You don’t usually see the actual animal being taken down on the rare hunting stamp. When it is the survivors of a shipwreck on an unoccupied island and the prey is a 10 foot tall, 7000 pound sea elephant and the picture is recreated from the account in a survivor’s journal, you are getting a fairly evocative stamp. So slip on your 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.
Tristan da Cunha was clearly having a good time telling the stories of their shipwrecks through postage stamps. Well there often is a good story to be learned from stamp collecting. There were 9 stamps out over a three year period telling the story of a different ship wreck.
Todays stamp is issue A60, an 11 Penny stamp issued Issued by Tristan da Cunha, a Dependency of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena on April 2nd, 1987. The 1987 tranche of the issue included 3 stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents whether used or unused.
Tristan da Cunha is a small volcanic island in the South Atlantic lying on the old east India trade route. It has a population of about 300 many of whom are descendants of the survivors of log ago shipwrecks. There are several completely unoccupied islands nearby including Inaccessible Island that the survivors of the Blenden Hall found themselves marooned on in 1821 after the ship hit underwater rocks.
The Blenden Hall was built in 1811 as a 450 ton armed merchantmen with a crew of 28. In 1813 she set off on a run to Bermuda with three other merchantmen ships and a Royal Navy frigate as this was during the Napoleonic Wars. After a night of of bad weather the cargo ships lost sight of their escort. Soon however they found the French frigate Clorinde. All four ships were taken and their crews were put aboard the merchantman Lusitania and allowed to sail back to England. The French than sank two other ships but in their rush to depart they left Blenden Hall adrift. A British packet ship named Eliza found the ship and put a prize crew of 10 to sail it back to England. Bad weather again struck and Blendon Hall lost sight of Eliza. Then HMS Challenger, a brig, spotted Blendon Hall and placed it’s own prize crew on it for it’s return to Plymouth. Coincidentally the ship and it’s formally prisoner crew arrived at Plymouth the same day. Ashore there was a court case between the Eliza crew and the Challenger crew over the prize. The court decided with the Eliza crew as they were on the ship first and the Challenger crewmen were unnecessary to get the ship back to port.
In 1814 the ship changed hands and began to be employed in India trade. In 1821 it was in the south Atlantic ocean making for Bombay with a crew of 24 and carrying 28 passengers including 5 women and three children. The ship struck rocks off Inaccessible Island and two of the ships sailors drowned swimming ashore. The group was stuck on the island for four months. A makeshift raft was constructed and five men set out for Tristan. They were never heard from again. A second raft was constructed and three men this time made it to Tristan. Tristan then sent out two ships to rescue the remainder. After two more months on Tristan a British sloop arrived that was willing to take the survivors to Cape Town. A man and a women from the Blenden Hall elected to stay on Tristan.
While on Inaccessible Island, the group ate fish, bird’s eggs and seal meat. Sea Elephants are the largest form of seal. They are still native to the South Atlantic and not endangered. Their genus was not established until several years after the events of 1821 so one can imagine the survivors had no idea what these giant animals were.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour a few more for the survivors, the fallen, and of course the rescuers of the Blenden Hall and also the sea elephants. Come again on Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.