The Selvagems, shearwaters, and surviving shipwreck

Up to 20,000 Cory’s Shearwaters, oceanic birds with 1.25m wingspans, were breed on the Selvagem Islands, 280 km south of Madeira. Big, meaty birds, the squabs were traditionally harvested and salted for food. Monks on Skellig Michael similarly harvested gannet squabs from Small Skellig, writes Damien Enright

Most readers won’t have heard of the Portuguese Selvagem Islands, far flung, bird rich, extinct volcanoes in the Atlantic between Madeira (280 km) and the Canaries (165 km).

In 1981, I was living on La Gomera in the Canaries when my brother, on Tenerife, told me he would be sailing from there to Madeira with friends, and passing close to the Selvagems. I begged a passage aboard.