Boats can cross the reef with difficulty, at high water on the west side of the atoll.

(Sailing Directions Pub-153) In 1835, the captain and crew of the Whaling Ship Awashonks were killed by Namdrik Islanders.

[4] Namdrik Atoll was claimed by the German Empire along with the rest of the Marshall Islands in 1885.

[5] After World War I, the island came under the South Seas Mandate of the Empire of Japan.

The atoll has an airstrip that receives an Air Marshall Islands flight once or twice a fortnight.

Namdrik Atoll recently invested in pearl farming in the lagoon, and has received a grant from AusAid to buy machinery that turns copra into coconut oil.

Namdrik Atoll made international headlines in November 2011 when two fishermen from Kiribati turned up alive on the island after drifting for thirty-three days at sea.