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Concept
Gough Island
Summary
Gough Island (ɡɒf ), also known historically as Gonçalo Álvares, is a rugged volcanic island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a dependency of Tristan da Cunha and part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. It is about south-east of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago (which includes Nightingale Island and Inaccessible Island), north-east from South Georgia Island, west from Cape Town, and over from the nearest point of South America.
Gough Island is uninhabited, except for the personnel of a weather station (usually six people) that the South African National Antarctic Programme has maintained, with British permission, continually on the island since 1956. It is one of the most remote places with a constant human presence. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of "Gough and Inaccessible Island". It is one of the most important seabird colonies in the world.
The island was first named Ilha de Gonçalo Álvares on Portuguese maps. Gonçalo Álvares was a Portuguese explorer who discovered the island 1505. Confusion of the unusual Portuguese saint name Gonçalo with Spanish Diego led to the misnomer Diego Alvarez Island in English-language sources from the 1800s to 1930s. However, the most likely explanation is that it was simply a misreading of "Is de Go Alvarez", the name by which the island is represented on some of the early charts, the "de Go" mutating into "Diego".
The name "Gough island" refers to the British mariner Captain Charles Gough of the Richmond, who sighted the island in 1732.
The details of the discovery of Gough Island are unclear, but the most likely occasion is July 1505 by the Portuguese explorer Gonçalo Álvares. Maps during the next three centuries named the island after him. On some later maps, this was erroneously given as Diego Alvarez.
According to some historians, the British merchant Anthony de la Roché was the first to land on the island, in the austral autumn of 1675.
Charles Gough rediscovered the island on 3 March 1732, thinking it was a new find.
Official source
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