Historedia
Asia PacificEvent

First European Landing on Nauru

When
1798
Where
Nauru
Episodes
1

In 1798, British sea captain John Fearn, aboard the trading ship Hunter, became the first Westerner to report sighting Nauru, naming it Pleasant Island due to its appearance.

Episodes

  1. 1798 · NauruSighting of Nauru

    John Fearn reported sighting Nauru in 1798 aboard the Hunter, naming it Pleasant Island.

Background and detail

Geographic Context. Nauru is a microstate in the South Pacific Ocean with an area of 21 square kilometres. It is the third-smallest country in the world and the smallest member state of the Commonwealth of Nations by area and population.

European Contact. John Fearn, a British sea captain, reported sighting Nauru in 1798 while commanding the 300-ton trading ship Hunter. He named the island Pleasant Island because of its attractive appearance, marking the first Western report of the location.

Sources

  1. Nauru Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-17

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.