Bagabag is an island in the

Madang Province Madang is a province of Papua New Guinea. The province is on the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and has many of the country's highest peaks, active volcanoes and its biggest mix of languages. The capital is the town of Madang. ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

having a dormant volcano. Bagabag is 43 km east-north-east from Cape Croilles on the northern coast of the

mainland, and is the closest island to

Karkar Island Karkar Island is an oval-shaped volcanic island located in the Bismarck Sea, about 30 kilometres off the north coast of mainland Papua New Guinea in Madang Province, from which it is separated by the Isumrud Strait. The island is about 25&nb ...

which is 18 km to the north-west. The island is approximately circular in shape, with a diameter of about 7 km. It has an area of 37 km². The prominent feature of the coast is New Year Bay, that cuts into the south-eastern side of the island. Volcanic in origin, terrain on Bagabaga consists of steep, thickly vegetated slopes that rise to over 600 m above sea level. Much of the northern, eastern and southern coasts are fringed by a barrier-type reef some 2 km offshore; the reef is narrow, and mostly submerged. People from Karkar visit Bagabag by canoe. The island is rich in betel-nut, local pigs and garden food. The island supports four villages with a total population of about 3,000. The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Karkar Island was by the Spanish navigator Iñigo Órtiz de Retes on 10 August 1545 when on board of the

carrack A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade ...

''San Juan'' tried to return from

Tidore Tidore ( id, Kota Tidore Kepulauan, lit. "City of Tidore Islands") is a city, island, and archipelago in the Maluku Islands of eastern Indonesia, west of the larger island of Halmahera. Part of North Maluku Province, the city includes the island ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the A ...

.Coello, Francisco "Conflicto hispano-alemán" ''Boletín de Sociedad Geográfica de Madrid'', t.XIX. 2º semestre 1885, Madrid, p.317.

References

Islands of Papua New Guinea Stratovolcanoes of Papua New Guinea New Ireland Province Pleistocene stratovolcanoes {{NewIrelandProvince-geo-stub