Crab Coins and Colonialism

Tristan Da Cunha is one of a series of islands in the middle of the Atlantic.

First sighted in 1506 by Portuguese sailor Tristão da Cunha, who gives the island its name, it is a six-day boat journey from Cape Town, South Africa.

The first permanent resident was a whaler called Jonathan Lambert from Massuchusetts. He and three others arrived in 1810 and claimed ownership of the island, renaming it The Islands of Refreshment. They bred pigs and farmed, until five months after arriving, three of them drowned while fishing - leaving only Thomas Currie alive, and alone on the island.

In 1816 the British Empire annexed the island and the islands became a staging post for sea travel. When the Suez Canal the island was no longer so useful for restocking the island became even more isolated.

In 1906, after a bad winter, the British Government offered to evacuate the residents because they could no longer offer support to the population. The residents of the island refused, and for ten years no ship visited the island.

In 1961 a volcanic eruption meant that the population left temporarily, moving to the United Kingdom. When it was declared safe, the majority of the population returned, some with new husbands.

In 2011 a freighter ran aground nearby and spilled tonnes of oil, threatening the rockhopper penguin population. The penguins were moved to Tristan Da Cunha and cleaned.

As of 2019, the population was 246.

There is one bar on the island, called ‘The Albatross Bar’.