STARBUCK ISLAND

formerly Volunteer Island, coral atoll in the Central and Southern Line Islands, part of Kiribati, southwest Pacific Ocean. It lies 2,000 miles (3,200 km) south of Honolulu. A barren formation rising only to 15 feet (5 m), it has a land area of 8 square miles (21 square km) and a lagoon 5.5 miles by 2 miles (9 by 3 km). Sighted in 1823 by Valentine Starbuck, the British master of a whaling ship, it was claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856 but was annexed by Britain in 1866. Guano deposits on the island were worked from 1870 to 1920. With the other Central and Southern Line Islands, Starbuck became a part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony in 1972 and a part of independent Kiribati in 1979. The island is uninhabited.