These hardy souls that build a life for themselves on a desolate island. how do they make it. So slip on tour smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
I must confess that I do not have the Tristan stamp I really want. It was more a label and the catalog does not even recognize it. The unit of currency on Tristan was once the potato and there was a stamp with a view of local penguins and denominated in potatoes. The stamps could only go down hill from that. Not for these tiny islands though that can now make some revenue for themselves by selling to the world a view of their exotic islands. One of the best aspects of the British Commonwealth are these stamp issues. A genuine common wealth as the issues are both the same and different.
Todays stamp is issue A45, a 5 Penny stamp issued by Tristan da Cunha, then a Dependency of the British Crown Colony of St. Helena, on May 22nd, 1981. The stamp displays early maps and charts of Tristan, in this case done by a Captain Denham from 1853, According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint of cancelled to order. Too low for such a nice stamp!
Tristan da Cunha is named after the Anglicized version of a Portuguese Admiral who first spotted it. It is a small group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic a thousand miles off of Cape Town, South Africa. The island was a regular stopping point for sailing ships on the India trade. Though far out to sea the islands lay in the currents and had ample fresh water and seals and penguins for food. During the War of 1812, American navy ships used Tristan as a staging point for attacking British shipping. The British were also worried that the French might used Tristan as a staging point to liberate Napoleon who was on somewhat nearby St. Helena. So for a few years there was a detachment of British Royal Marines. After the threat passed, the Marines left but a Corporal, his wife and two children and two stone masons elected to stay. Ships would often stop and in ones and twos, sailors elected to stay. There were occasional voyages to Cape Town to trade and try to recruit wives for the often woman short island. There were no laws and no alchohol but Christianity was practiced and the area became truly multiethnic through the wives recruited. At its peak the island contained 300 people and wheat and potatoes were cultivated. A visit from the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867 saw the main settlement renamed Edinburgh of the Seven Seas in his honor.
The late 19th century saw a string of bad luck. The Suez canal ended ships sailing by Tristan so many fewer stopped. One nearby shipwreck blighted the island with rats that ended the cultivation of wheat. A small boat sent out to greet a passing ship sank at the loss of 15 men. The Cape Colony offered to evacuate the island and give land in the colony but the residents voted to stay. In 1961, the volcano on the island blew and the residents were evacuated to Britain where they were kept together on a military base. A few years later the island was surveyed and Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had survived and again residents voted to return. The island currently has about 250 people and is now administered jointly with St. Helena and Ascension. Britain recently awarded Tristan a British postal code to make it easier for them to order things online. I know you must be thinking that it must be hard to buy things online with potatoes, but they switched to British money after World War II. There is no airport and everything is brought in by sea. In 1967 The Royal yacht Britannia stopped at Tristan allowing the Royal family to see one of the most far flung outposts of Empire.
Well my drink is empty and I will salute Tristan islanders as there is no drinks on the island. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.