Indispensable Strait is a waterway in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

, running about northwest-southeast from Santa Isabel to

Makira The island of Makira (also known as San Cristobal and San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in the Solomon Islands. It is third most populous island after Malaita and Guadalcanal, with a population of 55,126 as of 2020. ...

(San Cristóbal), between the Florida Islands and Guadalcanal to the southwest, and Malaita to the northeast. Indispensable Strait is part of the navigation route for merchant shipping from

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mai ...

to the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

. It is one of three major routes for merchant shipping through the Solomon Islands; the routes are the Bougainville Strait and Indispensable Strait, which link the Pacific Ocean,

Solomon Sea The Solomon Sea is a sea located within the Pacific Ocean. It lies between Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Many major battles were fought there during World War II. Extent The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of ...

and Coral Sea; and the Manning Strait that links the Pacific to

New Georgia Sound New Georgia Sound is the sound in the New Georgia Islands region that runs approximately southeast–northwest through the middle of the Solomon Islands archipelago in the Southern Pacific Ocean and Melanesia.Guadalcanal during the Pacific War.Rick ''et al.'', (1991), p.115. The strait was first recorded on European maps after it was encountered by Captain William Wilkinson in the merchantman '' Indispensable'' in 1794.

Notes, citations and references

;Notes ;Citations ;References *Findlay, Alexander George (1877) ''A Directory for the Navigation of the South Pacific Ocean: With Descriptions of Its Coasts, Islands, Etc., from the Strait of Magalhaens to Panama, and Those of New Zealand, Australia, Etc., Its Winds, Currents, and Passages''. (R. H. Laurie). * Straits of the Solomon Islands {{Solomons-geo-stub