   #copyright

Rockall

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Geography of Great
Britain

   Rockall, a small, isolated rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean
   Enlarge
   Rockall, a small, isolated rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean

   Rockall is a small rocky islet in the North Atlantic, in the exclusive
   economic zone (EEZ) of the United Kingdom. It is probably better known
   as one of the Sea Areas named in the Shipping Forecast broadcast on BBC
   Radio 4. The United Kingdom's title to Rockall is accepted by its
   neighbours. In 1997, the UK abandoned any claim to an extended EEZ
   around and beyond it. The remaining issue is that the status of the
   continental shelf rights of surrounding ocean floor is disputed with
   the United Kingdom by the Republic of Ireland, Denmark (for the Faroe
   Islands), and Iceland. These are the exclusive rights to exploit any
   resources on or under the ocean floor (oil, natural gas, etc.) and
   should not be confused with the EEZ, as continental shelf rights do not
   carry any privileges with regard to fisheries.

Name

   The origin of the name is debatable but it has been suggested that it
   derives from the Scottish Gaelic Sgeir Rocail which is often translated
   as "Roaring Rock" although rocail can also be translated as "tearing"
   or "ripping". There may also be an etymological link with the old Norse
   hrukka.

   The first literary reference to the isle, where it is called Rockol, is
   found in Martin Martin's A Description of the Western isles of Scotland
   published in 1716 where he gives an account of a voyage to St Kilda
   where the locals knew the isle as Rockabarra ( Rocabarraigh). The name
   Rocabarraigh is also used in Gaelic folklore for a mythical rock which
   is supposed to appear three times, the last being at the end of the
   world.

          “Nuair a thig Rocabarra ris, is dual gun tèid an Saoghal a
          sgrios”.
          (When Rocabarra returns, the world will likely come to be
          destroyed/ruined)

   Other mythological stories surrounding Rockall:

   " Fionn MacCumhaill took a sod of grass and he threw it to the fore,
   Then he tossed a pebble across the sea, where ever it did fall, For the
   sod became the Isle of Man and the pebble's called Rockall."

Geography

   The rock is the summit of an extinct volcano and is located at
   57°35′48″N, 13°41′19″W. The surrounding elevated seabed is called
   Rockall Bank. It is 301.4 kilometres (187.3 statute miles or 162.7
   nautical miles) west of the uninhabited island of Soay, St. Kilda,
   Scotland and 368.7 kilometres (229.1 statute miles) west of the
   crofting township of Hogha Gearraidh, on the island of North Uist,
   Scotland. It is 424 kilometres (265 statute miles) north-west of
   Donegal in the Republic of Ireland. The rock is about 25 metres (83 ft)
   wide at its base and rises sheer to a height of approximately 22 metres
   (72 ft). It is regularly washed over by large storm waves, particularly
   in winter. There is a small ledge of 3.5 by 1.3 metres (11 by 4 ft),
   known as Hall's Ledge, 4 metres (13 ft) from the summit. The rock's
   only permanent inhabitants are periwinkles and other marine molluscs.
   Small numbers of seabirds, mainly fulmars, gannets, kittiwakes, and
   guillemots, use the rock for resting in summer, and gannets and
   guillemots occasionally breed successfully if the summer is calm with
   no storm waves washing over the rock. There is no natural source of
   fresh water.

   Rockall is also close to the Darwin Mounds, deep-water coral mounds
   about 185 km (100 nm or 115 mi) north-west of Cape Wrath.

Geological surveys

   Location of Rockall. Shaded areas indicate exclusive economic zones.
   Enlarge
   Location of Rockall. Shaded areas indicate exclusive economic zones.

   The exact position of Rockall and the size and shape of the Rockall
   Bank was first charted in 1831 by Captain A.T.E. Vidal, a Royal Navy
   surveyor.

   The first scientific expedition to Rockall was led by Miller Christie
   in 1896 when the Royal Irish Academy sponsored a study of the flora and
   fauna They chartered the Granuaile

   The RV Celtic Explorer has surveyed the Rockall Bank and North West of
   Donegal in 2003.

   The ILV Granuaile was chartered by the Geological Survey of Ireland
   (GSI), on behalf of the Department of Communications, Marine & Natural
   Resources (DCMNR), to conduct a seismic survey at the Rockall and
   Hatton Banks in July 2004.The seismic survey was part of the National
   Seabed Survey which has been ongoing for 4 years.

   There has been one amateur radio visit to Rockall, in 2005, and the
   following year a second was planned. Unfortunately the high cost of
   this visit led to its cancellation.

Disasters

   There have been disasters on the neighbouring Hasselwood Rock and
   Helen's Reef (Helen's Reef was not named until 1830)
     * 1686 — a Spanish merchant ship, bound for the New World ‘ran on the
       rocks’ on 22 August 1686; 250 people lost their lives.
     * 1812 — survey vessel Leonidas foundered on Helen's Reef
     * 1824 — brigantine Helen of Dundee, bound for Quebec, foundered at
       Hasselwood Rock; "the crew left most of the passengers to drown,
       including seven women and six children".
     * 1904 — SS Norge, 3,318 tons with 700 emigrants from Copenhagen to
       New York on 28 June 1904; 635 lost
     * 1984 — Jack (John) Lavelle was lost overboard from the yacht Helen,
       while returning from Rockall.

   There have also been reports in national newspapers in both the
   Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom that at least two unexploded
   bombs from World War II lie within a 250-metre radius of Rockall. At
   present, no attempts have been made to remove them.

Law of the Sea

   The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, states “Rocks
   which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own
   shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.” The
   Republic of Ireland, Denmark, and Iceland all acceded to the
   convention. The United Kingdom acceded to the convention on 25 July
   1997. The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have agreed to a
   delineation which ignores Rockall's existence and have granted
   exploration rights.

History and conflicting claims

The United Kingdom's claims to the island

   Rockall is 461.5 km (286.7 miles) from Ardnamurchan Point
   (approximately WGS84 Latitude North 56 Degrees 43 Minutes 38.3 Seconds,
   Longitude West 6 Degrees 13 Minutes 38.1 Seconds), the nearest point on
   the Scottish mainland; and 301.4 km (187.3 miles) from the St Kilda
   archipelago (approximately WGS84 Latitude North 57 Degrees 49 Minutes
   40.8 Seconds, Longitude West 8 Degrees 38 Minutes 59.7 Seconds), the
   nearest (undisputed) Scottish islands, which are 53 miles west of the
   Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Also, Rockall is 367.0 km
   (228.0 statute miles) (198.1 nautical miles) from Aird an Runair on the
   island of North Uist (approximately WGS84 Latitude North 57 Degrees 36
   Minutes 9.7 Seconds, Longitude West 7 Degrees 32 Minutes 56.4 Seconds),
   Outer Hebrides, the nearest inhabited island of Scotland after St Kilda
   was evacuated in 1930.

   In 1997 the United Kingdom ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention
   on the Law of the Sea. In doing so it relinquished its right to claim
   an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles (370 km)
   extending from the rock, as the agreement states that "Rocks which
   cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall
   have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf". However, as
   Rockall lies within 200 nautical miles (370 km) of both St Kilda and
   North Uist, the island itself remains within the EEZ of the United
   Kingdom and as such, under international law the UK can claim "..the
   sovereignty of the coastal state in relation to the exploitation,
   conservation and management of natural and living resources fishery and
   mineral resources" of the rock itself and an area of territorial waters
   extending for 12 nautical miles around it. Furthermore, the United
   Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have signed a boundary agreement
   which includes Rockall in the United Kingdom area.

   Rockall, and a large sea area around it, was confirmed as coming under
   the jurisdiction of Scots law under the Scottish Adjacent Waters
   Boundaries Order ( map) in 1999.

   The earliest recorded landing on the island was on 8 July 1810 when a
   Royal Navy officer called Basil Hall led a small landing party from the
   frigate HMS Endymion to the summit. The frigate was taking depth
   measurements around Rockall when it drifted away in a haze. The
   expedition made a brief attempt to find the frigate in the haze, but
   soon gave up and returned to Rockall. After the haze became a fog, the
   lookout sent to the top of Rockall spotted the ship again, but it
   turned away from Rockall before the expedition in their boats reached
   it. Finally, just before sunset, the frigate was again spotted from the
   top of Rockall, and the expedition was able to get back on board. The
   crew of the Endymion reported that they had been searching for five or
   six hours, firing their cannon every ten minutes. Hall related this
   experience and other adventures in a book entitled Fragment of Voyages
   and Travels Including Anecdotes of a Naval Life.

   The next landing was accomplished by a Mr Johns of HMS Porcupine,
   whilst the ship was on a mission, from June and August of 1862, to make
   a survey of the sea bed prior to the laying of a transatlantic cable.
   Johns managed to gain foothold on the island, but failed to reach the
   summit.

   On 18 September 1955 at precisely 10.16 am, in what would be the final
   territorial expansion of the British Empire, the island was officially
   annexed by the UK when Lieutenant-Commander Desmond Scott RN, Sergeant
   Brian Peel RM, Corporal AA Fraser RM, and James Fisher (a civilian
   naturalist and former Royal Marine), were deposited on the island by a
   Royal Navy helicopter from HMS Vidal (coincidentally named after the
   man who first charted the island). The team cemented in a brass plaque
   on Hall's Ledge and hoisted the Union Flag to stake the UK's claim.

   The inscription on the plaque reads:

          "By authority of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, by the Grace of
          God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
          and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the
          Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and in accordance with Her
          Majesty's instructions dated the 14th day of September, 1955, a
          landing was effected this day upon this island of Rockall from
          HMS Vidal. The Union flag was hoisted and possession of the
          island was taken in the name of Her Majesty. [Signed] R H
          Connell, Captain, HMS Vidal, 18 September 1955."

   The formal annexation of Rockall was announced by the Admiralty on 21
   September 1955.

   The initial incentive for the annexation of Rockall had little to do
   with any territorial claim to rights of exploitation of the seas around
   the island. It was the test firing of the UK's first guided nuclear
   weapon, the American-made Corporal missile. The missile was to be
   launched from South Uist and over the North Atlantic. The Ministry of
   Defence was concerned that the unclaimed island would provide a unique
   opportunity for Soviet Union to spy on the test by placing surveillance
   equipment on the island; and so in April of 1955 a request was sent to
   the Admiralty to seize the island, and declare UK sovereignty lest it
   become an outpost for foreign observers.

   On 10 February 1972 the Isle of Rockall Act received Royal Assent to
   make the island administratively part of the Isle of Harris (St Kilda
   being administratively part of Harris), in what was then
   Inverness-shire, fully incorporating it into the United Kingdom. A
   navigational beacon was later installed on the island and the UK
   declared that no ship would be allowed within a 50-mile radius of the
   rock. In United Kingdom law, it now falls administratively under the
   Outer Hebrides.

   Former SAS member and survival expert Tom McLean lived on the island
   from 26 May 1985 to 4 July 1985 to affirm the UK's claim to the island.

Irish claims to areas around Rockall

   The Republic of Ireland does not have formal claim to Rockall,
   regarding it as merely an uninhabitable rock without any territorial
   waters and thus irrelevant when determining the boundaries of the
   exclusive economic zones of Denmark, the Republic of Ireland, Iceland,
   and the United Kingdom. More populist claims to the island are based,
   in part, on the fact that Rockall is 424 kilometres (265 miles) from
   Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.

   According to a Written Parliamentary Answer from the Irish Minister of
   Foreign Affairs on June 14, 1990, an agreement was reached between the
   British and Irish governments on delimitation of the continental shelf
   between the two countries and that this included a line of delimitation
   across the Rockall Plateau. As a result, a very extensive area under
   Irish jurisdiction, including part of the Rockall Trough and Plateau,
   is undisputed by the United Kingdom. Ownership of Rockall itself, and
   the area surrounding it, did not form part of that agreement and was
   not affected by it. No further negotiations were taking place in
   relation to the rock at the time.

   More recently, on June 11, 2003, the Irish Minister for Communications,
   Marine and Natural Resources gave a Written Parliamentary Answer,
   stating: "Ireland claims an extended continental shelf … up to more
   than 500 nautical miles (926 km), particularly in the Hatton–Rockall
   area." As the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the
   Continental Shelf has no mandate regarding issues of delimitation
   between neighbouring states and cannot consider an area under dispute
   without the agreement of all the parties concerned, the Republic of
   Ireland has participated in informal discussions with Iceland and the
   Faroe Islands in an attempt to resolve the dispute before making its
   submission to the Commission, which it hopes to make by 2006.

Populist claims

   Independent Irish politician Seán Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus (1927–), a
   former Lord Mayor of Dublin (1995–1996), has long advocated that the
   Republic of Ireland make a territorial claim on Rockall, and
   enthusiastically supported Greenpeace's occupation. He changed his name
   by deed poll twice: adding "Rockall" to demonstrate his commitment to
   that cause, and " Dublin Bay" to show his support for the protection of
   Dublin's environment. The Wolfe Tones, an Irish rebel music band,
   released a song Rock on Rockall that supports an Irish claim ( lyrics).

Icelandic claims in the area

   Iceland does not claim the rock itself, considering it irrelevant as
   far as delimination of EEZs and continental shelf is concerned. Iceland
   however claims an extended continental shelf in the Hatton-Rockall
   area.

   Iceland ratified UNCLOS in 1985; it was the first Western country to do
   so. A regulation was issued by the government in that same year
   outlining the area where Iceland claimed continental shelf rights for
   itself; the regulation was based on legislation from 1979 claiming for
   Iceland the exclusive right to research and exploitation of continental
   shelf-based resources within the limits of the Icelandic continental
   shelf. Regarding the Hatton-Rockall area, it claims the area within
   60 nautical miles from the foot of the continental shelf and assumes
   that the UK and the Republic of Ireland can not claim a continental
   shelf outside their EEZs. To its fullest extent, this area reaches
   about 700 nautical miles to the south from Iceland's coast, which is
   further south than the United Kingdom's southernmost point.

   In 2001, Iceland began working on its submission to the Commission on
   the Limits of the Continental Shelf; it is scheduled to finish in 2007.
   The most important aspect of this work is to survey the entire ocean
   floor in the areas claimed outside the EEZ and, in Iceland's case, a
   part of the area inside the EEZ as well. In all, 1.3 million square
   kilometres have been surveyed by Icelandic marine research institutions
   for this purpose, an area 13 times larger than the land area of
   Iceland. The commission does however not make proposals regarding areas
   that are claimed by two or more states unless they have already reached
   an agreement on its division. Therefore Iceland's submission is
   expected to deal only with the area that just Iceland has claimed and
   not the Hatton-Rockall area. Iceland also hosted an informal meeting of
   all parties to the dispute in 2001. It was the first such meeting
   regarding the dispute where all four countries participated.

Danish/Faroese claims in the area

   The Faroe Islands are an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark.
   Since 1948 they have had self-government in almost all matters except
   defence and foreign affairs. Consequently their interests in Rockall
   are represented by Denmark. On their behalf, Denmark claims continental
   shelf rights in the Hatton Rockall area. It does not claim the islet
   itself — their position is the same as is the Republic of Ireland's and
   Iceland's.

Waveland and the Greenpeace occupation

   In 1997 the environmentalist organisation Greenpeace occupied the islet
   for a short time, calling it Waveland, to protest against oil
   exploration under the authority of the British. Greenpeace declared the
   island to be a “new Global State”, and offered citizenship to anyone
   willing to take their pledge of allegiance. The British Government's
   response was simply to give them permission to be there, and otherwise
   ignore them. Indeed the Home Office when asked, responded that since
   Rockall was part of the United Kingdom, and since the UK was a free
   country, Greenpeace were perfectly entitled to be at Rockall.

   The project continued until 1999, when the company sponsoring it
   collapsed and the experiment ended. This interlude nevertheless marked
   the longest continuous habitation of the islet, at forty-two days.

Rockall in literature and culture

     * The Rockall dispute was explored in an episode of the BBC drama
       Ambassador, which starred Pauline Collins as British ambassador to
       the Republic of Ireland.

     * Rockall is probably the setting for William Golding's 1956 novel
       Pincher Martin, a surreal, nightmarish vision of one man's battle
       for physical and (more tellingly) mental survival in the most
       unforgiving and hostile of environments. The rock itself becomes
       the central motif of the novel and symbolises the main character's
       postmodernist alienation from the "real" world.

     * One of Irish/ Celtic band The House Band's albums is entitled
       Rockall.

     * The Icelandic jazz-funk band Mezzoforte recorded an instrumental
       track called 'Rockall', used as the background music for the BBC
       Radio 1 pop chart countdown in the 1980s.

     * The lyrics of the song Ether by English band Gang of Four proclaim:
       "There may be oil, under Rockall" .

     * Rock On Rockall by Brian Warfield ( The Wolfe Tones)

     * Rockall is also the name of the land where Anthony Swithin's
       fantasy series The Perilous Quest for Lyonesse takes place.

     * The conclusion of the episode Napoleon's Piano from the 1950s BBC
       Radio series The Goon Show is claimed by one of the characters,
       Bluebottle, to take place on Rockall. He is lowered from "a
       recording of a helicopter" to plant then salute the Union Flag on
       the islet and claim it for the United Kingdom. A few moments later
       the sound effect of an incoming rocket ending in an explosion
       presumably signals its demise.

     * The Master, an adventure novel by T. H. White, involves two
       children who are stranded on Rockall. They find that it is hollow
       and inhabited by a mysterious person who aims to take over the
       world.

     * Rockall is the home of several of the avian characters in Steve
       Bell's comic strip If...

     * Rockall is the title and setting of a futuristic novel by Ben
       Emlyn-Jones. The island portrayed is larger than the real one, but
       lies at the same location. It tells the story of a group of
       explorers who land on the island and try to build a colony there.

     * In his book Attention All Shipping, the author Charlie Connelly
       travels around all the places mentioned in the shipping forecast.
       He talks about Rockall but does not manage to visit it.

     * After the British annexation of Rockall, Flanders and Swann
       composed the song Rockall in mock celebration.

     * Good Evening, Rockall, was the title of a short-lived
       news-orientated panel game shown on BBC Choice, hosted by Ed Docx
       (first series) and Sue Perkins (second series).

     * Geheimen van het Noorden (Mysteries from the North), a novel by
       Jean Ray, mentiones the Rockall as a demonic place and a danger for
       navigation.

     * Storm over Rockall by W. Howard Baker, was a thriller in a series
       of books starring the character of John Drake.

     * At the end of the novel Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat, HMS
       Saltash is ordered to accept the surrender of German U-boats at
       Rockall.

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