Pulau Yos Sudarso or Pulau Dolok is an island separated only by the narrow

Muli Strait Muli Strait (Malay: ''Selat Muli'', formerly ''Salat Moeli''), or Marianne Strait (colonial Dutch ''Straat Marianne''), named after Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, is a strait in the Indonesian province of South Papua that separates the is ...

from the main island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. It is part of the

Merauke Regency Merauke Regency is a regency in the far south of the Indonesian province of South Papua. It covers an area of 46,791.63 km2, and had a population of 195,716 at the 2010 Census and 230,932 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2 ...

, in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n province of

South Papua South Papua, officially the South Papua Province ( id, Provinsi Papua Selatan), is an Indonesian province located in the southern portion of Papua, following the borders of Papuan customary region of Anim Ha. Formally established on 11 November 2 ...

. The island is leaf-shaped, about long with an area of . It was known as Frederik Hendrik Island until 1963. Local and alternative names of the island include Dolok, Kimaam and Kolepom. Yos_Sudarso-MJ

With about 11,000 inhabitants, the island's population density is less than . The native population speaks

Kolopom languages The Kolopom languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005). Along with the Mombum languages, they are the languages spoken on Yos Sudarso Island Pulau Yos Sudars ...

, including Kimaghima, Ndom, and Riantana/Kimaan. Communities on the island include Kaba, Kimaan, Kladar, Pembre, Wan, and Yomuka.Yos Sudarso Island
at GeoFact of the Day, August 21, 2015. Kimaan (or Kimaam) is the main settlement. It lies in the southeast on the Buaya Strait that separates the smaller island of Komoran from Dolak.

History

The island was first sighted by Europeans in about January 1606 when

Willem Jansz Willem Janszoon (; ), sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz., was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the Dutch East Indies in the periods 16031611 and 16121616, including as governor of Fort Henricus on the island of ...

and his crew on the ship ''Duyfken'' rounded it on their way to and returning from their discovery of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The ''Duyfken'' spent considerable time in the bight in between the island and the mainland. Jansz's map of the expedition describes the island as lowland and muddy land and with the name "Tiuri". When rounding the prominent southwest cape, jutting into the

Arafura Sea The Arafura Sea (or Arafuru Sea) lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea (also called Papua), which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea. Geography The Arafura Sea is ...

, in 1623,

Jan Carstensz Jan Carstenszoon or more commonly Jan Carstensz In Dutch patronyms ending in -szoon were almost universally abbreviated to -sz was a 17th-century Dutch explorer. In 1623, Carstenszoon was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company to lead an ex ...

named it ''Valse Kaap'' (Dutch for "False Cape"), a name retained to date (Indonesian ''Tanjung Vals'', English "Cape Vals"). It was considered to be a part of mainland New Guinea until 1835, when between April 26 and May 9 that year the Dutch captains Langenberg, Kool and Banse sailed their schooners ''Postillon'' and ''Sireen'' through the narrow channels. They named the waterway ' Princess Marianne Strait' (now

) and the island after Prince William Frederick Henry, a grandson of the king, who lived in the Dutch East Indies for a while. Reizen naar Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea
Koninklijk instituut voor taal-, land- en volkenkunde, 1879, pp. 424-426 Until at least 1884 Komoran was thought to be part of Dolak. After the handover of

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

to Indonesia in May 1963, the Indonesian government renamed the island after the Indonesian naval officer

Yos Sudarso Commodore Yosaphat "Yos" Sudarso (24 November 1925 – 15 January 1962) was an Indonesian naval officer killed at the Battle of Arafura Sea. At the time of his death, Yos Sudarso was deputy chief of staff of the Indonesian Navy and in charge ...

, who was in charge of a raid on the New Guinea coastline to the northwest in January 1962, but was killed in the process.

Languages

The

, part of the Trans-New Guinea language family, and the Mombum (or Komolom) languages, an independent

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

, are spoken on Yos Sudarso Island.

References

{{Reflist Islands of Western New Guinea