WSW

CLIX

The China Clipper departed Midway at 6:12 A.M. on November the 25^th of 1935. Her destination was Wake, just over 1000 miles away to the west.

Kure Lagoon at sunset

The China Clipper’s flight path though, first took her north some 58 miles to the lonely atoll of Kure. Although Kure lay northwest of Midway, it was (and is) part of Hawaii, the northernmost coral atoll in the world, just on the edge of the “Darwin Zone” north of which corals will not live. Inside its fringing reef lie several miniscule islands, the largest of which, Green Island, covers 213 acres. Green Island, like Midway, is a haven for birds, perhaps even more per square foot than either Midway’s Sand Island or Eastern Island. Like Wake but unspoiled, the lagoon is full of coral and tropical fish.

Like the rest of the Hawaiian Islands, Kure was once an active volcano whose crater can clearly be seen as the darker area within the lagoon. The movement of the North Pacific Hot Spot away from Kure over tens of millions of years (it now lies under the Big Island) wore the mountain that was once Kure into a bowl, built up by corals and other marine life. Green Island is at the bottom of the photograph.  The abandoned runway is clearly visible. Several shipwrecks, including the U.S.S. Saginaw can be seen on the reef

Kure was a critical waypoint for the China Clipper. Once Kure was rounded, the big flying boat would bear just West Southwest toward Wake which lay nearly straight ahead on that bearing.

The abandoned World War II landing strip at Kure

Barely a half an hour after leaving busy Midway, Kure appeared, hardly discernable against the blue-greenness of the sea. The crew caught a quick glimpse of the lone, falling-down house that was the only human construction on the island, a remnant of the Hawaiian King Kalakaua’s concern for shipwrecked sailors, of which there had been many on Kure during the 19^th Century. Kure’s reef, virtually invisible in a tossing sea, was notorious for the toll of ships it took. Once stocked with food and water, the house had not been maintained when the Republic of Hawaii succeeded the Kingdom of Hawaii and when the Territory of Hawaii had succeeded the Republic. Now it was just a landmark, and Will Jarboe reported sighting Kure as Ed Musick vectored around it and sped off toward Wake.*

Today,  however remote, Kure is sadly strewn with refuse from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, including hundreds of thousands of spent plastic cigarette lighters. The birds and monk seals that call Kure home are often poisoned by ingesting such trash.  Intermittent volunteer efforts are being made to clean up the island and keep its wildlife safe. The State of Hawaii, and the City of Honolulu (of which Kure is a part) are only recently involving themselves in cleanup efforts

*Kure became busy during World War II. The U.S. Navy built an emergency landing field on Green Island and kept the area patrolled, fearing that the Imperial Japanese Navy might use the forgotten atoll with the Japanese name as a staging area for submarine attacks against the Hawaiian Islands. During the Battle of Midway, several Japanese pilots managed to land at Kure, and engaged with a Marine raiding party sent ashore to subdue them. The Japanese were either killed or committed suicide rather than be captured; the record is unclear.