Chapter Twenty - Tristan da Cunha Part 1

So, I'm now back in Blighty having spent thirty-five days visiting the most remote inhabited island in the world- - I guess there aren't to many peeps who can say been there, done that. Saying five weeks is however a bit of a lie, I actually only spent ten days on the island, the other twenty-five were spent getting there &back again including a delightful twenty-one days rolling around in a tub called the MV Baltic Trader in the South Atlantic, a life given over to pleasure - NOT.

The whole point of this little jolly is because next October (2017) I'll be going to Tristan da Cunha for around six months to oversee the building of a new hospital for the island's 276 or so inhabitants, but before we get into the joys of this a quick lesson on Tristan DA Cunha itself is required, are we sitting comfortably . . . . . .

Tristan da Cunha is both a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean & the main island of that group. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying 1,200 miles from the nearest inhabited land, Saint Helena, 1,500 miles from the nearest continental land, South Africa & 2,090 miles from South America. The territory consists of the main island, also named Tristan da Cunha, which has a north–south length of around 7 miles & has an area of approximately 38 sq. miles, along with the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands & the wildlife reserves of Inaccessible & Gough Islands. Tristan da Cunha is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha.

The islands were first sighted in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha; rough seas however prevented him landing He named the main island after himself, Ilha de Tristão DA Cunha, which was anglicised from its earliest mention on British Admiralty charts to Tristan da Cunha Island. In 1643, the crew of Heemstede, captained by Claes Gerritsz Bierenbroodspot, made the first recorded landing. The first survey of the archipelago was made by the French corvette Heure du Berger in 1767. The first permanent settler was Jonathan Lambert, from Salem, Massachusetts, United States, who arrived at the islands in December 1810 with two other men. Lambert publicly declared the islands his property & named them the Islands of Refreshment. After being joined by an Andrew Millet, three of the four men died in 1812; however, the survivor among the original three permanent settlers, Thomas Currie (or Tommaso Corri) remained as a farmer on the island. In 1816, the United Kingdom annexed the islands, ruling them from the Cape Colony in South Africa. This is reported to have primarily been a measure to ensure that the French would be unable to use the islands as a base for a rescue operation to free Napoleon Bonaparte from his prison on Saint Helena. The occupation also prevented the United States from using Tristan da Cunha as a cruiser base, as it had during the War of 1812.

The islands were occupied by a garrison of British Marines & a civilian population was gradually built up. Whalers also set up on the islands as a base for operations in the Southern Atlantic. However, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, together with the gradual move from sailing ships to coal-fired steam ships, increased the isolation of the islands, as they were no longer needed as a stopping port or for shelter for journeys from Europe to the Far East. In 1867, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh & second son of Queen Victoria, visited the islands. The main settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, was named in honour of his visit.

Lewis Carroll's youngest brother, the Rev. Edwin Heron Dodgson, served as an Anglican missionary & school teacher in Tristan da Cunha in the 1880s.

Between December 1937 to March 1938 a Norwegian party made the first ever scientific expedition to Tristan da Cunha. During their stay, the expeditionary party carried out observations & made recordings of the topography of the island, its people & how they lived & worked & the flora & fauna that inhabited the island. On 12 January 1938 by Letters Patent the islands were declared a dependency of Saint Helena. Prior to roughly this period, passing ships stopped irregularly at the island for a period of mere hours. During World War II, the islands were used as a top secret Royal Navy weather & radio station code named HMS Atlantic Isle, to monitor Nazi U-boats (which were required to maintain radio contact) & shipping movements in the South Atlantic Ocean. The first Administrator, Surgeon Lieutenant Commander E.J.S. Woolley, was appointed by the British government during this time.

In 1958 as part of an experiment, Operation Argus, the United States Navy detonated an atomic bomb some 100 miles high in the upper atmosphere about 109 miles southeast of the main island.

The 1961 eruption of Queen Mary's Peak forced the evacuation of the entire population via Cape Town to England. The following year a Royal Society expedition went to the islands to assess the damage, & reported that the settlement of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had been only marginally affected. Most families returned in 1963.

On 23 May 2001, the islands experienced an extratropical cyclone that generated winds up to 120 mph. A number of structures were severely damaged & a large number of cattle were killed, prompting emergency aid, provided by the British government.

In 2005, the islands were given a United Kingdom post code (TDCU 1ZZ) to make it easier for the residents to order goods online.

On 4 December 2007 an outbreak of an acute virus-induced flu was reported. This outbreak was compounded by Tristan's lack of suitable & sufficient medical supplies whilst on 13 February 2008, fire destroyed the fishing factory & the four generators that supplied power to the island. On 14 March 2008, new generators were installed & uninterrupted power was restored. This fire was devastating to the island because fishing is a mainstay of the economy. While a new factory was being planned & built, M/V Kelso came to the island & acted as a factory ship, with island fishermen based on board for stints normally of one week. The new facility was ready in July 2009, for the start of the 2009–10 fishing season.

The St Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009 ended the "dependency status" of Ascension & Tristan da Cunha.

On 16 March 2011, the freighter MS Oliva ran aground on Nightingale Island, spilling tons of heavy fuel oil into the ocean, leaving an oil slick threatening the island's population of Rockhopper penguins. Nightingale Island has no fresh water, so the penguins were transported to Tristan da Cunha for cleaning.

The official Tristan da Cunha website can be found at The Tristan da Cunha Website

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