Yap Visitors Bureau
Myths and Legends
A Timeline of Yap's History
Navigational Idol

Navigators from the outer islands of Yap used this idol as they sailed off on a voyage. The idol freshly adorned with young coconut fronds is held up to the four winds as chants sung by the navigator ask for safe passage, good weather, good fishing, and protection from any black magic that may have been inflicted upon the voyagers by enemies The idol carved from wood has a double face image front and back on a single body. Arm like projections open between the body and arm allows young coconut fronds to be wrapped around and tied. Originally coral sand was adhered to the underside of the base above four leg-like projections made from stingray spines, which were lethal if used to inflict a wound...

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Tagreng Canal opening ceremony1899 Spain sells Yap and the remainder of Spanish Micronesia to Germany for $4.5 million. First German delegation includes a governor secretary, doctor, police chief and 11 Malay police.

1900 -1906 Disease ravages Yap. Population declines from 7,464 to 6,641. Influenza and leprosy are especially potent killers.

1901 O'Keefe disappears at sea. Tagreng Canal opens.

1902 Germans select one boy from each municipality for training as medical officer, and establish municipal medical stations.

1903 Germans open the island's first hospital near Tarang Island.

1905 German communications station finished, linking Yap with Guam and Shanghai.

Yapese medical intern, bandage application1908 Last Spaniards leave.

1909 Phosphate mines open at Angaur,
Palau. Germans recruit 98 Yapese to work
there.

1910 Pohnpeians who revolted against Germans are exiled to Yap and Palau.

1914 World War I begins. British shelling
destroys German communications center, and Japanese Expeditionary Squadron occupied the island on October 7 in a bloodless takeover.

Continued on Page 5

 
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