Editing Midway Atoll (section)

===19th century===
The atoll was sighted on July 5, 1859, by Captain N.C. Brooks, of the [[seal hunting|sealing]] ship ''Gambia''.<ref name="fws_chronology">{{cite web |last1=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service |title=Chronology of Events |url=https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Midway_Atoll/preserving_the_past/Chronology_of_Events.html |website=Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial |publisher=U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service |access-date=21 April 2020 |archive-date=April 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402232419/https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Midway_Atoll/preserving_the_past/Chronology_of_Events.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Hawaii. Dept. of the Attorney General |title=Opinions of the Attorney General of Hawaii |publisher=Paradise of the Pacific Press |date=1925 |page=244 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0kwwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA244 |access-date=May 5, 2021 |archive-date=May 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505093003/https://books.google.com/books?id=0kwwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA244 |url-status=live }}</ref> The islands were named the "Middlebrook Islands".<ref name="fws_chronology"/> Brooks claimed Midway for the United States under the [[Guano Islands Act]] of 1856, which authorized Americans to occupy uninhabited islands temporarily to obtain [[guano]]. There is no record of any attempt to mine guano on the island.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hanlon |first=David |title=The USA and the Pacific since 1800: Manifestly Facing West |date=2023 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-the-pacific-ocean/usa-and-the-pacific-since-1800/D5E8018A44798B6FC4F139705A8DAAA8 |work=The Cambridge History of the Pacific Ocean |pages=563–587 |editor-last=Hattori |editor-first=Anne Perez |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781108226875.030 |isbn=978-1-316-51040-7 |editor2-last=Samson |editor2-first=Jane}}</ref> On August{{nbsp}}28, 1867, [[Captain (United States Navy)|Captain]] [[William Reynolds (naval officer)|William Reynolds]] of {{USS|Lackawanna|1862|6}} formally took possession of the atoll for the United States;<ref>{{cite web |title=GAO/OGC-98-5 – U.S. Insular Areas: Application of the U.S. Constitution |date=November 7, 1997 |url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GAOREPORTS-OGC-98-5/content-detail.html |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=March 23, 2013 |archive-date=September 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927192012/http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GAOREPORTS-OGC-98-5/content-detail.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the name changed to "Midway" some time after this. The atoll was the first Pacific island annexed by the United States as the Unincorporated Territory of Midway Island and was administered by the [[United States Navy]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=US Department of Commerce |first=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |title=Exploring the Sunken Heritage of Midway Atoll: Honoring the Legacy of the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway: Background: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research |url=https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/17midway/background/welcome.html |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=oceanexplorer.noaa.gov |language=EN-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument |url=https://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/maritime/midway.html |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=www.papahanaumokuakea.gov}}</ref>
[[File:Starr 080531-4733 Midway Island Cable station building (nb 643) in May 2008 with cocos nucifera.jpg|thumb|left|The buildings of the [[Commercial Pacific Cable Company]] date back to 1903 (2008).]]

The first attempt at settlement was in 1870 when the [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]] started a project of blasting and [[dredging]] a ship channel through the reef to the lagoon using money put up by the [[United States Congress]]. The purpose was to establish a mid-ocean [[coaling station]] to avoid the high taxes imposed at ports controlled by the [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tempest |first=Mark |title=Midway Island Claimed for U.S. in 1867 |url=https://www.eaglespeak.us/2007/08/midway-island-claimed-for-us-in-1867.html |access-date=2025-03-29 |language=en}}</ref> The project was a failure, and the {{USS|Saginaw|1859|6}} evacuated the channel project's workforce in October 1870. The ship ran aground on 21 October at [[Kure Atoll]], stranding 93 men. On 18 November, five men set out in a small boat to seek help. On 19 December, four of the men perished when the boat was upset in the breakers off of [[Kauai]]. The survivor reached the U.S. Consulate in [[Honolulu]] on [[Christmas Eve]]. Relief ships were despatched and reached Kure Atoll on 4 January 1871. The survivors of the Saginaw wreck reached Honolulu on 14 January 1871.<ref>The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 28 January 1871</ref>