Thanks to Chris' link I looked up PIPA and this led me to more cursory investigation. I found that Hull Island, perhaps the nearest to Gardner, was a very active island through the first 60 years of the 20th century. Apparently there was a successful copra operation there for quite a while. While it seems that it was uninhabited in early 1937, and the population there earlier nearly starved when they weren't supplied, mostly there were people there. Why wouldn't a boat show up at Gardner once in a while to pick the few coconuts? Wouldn't they have then stayed a while to process the coconuts? What about fishermen? Some group recently harvested sea cucumbers on one of the Phoenix Islands. What about cutting down the last of the valuable trees on Gardner? Maybe there really were signs of recent habitation the Navy flyers saw. But constructed by men and maybe women who camped there to harvest something. Perhaps there was one or more men there when A & E allegedly crashed. Who can say definitely there was no one there? Maybe people who weren't authorized? Was Fred so seriously injured he couldn't function? It doesn't sound like Amelia was an ace navigator, so she wouldn't likely take a position reading. I read Pancho Barnes' opinions tonight and they are illuminating. She thought highly of Fred, but was critical of Amelia's skills. Fred needn't have been injured in the plane landing, many things could have happened to him, in the surf, perhaps? Trying to reach the shipwreck? Perhaps I have an overactive imagination.