TRISTAN DA CUNHA

TRISTAN DA CUNHA.

Ancient map of A. Dalrymple (1781).
Second stamp in a set of 3, issued on 22.05.1981.
Face value: 14 Saint Helena pence.
Printing: Offset lithography.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 301.
- Scott No. 291.
- StampWorld No. 300.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 305.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 289.

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.

The first full survey of the archipelago was made by crew of the French corvette Heure du Berger in September 1767: the stamp shows its route around the island of Tristan da Cunha, on a map drawn on March 17, 1781 by the British geographer Alexander Dalrymple, one of the first explorers of the place.