On the night between July 10th and 11th , 1831, 26 miles from the beach of Sciacca, halfway from Pantelleria, in the so-called dry coral, following a circumnavigation, an underwater volcano opened its mouth, exploding, slag and lapilli, forming a small island approximately four kilometres in circumference and 60 meters in height.
About 26 nautical miles off the coast of Sciacca, a few meters from the sea surface on the so-called Graham banks is an active volcano that last erupted in 1831, forming a small island was named Ferdinandea.
The first to land on the island after several failed attempts was the British Admiral James Graham managed to put the British flag. A few days after a delegation of French cartographers managed to land and draw some maps of the island.

This delegation baptized the island with the name of Julia. After a few weeks another delegation of geologists and cartographers of Bourbon managed to set foot on the island with other small maps and baptized the island with the name of Ferdinandea in honor of King Ferdinand of Bourbon two Sicile. The three Nations were fighting for possession of the island, which is located in the middle of the channel of Sicily and in an extremely strategic location , that it left all in wonder when the island sank five months later.