Solomon Islands

Located just a few degrees below the equator, the Solomon Islands enjoy a tropical climate moderated by the sea air. Rainfall averages 10 inches per month, ranging from 8 inches in the drier season to 12 inches in the wet. There is no monsoon season, but rain, which usually blows over quickly, can be expected at any time. Humidity is usually high, particularly inland, but is significantly lower on the smaller islands and aboard ship.

The Solomon Islands were said to have been named by Don Alvero de Mendaña, who left Callao, Peru in November 1567 and arrived at Santa Isabel Island on February 7, 1568. Mendana was said to have given the name Solomon to the islands in order to infer that they were every bit as rich in gold as the legendary King Solomon was reputed to be. That's not quite how the name Solomon came about.

Shortly after Mendaña returned to Peru, a colonial official advised the King of Spain that the islands were of little importance because Mendaña found no specimens of spices, or of gold or silver and all the people were naked savages. This same writer devised the name Solomon Islands, perhaps to emphasize that the likelihood of finding anything of value there was as remote as finding the legendary mines of King Solomon. Ironically, proven and unproven mineral resources probably rival anything that King Solomon possessed.

Due to faulty map-making on the part of Mendaña's navigator, it was to be another 200 years before the Solomons again came to the attention of Europeans. Two hundred years later, it was faulty charting that saved the Bounty mutineers. Pitcairn Island was not where it was said to be. Consequently the British Royal Navy had considerable difficulty in finding it. By the time they did, Fletcher Christian had ordered the Bounty torched so that there was not a trace of human habitation on the island.

Engels"

In 1767, Philip Carteret stumbled upon the islands and the Solomons were now visited rather more frequently.

The Second World War brought more attention from the Japanese and the Americans than the Solomons would have wished for. The fight for Guadalcanal put the Solomons on the map once more. Later, when JFK became President of the United States, Kennedy's adventures aboard Patrol Boat 109, which had been rammed in Blackett Strait near Ferguson Passage by the Japanese Destroyer Amagiri gave the island a resurgent shot of publicity.

Go To Page: 1 2 3