ABSTRACT
Savo Island, 4 miles in diameter, 7½ miles north of Guadalcanal and 18 miles west of Tulagi, comprised a partial barrier against any Japanese naval force trying to attack the transport areas either via New Georgia Sound (“the Slot”), or the Solomon Sea in the west, or around Santa Isabel to the north. Volcanic in origin, Savo had been in eruption when the Spanish first saw it in the sixteenth century. Its more recent inhabitants had been noted for their aggressive cannibalism.1
