Tulagi

Tulagi, less commonly Tulaghi, is a small island (5.5 km by 1 km) in the Solomon Islands, just off the south coast of Florida Island. The town of the same name on the island (pop. 1,750) was the capital of the Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1896 to 1942, and is today the capital of the Central Province.

The island was originally chosen by the British as a comparatively isolated and healthier alternative to the disease-ridden larger islands of the Solomons. The Japanese occupied it on 3 May 1942, with the intention of setting up a seaplane base nearby, and the ships in Tulagi harbor were raided by planes from the USS Yorktown the following day, in a prelude to the Battle of the Coral Sea. US forces landed on 7 August and captured Tulagi after a day of hard fighting.

The present-day Tulagi has a fishing fleet and is developing a scuba diving industry; the wrecks of the USS Aaron Ward, USS Kanawha, and HMNZS Moa are close by, and the wrecks of Ironbottom Sound are not much further off.