Heaven is an island, and so is hell. From Socotra to Kerguelen, from Cocos to Crozet, from Mauritius to Reunion, there are both magnificent expeditions, broken dreams and rebirth of ideals, and the cruelty of the brutal sale of black slaves, it can be said that every lonely island has its own solitary story, and Tromland is no exception. This isolated island, which is so small that it is rarely marked on the map, has staged a tragedy of lies and betrayal, self-birth and self-destruction, and the mystery remains unsolved.
An island of projectiles with seamounts emerging from the sea
Located at 15°53′32" S and 5°31′29"E, Tromland is one of the islands in the French Indian Ocean, 400 km east of Madagascar and 560 km northwest of Mauritius. Tromland is a coral island formed by an undersea mountain outcropping out of the sea, 1.7 kilometers long, 700 meters wide, with a land area of only 0.8 square kilometers and a maximum point of 7 meters above sea level. Covered with sparse shrubs, the island has a subtropical maritime climate with an average temperature of 20-26 ° C and annual rainfall between 1000-1500 mm.
Tromland has no port or anchorage, only a 1,000-meter-long airstrip to communicate with the outside world, and because a meteorological observatory was established on the island in 1954, it is manned by 4-19 people all year round. At the same time, due to the low altitude, the navigation lighthouse on the island was also built on the roof of the observatory. In addition, it is located in the middle of nowhere, far from land, so it is also a spawning ground for seabirds such as turtles and blue-billed, and it is rich in fishery resources.
There is no port or anchorage on Tromland Island, only a 1,000-meter-long airstrip to connect with the outside world.
Tromland was first discovered by French navigators in 1722, much later than the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, and because the area was too small, it was not occupied by France until 1754 as part of the colony of Mauritius, which has become the historical basis for the sovereignty of Tromland between Mauritius and France today.
Map of the islands in the French Indian Ocean
Behind the land of projectiles is the "big cake"
Today, Tromland is still under French control, but in exchange for cooperation with Mauritius, in 2010 France signed a framework agreement with Mauritius to cooperate in the development of Tromlin Island and the surrounding waters. In fact, the reason why such a projectile land can become a sweet potato is related to the maritime rights and interests stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which officially entered into force in 1994.
Management station and meteorological monitoring station on the island of Tromland
According to the Convention, in addition to the territorial sea rights of 12 nautical miles, the 144 coastal States of the world have jurisdiction over a maritime boundary area extending up to 200 nautical miles, and as their exclusive economic zone, they have the sovereign right to explore, exploit, utilize, protect and manage the natural resources of the overlying waters of the seabed and the subsoil. At the same time, it is stipulated that islands in the middle of the ocean, natural islands that can maintain the natural survival of people, can also have their own territorial waters and exclusive economic zones.
Under the Convention, in addition to the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea rights, a coastal State may extend its maritime boundaries up to 200 nautical miles as its exclusive economic zone.
This means that whoever owns Tromland has 200 nautical miles of resource jurisdiction along all directions of the island, i.e. 1,500 square kilometres of territorial sea (12 nautical miles = 22.224 km, radius squared times 3.14) and an exclusive economic zone of 126,000 square nautical miles, although due to the contour of Tromland, its actual EEZ is 280,000 square kilometres. It must be known that the sea territory under the jurisdiction of the mainland is only 4.73 million square kilometers.
As the exclusive economic zone of the country, it enjoys the sovereign right to explore, exploit, utilize, protect and manage the natural resources of the overlying waters and subsoil of the seabed.
The forgotten island of slaves
However, what really made Troromland famous was not the sovereignty dispute between the illegal Maoists, but the brutal incident in the 18th century, when the captain of the French "Practical" "abandoned" 80 black Malagasy slaves here to fend for themselves. It was November 17, 1760, and the wooden merchant ship "Practical" belonging to the East India Company set off from Bayonne on the southwest coast of France for French India, at the height of the Seven Years' War between the Anglo-Prussian Alliance and the Franco-Austrian Alliance, and the Suez Canal had not yet been opened, so it was necessary to detour the Cape of Good Hope in Africa first.
Map of the French colonies during the colonial era
After months of sailing, the merchant ship docked on the island of Madagascar (then a French colony) to resupply supplies, and Captain de la Fargo, against the order of the governor, secretly loaded 160 slaves to be transported to Mauritius to be sold, just like other goods. However, strong winds on the way caused the tentacles of the "Utility" to sink after veering off course, 20 sailors drowned on the spot, and finally 122 French sailors and 80 Malagasy slaves escaped to Tromaland to survive.
Tromland is a small, uninhabited island with sparse shrubs.
But Tromland was a small, uninhabited island with sparse shrubs, there was no food to satisfy them, and the sailors monopolized what little supplies remained, but as time passed, despair spread clearly, and the sailors put aside their prejudices and helped each other with black slaves, and they cooperated to dig a barely drinkable well, and learned to catch the island's terns and turtles. The group then collaborated to collect the wreckage of the "Practical" and built a lifeboat together with the persuasion of the captain and the priest.
Blue-billed on the island of Tromland
Finally, two months after the "practical" crash, the small lifeboat was built, but due to the limited space and food, the French sailors promised to go for rescue first, and before leaving, the captain repeatedly vowed to the slaves that "I will come back to save everyone" and "then you will be free" - but in the end, 80 slaves were left to fend for themselves like "goods". The French sailors who sailed in 1761 were rescued, but the crew and the French East India Company did not send ships to the rescue in order to fulfill the "promise to slaves". According to the official version at the time, the Seven Years' War was raging and ships could not be allocated to search and rescue.
Pictured below on the right is the anchor of the merchant ship "Utility", which is still being beaten by the sea on Trimland.
The Seven Years' War ended in 1763 after more than 1 million casualties, France lost the war, almost all of the French Indian colonies were ceded to Britain, and the French East India Company finally collapsed after losing Indian trade in 1769, and the "rescue promise" became completely empty. Until November 29, 1776, the frigate "Crown Princess", which was ordered by the French royal family to explore the southern ocean, happened to pass by Tromaland Island and found that there were 8 black slaves alive on the island, so the captain of Tromland brought the 7 female slaves and 1 baby boy back to Mauritius.
All that remains of the island is the coke left after the fire that burned for 15 years was extinguished and the name of their savior: Chevalier de Tromelin
Nothing remained on the isolated island, except the coke left after the fire that had been burning for 15 years and the name of their savior: Chevalier de Tromelin. Tromland's moves, described by public opinion at the time as "the virtue of French trustworthiness", caused a sensation throughout French society, and even during the French Revolution in 1789, influenced the new bourgeois government that replaced the Bourbons and promoted the "abolition" movement.
Serfrolov weather station on the island of Tromland
Since then, the story of Tromland has been widely spread, and after entering the 21st century, France sent anthropology and archaeology teams four times in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2013 to try to understand how these 80 forgotten black slaves survived on Tromland. Archaeologists eventually discovered that after the French sailors took almost all of the food they had accumulated and left, the vast majority of black slaves died of disease or malnutrition. The remainder, surviving by hunting turtles and seabirds and shellfish, developed on their own to make fires, dig wells, make clothes out of feathers, and build watchtowers and mud houses out of stone and sand.
Airstrip on the island of Tromland
Despite significant archaeological progress, there has always been a huge puzzle that has puzzled archaeologists, that is, the bones of the 72 dead slaves have not been found. It stands to reason that if these people died on the island, they should be buried, and there is no custom of sea burial for black Malagasy people, where did these bodies end up? After the French sailors left, those slaves who did not know how to sail made rafts from the low bushes of the island went to sea again? Still..., that's terrifying!
Comic book story "Tromland: The Forgotten Island of Slaves"
In any case, in 2015, the Musée des Hommo in Paris specially invited the well-known French cartoonist Savoia, from the perspective of a surviving black slave girl, to draw the survivor's comic story "Tromland: The Forgotten Island of Slaves" to commemorate the unbearable history that took place on the island of Tromland.
This is Tromland, an oceanic island that is perhaps truly the end point of the most exciting trip and the least reliable paradise.
Review of the previous issue: Reunion: The "back garden of France" spewed out by the volcano, an African island where 40,000 Chinese live
Note: This article is the 15th issue of the "Indian Ocean Islands Collection" series, just a word, welcome to correct and forward. In addition, the picture in the article is quoted from the Internet, if there is a copyright private link, please delete.