Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands 1809, Great Britain took possession of all the islands with the exception of Corfu and Paxos, which was only surrendered in 1814. In 1815, the Ionian Islands became a British protectorate under the name United States of the Ionian Islands. The civil and military governor of the Ionian Islands was the "Provveditore generale da Mar", who lived on Corfu and had the supreme peacetime command of the Venetian navy. In wartime, due to his absence at the head of the fleet, he was sometimes replaced by a "Provveditore generale delle Tre Isole" ("Superintendent general of the Three Islands"), referring to
Ionian Sea Sea, and from Piraeus westward. Calypso Deep, the deepest point in the Mediterranean at , is located in the Ionian Sea, at . The sea is one of the most seismically active areas in the world. The name "Ionian" comes from the Greek language . Its etymology is unknown. Ancient Greek writers, especially Aeschylus, linked it to the myth of Io. In Ancient Greek the adjective "Ionios" () was used as an epithet for the sea because Io swam across it. According to the "Oxford Classical Dictionary", the name may derive from Ionians who sailed to the West. There were