Vitiaz Strait

Vitiaz Strait
Location of the Vitiaz Strait
Location of the Vitiaz Strait
Vitiaz Strait
Coordinates6°S 148°E / 6°S 148°E / -6; 148
Typestrait
Northeastern New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago (some smaller islands omitted)
Northeastern New Guinea and Bismarck Archipelago (some smaller islands omitted)
Imperial Russian corvette Vitiaz, namesake of the strait

Vitiaz Strait is a strait between New Britain and the Huon Peninsula, northern New Guinea.[1][2]

The Vitiaz Strait was so named by Nicholai Nicholaievich Mikluho-Maklai to commemorate the Russian corvette Vitiaz in which he sailed from October 1870 by way of South America and the Pacific Islands reaching Astrolabe Bay in September 1871.[3]

  1. ^ George R. Cresswell 2000 'Coastal currents of northern Papua New Guinea, and the Sepik River outflow' Marine Freshwater Research 51 pp 553–64 at p 553
  2. ^ Walter Zenk, Gerold Siedler, Akio Ishida, Jürgen Holfort, Yuji Kashino, Yoshifumi Kuroda, Toru Miyama, Thomas J. Müller 2005 'Pathways and variability of the Antarctic Intermediate Water in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean' Progress in Oceanography 67 pp 245–281 at p 247, see map at Fig.2(a) p 248
  3. ^ R. W. de M.-Maclay, 'Mikluho-Maklai, Nicholai Nicholaievich (1846 - 1888)', "Australian Dictionary of Biography"