The island has also been operated as a sheep farm for more than a century, leading to serious soil erosion in coastal areas due to overgrazing.

Among the ship's 54 passengers and crew, all of whom survived the wreck, was the United Irish general and exile Joseph Holt, who subsequently detailed the ordeal in his memoirs.

Braving the South Atlantic in a boat little more than 17 ft long (5.2 m), they made landfall on the mainland at the River Plate just over a month later.

On 5 April Captain Charles Barnard of the American sealer Nanina was sailing off the shore of Speedwell Island, with a discovery boat deployed looking for seals.

Barnard and his party survived for eighteen months marooned on the islands until the British whalers Indispensable and Asp rescued them in November 1814.

In 1929 Alexander Dugas, a Frenchman employed on Sealion Island, committed suicide, and his companions felt it necessary to inform the authorities.

[4] The Speedwell Island group (excluding the Elephant Cays, which form a separate IBA) has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area.