Tristan da Cunha, seen from the West
On 10 October 1961, the eruption of Queen Mary's Peak forced evacuation of all 264 people. The evacuees took to the water in open boats, taken by the local lobster-fishing boats Tristania and Frances Repetto to uninhabited Nightingale Island. The next day they were picked up by the diverted Dutch passenger ship Tjisadane that took them to Cape Town. The islanders later arrived in the UK aboard the liner Stirling Castle to a big press reception and, after a short period at Pendell Army Camp in Merstham, Surrey, were settled in an old Royal Air Force camp near Calshot, Hampshire. The following year a Royal Society expedition reported that Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had survived. Most families returned in 1963.
Tristan da Cunha, seen from the West
On 10 October 1961, the eruption of Queen Mary's Peak forced evacuation of all 264 people. The evacuees took to the water in open boats, taken by the local lobster-fishing boats Tristania and Frances Repetto to uninhabited Nightingale Island. The next day they were picked up by the diverted Dutch passenger ship Tjisadane that took them to Cape Town. The islanders later arrived in the UK aboard the liner Stirling Castle to a big press reception and, after a short period at Pendell Army Camp in Merstham, Surrey, were settled in an old Royal Air Force camp near Calshot, Hampshire. The following year a Royal Society expedition reported that Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had survived. Most families returned in 1963.