Savo Island is an island in

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 capita ...

in the southwest South Pacific ocean. Administratively, Savo Island is a part of the Central Province of the

. It is about from the capital

Honiara Honiara () is the capital and largest city of Solomon Islands, situated on the northwestern coast of Guadalcanal. , it had a population of 92,344 people. The city is served by Honiara International Airport and the seaport of Point Cruz, and lie ...

. The principal village is Alialia, in the north of the island. The indigenous language of Savo is the

Savosavo language Savosavo is an endangered language spoken on Savo, a small volcanic island north of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Savosavo is one of the Central Solomon languages, which are Papuan languages, unlike most of the languages in the vicinity, wh ...

, an East Papuan language. Savo Island also has a minority of

Gela Gela (Sicilian and ; grc, Γέλα) is a city and (municipality) in the Autonomous Region of Sicily, Italy; in terms of area and population, it is the largest municipality on the southern coast of Sicily. Gela is part of the Province of Cal ...

speakers. The waters surrounding the island were the site of five of the seven major naval battles during the

Battle of Guadalcanal The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the ...

in the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. As a result of these battles southeast of the island are many shipwrecks, the bay is known as

Ironbottom Sound "Ironbottom Sound" (alternatively Iron Bottom Sound or Ironbottomed Sound or Iron Bottom Bay) is the name given by Allied sailors to the stretch of water at the southern end of The Slot between Guadalcanal, Savo Island, and Florida Island of t ...

. The wrecks near the coast are very popular with wreck divers.

Geography

Savo is approximately circular, measuring approximately by . It is located northeast of

Cape Esperance Cape Esperance () is the northernmost point on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. History The Battle of Cape Esperance, one of several naval engagements fought in the waters north of the island during the World War II Guadalcanal campaign, took its ...

, the northern tip of

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the seco ...

. The highest elevation is a

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and per ...

, which last erupted between 1835 and 1847. The eruption was so strong that it wiped out all life on the island. An older eruption occurred in 1568. According to the World Organization of Volcanic Observatories (WOVO), the volcano is active every 100 to 300 years. On the island are geysers, hot mud lakes and hot springs.

The "egg fields"

Savo Island is known for the "egg fields" of the

megapode The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs ...

, a bird which lays its eggs here and buries them in the warm sand to incubate. The eggs are excavated by local people and are considered a local food specialty. The eggs are slightly larger than a duck egg and are used for preparing omelettes and other dishes.

History

European discovery and exploration

The first recorded sighting of Savo Island by European explorers was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña in April 1568. More precisely the sighting was due to a local exploration voyage done by a small boat, in the accounts the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

, commanded by

Maestre de Campo ''Maestre de campo'' was a rank created in 1534 by the Emperor Carlos V, inferior in rank only to the ''capitán general'' and acted as a chief of staff. He was chosen by the monarch in the Council of State, and commanded a '' tercio''. Their po ...

Pedro de Ortega Valencia and having

Hernán Gallego Hernán is a Spanish masculine given name, originating from Germanic Hernan in the Visigoth culture in Spain. It is the Latinized version of the compound name ''Fard-nanth'', which seems to mean "gentle traveler" or "spiritual traveler". The House ...

as pilot. They charted the volcanic island as ''Sesarga''. Considering the expedition leaders Mendaña and

cosmographer The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-scal ...

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated, or Alcalá de Henar ...

were both from Galicia in Spain it was probably so named after the island of the same name in this region.Brand, Donald D. ''The Pacific Basin: A History of its Geographical Explorations'' The American Geographical Society, New York, 1967, p.133. On 15 March 1893 Savo Island was declared part of the

British Solomon Islands The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was first declared over the southern Solomons in 1893, when Captain Gibson, R.N., of , declared the southern islands a British protectorate. Other islands were subsequently declared to form part o ...

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...

. The island was occupied by the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

in the early stages of the

World War II

Because of its proximity to Guadalcanal Island and the hotly contested nature of the battles for control of the Solomon Islands, Savo Island figured in many of the naval engagements of the

Solomon Islands campaign The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, du ...

. It is most well known as the location of several naval battles fought in the adjacent "

" during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, between the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

naval forces and the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

. List of World War II naval battles fought in the vicinity of Savo Island: *

Battle of Savo Island The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the , and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks, was a naval battle of the Solomon Islands ca ...

, 9 August 1942 *

Battle of Cape Esperance The Battle of Cape Esperance, also known as the Second Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the , took place on 11–12 October 1942, in the Pacific War, Pacific campaign of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Unit ...

(originally known as the "Second Battle of Savo Island"), 11–12 October 1942 *

Naval Battle of Guadalcanal The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, sometimes referred to as the Third and Fourth Battles of Savo Island, the Battle of the Solomons, the Battle of Friday the 13th, or, in Japanese sources, the , took place from 12 to 15 November 1942, and was t ...

, 13–15 November 1942 *

Battle of Tassafaronga The Battle of Tassafaronga, sometimes referred to as the Fourth Battle of Savo Island or, in Japanese sources, as the , was a nighttime naval battle that took place on November 30, 1942, between United States Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warsh ...

, 30 November 1942 Since 1978, the island has been part of the independent state of the

References