Swains Island

Swains Island lies some three hundred and fifty kilometres north of Tutuila, a coral atoll around two and a half kilometres across with a lagoon closed off entirely from the sea, held by the Jennings family since the nineteenth century and administered as part of American Samoa. Coconut was worked there for generations and the population has fluctuated between a few dozen and nobody at all. There is no scheduled transport of any kind.

What you actually see

• The closed lagoon - a body of brackish water with no connection to the sea.
• The atoll ring - the coconut-covered land around the lagoon.
• The family holding - private ownership running back to the nineteenth century.
• The isolation - three hundred and fifty kilometres from the nearest settlement.

When to go

May to September is the calmer season, though access is the constraint rather than weather. Visits depend entirely on a vessel going. There is no schedule.

Honest expectations

There is no way for a visitor to get there: no flights, no ferry and no regular vessel. Permission from the owners would be required in any case. It is included here as a place, not as somewhere that can be visited.

Nearby

Tokelau lies to the north, and Tutuila is far south.