Winslow Reef

Winslow Reef is an underwater feature of the Phoenix Islands, Republic of Kiribati, located 200 km north-northwest of McKean Island at 1 degree 36 seconds South, 174 degrees 57 seconds West. It is the northernmost and westernmost feature of the Phoenix Islands, not counting the outlying Baker and Howland Islands. It has a least depth of 11 meters. The reef is about 1.6 km long east-west, and about half that wide. The bottom is pink coral and red sand. Winslow Reef is mentioned by Robert Louis Stevenson, who sailed over an area thought to be Winslow Reef in late 1889, but did not find it.

The reef was discovered by the whaler Phoenix in 1851, and according to the Atoll Research Bulletin (see below), the name of the whaler became attached to the entire group of islands. (Atoll Research Bulletin 41,page 6, Issued by the Pacific Science Board, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington DC, August 15, 1955.) Perry Winslow was the master of the Phoenix on this voyage. (Ships' Log Collection, Phoenix, Nov. 7, 1848 – Feb. 5, 1853. In the Nantucket Historical Association, Resource Library and Archives).[1] Other sources attribute the name Phoenix islands to a whaler out of London, England, also named the Phoenix.

It is not to be confused with Winslow Reef in the Cook Islands at 20degrees 38 seconds South, 160 degrees 56 seconds West.