Staring-baai

Staring-baai
Staring-baai
	Interactive map of Staring-baai

4°5′14″S 122°43′32″E / 4.08722°S 122.72556°E / -4.08722; 122.72556 Staring-baai (Dutch for Staring Bay) is a bay off the southeast peninsula of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It lies slightly southeast of Kendari, the provincial capital of South East Sulawesi, where it opens to the east onto the Banda Sea.

During World War II, the bay was a refueling checkpoint for warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy (when the island was generally called Celebes). Sorties out of Staring-baai included the air raids on Darwin, February 19, 1942 and the later Indian Ocean raid against Allied forces and shipping around Ceylon.¹

By 1949 it was regarded as an unimportant anchorage owing to it being adjacent to mountainous land and sparsely populated. The bay measures 6 miles (9.7 km) across.²

References

Stephenson, Charles (6 April 2022). The Eastern Fleet and the Indian Ocean, 1942–1944: The Fleet that Had to Hide. Pen and Sword Maritime. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-5267-8362-2.
Department, Great Britain Hydrographic (1949). Eastern Archipelago Pilot: Comprising the South-eastern End of Sumatra, Sunda Strait, Java, Islands Eastward of Java, Southern and Eastern Coasts of Borneo, Macassar Strait, Celebes, and the Western Part of the Soela Eilanden. Hydrographic Department, Admiralty. p. 534.

[1] Stephenson, Charles (6 April 2022). The Eastern Fleet and the Indian Ocean, 1942–1944: The Fleet that Had to Hide. Pen and Sword Maritime. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-5267-8362-2.

[2] Department, Great Britain Hydrographic (1949). Eastern Archipelago Pilot: Comprising the South-eastern End of Sumatra, Sunda Strait, Java, Islands Eastward of Java, Southern and Eastern Coasts of Borneo, Macassar Strait, Celebes, and the Western Part of the Soela Eilanden. Hydrographic Department, Admiralty. p. 534.

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