Sae Island is the northernmost islandThe Wuvulu Web Site - Geographical Names of the Western Islands
/ref> within the Western Islands of the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It is located just north-west of the

Kaniet Islands The Kaniet Islands are the easternmost group islands within the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. It consists four islands and one islet. Their coordinates are , located north-east of the Hermit Islands. Sae Island is ...

, under which it is often subsumed, although the two are distinct. Another name for the Kaniet(-Sae) Islands is "Anchorite Islands". The first sighting by Europeans of Sae Island was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz de Retes on 21 August 1545 when on board of the

carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade fr ...

''San Juan'' tried to return from

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

.Sharp, Andrew ''The discovery of the Pacific Islands'' Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1960, p.31.

References

Bismarck Archipelago Islands of Papua New Guinea Manus Province {{ManusProvince-geo-stub