Tristan da Cunha

[Christiana Hanaman]

Telecommunications

Cable and Wireless provide the telecommunications service in the territory. Saint Helena has the international calling code +290 which, since 2006, Tristan da Cunha shares. Telephone numbers are 4 digits long with 8xxx being reserved for Tristan da Cunha numbers.[28]

[Christiana Hanaman]

Society


On Tristan da Cunha the population of 264 people share just eight surnames: Glass (Scottish), Green (Dutch), Hagan (Irish), Lavarello (Italian, a typical Ligurian surname), Repetto (Italian, another typical Ligurian surname), Rogers (English), Swain (English), and Patterson (Scottish).[26] The addition of the eighth surname, Patterson, occurred in 1986 when a Tristanian married a Scotsman and returned to settle on Tristan.[26] There are 80 families on the island.

Health care is free, but there is just one resident doctor from South Africa and only five nurses. Thus delivery and surgery are limited, and serious injury can necessitate sending signals to passing fishing vessels, so that the injured person can be transferred to Cape Town. As of late 2007 IBM and Beacon Equity Partners, co-operating with Medweb, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the government of Tristan da Cunha on "Project Tristan", has availed the island doctor with access to long distance tele-medical help, making it possible to send EKG and x-ray pictures to doctors in other countries for instant consultation.

Television did not arrive on the island until 2001, and the sole channel available is the British Forces Broadcasting Service from the Falkland Islands. Education is rudimentary; children leave school at fifteen, and although it is possible to take GCSEs a year later, results are poor.[29][30]

Tristan da Cunha's isolation has led to an unusual, patois-like dialect of English. Bill Bryson documents some examples of the island's dialect in his book, The Mother Tongue.

"Recipes from Tristan da Cunha: Simple Food for all to Enjoy", a book by Dawn Repetto published in 2010, details the unique cuisine and rich cultural heritage of Tristan da Cunha (National Library of New Zealand Catalogue).

[Christiana Hanaman]

Settlement of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on en:Tristan da Cunha Island
Date    

22 December 2004

[Christiana Hanaman]

In literature

    Hervé Bazin's novel Les Bienheureux de la Désolation (1970) describes the 1961 forced exile of the population to England, and their subsequent return.
    Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838), Chapter 15, has a detailed history and description.
    Zinnie Harris's play Further Than the Furthest Thing (2000) is inspired by events on the island, notably the 1961 volcanic eruption and evacuation of the islanders.
    Raoul Schrott's novel Tristan da Cunha oder die Hälfte der Erde (2003) is almost entirely set on Tristan da Cunha and Gough islands, and chronicles the history of the archipelago.
    Robert A. Heinlein's book Tramp Royale (about a world trip in 1953-54, unpublished until 1992) devoted an entire chapter to his (almost) visit to Tristan da Cunha, arguably the most remote human settlement on earth. He talked to islanders but could not go ashore owing to the uncertain weather.
    In Jules Verne's novel In Search of the Castaways, one of the chapters is set on Tristan da Cunha, and a brief history of the island is mentioned.
    Tristan da Cunha is the site of a top-secret nuclear disarmament conference in Fletcher Knebel's 1968 political thriller Vanished which was adapted into a 1971 two-part NBC made-for-TV movie starring Richard Widmark.
    The DJ ATB recorded a number "Tristan Da Cunha", inspired by the island, in the music album "Trilogy".

[Christiana Hanaman]

References

    ^ "About.com: Geography". Geography.about.com. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
    ^ Winkler, Sarah, Where is the Most Remote Spot on Earth? Tristan da Cunha: The World's Most Remote Inhabited Island How Stuff Works.
    ^ a b "Territories: St Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha". BBC News. 2009-05-12. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
    ^ "The St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Constitution Order 2009, see "EXPLANATORY NOTE"". Opsi.gov.uk. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
    ^ Mackay, Margaret (1963) Angry Island: The Story of Tristan da Cunha, 1506–1963. London: Arthur Barker, p. 30
    ^ By Wireless from R.M.S. Empress of Australia. "Royal Gifts Gladden 172 On Lonely Atlantic Island" (Tristan da Cunya)," New York Times. 24 March 1935.
    ^ http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1806-01=
    ^ Barwick, Sandra (2001-06-07). "120 mph storm devastates Tristan da Cunha". The Daily Telegraph (London).
    ^ "Remote virus-hit island seeks aid". BBC News. 2007-12-04.
    ^ "MS Oliva runs aground on Nightingale Island". The Tristan da Cunha Website. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
    ^ BBC News Oil-soaked rockhopper penguins in rehabilitation
    ^ Saint Helena Independent 25 March 2011 p. 3
    ^ "Saint Helena Dependencies". Statoids.com. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
    ^ Linnean Society of London. 1906. The journal of the Linnean Society of London, Published by Academic Press for the Linnean Society of London., v. 37
    ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Crown Fern: Blechnum discolor, Globaltwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg
    ^ Economy of Tristan da Cunha. Tristan da Cunha Government and the Tristan da Cunha Association, June 2005. [1]
    ^ "The Bank of Saint Helena". Sainthelenabank.com. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
    ^ Tristan da Cunha Coins
    ^ "Tristan School." Tristan da Cunha Government. Retrieved on 21 June 2009.
    ^ Music Teacher Magazine
    ^ SARTMA 19 June 2011
    ^ "UK | The quiet life: Tristan da Cunha". BBC News. 2007-12-06. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
    ^ Genealogy and genes: tracing the founding fathers of Tristan da Cunha, European Journal of Human Genetics
    ^ "Worldwide search for asthma clue". BBC News. 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2010-03-28.
    ^ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119667698/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
    ^ a b c "Howstuffworks". Howstuffworks. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
    ^ Calshot Harbour
    ^ World Telephone Numbering Guide Saint Helena and Tristan da Cunha
    ^ Crossan, Rob 'Return to the Last Outpost' Telegraph Magazine, 11 November 2002
    ^ By admin on 1 January 2007 (2007-01-01). "CNN Traveler: A long way from anywhere". Cnntraveller.com. Retrieved 2010-04-18.

[edit] Further reading

Guides

    A Short Guide to Tristan da Cunha by James Glass and Anne Green, Tristan Chief Islanders (2005, Whitby Press, 12 pages).
    Field Guides to the Animals and Plants of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island Edited by Peter Ryan (2007, RSPB Publication, 168 pages).
    Gough Island: A Natural History by Christine Hanel, Steven Chown and Kevin Gaston (2005, Sun Press, 169 pages).

Culture

    Tristan da Cunha: History, People, Language by Daniel Schreier and Karen Lavarello-Schreier (2003, Battlebridge, 88 pages).
    Rockhopper Copper: The life and times of the people of the most remote inhabited island on Earth by Conrad Glass MBE, Tristan Police Officer (2005, Polperro Heritage Press, 176 pages).
    Recipes from Tristan da Cunha by Dawn Repetto, Tristan Tourism Co-ordinator (2010, Tristan Books, 32 pages).
    Corporal Glass's Island: The Story of Tristan da Cunha by Nancy Hosegood (1966, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 192 pages, with several pages of photographs).

[Christiana Hanaman]

Geography of Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha is an archipelago of five islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the largest of which is the island of Tristan da Cunha itself and the second-largest the remote bird haven Gough Island. It forms part of a wider territory called Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which includes Saint Helena and Ascension Island.

[Christiana Hanaman]

Map of Tristan da Cunha Group, Southern Atlantic Ocean

[Christiana Hanaman]

This archipelago, 1500 miles (2500 km) from the continents of Africa and South America, is one of the most remote places on earth with human habitation. It consists of the following islands:

    the main island Tristan da Cunha and its surrounding islands
        Tristan da Cunha, the main island and largest (37°6′44″S 12°16′56″W) area: 113 square kilometres (44 sq mi)
        Inaccessible Island area: 14 square kilometres (5.4 sq mi)
        Nightingale Islands area: 3.4 square kilometres (1.3 sq mi)
            Nightingale Island area: 3.2 square kilometres (1.2 sq mi)
            Middle Island area: 0.1 square kilometres (25 acres)
            Stoltenhoff Island area: 0.1 square kilometres (25 acres)
    Gough Island (Diego Alvarez) area: 68 square kilometres (26 sq mi) important as the largest undisturbed cool-temperate island habitat in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The main island is quite mountainous; the only flat area is the location of the capital, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, on the northwest coast. The highest point is a volcano called Queen Mary's Peak 2,062 metres (6,765 ft); it is covered by snow in winter and is listed as an ultra prominent peak. Tristan da Cunha is thought to have been formed by a long-lived centre of upwelling magma called the Tristan hotspot.

The climate is marine cool-temperate with small temperature differences between summer and winter (11.3° - 14.5°) and between day and night.

[Christiana Hanaman]

Flora

Even the smaller islands have some plant cover, with the larger ones dominated by ferns and moss. Flora on the archiplego includes many endemic species and many that have a broad circumpolar distribution in the South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans. Thus many of the species that occur in Tristan da Cunha occur as far away as New Zealand. For example the species Nertera depressa was first collected in Tristan da Cunha,[1] but has since been recorded in occurrence as far distant as New Zealand.[2]

[Christiana Hanaman]

Fauna

Tristan da Cunha is home to ocean-going species including Subantarctic Fur Seal, the Southern Elephant Seal and birds such as Northern Rockhopper Penguins and Macaroni Penguins. The islands are important for their bird life both those established on the islands and breeding seabirds, of which twenty species nest on Gough Island alone. Important species include Tristan Albatross, Tristan Thrush, Tristan Bunting, Gough Bunting, Gough Island Moorhen, Atlantic Petrel, and the Inaccessible Island Rail. There are no native reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fish, or land mammals.

[Christiana Hanaman]

Human settlement

Apart from Tristan da Cunha, which was settled as a base for whaling and sealing in the 18th century, the islands of the group are uninhabited except for a weather station on Gough Island belonging to South Africa. Fishing is still an important economic activity especially for crayfish and octopus but also the Tristan rock lobster (Jasus tristani). Gough Island has also been used as base for whaling and sealing but only ever temporarily. The islands do receive a small number of tourists.

[Christiana Hanaman]

Threats and preservation

Sheep and cattle have been introduced on Tristan da Cunha and their grazing, along with other human activity has caused damage to the island's ecosystems. Night fishing has caused the deaths of many seabirds as they crash into ships' lights [3]

[Christiana Hanaman]

SA Terra ASTER image of Tristan da Cunha Island, South Atlantic Ocean
Date    

25 October 2006

[Christiana Hanaman]

View from the top of Gough Island.
Date    

Published: December 13, 2005

[Christiana Hanaman]

References

    ^ Linnean Society of London. 1906. The journal of the Linnean Society of London, Published by Academic Press for the Linnean Society of London., v. 37
    ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2009. Crown Fern: Blechnum discolor, Globaltwitcher.com, ed. N. Stromberg
    ^ Ryan, P. G. 1991. The impact of the commercial lobster fishery on seabirds at the Tristan da Cunha Islands, South Atlantic Ocean. Biological Conservation 57:339-350