After the Battle of Artemisium, the Greek fleet withdrew to the island of Salamis.
Artemisium was fought at roughly the same time as Thermopylae in 480 BC. The Greek fleet had been trying to block the Persian advance along the northern coast of Euboea, while the land force defended the pass at Thermopylae. The naval fighting was costly and inconclusive, but the Greek position became untenable after Thermopylae fell.
Because the two operations were strategically linked, the fleet abandoned Artemisium and sailed south. It helped evacuate the Athenians from their city, which the advancing Persian army soon occupied and burned. Salamis offered a defensible base and placed the Greek ships near the Saronic Gulf and the approaches to the Peloponnese.
The withdrawal was not a defeat that ended Greek resistance. Instead, Salamis became the staging ground for the Greek victory over the Persian fleet later that year. Euboea was the location of Artemisium, not the island to which the fleet ultimately withdrew; Rhodes and Crete were not the answer either.