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Tristan da Cunha.
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TRISTAN DA CUNHA is the name of both a remote group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean and the main island of that group. Area - 207 sq. km. Population - 264 Administrative center - Edinburgh of the Seven Seas The islands were first recorded as sighted in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha; rough seas prevented a landing. He named the main island after himself, Ilha de Tristão da Cunha. It was later anglicised from its earliest mention on British Admiralty charts, to Tristan da Cunha Island. Some sources state that the Portuguese made the first landing in 1520, when the Lás Rafael captained by Ruy Vaz Pereira called at Tristan for water. The first undisputed landing was made in 1643 by the crew of the Dutch ship Heemstede, captained by Claes Gerritsz Bierenbroodspot. 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 and 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 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 and a civilian population gradually grew. Whalers set up bases on the islands for operations in the Southern Atlantic. However, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, together with the gradual transition from sailing ships to coal-fired steam ships, increased the isolation of the islands. They were no longer needed as a stopping port for lengthy sail voyages, or for shelter for journeys from Europe to East Asia. In 1867, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and second son of Queen Victoria, visited the islands. The main settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, was named in honour of his visit. Calling in 1872, the Royal Navy scientific survey vessel, HMS Challenger, conducted the first detailed survey of Tristan, Inaccessible and Nightingale islands, cataloguing their history, geography, flora and fauna. Lewis Carroll's youngest brother, the Reverend Edwin Heron Dodgson, served as an Anglican missionary and schoolteacher in Tristan da Cunha in the 1880s. During the Second World War, Britain used the islands as a top secret Royal Navy weather and radio station codenamed HMS Atlantic Isle, to monitor Nazi U-boats and 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. The Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, visited the islands in 1957 as part of a world tour on board the royal yacht Britannia. The 1961 eruption of Queen Mary's Peak forced the evacuation of the entire population[13] via Cape Town to Britain. The following year a Royal Society expedition went to the islands to assess the damage, and reported that the settlement of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had been only marginally affected. Most families returned in 1963. Currency : Pound of sterling .
