Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha was uninhabited when the Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha sighted it in 1506. An American, Jonathan Lambert, tried to settle it in 1810–12, declaring it the "Islands of Refreshment", and died soon after. Britain annexed the island in 1816 — partly to forestall any attempt to use it as a base to rescue Napoleon from Saint Helena — and left a garrison. When the garrison withdrew, Corporal William Glass and a few companions stayed and founded the settlement, later joined by shipwreck survivors, a handful of New England whalers, and women brought from Saint Helena. From them come the island's seven surnames — Glass, Green, Hagan, Lavarello, Repetto, Rogers, and Swain — and a deliberately egalitarian community with land held in common.

In the twentieth century the economy came to rest on the crawfish, or rock lobster, fishery. In October 1961 the volcano erupted right beside the settlement, and the entire population was evacuated to England; after two years, almost everyone chose to return in 1963. A 2001 hurricane and a 2019 storm caused heavy damage. In 2020 Tristan declared a Marine Protection Zone over its waters — at the time the fourth largest in the world.

About 240 people live in the one settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, known simply as "the Settlement". They speak English in a dialect of their own and are Christian, with one Anglican and one Catholic church. Land is held in common; cattle numbers and the potato "patches" are shared out to keep things even.

The year is structured by communal work: the sheep shearing, the potato planting and lifting, "Ratting Day", and the crawfish season. When the flag flies for a "fishing day", every able adult turns out for the boats. There is one pub, one shop, one school, one doctor, and an Island Council; the ethos is mutual aid, and decisions are made together.

The islanders live by subsistence farming — potatoes above all, grown in the Patches a couple of kilometres from the Settlement, plus cattle and sheep on the common grazing — and by the commercial crawfish fishery, which is exported frozen and provides most of the island's income, supplemented by the sale of famous stamps and coins and by British support.

The harbour at Calshot is small and often unusable in swell, and supplies come by fishing vessel and the occasional research ship from Cape Town, a week away. Power is from a diesel station, with solar being added. Everyone has a job, and most have several.

Potatoes appear at almost every meal — the staple crop, grown in the Patches. Crawfish, fish (bluefish, "five-finger", tuna), and mutton and beef from the common herd fill out the diet, along with "Tristan potato salad", milk tart, and other Saint Helenian and South African bakes. Canned and imported goods from the shop bridge the gap between ships, and the Albatross Bar serves home-brewed and imported drink.

Getting there is the attraction. The island receives only a few dozen visitors a year, almost all arriving on the fishing and supply vessels from Cape Town or on a rare expedition cruise. On the island, Queen Mary's Peak (2,062 metres) is a hard full-day climb to a crater lake when the weather allows; the 1961 eruption cone sits right at the edge of the Settlement; and the potato Patches, the northern rockhopper penguin and seabird colonies, the small museum, and a thatched "Tristan hut" fill a short list.

Weather permitting, boats go to Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of untouched seabird breeding grounds. There is also a nine-hole golf course, a café, and the pub — a complete inventory of the island's diversions.