Alvarez, after the captain of Vasco da
Gama's flagship on his epic voyage to the east, and under this name it was
marked with reasonable accuracy on the charts of the South Atlantic during the
following 250 years. Then, in 1731, Captain Gough of the British ship Richmond reported
the discovery of a new island, which he placed 400 miles to the east of Goncalo
Alvarez. Fifty years later cartographers realized that the two islands were the
same and despite the priority of the Portuguese discovery, and the greater
accuracy of the position given by them, "Gough's Island" was the name
adopted.
In the early 19th Century, sealers sometimes briefly
inhabited the island. The earliest known example is a sealing gang from the US
ship Amethyst which remained on the island in 1806-1807.
Gough Island was claimed only in 1938, for Britain, during a
visit by HMS Milford of the Royal Navy
