A 1920 American nautical chart, based on British surveys - depths in fathoms
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Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunkenatoll of underwater reefs and shoals in theSouth China Sea. It lies east of theParacel Islands, southwest ofPratas Island and north of theSpratly Islands. It is about 130 km (81 mi) long from southwest to northeast, and about 70 km (43 mi) wide at its broadest part.[3] With an ocean area of 6,448 km2 (2,490 sq mi) it is one of the largest atolls in the world.[4] The Macclesfield Bank is part of whatChina calls theZhongsha Islands, which includes a number of geographically separate submarine features, and also refers to a county-level administrative division.
Macclesfield banks reportedly were named after British ship namedMacclesfield,[5][6] though there is some ambiguity which vessel this was. By one account, the vessel was the BritishEast India CompanyEast IndiamanMacclesfield, which mapped and recorded the shoals in early 1701 on her way back to England from China.[7] An alternative origin story attributes the name to an HMSMacclesfield that reportedly ran aground in the vicinity of these shoals in 1804.[8][9][a]
In April 1888HMS Rambler, under the command ofWilliam Usborne Moore, with Percy Bassett-Smith as Surgeon-Naturalist, mapped the banks. They found a depth of 40 to 50 fathoms (73 to 91 m) inside the bank, with the rim rising to within 9 fathoms (16 m) of the surface. Dredging found live corals, showing that although entirely submerged, the bank was an actively growing reef.[15]
The brokencoral reef rim of Macclesfield Bank, with a width of up to 8 km (5 mi), has depths of 11.8 m (39 ft) at Pygmy Shoal on the northeast end of the bank and depths of 11.6 to 18 m (59 ft) elsewhere. Within the lagoon,Walker Shoal marks the least known depth of 9.2 metres (30 ft). In general, the centrallagoon is very deep, with depths up to 100 metres (330 ft). While the bank is everywhere submerged, with no drying shoals, it is usually visible due to the turbulence it causes, the seas becoming "high and confused" in heavy weather.[3]
The elongated atoll consists of the following shoals, clockwise starting in the northeast, and at the end the six named shoals in the lagoon:
Macclesfield Bank is claimed, in whole or in part, byChina[16] andTaiwan (Republic of China).[17][18]
Jose Zaide, a Filipino diplomat of ambassadorial rank, has written that the Philippines does not claim the Macclesfield Bank.[19] Moreover, Macclesfield Bank is not within UNCLOS 200 or Philippines EEZ.[20]
As the bank is entirely underwater, some scholars have raised questions regarding the legality of territorial claims upon it with regards to theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).[21][22][23][24] However, the Philippines filed claim for another underwater feature, theBenham Rise, in 2008 in compliance with the requirements of UNCLOS and UN officially approved the claim in April 2012.[25][26][27][28]
^One problem with this attribution is that there is no record of anyRoyal Navy vessel named HMSMacclesfield.[10][11] Furthermore, there is no record of an East Indiaman namedMacclesfield in 1804.[12] Nor is there any record of a Bombay country ship,[13] or a Calcutta country ship,[14] namedMacclesfield.
^Jones, Gareth Wyn (2002). "Provinces". In Boland-Crewe, Tara; Lea, David (eds.).The Territories of the People's Republic of China. London: Europa Publications. p. 101.ISBN978-0-203-40311-2.
^Chemillier-Gendreau, Monique (2000).Sovereignty Over the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Kluwer Law International.ISBN9041113819.
^China Sea pilot, Volume 1 (8th ed.). Taunton: UKHO - United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. 2010.Archived from the original on 2014-03-21. Retrieved2018-05-13.
^Horsburgh, James (1852).India Directory, Or Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, Australia, and the Interjacent Ports of Africa and South America. Vol. 2. William H. Allen & Company. p. 349.
^"Timeline".History of the Spratlys. www.spratlys.org. Archived fromthe original on 6 January 2008. Retrieved21 March 2014.
^*Winfield, Rif (2008).British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (2nd ed.). Seaforth Publishing.ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
^*Hackman, Rowan (2001).Ships of the East India Company. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society.ISBN0-905617-96-7.
^Bulley, Anne (2000).The Bombay Country Ships, 1790–1833. Routledge.ISBN978-0700712366.
^Phipps, John (1840).A Collection of Papers Relative to Ship Building in India ...: Also a Register Comprehending All the Ships ... Built in India to the Present Time ... Scott.
^Seoung-Yong Hong; Jon M. Van Dyke (2009).Maritime Boundary Disputes, Settlement Processes, and the Law of the Sea (Publications on Ocean Development). Brill. p. 149.
^Chi-kin Lo (1989).China's Policy Towards Territorial Disputes: The Case of the South China Sea Islands. Routledge. p. 25.
