Place:Pratas Islands, Republic of China

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Pratas Islands, also known as the Dongsha Islands and Tungsha Islands, are three atolls (Pratas Atoll, North Vereker Atoll and South Vereker Atoll) in the north of the South China Sea. They consist of one island, two coral reefs and two banks, and are located about southeast of Hong Kong. The Republic of China (Taiwan) controls them and has declared part of them the Dongsha Atoll National Park. The People's Republic of China claims them as part of China.

Pratas Island is the only area above sea level. It has an area of about , including of lagoon, and is the largest of the South China Sea Islands. It is the location of the Dongsha Airport.

The Pratas atoll is circular, with Pratas Island at the west of the atoll, and two large submerged coral reefs around the edge of most of the rest of the atoll.

The North Vereker Bank and South Vereker Bank are adjacent to each other about to the northwest of the Pratas atoll at . North Vereker Bank rises to below sea level, and South Vereker Bank to below sea level. There are numerous oil wells to the west of the banks.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The East Indiaman was wrecked on the Pratas Islands on or about 22 October 1800 with the loss of all aboard. At the time the islands were known to British sailors as the "Perates". Then the British screw sloop wrecked in 1851 while going to the aid of another wrecked vessel; the crew were all saved.

In 1859-1861 there was a correspondence between the British Colonial Office and the Hong Kong colonial authorities about building a lighthouse on the main island on the atoll. Despite an offer by a British businessman in Xiamen to build it, it was decided that the cost was too great and the matter lapsed. It is clear from the correspondence that no one supposed the atoll to be a part of any known jurisdiction, which might have required negotiations to be conducted to ensure that construction would be legal.

One consequence of this initiative was that in 1858 the Royal Navy survey ship completed the first detailed survey of the atoll, resulting in the Plan of the Pratas Reef and Island, J. Richards and others, April 1858 being published by the British Admiralty. On the resulting chart three positions are proposed for a lighthouse, on Pratas Island, on the north-east corner and on the southern edge near where HMS Reynard had stranded. In the north-east corner of the lagoon the chart notes "Anchorage for junks" indicating regular use by fishing and other small vessels taking shelter. The chart's rubric noted that the available safe draft for vessels entering was only 15 feet (4.6m), so restricted to only relatively small vessels.

In 1908-1909 a Japanese businessman named Nishizawa Yoshizi (西澤吉次) established a guano collecting station, destroyed the Dawang Joss House (大王庙), and dug up graves and poured the bone ashes of Chinese fishermen into the sea there, and renamed the atoll "Nishizawa Island", but after a diplomatic confrontation, Chinese sovereignty was re-established, and Nishizawa withdrew, after being compensated by the Guangdong provincial government, and after paying compensation for the destruction of a Chinese fishermen's shrine.

Japanese naval personnel occupied Pratas Island during World War II. The Japanese Navy used the island as a weather station and listening outpost until 29 May 1945 when a landing party consisting of Australian commandos and US naval personnel from the submarine raised the US flag, declared the island a United States territory, and named it Bluegill Island. The landing party destroyed a radio tower, weather station, fuel and ammunition dumps, and several buildings. No lives were lost during this raid as all of the island's occupants fled just days prior to Bluegills raid. The islands were later restored to the Republic of China's Guangdong Province.

While underway in the South China Sea on 18 July 1965, the USS Frank Knox ran aground on Pratas Reef, and was only freed on 24 August after a very difficult salvage effort.

The islands have been uninhabited, yet nations (including China and Japan) have claimed them to be their overseas territory. After World War II, the islands and the sea around them were mandated by United Nations.

In the Journal of Science (April 1867) there is a nine-page article entitled "The Natural History of Pratas Island in the China Sea" by Dr. Cuthbert Collingwood, the naturalist on board . It describes what was observed, especially bird life, during a visit of two days while the survey ship lay at anchor. Collingwood explored the island on 30 April 1866.

The islands are currently administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan) with the postal code 817. In 2007, the Taiwanese government designated the Pratas atoll as the Dongsha Atoll National Park, the first marine national park in Taiwan.

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