COVER N. 536 - BRITISH OVERSEAS TERRITORIES - SAINT HELENA, ASCENSION AND TRISTAN DA CUNHA

Postmark: Tristan da Cunha South Atlantic 17.09.2024

Posted on the 17th September; Received on the 28th November 2024

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Of all the remote inhabited places, this is said to be the remotest. Tristan da Cunha (or Tristão da Cunha, to put it right according to the nationality of the Portuguese sailor/explorer who first set eyes on the archipelago, in 1506, and chose to name it after his own self) is a group of 6 islands located in the South Atlantic, some 2800 km to the West of the African continent.

And if proof of its remoteness was needed, it would suffice to say that the circuit  which the letter I now received initiated is dated of February 2023, the day when Roland probably sent the letter to the postal services of the Archipelago in order to have it dispatched to me.... that is, 1 year and 9 months ago....

This notwithstanding, the journey from Tristan da Cunha to Portugal was rather swift, since it only took two and a half months.

I couldn't be more happy for having the opportunity to add this interesting piece to my collection. Mon très grand Merci, Roland, por cette surprise magnifique!

I can't even think of how living on such a remote place must be challenging, in a number of ways. The more so since up to 2003, I read, foreigners were not allowed to establish themselves on the island (and thus contribute to some genetic refreshment of the population, who share but nine family names). 

I remember, as a child, living in an Island with not that much population and few services (no television, no education past the 9th grade, no surgeries in the hospital, temporary absence of some food items, especially in the winter, whet the seas were rough and the island could not be supplied by ship, and so on) but we were but 1300 km from the continent AND we had an airport, what meant but a couple of hours flight to the mainland, something which, I understand, Tristan da Cunha, which lies more than double the distance from the continent, does not have.... and I don’t think there is any existing helicopter with that kind of range….

Still our species is composed of decidedly resilient beings and we can adapt to a vast number of  challenging living conditions, the more so when technology can really help bridge distances, but nonetheless there has to be a moment when all that remoteness exerts a tremendous pressure on you... I think of myself at 18 or 19, interraling through Europe; the ease with which my daughters now fly from here to the place they want to go to or visit.... no rail services in Tristan da Cunha... no low cost flights either....

Stamps, on par with lobster, are the most important sources of revenue from external commerce for Tristan da Cunha Administration, and the themes chosen for the issues do mostly reflect a connection with natural history or the history of the islands or its affiliation with the British Crown.

The 45 p stamp on the left is part of set of 4 stamps issued on 14JULY2021,  part of the "Shark" series, which add also another four stamp issue in 2020. 

The stamp is illustrated with a photo of a Bluntnose Sixgill Shark (Hexanchus griseus), a species which can be found in temperate and tropical waters all over the world and can measure up to 6 metres in length.

Ships play an important part on Tristan da Cunha life, as its main connection with the rest of the world. As such it is not surprising that this is also a theme quite well represented in the archipelago's issues.

The 10 p stamp is part of a thirteen definitive stamp set issued on 14DEC2020, dedicated to Modern Mail Ships. it is illustrated with a photo of MV RSA, South Africa's first antarctic supply ship, a  1572 gross ton vessel, built by the Fujinagata Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, in Osaka, Japan, launched on 28 September 1961. 

According to the date on the stamp, it provided  services to the Islands between 1963 and 1977. 

In 1980 MV RSA was transformed into a static training ship for merchant seamen and it was moored in Cape Town docks. It was later partially scrapped and then sunk, when asbestos was found to be present on it.

Further to the very clear local Postmark, the cover is marred by un unfortunate mechanical cancellation, applied probably somewhere in the UK, while in transit to Portugal.