Gaferut

Gaferut is an atoll in the Western Caroline Islands.

Alternative spellings and historic names include: Faijo, Fayaew, Goferut, Grimes, Gurimesu and High

Gaferut is a part of the Outer Islands of Yap within Yap State, itself part of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Uninhabited, Gaferut is owned by, but lies outside the Atoll of, Faraulep.

This single island is located at 9° 14' N,1 45° 29' E, 60 miles northeast of Faraulep and 97 miles north-northwest of Olimarao. It is about three quarters of a mile long (NW-SE) and half a mile wide, and rises in some places to an elevation of seven feet. Low and thickly covered with mangrove trees, the island is encircled by a fringing reef which extends 600 yards northwest of the northern end and 500 yards south-southeast of the southern end. A passage for small boats in the northwest gives access to the small lagoon.

Naming Confusion

The real native name of Gaferut is Faiau, Pallao or Fayo which means stone or rock in Woleaian.

The earliest recorded accounts relate how Islanders from Woleai, Lamotrek and other atolls went every spring to Guam, stopping on the way for several days at Fayo, a “desert island” and returning in May or June by the same route. A chart modified from Father Cantova’s 1728 map clearly denotes the island as “Fauheu.”

The term Gaferut originally referred to either an imaginary magic island, or perhaps a former islet of a reef now devoid of dry land. One oft-repeated account described a sunken magic island, culturally linked to Rumung, in Yap, called “Sepen” but also known as “Gaferudj.”

By this logic, the name "'Gaferut' was a bastardization of a Yapese name, for either a mythical or sunken island, that was mis-applied by the Germans to Faiau, because it matched this apocryphal description of "a devil's island [that was] never visited by the Caroline people, who were afraid of it."

Residents

In 1910 the Germans reported inhabitants on the island, and noted these residents had clan ties to islanders on Lamotrek and Woleai. There were no permanent inhabitants in 1935, but by the late 1930s and certainly early 1940 there were probably residents to work the phosphate deposits.

German Period

During the German Period, District Administrator of Yap, A. Senfft visited and described the island in either 1905 or 1906. A further German expedition exploring for phosphate deposits is said to have discovered phosphate on Gaferut in 1907. As a result of their discoveries, the Germans started exploiting phosphate on Angaur, Peleliu and later Fais, but never on Gaferut. However, the Japanese did mine phosphate there, in spite of great transportation difficulties, starting about 1937.

Japanese Period

In addition to' the phosphate workers, other Japanese visited Gaferut, among them Yata Haneda, a mycologist interested in fungi, who mentioned Gaferut and its phosphate in an account of his 1937 travels in Micronesia, published in 1939. The distinguished geologist Risaburo Tayama apparently also visited Gaferut, and he included a description of it, maps, sections and a photograph in his volumes on coral reefs of Micronesia published in 1952.

Phosphate

During the Japanese Period phosphate despots on Gaferut were owned and worked by Nanyo Boeki Kaisha, established by the amalgamation of two earlier Japanese firms, the Murayama Shokai and the Nanyo Boeki Hioki Kaisha. In 1914 it fell heir to the extensive interests of the Jaluit Company. Under Nanyo Boeki Kaisha 198 metric tons were produced in 1937 and 747 metric tones in 1938.

As late as 1935, Gaferut Island was reported to have no wharves, but facilities for loading phosphate would likely have been erected by 1937. That year 198 metric tons were produced on Gaferut and a further 747 metric tones were documented for 1938.

Though phosphate had been extracted by the Japanese, the island's deposits were not covered in the otherwise comprehensive "Report on Mineral Resources of Micronesia," by the US Commercial Company, a part of it's 1946 Economic Survey.

Journal Articles about Gaferut

Niering, William A., "Observations on Puluwat and Gaferut, Caroline Islands," Atoll Research Bulletin. No. 76: 1-10, 1961.

Sachet, Marie-Helene, "Historical and Climatic Information on Gaferut Island," Atoll Research Bulletin. No. 76: 11-15, 1961.

Riesenberg, S.H 1975. "The Ghost Islands of the Carolines,"" Micronesica. No. 11 (1): 7-34, July 1975.

Gunn, Michael J. “Etak and The Ghost Islands of the Carolines.” The Journal of the Polynesian Society 89, no. 4, 499–507, 1980