The Samoan Islands are an archipelago of Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. The islands were partitioned in 1900; the large western islands of 'Upolu and Savai'i were assigned to Germany and the smaller eastern islands to the United States. German Samoa, as it was called, was occupied by troops from New Zealand in 1914, early in World War I. Renamed Western Samoa, it remained under New Zealand administration until it became the Independent State of Samoa in 1962. The eastern islands, American Samoa, remain a U.S. territory. Independent Samoa includes two large islands, Sava'i on the west and 'Upolu to the east. Apia, the capital and principal port, is on the north coast of 'Upolu. The total population is about 205,000. The Samoan phrase for a lighthouse is moli uila; motu is an island, aau is a reef, and uafu is a harbor. Aids to navigation in Samoa are maintained by the Samoa Ports Authority. Special thanks to Michel Forand for his research on Samoan lights. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume K of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 111.
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![]() Apolima Light, Apolima, December 2017 piktag.com photo (originally from Instagram) by Roland |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Kiribati | East: American Samoa | South: Tonga | West: Wallis and Futuna
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Posted August 22, 2010. Checked and revised October 16, 2024. Lighthouses: 3. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.