The French explorer Jean-François de La Pérouse was stranded on Vanikoro after both his vessels, La Boussole and the Astrolabe, struck the then unknown reefs of the island in 1788.
O explorador Francés Jean-François de La Pérouse quedou varado en Vanikoro logo de que os seus dous barcos, La Boussole e o Astrolabe, bateran cos arrecifes entón descoñecidos da illa en 1788.