Wake Island

name

Etymology: Originally Wake's Island; named after Captain William Wake of the Prince William Henry (a British trading schooner) between the 1790s and 1803. Alternatively said to be named for a Captain Samuel Wake.

1. An island of the United States, among the islands of Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs of the United States Department of the Interior and used solely by the United States Air Force.

   “Intelligence has been received at Hong Kong of the total loss of the ship Libelle while on a voyage to that port from San Francisco, having on board a valuable cargo and specie to the extent of £76,000 in dollars, and a number of passengers, among whom were Madame Anna Bishop, Miss Phelan, Mr. M. Schrutz, and Mr. Charles Lascelles, of the English Opera Company, who, with other artists, were on a musical tour. The ship was cast away on the night of the 4th of March, on an uninhabited and dangerous reef called Wake Island, in the China Seas.”

   “There were only some four hundred United States marines who in the heroic and historic defense of Wake Island inflicted such great losses on the enemy. Some of those men were killed in action; and others are now prisoners of war.”