What If Amelia Earhart Lived as a Castaway on Nikumaroro?
Unknown photographer (no author recorded on Commons). Public domain (published in the United States 1931 to 1963, copyright not renewed). Picture source
On 2 July 1937 Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan vanished near Howland Island. This story follows one idea, that they came down on a coral island called Gardner (now Nikumaroro), using the radio logs, Navy reports, a 1937 diary and the British files on bones found there in 1940, with the documents under every chapter.
How to read it: start at chapter 1 and go in order. Each chapter tells the story first, then quotes the record it rests on and says what is actually known.
- 1. The Last Leg from LaeAmelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan take off from New Guinea for tiny Howland Island, the hardest leg of their flight around the world.1 to 2 July 1937, overnight across the central Pacific
- 2. "We Must Be On You"At dawn Earhart radios that she should be over Howland but cannot see it, and that her fuel is running low.Morning of 2 July 1937, near Howland Island
- 3. Voices After the SilenceFor several nights after the plane is lost, radio stations around the Pacific report weak voices and signals on Earhart's frequencies.2 to about 7 July 1937
- 4. Planes Over Gardner IslandA week after the loss, three Navy floatplanes from the battleship Colorado fly over Gardner Island and see signs that someone has lived there.Friday 9 July 1937
- 5. Bevington's Walk and the PhotographThree months later a British party lands on Gardner Island to see if people could settle there, and a young officer takes a photograph of the shipwreck on the reef.13 to 15 October 1937
- 6. A Skull Under a Ren TreeIn 1940 settlers clearing land find a human skull, and the British officer in charge finds more bones, a woman's shoe sole, a bottle and a sextant box.About April to December 1940
- 7. The Bones Measured TwiceA doctor in Fiji says the bones are a man's in 1941; in 2018 an American anthropologist reworks the same measurements and says they fit Earhart.April 1941 and 2015 to 2018
This is a story built on real documents, not proven history: no part of Earhart's plane has been confirmed on Nikumaroro, the 1940 bones are lost, and experts disagree on whether they could be hers. Where the story imagines something, it says so.
All sources
- U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Itasca, Radio Log, Position Two, 2 July 1937 (scan of the original typed log), TIGHAR document archive
- Commandant, Fourteenth Naval District (Rear Admiral Murfin), 'Report of Earhart Search, 2-18 July, 1937', to the Chief of Naval Operations, 31 July 1937 (scan), TIGHAR document archive
- Bob Brandenburg (TIGHAR), 'The Post-Loss Radio Signals' (2000), which quotes the Nauru report as intercepted by Itasca on 3 July 1937 (GMT)
- Bob Brandenburg and Ric Gillespie (TIGHAR), 'Catalog and Analysis of Radio Signals During The Search for Amelia Earhart in July 1937'
- Lt. John O. Lambrecht, Senior Aviator, U.S.S. Colorado, 'Aircraft Search of Earhart Plane', report to the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, 16 July 1937 (transcription), TIGHAR Research Document #6
- Eric R. Bevington, journal of the Phoenix Islands visit, 9 to 16 October 1937 (transcription), TIGHAR Research Document #11
- TIGHAR Research Bulletin 58, 'The Nessie Hypothesis' (on the object in Bevington's October 1937 photograph)
- Rossella Lorenzi, 'Search for Amelia Earhart's Plane Begins', Live Science, 4 July 2012 (on the Bevington photograph, quoting Ric Gillespie of TIGHAR)
- Gerald B. Gallagher, telegrams of 23 September 1940, in 'The Bones Files' (Kiribati National Archives file GBG and W.P.H.C. file M.P. 4439-1940), TIGHAR Research Document #12, page 1
- Gerald B. Gallagher, confidential telegram of 17 October 1940, and Dr. D. C. M. Macpherson's minute of 23 October 1940, in 'The Bones Files', TIGHAR Research Document #12, page 2
- Dr. Lindsay Isaac, telegram of 11 February 1941, and Gallagher's letter of 27 December 1940, in 'The Bones Files', TIGHAR Research Document #12, page 3
- Dr. D. W. Hoodless, 'Report on Portion of a Human Skeleton' and table of measurements, Central Medical School, Suva, 4 April 1941 (W.P.H.C. 11 and 11B), in 'The Bones Files', TIGHAR Research Document #12, page 5
- Dr. K. R. Steenson, file note of 1 July 1941 on the shoe parts and other contents of the sextant box, in 'The Bones Files', TIGHAR Research Document #12, page 6
- Gerald B. Gallagher, file note of 3 July 1941, and Sir Harry Luke's note on the sextant box, 8 August 1941, in 'The Bones Files', TIGHAR Research Document #12, page 7
- Richard L. Jantz, 'Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones: A 1941 Analysis versus Modern Quantitative Techniques', Forensic Anthropology 1(2), 2018, DOI 10.5744/fa.2018.0009 (journal page with abstract)
- Richard L. Jantz (2018), same article, full text as hosted by TIGHAR
- Pamela J. Cross and Richard Wright, 'The Nikumaroro bones identification controversy: First-hand examination versus evaluation by proxy', Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 3 (2015): 52-59, accepted manuscript abstract, University of Bradford repository
- National GeographicThe magazine of the National Geographic Society, published since 1888, covering science, archaeology and exploration for general readers.National Geographic, report on the end of Robert Ballard's August 2019 search off Nikumaroro ('Tantalizing clue marks end of Amelia Earhart expedition')
Questions people ask about What If Amelia Earhart Lived as a Castaway on Nikumaroro?
What were Amelia Earhart's last radio messages?
The Coast Guard cutter Itasca logged her at 0742 on 2 July 1937 saying 'we must be on you but cannot see u but gas is running low', and at 0843 saying 'we are on the line 157 337' and that they were running north and south. The entries that follow on that log sheet are calls to her marked unanswered.
What bones were found on Nikumaroro?
In 1940 settlers on Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) found a skull, and the British officer Gerald Gallagher then found part of a skeleton, part of a shoe, a bottle and a sextant box. The bones were sent to Fiji, where Dr. D. W. Hoodless measured them in April 1941. The bones have since been lost.
Were the Nikumaroro bones Amelia Earhart's?
No one has proved it either way. Hoodless judged them a man's in 1941. In 2018 Richard Jantz reworked Hoodless's measurements and concluded they fit Earhart better than 99% of a large reference sample; Cross and Wright (2015) argue the original finding of a middle-aged man is more reliable.
Did searchers look at Nikumaroro in 1937?
Yes. Navy floatplanes from the USS Colorado flew over Gardner Island on 9 July 1937. Their senior aviator reported 'signs of recent habitation' but no one waved, and the Navy concluded the flyers were not on any of the Phoenix Islands.
Has Earhart's plane been found at Nikumaroro?
No. TIGHAR points to an object in a 1937 photograph of the reef, but says this does not prove it is landing gear. Robert Ballard's 2019 expedition searched the reef slopes and reported no evidence of the plane.
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