American Philatelist March 2016
TRISTAN DA CUNHA An Ocean Speck with Philatelic History BY KLAUS D. HAHN AND T. PHILIP HICKS Figure 1. A set of 1980 Tristan da Cunha stamps (Scott 283–286) locates the specific islands of Tristan da Cunha, including Tristan and Gough islands. t is probably safe to claim that as far back as anyone alive At the time of its first recorded sighting, the then-unin- today can remember, the general public and many stamp habited island was first encountered by a Portuguese navi- Icollectors have been fascinated by small and remote pop- gator, and he named the island after himself. The island, or ulated islands. more properly the group of several islands, lie within a cir- Both aspects — remoteness and small size — pertain with cumferential zone of about 18 miles (30 kilometers), with an the island of Tristan da Cunha, situated in the mid-South At- additional outlier. About 250 miles (400 km) farther south- lantic roughly between Cape Town, South Africa and Monte- east is Gough Island. They all are part of the mid-Atlantic video, Uruguay [Figure 1]. Ridge, a volcanically rich oceanic region. Yes, that translates into about 2,100 miles from the South The island [Figure 2], with a tiny population today of American coastline and about 1,500 miles from South Africa about 280, comprises the exposed portion of a volcano, which (about the same distance as the crow flies between Minne- rises about 1.2 miles into the air, with another nearly 2 miles apolis, Minnesota and Key West, Florida, but with no land in submerged.
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