TIGHAR

Amelia Earhart Search Forum => The Islands: Expeditions, Facts, Castaway, Finds and Environs => Topic started by: Craig Romig on August 06, 2011, 01:20:53 AM

Title: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 06, 2011, 01:20:53 AM
on  my google earth. the photo reads 2/21/2007. on the north west and southern USGS end of Niku island. i am seeing what looks like lakes of rusty water. what are these large brown spots?
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Andrew M McKenna on August 06, 2011, 08:14:38 AM
The pond is brown due to the algae on the bottom, not because the water is brown.  Because it is shallow, it may be warmer than the lagoon and conducive to algae growth.  See attached photos that will give you the flavor of the pond from when we visited during Niku VI.  With the hat is Curtis Webster, next is Megan L-M and Bill Carter, and the third has Tom King and Bill with Curtis in the background.  Hey, this inserting photos is kind of fun.  :-)
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 06, 2011, 11:50:36 AM
those are some really cool pictures. and give me more of an idea of what the island itself looks like. than any others i have seen. you can see on the far shore how the coral has hardened and looks like limestone rocks that are falling into the pond. i also like where you can see from the pond over into the lagoon. that gives it  a whole different perspective. the brush really is thick. i always heard others say that. but i just couldn't believe it was like that. if there are any other pictures out there. i would love to see the  island itself. not the regular shore and palm tree shots.  you can see those on tv. if you know what i mean. with brush like that. i would be even harder to survive. you would have to dig your way into the brush to find a place to live while waiting to be picked up.  in the picture with the girl in it. the far shore looks harsh terrain. hot and humid with barely any rainfall to keep it green with plant life.
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 07, 2011, 03:08:19 AM
i can't buy into the site 7  theory. its  pretty far away. but so is south aukaine (sp) no pre  island worker evidence has been found at the site that i have seen. or thought to be  pointing to castaways. the shoe heels  are the only existing evidence found on the island. i'm unsure where the finger/turtle bone was found at.  3 months later no live castaways were on the island that anyone ever reported about. so they had to have found a way off or died as close ot a survivable place as they could find.

if i were to be a castaway on that island in perfect health. i would  of course search the whole island. and then find the best place to live  until  possible help arrived.  the north side of the island wasn't the best  place weather wise to live because of the strom direction was it?

or was the perfect place to be spotted to be found rescued from the north side? i wouldn't know that for sure.

now if we believe in the  radio reports . fred had a possible head injury. so travel for him if injured. would be harder. so the closer to the plane the better for him.  or if he died near the plane site. and she travelle don. that may have been adifferent location where she may have ended up at. possibly the shoe site?
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Harry Howe, Jr. on August 07, 2011, 12:22:59 PM
My guess is that the best place to have been seen on the island would have been near the Wreck of the Norwich City or near the entry from the sea to the Lagoon.
They (AE and FN) had every reason to believe that the folks on the Itasca were steaming full speed ahead towards Gardner and would be there within 10 hours or so (10:00 PM Howland time).  After all, Hadn't AE transmited to them that she was "running" North and south on the LOP 157/337?  Shouldn't they have "guessed"  that she, having missed Howland, was headed for Gardner?  There was no need yet for them to explore, make shelter, etc.  People were coming to their rescue, or so they thought.  Their first priority would have been to trouble shoot the radio, fix it if possible,  and try to establish communication with the outside world.
They could have had no idea that the searchers (Itasca) were steaming off in exactly the opposite direction.  No accounting for the military mind.
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 07, 2011, 10:17:51 PM
Good reading on the seven site (http://tighar.org/wiki/The_Seven_Site), links in well with your question about Rusty Water.

Which Shoe site do you mean? Where Gallagher found shoe remains, a bottle, sextant box, corks with chains and an inverting eye peice or the other site where TIGHAR found shoe remains near the childs grave on Aukaraime South?

do we know where the Gallagher site was at? i was thinking the tighar shoe site when i wrote my statement.

My guess is that the best place to have been seen on the island would have been near the Wreck of the Norwich City or near the entry from the sea to the Lagoon.
They (AE and FN) had every reason to believe that the folks on the Itasca were steaming full speed ahead towards Gardner and would be there within 10 hours or so (10:00 PM Howland time).  After all, Hadn't AE transmited to them that she was "running" North and south on the LOP 157/337?  Shouldn't they have "guessed"  that she, having missed Howland, was headed for Gardner?  There was no need yet for them to explore, make shelter, etc.  People were coming to their rescue, or so they thought.  Their first priority would have been to trouble shoot the radio, fix it if possible,  and try to establish communication with the outside world.
They could have had no idea that the searchers (Itasca) were steaming off in exactly the opposite direction.  No accounting for the military mind.


yes at first for the first few days or weeks you are going t o stay near the wreck or landing site. after a while though  you can give up hope. and want to try to find other sources of food and water. as well as better shelter from rain storms crabs. so exploring would take place sooner or later.

what i cant see. is what would the 7 site have as appealing to be a spot to live.  close to water?  probably not. there is no good water on the island. close to food? isn't the wildlife every where on the island? of course what is at the tighar shoes site? no water.  probably the same food sources.  it may have been on a more protected side of the island.  or could it be that they or one of them simply just wondered the island as a hunter gather group may have done.  or did they get caught in the plane when it went off the side of the reef? and the shoes and bones are from a norwich city survivor who came onto the island after the rescue or didn't get rescued.
 
i still dont see any evidence at site 7. it looks like islanders and the USGS to me.
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 08, 2011, 05:55:30 AM
The evidence points to the seven site.  firstly this is where TIGER found the water collecting device and remains of a small house that Gallagher had built while he carried out a search of the bone site.  There are a number of large Rena trees and the remains of fires with fish, bird and turtle bones.


The TIGER shoe heel and shoe site are further west on the lee side of the island towards the settlement.  The shoe parts were found near the grave of an infant in an area where settlers had summer houses.  Interestingly there was a fire feature here but a fragment of bar coded paper was found in it that dates the feature post settlers.


the water collection device included the corrugated tin. that was from later visitors to the island. i dont think fred and amelia had that with them nor the police of tarwa tank either. the summer houses i read were at site 7.  ren trees could  have grown anywhere on the island and have been cut down. as there were cut down trees on the south  auukaine side near the infant grave.  from what i read. the infant grave was far away from the village. i did read somewhere something about  a upc  code paper.  i dont know wher ei read that at. but i also read in a tighar track  page last night. where the  paper at the south  auakaine site fire was a  ROWER PRODUCE with green leafs near the top burnt edge . and that the plane had two cans of ripe bananas in its inventory.  i cant even find the link to  these pages. because i am so new to the site.  everything seems to not be linked good enough for me to find again.  i am sorry about that.

Arguments about why Earhart and/or Noonan would or should have moved from the best landing site near the Norwich City are essentially moot (arguable, undecidable, essentially irrelevant). IF that is where the castaway died, and if the castaway was, in fact, Earhart or Noonan, then we have to presume that he or she thought it was a good place to camp either temporarily or indefinitely. It is possible that the castaway arrived at the Seven Site after scouting what looks like, but is not, a freshwater pond near the southeast tip of the island.
 
•Pleasant forest.
•Breezes from prevailing easterly winds.
•Easy access to both the sea shore and the lagoon.
•Trees to climb to watch for ships.
•Access to food: turtles, fish, clams, birds.
•A ready supply of firewood in the buka forest?  

i read this before now. and i am not arguing if they moved or why they would move.  i know if i  were sitting around i would be bored. and interested how to get off the island. so i would explore. i found a year chart on this site.  and in 1938 supposedly some islander found two skeletons. because he noticed shoes. something the islander didn't use at the time. i time the rest of that is assuming.  islanders ate turtles and birds. so any bones at site 7 is coincidental. the clam shells  being brought to the camp is interesting. who knows if they were looking at the pond as fresh water or not.

I'd be interested in your arguments against the casterway then?
 


i have no arguments other than  i have seen no evidence that site 7 is the place where they died at.  that is what we are looking for is evidence of their body's or their  plane.  clam shells bird or turtle bones only means that someone was there. before the team got there. the clams are the only thing i thought may hold  white man being present at site 7.  i think plenty of eveidence  has been found to say that they were probably there.  proof for the rest of the world  just needs to be shown that is provable. even thought i believe it. doesnt mean anyone else does.
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 08, 2011, 05:56:11 AM
i'm unsure where the finger/turtle bone was found at.

The Seven Site!

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/59_DNAResearch/59_DNAResearch.htm (http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/59_DNAResearch/59_DNAResearch.htm)
i have seen this page. but i forget where was this sample found at?
Title: Re: Rusty water
Post by: Craig Romig on August 08, 2011, 06:20:18 AM
i was wrong abou tthe 1938 bones being sited. it was in ajn 1939 here is the link. http://tighar.org/Publications/TTracks/12_2/yr3.html#2

i have also found a small photo of the PRODUCE LABEL.  i woul dliek to see a larger photo of it. to see that upc code.