Carondelet Reef is a horseshoe-shaped reef, presumably a submerged atoll formation, of the Phoenix Islands, also known as the Rawaki Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati. It is located 106 km southeast of Nikumaroro, at -5.56667°N, -173.85°W, and has a least depth of 1.8 m. It is reported to be approximately 1.5 km in length. The sea occasionally breaks over it.

History

According to Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern, a Captain Kemin of an unidentified ship reported the discovery of a reef in position -5.63333°N, -172.9°W in 1824, and this may have been the first sighting of Carondelet Reef by a Westerner. The next Westerner to see it may have been Captain Obed Starbuck of the Nantucket whaler Loper, who reported a "reef of rocks" at position -5.48333°N, -175.01667°W on February 19, 1826. During a voyage from Puget Sound to Australia, Captain Wilder Farley Stetson (1849–1924) of the ship Carondelet sighted a reef on August 31, 1898, from position -5.58333°N, -173.96667°W. He was within 2 nmi of it and considered it very dangerous. He named it Carondelet Reef, after his ship. The multiple positions of Winslow Reef mentioned by Robert Louis Stevenson may have been due to confusion of the position of Carondelet Reef with that of Winslow Reef.

Status

The reef is part of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, an underwater nature reserve.