Edinburgh of the Seven Seas
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- See also: Edinburgh (disambiguation)
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is the main settlement of the island of Tristan da Cunha, a territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic Ocean and administered as a dependency of Saint Helena. It is named after Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria, when he visited the island in 1867.[1] Locally it is always referred to as The Settlement.
The settlement was founded on Tristan in the 1815 after the UK annexed Tristan da Cunha. A military garrison was maintained on the Islands as a guard against any French attempts to rescue Napoleon, imprisoned on Saint Helena. The military garrison remained until the end of World War II.
Edinburgh is the only major settlement of Tristan, and contains a small port, the Administrator's residence, and the Post Office. It was damaged in a volcanic eruption on the Island in 1961 which forced the entire population to abandon the Settlement and move to the UK. The few that stayed in Edinburgh of the Seven Seas thought up an ingenious system to set up hoses that would automatically spray water on the lava, to cool the lava at the front, and send the rest behind it to change course or to freeze. The eruption destroyed Edinburgh's crayfish factory, and pirates looted the abandoned buildings.
After the return of most of the Islanders in 1963, the Settlement was rebuilt.
Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is regarded as the most remote permanent settlement in the world, being over 1,500 miles (2400 kilometres) from the nearest human settlement, on Saint Helena.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Courtney, Nicholas (2004). The Queen's Stamps. ISBN 0413772284, page 28. The visit took place during the circumnavigation the Duke of Edinburgh did while commanding the HMS Galatea. Tristan da Cunha post office issued four stamps in 1967 to celebrate the centenary of this visit.
[edit] External links
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| Tristan da Cunha | Inaccessible Island | Nightingale Islands (Nightingale Island | Middle Island | Stoltenhoff Island) | Gough Island | |
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