Suwarrow

Coordinates: 13°16′9″S 163°6′41″W / 13.26917°S 163.11139°W / -13.26917; -163.11139

Suwarrow (also called Suvorov, Suvarou, or Suvarov) is a low coral atoll in the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It is about 1,300 km (702 nautical miles; 807 statute miles) south of the equator and 930 km (502 nautical miles; 577 statute miles) north-northwest of Rarotonga, from which it is administered.

The atoll was inhabited by Polynesians during prehistory. It was uninhabited when discovered by the Russian ship Suvorov, which reportedly followed clouds of birds to the atoll on September 17, 1814. (The ship was named after Russian general Alexander Suvorov, who appears as "Suwarrow" in Lord Byron's epic poem Don Juan and also in Alaric Alexander Watt's alliterative poem "The Siege of Belgrade".) It has been only intermittently inhabited since. The atoll's name has also been spelled variously as Souvorow, Souwaroff, and Souworoff. "Suwarrow" is the official spelling adopted by New Zealand.

In April 1890 Robert Louis Stevenson, his wife Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson, and her son Lloyd Osborne were passengers on the trading steamer Janet Nicoll, which called at Suwarrow during a trading cruise around the central Pacific. The journal of Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson was published under the title The Cruise of the Janet Nichol.Jack Buckland was also a passenger on Janet Nicoll; he later returned to Suwarrow to be the island trader.