The Graham Island Affair Trivia Quiz

Answer: A landing party planted the Union Jack on the island's summit.

An island emerges in a strategic maritime location prompting an international wrangle between a major world power, a plucky rival, and a small, nearly powerless nation that happens to be closest to the new island. Rather than "history", this seems an entirely implausible scenario such as one might expect to see in a Terry Pratchett novel. (There is such a Terry Pratchett novel, "Jingo", which is based on a suspiciously similar premise.) It was not the island's first appearance.

The island emerged during the First Punic war in the third century BCE and again in 10 BCE.

The geologic phenomenon of submerged volcanic mountains is a well-known one. Just as volcanic activity can raise or lower terrestrial volcanoes, submerged volcanoes may poke above the surface only to collapse back under the waves, as has been the case repeatedly with Graham Island. By August first, when the British party planted its flag, the Island had grown to one mile in diameter.

In 2002, an Italian Author, Filippo D'Arpa, published a novel based on the historical events of 1831, "The Island That Went Away".

Answer: A ship of the Sicilian navy was dispatched and removed the British flag and planted the flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Not surprisingly, in the Sicilian account of the events of 1831, intrepid Sicilian fishermen and not the British Captain Swinburne first espy the island through the swirling clouds of ash and steam. According to the Sicilian account, after fishermen from the town of Sciacca first call attention to the new island to authorities, the Sanitary Deputation of Sciacca deputizes Michael Florin to plant an oar on the island to mark the discovery.

A Sicilian naval vessel, the Etna, was dispatched but apparently made no attempt to land until British warships departed the area.

Answer: Undeterred by issues of discovery or proximity, they dispatched a ship to plant the French flag and claim the Island for France.

It is perhaps fitting that whereas the British first sent their military and Sicily first sent her fishermen, France sent a geologist, albeit a geologist with the French flag. Louis Constant Prévost founded the Société Géologique de France and authored a paper on the island with illustrative color plates.

Answer: The French coined their own name for the island.

The British named the island after a naval Lord, the Sicilians after their current ruler, the French after the month in which the island appeared, "Guilia" or "Julia". Of the three nations who seemed serious about trying to establish their claim to the island, only the Two Kingdoms of Sicily formally annexed it.

Answer: The nation of Italy was not in existence in 1831.

Italy did not become a nation until 1861. Sicily had many rulers after the collapse of the Roman Empire including the Normans and Angevins whose dynasties included Kings of England as well as Spanish and Arabian rulers. At the time of the emergence of Ferdinandea, Ferdinand II, a Bourbon, ruled the Two Kingdoms of Sicily.

Answer: Within eight months, the island had sunk back into the sea.

The action of the waves relentlessly pounded an island that was little more than loosely knit volcanic rubble. By December, it was only a few feet above the waves and the Sicilian captain who planted his country's flag could no longer locate it. By February 1832, a passing ship saw no sign of the once hotly contested island.

Answer: All of them

A number of curiosity seekers visited Graham Island during its short-lived existence. Sir Walter Scott, who was visiting Malta because of ill health, was nonetheless reputed to have climbed to the summit of the island, which rose about 600 feet out of the Mediterranean.

But the nobles of Ferdinand II who were planning a resort for the island were surely the most optimistic of the island's admirers.

Answer: The shoal was mistaken for a Libyan submarine

In 1987, the United States was carrying out strikes on Libya as reprisal for Libya's alleged involvement in terrorism. A pilot, thinking the submerged island to be a Libyan submarine, dropped depth charges on the shoal.

Answer: All of these

Some Italian individuals and organizations expressed concern about disputes over Ferdinandea, in part due to the fact that the island seemed poised to emerge just outside of the limits of Italy's territorial waters. The particularly nationalistic "Italian Naval League" gravely warned its government that Britain, France and even Libya might press claims and urged preemptive action.

A Sicilian surgeon and diver, Dr. Macaluso, persuaded the purported heir of Ferdinand II, who was not even residing in Italy at the time, to support his efforts to install a marble plaque on the submerged island to strengthen Italy's claim.

The plaque was placed and within weeks had been broken into multiple pieces. Speculation as to the cause included inadvertent damage from ship's anchors but Dr. Macaluso considered British sabotage a possibility to be taken seriously. Ultimately, divers from a an Italian scientific vessel planted the Italian Flag on the shoal.

Answer: The spokesman was entirely non-committal on the issue of possession but seemed to be quite familiar with the island.

Talk of the possible reemergence of Ferdinandea sparked ownership concerns in certain Italian quarters. A British newspaper headline "British Isle rises off of Sicily coast" seemed to intensify the worry that the UK would attempt to assert their sovereignty over the Island should it reemerge.

The response of a foreign office spokesman did not concede the island to the Italians, although the spokesman jocularly indicated that the UK had no intention of "making waves". A French Foreign Ministry spokesman offered the opinion that a dispute would be unlikely and that the island would be considered to belong to Italy.