ships. He had not seen one of them since 1889, when the two frigates, the "Bismarck" and the "Marie," had run into the harbor. That was a long time ago, he remarked, but for this very reason it made him all the happier to see us now, and he hoped it would not be long before another German ship would anch
Pedro Mascarenhas, a Portuguese Captain, is detached from the 'Armada de India', of Dom Garcia de Noronha, and sent to India with dispatches by the shortest and fastest route. He sails through the Chagos Archepelago, discovers and names Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
Spanish explorers discover and name Diego Garcia. Or maybe not.
Sir James Lancaster, on his second voyage to India, now in command of a four-ship fleet consisting of the RED DRAGON, HECTOR, ASCENSION, and Lancaster's SUSAN, attempts to pioneer a sea route from East Africa to the East Indies to trade for pepper and nutmeg. He takes his fleet across the Indian Ocean and at about six degrees south finds himself in extremely shallow water and in danger of running aground. He spent three days picking through the reefs (probably the Great Chagos Bank) before reaching the safety of the open ocean. His tale of near disaster keeps mariners from entering the area for over 100 years. Lancaster's fleet was the very first trading expedition of the British East India Company (earlier trips - by Lancaster and Michelbourne - being essentially pirate raids).
A French naval ship, Captained by Dufresne, lands on Diego Garcia after sailing from the Seychelles.
The French Governor of Mauritius grants Monsieur Dupuit de la Faye a 'consession' for development of the entire island, but he fails to go there or colonize the island.
A British East India Company colonizing expedition from Bombay enters the lagoon with the ships ADMIRAL HUGHES, DRAKE (again), VIPER, and EXPERIMENT, and claim the island for King George III and the East India Company. The purpose of the colony is to establish a 'victualing station' and six shiploads of topsoil are imported from India in which to grow food plants. Richard Thomas Price is in charge of the colony and in command of four officers, 41 craftsmen and 69 servants. Military command is assigned to Captain John Sartorius of the Engineers, who is in charge of all land and marine surveys. He has under his command eight officers and 155 soldiers, mainly Sepoys (Indian native infantry) and Lascars (Indian native artillerymen). Upon arrival of the British fleet, the staggling Frenchmen pack up a boat and sail away to report the invasion to the Governor of Mauritius, Vicomte de Souillac. NOTE: The British East India Company's flag at the time was identical to the one used by American Rebels in 1776-1777. As Lord Cornwallis, loser at Yorktown in 1781 was by this time the Dictator of India (on behalf of the King and the British East India Company), he must have had to bite his lip every time he saw it over one of his ships or factories... At any rate, the flag of the first official colonists of Diego Garcia was, in fact, an American flag!
A Monsieur Lapotaire from Mauritius sets up the first coconut 'factory' concession on Eclipse Point. He also brings the first black slaves to the island. The little factory ships coconuts to Mauritius to be processed into oil, and also ships out salted fish, rope made from coconut fiber, and exports Sea Turds (Sea Cucumbers) to China, where they are considered a great delicacy.
The British, during one of the 'Napoleonic Wars' capture Mauritius and its 'lesser dependencies' (including Diego Garcia), thus effectively stealing the coconut oil, just as De Caen feared, just in a more dramatic way.
The Dutch warship ADMIRAL EVERTSEN wrecks on Diego Garcia. The officers and crew are marooned there until rescued by the U.S. merchant ship PICKERING on June 10, 1819, which takes them to Mauritius.
Some Dutch artist from the ADMIRAL EVERTSEN draws the first pictures of Diego Garcia. The picture clearly shows the American Brig PICKERING from Plymouth, Massachusetts at anchor in the lagoon; the first flag shown on Diego is the good ol' Stars and Stripes. At the time, the US had 21 states, Illinois having been admitted in December, 1818. However, the 21-star flag was not adopted until December, July 4th, 1818, so this would have been the flag flown by the PICKERING.
The New Bedford whaler HARRISON stops in.
The HMS ECLIPSE, commanded by Captain Garforth, surveys the island for use as a coaling station.
The Orient Steam Navigation Company relocates its coaling station from Aden to Diego Garcia for its fleet of 12 ships sailing from the Suez canal to Australia. It uses the ex-sailing ships ARRAN, 962 tons, and the RONACHAN, 1,156 tons, as Coal Hulks, anchored off Minni Minni in the lagoon. Eventually, it moves its operations to Middle and East Islands. Meanwhile, W. Lund & Sons, Ltd., sets up a competing operation for its 2 ship fleet, anchoring it's hulks at East Point. James Spurs goes to work for the Orient and Pacific, and a M. LeConte takes the job of manager at East Point.
The German warships BISMARCK and MARIE anchored in the lagoon for a while, and shortly afterwards, the British warships HMS HAMPSHIRE and HMS EMPRESS OF RUSSIA paid a visit. 
The German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) Cruiser SMS EMDEN, 387 feet long, displacing 3,364 tons, sails into the lagoon with her collier the BURESK, and spends the next two days scraping barnacles off her hull by flooding compartments and lifting first the stern and then the bow into the air. The crew also fixed the plantation manager's motor launch, and was paid with a pig, fresh fish, and some fruit. Note: SMS means Seiner Majestat Schiff (His Majesty's Ship), comparable to HMS in the Royal Navy. Here is a first-hand account of her visit written by her executive officer:
