That's what I originally thought Malcolm, there must have been a rumour circulating the area that this was the place that was suspected of being where AE and FN met their demise and, subsequent post 1938 visitors to Gardner would have picked this up also.
I haven't seen any evidence or clues to support this theory yet but, I'll dig around a bit and see what I can find. I'm sure there must have been some sort of folklore/rumour floating about after all, it's not exactly an over-populated area of the Pacific.