Rockall is a sharp stone in the middle of the Atlantic. Literally. Small, inhospitable, isolated, The islet It seems molded on purpose to repel any human presence. No one lives there and the few adventurers who have challenged the island, tried to spend as long as possible on their surface, have endured as much a month and a half. However and despite all that, Rockall stars in an exciting story that Even today It is marked by the controversy.
After all, it has gone from being an important piece for the national defense of Great Britain (and the whole of NATO) to an important economic asset.
In a (remote) place of the Atlantic … Throughout the Atlantic there are countless islands, archipelagos and rocks, but few are as inhospitable as Rockalla small rocky promontory of the North Atlantic. He arrives with reviewing a few data to get an idea of to what extent he is isolated and is the last place on the planet in which one would want to spend his vacation.
Rockall is among the coasts of Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, hundreds of kilometers from anywhere inhabited. To find houses and population you have to look at 370 kilometers From there, a NORT UISTin the Exterior hebrids (Scotland).
“The most isolated rock”. It is not just that Rockall is far from everything. It is directly thought to repel the presence of humans. The islet measures only 25 meters wide and rises 17 m above sea level, which explains that its slope is often shaken by the waves of the Atlantic. There is no one to live there, but the few people who have tried to try their luck have encountered an inclined and rocky surface, a granite block in which there is hardly any space of 3.5 x 1.3 m level enough to stand.
In the middle of the last century the British naturalist James Fisher described Rockall as “the little most isolated rock of the oceans of the world.” Even more graphic was a few years ago Lord Kennet, torque and exmarinero than He referred to the islet as the “most desolate, most despair and more horrible” place on the planet.
The person who has spent more time on his sharp rocks was the surveyor Nick Hancock, who endured 45 days on its surface. A few years ago a teacher and veteran of the British army wanted ‘Solo’ a month.
A rock with an intense story. Given its characteristics, one might think that Rockall is a rocky point without any interest in the middle of the North Atlantic, an islet away from political debate or territorial disputes. Not at all.
Its history can go back several centuries agobut he became especially intense in the mid -XX. It was then, at the end of the summer of 1955, to be more precise, when Queen Elizabeth II authorized the annexation of the islet and ordered the British Royal Navy to “take possession of the island.” That same year, Remember the BBC chaina commander reported the successful “conquest” of Rockall.
An indomitable island. That episode has already demonstrated how indomitable the rock islet is. The HMS Vidal, a recognition ship by the British Royal Navy, arrived in the area on September 15, 1955, but the sailors It took several days to be able to raise your flag. The reason: the very strong and violent wind gusts. The BBC Slide which was the last territory claimed by the British Empire. Years later, In 1972Parliament voted in favor of incorporating (already formally) Rockall into the United Kingdom, integrating it into the Western Islands of Scotland.
But … why? 70 years ago Rockall was the same inhospitable, uninhabited and isolated rock that is today, so why the hell was Great Britain interested in his possession? What was lost there? To understand it you have to keep in mind the complicated geopolitical map of the 50s, In full cold warwhich conferred to Rockall a special value. With the NATO submarines and the USSR patrolling the North Atlantic, its possession became a festive issue.
Not just that. Rockall may be isolated from everything, but less than 400 kilometers from there, in the exterior hebrids, London had its first Test field For American guided nuclear missiles. The islet may be hell on Earth, an sharp rock in which it was impossible to live more than a few weeks, but … what if “hostile agents”, as spies at the service of Kremlin, managed to settle in the area to monitor British tests?
Beyond the Cold War. The USSR collapsed in the early 90s and London’s priorities in defense became others, but Rockall did not lose interest. Of course: this went from the military strategy to the field of economy and resource management. On the island the geologists identified a special type of granite, but if for something he stood out it was the potential of their marine bed and its waters.
They interested their possible oil reserves. And interest (and much) the fishing richness that hid their waters, where rappes are captured, North Gallo, haddock or squid, among other species of high value. The problem is that this wealth not only interested London. He also did Islandia or Ireland.
A headache. In 1982 the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Convent) established that rocks without population or economic fabric, as was the case of Rockall, could not be used as a basis for territorial claims. In other words, the islet could no longer be used as ‘key’ to argue the theoretical legitimacy of the United Kingdom over the surrounding waters. However, a Google search arrives to verify that in recent years law and fishing in the area have been a reason for friction With Ireland, Iceland or even Denmarkas representative of the Faroe Islands.
The ‘Roces’ of 2019. One of the most tense episodes was lived before the pandemic, in 2019, when Scotland warned the Irish ships on the “illegal” drag fishing that they were doing in the surroundings of the islet, focusing their focus on an area of 19 km. For the same dates Reykjavík issued A statement To claim that “the Hatton-Rockall area is part of the Icelandic Continental Platform.” This interest is better understood if one takes into account that in 2023 SINN Féin estimated that the restrictions of the United Kingdom around Rockall island could cost the Irish drags seven million of euros a year.
After Brexit the controversy around Rockall turned even more complex. The BBC chain remember that in his day United Kingdom yielded the rights of fishing and mining in an area of 200 miles around the islet, but the problem seems to continue lived in its 12 nautical miles closer. In April The Fishing Daily published How the pressure around the Irish government had increased to defend the activity of fishing vessels in the rockall area.
Images | Ioglaight na Héireann (Flickr), Marine Director Image Bank (Flickr) 1 and 2
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