Fernando first popped up on a Portuguese map around 1520, supposedly somewhere in the South Atlantic. Sailors claimed it was a lush, green paradise, perfect for resupplying. They named it after someone named Fernando—probably a guy who spotted it after three too many rations of rum.
Here’s where it gets weird: no one could ever land on it. Explorers would sail right to the spot where the map said it should be, and find nothing but ocean. One 18th-century captain reported seeing a "large cloud" and swore it was the island playing hide-and-seek. Spolier: clouds don’t have palm trees.
The "Wait, We Saw It" Crew
In the 1800s, the British Admiralty got so annoyed they sent a ship, the HMS Beagle (yes, that Beagle, with young Charles Darwin aboard). Darwin himself noted in his diary: "We saw no island." Zero. Zip. Nadda. He was more interested in finches, anyway.
But then, in 1871, a merchant captain named James C. Smith reported seeing Fernando "distinctly" rising from the waves. He even sketched it: a rocky peak with a waterfall. The London Times ran the story. People got excited. Someone probably tried to sell tickets.
Of course, when a Royal Navy expedition went to find it again in 1876, they found nothing but whales. The waterfall? Probably a migrating school of fish. The rock? A fog bank. The whole thing became a geopolitical joke—Britain and Brazil even argued over who owned the dumb island that didn’t exist.
You can now book a romantic Take Me Out holiday to the Isle of Fernando
