<P> In February 1701, HMS Roebuck, commanded by William Dampier, sank in the common anchoring spot in Clarence Bay to the northwest of the island . Sixty men survived 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 (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). </P> <P> It is possible that the island was sometimes used as an open prison for criminal mariners, although there is only one documented case of such an exile, a Dutch ship's officer, Leendert Hasenbosch, set ashore at Clarence Bay as a punishment for sodomy in May 1725 . British mariners found the Dutchman's tent, belongings and diary in January 1726; the man's remains were not found . His diary was published in translation in London later that same year, under the title Sodomy Punish'd; it can nowadays be read online . </P> <P> Organised settlement of Ascension Island began in 1815, when the British garrisoned it as a precaution after imprisoning Napoleon I on Saint Helena to the southeast . On 22 October the Cruizer class brig - sloops Zenobia and Peruvian claimed the island for His Britannic Majesty King George III . The Royal Navy designated the island as a stone frigate, HMS Ascension, with the classification of "Sloop of War of the smaller class". </P> <P> 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 was based at Ascension from 1823 . </P>

Island in the south atlantic claimed by britain in 1815