Everything about Tulagi totally explained
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.
World War II
The
Japanese occupied Tulagi on
May 3 1942, with the intention of setting up a
seaplane base nearby (see
Japanese Tulagi landing (1942)). The ships in Tulagi harbor were raided by planes from
USS Yorktown the following day in a prelude to the
Battle of the Coral Sea.
U.S. forces, primarily the 1st
Marine Raiders, landed on
August 7 and captured Tulagi after a day of hard fighting.
After its capture by
Naval and
Marine forces, the island hosted a fleet of
PT boats for a year, including
John F. Kennedy's
PT-109 as well as other ancillary facilities.
A small 20-bed dispensary was operated on Tulagi until its closure in 1946. The island also formed part of
Purvis Bay, which hosted many U.S. Navy ships during 1942 and 1943.
Postwar
The present-day Tulagi has a
fishing fleet.
Scuba diving
Tulagi offers some excellent
scuba diving. The wrecks of
USS Aaron Ward,
USS Kanawha, and
HMNZS Moa are close by, and the wrecks of
Ironbottom Sound are not much further off.
While the
USS Aaron Ward is considered to be one of the world's great wreck dives; the hull lies on a sandy bottom at 70 metres, which is about 20 metres deeper than one can safely dive on
compressed air. (Special mixes are required for depths beyond that.) The
Ward lies upright and intact, the deck replete with artifacts.
Tulagi is developing a tourism industry based on scuba; however, due to ongoing
civil unrest, the industry in the Solomons is in a perilous state.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tulagi'.
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