England lay claim to the island in 1816 and had a garrison on Tristan to help insure the French did not liberate Napoleon was exile. When the garrison was pulled out a few years later, Corporal Glass and his fgamily opted to remain behind. Over the next century, numerous castaways, shipwreck victims, slaves and adventureres settled on the island and the gene pool became blended! Today modern economic enterprises include fishing (especially for crayfish, or lobsters, which I can report are very, very good), a fish factory (which is being rebuilt after a fire destroyed a couple of years ago (it ain't easy here), and postage stamps (very pretty ones), and most people own a couple of cows and sheep. They have dogs but only male ones. When the islanders left in 1961 the dogs were on their own, and it seems they bred like rabbits and killed the cows and sheep (had to have some food since their owners were gone for 2-3 year I believe). Kind of left a bad taste on the returning families.
The other thing Tristan is known for is their potato patches, which are located about 3 miles out of town. Eveyone has their own patch, which looks to be no larger than 50 feet by 80 feet. And on their plot it seems everyone has a house constructed out of lava rocks and metal sheets of some sort. Windows are added, and voila, a second home near the sea (everything is near the sea) is created. When the 'pressure' of town becomes too much, yuou can always retreat to the potato patch to till the soil and get away from it all.
Two other islands are nearby, Nightingale and Inaccessible. People on Tristan are all seafarers and are out on the ocean quite a bit.
Not that many ships come to Tristan da Cunha, but when they do the bar is open, and the local ladies ar ready to show you (no, get your mind out of the gutter!), their handnmade articles for sale.
I have a few pictures to show of the town, and the potato patches.
The town of Edinburgh. The slanted road in the center, leads to a very tiny 'port'. Only a dingy, zodiac or medium sized sailboat could tie up here. Everything from the larger ships that will be unloaded on Tristan needs to be ferried on smaller boats to the port, and brought up the road into town.
This is the view from on the volcanic flow from 1961 looking at the western end of town. Most of the town is off to the right and a few were destoyed in the lava flow.
House by the potato patch. The walls dividing the patches are volcanic rock. You use what you've got, much as many walls in the fields of New England are rocks pulled from the fields. The terrain behind the patches gets very steep, very quickly, as it goes to the top of the volcano. The islands havew a temperate climate, but do occasionally get buffeted by the low pressure area which often find their way into the South Atlantic (and call I can say to that is, 'No S@#*'). As a result, the temperature ranges from 40 - 85 degrees and the island receives about 66 incles of rain a year, more than enough to support the population and their animals.
More potato patches and houses - just like any suburbuia in America! Except Tousand Oaks.
Sheep and potato patch house
View from potato patch area looking back toward town, about 3 miles away
Looking toward potato patch area.
Anyone looking for more information regarding Tristan and its history, can read a book by Conrad Glass, a direct descendent of William Glass, the Corporal who decided to stay on the island. Conroad is also the constable and one of the headmen. He came on board on vessel and gave an abbreviated history of the people. He had also published a book, interesting as I read part of it in the ship's library on the way to Cape Town. It title is 'Rockhopper Copper', a reference to his job and the rockhopper penguins on Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands.
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