Salomon Islands

Salomon Atoll

Location of the Salomon Islands

The Salomon Islands or Salomon Atoll is a small atoll of the Chagos Archipelago in the British Indian Ocean Territory.

The atoll is located in the north-east of the Chagos Archipelago, between Blenheim Reef and Peros Banhos. The islands of the group are charted by the French names they received when under French rule. The main islands are Île Boddam, with the former main workers’ settlement, and a land area of 267 acres, and Île Anglaise (203 acres), both on the western rim of the reef. There were smaller settlements of plantation workers on Fouquet (111 acres) and Takamaka (119 acres) Islands. Île de la Passe is 69 acres in area, and Île Mapou 10 acres. The remaining islets are much smaller.

The total land area is 880 acres, or 1.37 square miles.

Navigation

There is a passage into the lagoon, named Baie de Salomon, on the northern side, between Île Anglaise and Île de la Passe. The Salomon Islands are one of the favorite anchoring spots for itinerant yachtsmen passing through the Chagos, even though there are no proper moorings for yachts and a permit of the BIOT authorities is needed. Now uninhabited, the islands are overrun by low jungle between the coconut trees and it is hard to find the traces of the former settlements.

History

Abandoned church on Boddam Island

In the last half of the 18th century, coconut plantation workers were brought here from Isle de France (now Mauritius). Little is known about the condition of the workers who were mostly of African origin. Most probably they lived in conditions close to slavery. The company exploiting the plantation was called the Chagos Agalega Company. The islands were wrested from the French in the Napoleonic Wars.

The Salomon Islands were surveyed in 1837 by Commander Robert Moresby of the Indian Navy on HMS Benares. Moresby's survey produced the first detailed map of this atoll. The atoll was surveyed again in 1905 by Commander B.T. Sommerville on HMS Sealark, who drew a more accurate map. Some of the Salomon Islands were inhabited by the plantation workers, but at the time that the British Government decided to displace the redundant worker population, only Île Boddam was inhabited, and form here 500 were resettled on Mauritius and the Seychelles.

In the days of the copra plantations, Île Boddam had a jetty, shops, offices, a school, a church and a villa where the plantation manager lived. All these buildings are now hidden by thick jungle. There are wells on Boddam and Takamaka islands which are still used by yachtsmen to replenish their supplies.

Islets

Boddam Island and small Ile Diable to the right

The individual islets of the atoll are, starting in the North, clockwise:

1. Île de la Passe
2. Île Mapou
3. Île Takamaka
4. Île Fouquet
5. Île Sepulture
6. Île Jacobin
7. Île du Sel
8. Île Poule
9. Boddam Island
10. Île Diable
11. Île Anglaise

Location

• Location: 5°19’0"N, 72°15’0"E

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Salomon Islands)