TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Ric Gillespie on November 01, 2018, 04:52:00 PM
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In discussing the likelihood of various visitors to the island wandering through the castaway campsite without noticing anything unusual and happening to leaving behind a sextant box or a Benedictine bottle (or corks with brass chains or various shoe parts), I thought it might be instructive to provide a few photos that put the site in perspective with the rest of the island.
I think the photos speak for themselves.
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A couple more.
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Great pictures!!
Is it possible to add distance scales and maybe a cross-section of the island showing Seven Site's elevation above sea level?
This might help those of us who haven't been there appreciate what visitors have to endure in order to move around and work (or survive).
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Is it possible to add distance scales and maybe a cross-section of the island showing Seven Site's elevation above sea level?
The island's dimensions are well known and easily measured with Google Earth. It's 80 meters from the castaway camp out to the beach. As for a cross-section, there is not much real topography on Niku. The place is basically flat. There are some sizable berms of coral thrown up along the NW coastline by storms and there's a low ridge that runs through the castaway camp. I've attached an aerial photo of the site with contour lines and also a key to the contour lines.
As you can see, assuming that the skull was buried near where it was found, it had rolled downhill from where the castaway died under the Ren tree (as confirmed by the dogs in 2017).
This might help those of us who haven't been there appreciate what visitors have to endure in order to move around and work (or survive).
Distances and contour lines don't adequately convey what it's like. It's no big deal to walk 80 meters across a mall parking lot. Covering the 80 meters from the Ren tree to the beach without a trail takes about 20 minutes. It took me two days to cut that trail in 2007.
The beach sand is soft and steeply sloped. Walking along the ocean beach is best done at low tide when you can walk on the firm sand at the water's edge.
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Perfect :)
It's like you read my mind. Exactly like I envisioned.
Wow! Twenty minutes to go 250 feet. Wonder how long it took our castaway, weak from hunger, dehydration, and lack of sleep. The daily tasks of finding and preparing something edible and collecting and trying to purify water must have quickly lead into negative energy maintenance (takes more calories to function than you are collecting).
Not a sudden or painless end.
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As you can see, assuming that the skull was buried near where it was found, it had rolled downhill from where the castaway died under the Ren tree (as confirmed by the dogs in 2017).
Here's a thought. The work party that found the skull did not find the skeleton but did find the Benedictine bottle, so it would seem that the bottle was not with the skeleton but probably near the skull. Why? Maybe it rolled downhill like the skull. Skulls and bottles don't move by themselves, but if disturbed by a crab they'll go where gravity takes them.
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Entirely possible given the slope shown by the contours.
Might think about different "rolling" properties though. Skull is more like a ball; the bottle (presume it was round, not rectangular) is more like a cylinder.
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Might think about different "rolling" properties though. Skull is more like a ball; the bottle (presume it was round, not rectangular) is more like a cylinder.
Benedictine bottles have a distinctive shape. If rolled down a slope they go in a series of half circles. I think a Benedictine bottle would need a series of "disturbances" to make it to the bottom of the "hill", but there is no shortage of crabs to provide disturbance.