{{Short description|Island off southern New Zealand}} {{for|the islands in the Tuamoto Archipelago|Disappointment Islands}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}{{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2024}}
{{Infobox islands | name = Disappointment Island | image_name = File:FMIB 50815 Disappointment Island.jpeg | image_caption = A photo taken of the island in 1909. | map_image = NZOffshoreIslandsMap.png | map_caption = Position of the Auckland Islands relative to New Zealand and other outlying islands | location = | coordinates = {{coord|50|36.25|S|165|58.38|E|display=inline,title}} | archipelago = Auckland Islands | total_islands = | major_islands = | area_km2 = 3.0 | length_km = 3.35 | width_km = 1.53 | highest_mount = | elevation_m = | population = | population_as_of = | density_km2 = 0 | ethnic_groups = | additional_info = }}
'''Disappointment Island''' is one of seven uninhabited islands in the Auckland Islands archipelago, in New Zealand. It is {{convert|475|km|mi|0}} south of the country's main South Island and {{convert|8|km|mi|0}} from the northwest end of Auckland Island.{{Citation needed|date=March 2026}}
It is home to a large colony of white-capped albatrosses: about 65,000 pairs – nearly the entire world's population – nest there.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/features/333feature1.shtml BBC – Science and Nature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041205091347/http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/features/333feature1.shtml |date=5 December 2004 }}.</ref> Also on the island is the Auckland rail, endemic to the archipelago; once thought to be extinct, it was rediscovered in 1993.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Elliott G. P. |first=Graeme |last2=Walker |first2=Kath J. |date=2020 |title=Subantarctic Adams Island and its birdlife |url=https://www.birdsnz.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/3_Subantarctic_Adams_Island_and_its_birdlife_Notornis_67_1__153-1.pdf |journal=Notornis}}</ref> The island is known for being one of the least-modified subantarctic islands in New Zealand.
== History == On 7 March 1907, the ''Dundonald'', a steel, four-masted barque, sank after running ashore on the west side of Disappointment Island. Twelve men drowned and seventeen men made it ashore.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Escott-Inman |first=Herbert |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123924640 |title=The Castaways of Disappointment Island |publisher=S.W. Partridge & Co. |year=1911 |language=English}}</ref> Two of the men died, and fifteen survivors waited seven months for rescue.<ref>[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nzbound/dundonald.htm Wrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1907].</ref> They survived by eating mainly white-capped albatrosses (mollymawks), seals, and roots of the plant ''Azorella polaris.''<ref name=":0" /> They built coracles out of veronica trees and used them to paddle to the mainland, where they eventually found the supplies and boat at Port Ross, a castaway depot, on Auckland Island.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Kath |last2=Elliott |first2=Graeme |last3=Rexer-Huber |first3=Kalinka |last4=Parker |first4=Graham |last5=Sagar |first5=Paul |last6=McClelland |first6=Peter J. |date=2020-01-01 |title=Shipwrecks and mollymawks: an account of Disappointment Island birds |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124153136 |journal=Notornis |language=English |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=213–245}}</ref>
The island was visited by a scientific expedition aboard the ''Hinemoa'' in November 1907, after the crew rescued the ''Dundonald'' survivors from Auckland Island.<ref>{{Citation | last = Cockayne| first = L.| title = Disappointment Island. A new field. The first scientific visitors. Animals and plants on the island.| newspaper = The Lyttelton Times| date = 3 December 1907| url = https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT19071203.2.56| access-date = 20 August 2020 }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> It was this ship which took the stranded men of the ''Dundonald'' home.<ref name=":3" />
== Etymology == British mariner Abraham Bristow, who was the first European to reach the Auckland Islands, named the island Disappointment Island because of how disappointing it was.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Walker |first1=Kath |last2=Elliott |first2=Graeme |last3=Rexer-Huber |first3=Kalinka |last4=Parker |first4=Graham |last5=Sagar |first5=Paul |last6=McClelland |first6=Peter J. |date=2020 |title=Shipwrecks and mollymawks: an account of Disappointment Island birds |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124153136 |journal=Notornis |language=English |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=213–245}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=K. K. |last2=Dingwall |first2=P. R. |date=2009-01-01 |title=Historic landscapes and seascapes of the Auckland Islands |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124153223 |journal=New Zealand Archaeological Association Monograph |language=English |volume=27 |pages=245–267}}</ref> Whilst aboard the ship ''Sarah'' in 1807, he unsuccessfully surveyed the island for fur seals and a base to reach the nearby fur seal rookeries on the western cliffs of Auckland Island.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />
== Important Bird Area == The island is part of the Auckland Island group Important Bird Area (IBA), identified as such by BirdLife International because of the significance of the group as a breeding site for several species of seabirds, including the white-capped mollymawk and white-chinned petrel, as well as the endemic Auckland shag, Auckland teal, Auckland rail, and Auckland snipe.<ref>BirdLife International. (2012). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Auckland Islands. Downloaded from {{cite web |url=http://www.birdlife.org |title=BirdLife International - conserving the world's birds |access-date=2012-12-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070710124603/http://www.birdlife.org/ |archive-date=10 July 2007}} on 2012-01-23.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Walker |first1=Kath |last2=Elliott |first2=Graeme |last3=Rexer-Huber |first3=Kalinka |last4=Parker |first4=Graham |last5=Sagar |first5=Paul |last6=McClelland |first6=Peter J. |date=2020-01-01 |title=Shipwrecks and mollymawks: an account of Disappointment Island birds |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q124153136 |journal=Notornis |language=English |volume=67 |issue=1 |pages=213–245}}</ref>
Over 150,000 pairs of white-chinned petrel breed there.<ref name=":3" />
== See also == {{Portal|Islands}} * Composite Antarctic Gazetteer * Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research * New Zealand subantarctic islands * List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands * List of islands of New Zealand * List of islands * Desert island
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Auckland Islands}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Islands of the Auckland Islands Category:Important Bird Areas of the Auckland Islands Category:Uninhabited islands of New Zealand
{{OutlyingNZ-geo-stub}}