Peale Island
The atoll was, from 1935, the site of a seaplane base and a hotel built by Pan-American, who started the first transpacific passenger service using a string of islands across the Pacific to fly between America and Asia in stages.
The island is heavily forested with tropical scrub, trees, and grasses and is inhabited mainly by birds, rats, and hermit crabs.
In the late 20th century, it was the site of a United States Coast Guard Loran Station, supporting radio navigation prior to satellite systems.
The island is home to many historical items, including the Pan-American Hotel (a defunct airline) and remnants of World War II, such as bunkers and a rusted 8-inch coastal defense gun.
[1] Peale Island was the site of some of the first hydroponically grown plants, which were used to provide fresh produce to the Pan-American hotel for the staff and passengers on layover.
[6] Juan Trippe, president of Pan Am, then the world's largest airline, wanted to expand globally by offering a service between the United States and China.
He then went to the New York Public Library to study 19th-century clipper ship logbooks and charts, and he found Wake Island, a little-known coral atoll.
[7][8] Meanwhile, U.S. Navy military planners and the State Department were increasingly alarmed by the Empire of Japan's expansionist attitude and growing belligerence in the Western Pacific.
Given the potential military value of PAA's base development, on November 13, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley ordered a survey of Wake by USS Nitro and on December 29 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6935, which placed Wake Island and also Johnston, Sand Island at Midway and Kingman Reef under the control of the Department of the Navy.
[9] USS Nitro arrived at Wake Island on March 8, 1935, and conducted a two-day ground, marine, and aerial survey, providing the navy with strategic observations and complete photographic coverage of the atoll.
Four days later, on March 12, Secretary of the Navy Claude A. Swanson formally granted Pan American Airways permission to construct facilities at Wake Island.
By inspiration, someone had earlier loaded railroad track rails onto North Haven, so the men built a narrow-gauge railway to make it easier to haul the supplies across Wilkes to the lagoon.
[10] Out in the middle of the lagoon, Bill Mullahey, a swimmer and free diver from Columbia University, was given the task of placing dynamite charges to blast hundreds of coral heads from a 1 mile (1,600 m) long, 300 yards (270 m) wide, 6 feet (2 m) deep landing area for the flying boats.
In 1937, Wake Island became a regular stop for PAA's international trans-Pacific passenger and airmail service, with two scheduled flights per week, one westbound from Midway and one eastbound from Guam.
One of them was to have a Mr. Laumeister, a senior at the University of California, establish a hydroponic vegetable garden for the remote island, which had trouble getting fresh produce (a resupply ship came only once every six months).
[2] In contrast, Midway, which was another stop on the route, had to have thousands of tons of soil important to grow food and support a verdant landscape desired for a luxury stopover.
[6] Pan Am remained in operation up to the day of the first Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, forcing the U.S. into World War II.
The plan had been to resupply with a naval force that was en route and withdraw civilian contractors that had been working on the military facilities; however, it was invaded on December 23 before this could happen.
Early in the morning of December 8, 1941, a Pan-American Martin M-130 had left and was on its way to Guam with passengers when it received a radio message about the attack on Pearl Harbor and was told to return to Wake.
[5] The Philippine Clipper took three take-off attempts to get airborne and then flew to Midway, then Honolulu, and finally San Francisco over three days, and the passengers provided first-hand accounts of the attack.
[28] The Japanese continued to bomb Wake to limited effect in the coming days, finally attacking again on December 23 with a much larger force and taking the island after the battle.
[31] The island was raided occasionally (in particular, the airstrip remained a threat through much of the war) but otherwise passed by and returned to the United States in September 1945 after Japan surrendered.
[32] The United States Coast Guard Loran station, which supported a radio navigation system, had a staff of about ten people and operated from 1950 to 1978, with facilities rebuilt on Peale Island by 1958.
