Kandavu

Kandavu, also written Kadavu, lies south of Viti Levu in the Fijian archipelago. A long mountain ridge divides its narrow island, while reefs and broken coastal waters surround its shores. These waters separated coastal communities from passing ships even as they provided routes between settlements.

William Bligh sighted the island in 1792 during his second voyage to Fiji aboard HMS Providence. The American vessel Ann & Hope followed in 1799 under Captain Christopher Bentley, returning from Australia. In 1827 the French explorer Dumont d'Urville nearly lost his ship on a reef near Kadavu; the reef took the name of his vessel, Astrolabe. These encounters brought the island into European voyage accounts before the later development of regular shipping services. They also revealed how difficult an approach could be: a prominent island on a chart still required careful navigation through the surrounding reef passages.