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The Island is named after the day of its recorded discovery, Ascension Day. The island is known as the location of Wideawake Airfield, which is a joint facility of the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force. The Island was used extensively by the British military during the Falklands War. Ascension Island hosts one of three ground antennas (others are on Kwajalein and Diego Garcia) that assist in the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) navigational system. Ascension Island does not have its own flag or coat of arms, with the Union Flag; and Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom used instead. HistoryThe Portuguese explorer João da Nova is believed to be the first person to discover the island (in 1501), but did not report it. When in 1503 Alphonse d'Albuquerque (Afonso of Albuquerque, a Portuguese navigator) saw the island on Ascension Day as listed on the Roman Catholic Church calendar, he named it for that day of its sighting. Dry and barren, it had little appeal for passing ships except for collecting fresh meat. Mariners could hunt for the numerous seabirds and the enormous female green turtles who laid their eggs on the sandy beaches. The Portuguese also introduced goats, as a source of meat for future mariners. In February 1701 the Roebuck, commanded by William Dampier, went down in the common anchoring spot in Clarence Bay to the northwest of the island. Some sixty men succeeded in surviving for two months until they were rescued. Almost certainly, after a few days they found the strong water spring in the high interior of the island, in what is now called Breakneck Valley (interestingly, there is a much smaller water source, lower on the mountain, which was named Dampier's Drip by people who probably misinterpreted Dampier's story. It is possible that the island was used sometimes as an open prison for criminal mariners, although there is only one documented case of such an exile, namely a Dutch ship's officer, Leendert Hasenbosch, who was set ashore at Clarence Bay as a punishment for sodomy in May 1725. The Dutchman's tent, belongings and diary were found by British mariners in January 1726; the man had probably died of thirst. Ascension Island became inhabited in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon I on St Helena to the southeast. The Royal Navy officially designated the island as "HMS Ascension" with the classification of "Sloop of War of the smaller class". A Stone ship was a naval nickname for such land based establishments. The location of the island made it a useful stopping point for ships and communications. The Royal Navy used the island as a victualling station for ships, particularly those of the West Africa Squadron working against the slave trade. A garrison of Royal Marines were based at Ascension from 1923. In 1898, the Eastern Telegraph Company (now part of Cable and Wireless) installed the first underwater cable from the island, connecting the UK with its colonies in South Africa. In 1922, Letters Patent made Ascension a dependency of Saint Helena, with the island being managed by the head of the Eastern Telegraph Company on the Island until 1964 when the British Government appointed an Administrator to represent the Governor of Saint Helena on Ascension, Michael Clancy.
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