TRISTAN DA CUNHA

TRISTAN DA CUNHA.

Tristan da Cunha islands in an ancient chart made by Johannes van Keulen (1700).
Minisheet issued on 22.05.1981.
Face value: 35 Saint Helena pence.
Printing: Offset lithography.
Size: 111 x 70 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. BL 13.
- Scott No. 293.
- StampWorld No. 302.
- Stanley Gibbons No. MS 307.
- Yvert et Tellier No. BF 13.

Tristan da Cunha is a group of volcanic islands in the south Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately 2,787 km (1,732 mi) off the coast of South Africa, 2,437 km (1,514 mi) from Saint Helena and 4,002 km (2,487 mi) off the coast of the Falkland Islands. Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory. It consists of the Tristan da Cunha Island, with a diameter of roughly 11 km (6.8 mi) and an area of 98 km² (38 sq mi); the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island; and the smaller Nightingale Islands. In October 2018 the main island haved 250 permanent inhabitants. The other islands are uninhabited, except for the South African personnel of a weather station on Gough Island. The islands were first sighted in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha. On August 14, 1816, the United Kingdom annexed the islands, making them a dependency of the Cape Colony in South Africa.

Johannes van Keulen (born 1654 in Deventer - dead 1715 in Amsterdam) was a 17th-century Dutch cartographer. He published the influential nautical atlas the Zee-Atlas and the guide for pilots Zee-Fakkel. In 1678 he established himself in Amsterdam and in 1680 he obtained a patent from the States of Holland and West Friesland allowing him to print and publish maritime atlases and shipping guides.