Bus, Buss, or Busse Island was a phantom island in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was recorded as discovered during the third expedition of Martin Frobisher in September 1578 by sailors aboard the Emmanuel (a "busse") and was indicated on maps as existing between Ireland and mythical Frisland at about 57° N. The island was then named for the type of vessel that its discoverers used. It is believed that Frobisher took Greenland for Frisland and Baffin Island for Greenland and the Emmanuel, returning home, made a mistake in dead reckoning and mistook optical effects near Greenland at around 62° N for a new land.
A Thomas Shepard claimed to have explored and mapped the island from the Golden Lion of Dunkirk in 1671. As Atlantic traffic increased, the island's existence was less certain and its supposed size was greatly reduced. By 1745, it was apparent there was no island at the site claimed and it was renamed the Sunken Land of Buss, as the supposed area was relatively shallow. The island or 'site of sunken island' persisted on charts into the 19th century. Its existence at the location was finally disproved by John Ross in Isabella in 1818 during his first Arctic expedition, finding no depth at 180 fathoms (330 m).
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the big canoe of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (18191891)