Tristan da Cunha - No Place Like Home (24th October 1989)

[Music] Tristan Duna it's hardly a place it's a destination of the Mind Tristan Nuna it's become a kind of sing song folk music of this ship I'm beginning to have my doubts not sure I really want to get there anymore just in case I'm let down Tristan Duna you 7,000 ft High 7 m across cliche that it is perhaps it's better to travel hopefully than to [Music] arrive hello I'm John hemway and welcome to travels I'm at the Royal geographical Society in London this wonderful rather noisy Globe who can resist spinning it once many years ago my finger settled here TR CH Duna funny name 1500 mil from Africa about 1,700 from South America Tristan Duna a rock in the lonliest of all Seas a wisp of an island known for its rare and wonderful stamps at the age of 10 I began to wonder who lives on Tristan and what do they do what do they think about surrounded by so much sea truth is I never stopped wondering so just the other day I settled the question I booked passage on the world's last great oceangoing mail ship on its once a year Mission collecting the post bearing all those glorious stamps from the island of Tristan [Music] Duna [Music] travels is made possible by a grant from Lexus at Lexus We Believe those who seek the exhilaration of travel should be relentless in their Pursuit travels is also made possible by the financial support of viewers like you there is a universal chorus these days the world is too much with us every nation has its pepsy generation every country can be reached by facts machine Tristan tuna may be the exception it's called The Loneliest place on the earth an island without an airport without a proper telephone a community of 300 people visited only once a year by a mail ship for years I dreamed of going there this year my dream came [Music] true [Music] the only schedual way to reach Tristan Duna is on board the Royal Mail ship St Alina a rough and tumble converted coaster I joined the RMS at Ascension Island just south of the Equator after flying 6 hours from New York and another 9 hours from Britain I felt as if I were stepping back in time to a more forgiving form of travel I'd been thinking of this journey for years now I feel a bit of an intruder an American nosing Through The Last Remnant of the British Empire a creature of the80s about to cruise through the pages of a Sommerset mom short story for all visitors and other persons not Sailing In The Vessel will they please proceed ashore now as the gang way is about to be [Applause] raised [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] hi nice to see you really nice to be on board R your cabin oh fabulous the first ride of passage in the high seas always seems to be a cocktail party I scouted the Rome there were few Travelers like me most had work to do in the South Atlantic I'm going to tr to work as the dental surgeon for the island they only have a a dental visit once every 2 years have you done this before no no I'm normally B based on ascension so they find one victim every 2 or 3 years to go down there well you could say that I'm going to take away from Bangladesh which has which has 100,000 banglades within the PWD world and gone off back to Britain and got through a job I really don't want to know too much before I get there I want to say just fresh I don't want to see what it looks like before there because you have a certain picture in your mind of what it's going to look like and what it will be and I don't want anything to you to stop here passengers are secondary to Cargo the RMS is everything a cruise ship isn't it is after all the South Atlantic's one and only carrier of Love Letters church organs hearing aids Dallas videos Deep pile carpets and motorbikes Bound for destinations mere whimsies of geology here the undersea Rift has thrust up an enormous range of great mountains some taller than Mount Everest and a few flanked by volcanoes a handful have graduated into islands and the one thread that links them is the RMS St Elina uh we always consider ourselves to be the last male vessel yet after unic Castle vessels went they're replaced by this little small one and as far as we know we are the only one yes it is one of a kind now it is the last male ship it is The Last Ship that regularly runs to some of the most lonely islands in the world and I think it's its future is very strong first officer Dave Roberts is exactly the man I as a boy wanted to grow up to be cool in action Fearless hairy faed even romantic a modernday sea Rover through Dave I was introduced to a member of the ship's company and the very first tristananvilcaster I'd reckon you know this about loness but it depends what they what they when they talk it depends what they mean by lonely I mean me myself when I when I live on Tristan I wouldn't say really that like we lonely like you know um what's so special about C I think it's kind of special but well first it's my home that's number one and let me say don't matter how small there no place like home really then again it's a lot for for men like boys a lot of activity going on you know yeah like say we got sailboats you go in the mountain sheep it's luck for man like you know right why did you want to go to see were you fed up with living on Tristan no not really but it's a good experience to get away something different you hear people talking about it but it's good to see what it is for yourself then when people talk about it you don't talking about a great place for boys a place that isn't particularly lonely those were my first Clues to Tristan [Music] [Music] [Applause] on the third day out St Elena the island of Napoleon emerged as a washed Shadow for me the trip is pure romance for the St elans it's merely a shuttle they're returning from contract jobs in Ascension or from the far more distant but still British South Atlantic Islands the [Music] f the very excitement of landing at St Elina made me feel slightly Napoleonic history I thought must be infectious this the very spot where the exiled Emperor landed in 1815 after losing the battle of waterl to steady myself from all this heady history I made my way to the Island's most popular Watering Hole an's place you know we're here to do a film about the island and I've been told you're quite famous I don't know if you realize this but I've been told that you have a thing about people making films about the island of St alen Alina yes I do because from time to time people come here and they make a film oh that's delicious and um I feel that they can pick up the better parts of the island you know they tend to pick people who's just lounging around and not doing anything it makes the British government feel as if we just layabouts strange these days to find an anxious and enthusiastic Colonial subject St Elina is at once both forbidding and fertile barely supporting 6,000 inhabitants for them the Saints the arrival of the RMS St Elina means one thing calling the mail Mr lion bman B Gordon's post Mr Mrs Donald barers Market Street Mrs G barers Napoleon Street the ice cream lady around the corner from the vicarage Merle Bennett Newbridge ABA James Town Mr Kenneth Thomas Sant Evelyn Thomas Napoleon Street Mr but I couldn't escape the Island's history Long woodh house was Napoleon's greatly deminished Empire for the last years of his [Music] life I could still sense how haunted he must have been how determined he was to see but not be seen by his captives walk the sunken path he dug and in a way I walk with [Music] him when I am no longer here there English Travelers will make drawings of this Garden created by Napoleon there won't be anyone who won't want to visit it but very few visitors English or otherwise visit Longwood house these days it sits on land deeded to the French government from time to time its doors are open at the whim of the honorary French consul within three or four of Napoleon's possession still remain otherwise the rooms are bare and deathly silent here he planned future campaigns and fulminated against his captors and here on this very spot he died on the 5th of May [Music] 1821 father it looks like a bit of a microcosm of the entire Island history in this little graveyard here yes I think you could say that I think it really is it tells the story of St Elina and particularly it tells the story of how the island prospered flourished and declined and fell we have got gravestones here of the high officials of the Raj on their way back from India we've got a judge over there I think of the Kolkata circuit um is we got a fell here Bombay on his Passage to India John Hunter native of Glasgow on the steamship Adelaide died age 22 no doubt also returning you've got the establishment here there marvelous fellow here with the name John onions late Steward of The Honorable company under Governor beatson this place was prosperous under the East India Company they say a thousand ships a year used to call so we've got these great warehouses to supply Provisions for the ship bringing things in from the country down that ladder you had hotels pubs Merchants the place was thronged with people We Gather and now what one ship six times a year handful of yards it was time to leave once again to abandoned light and plunge into the darkest of oceans funny how on the ship far from Land I feel released from Earth a drift in a kind of limbo often I think of Tristan duno a name the world recognizes largely because of the volcano that blew in 1961 I consider its ties to St Elina how it was first settled by a British Garrison intended to discourage the French from coming to Napoleon's rescue the seed of that Garrison the descendants of a Scottish artillery man are still on Tristan today nearly two centuries later odd to find a place where history is still so [Music] raw here the ocean was so empty would even been abandoned by the birds how have you done so far well at the present moment there are very few birds i' see that so I recorded for example one bird at lunchtime today what bird was that that was a soft plumage petrol that crossed the port bow and then headed straight away from the vessel doesn't follow the ship can I just look at this to see what you've seen certainly oh you saw a large flying fish that's right one large flying fish and a whole school of smaller ones I'm not I'm not really certain of the species so I log them according to size do they qualify as Birds no but what we do you see we have here a a list of an association with whatever other creatures are found in the area under study it seems to me that over the last three days all you've seen is that is that fluffy bag P petrol the soft plumage petrol plumage petrol and uh a few flying fish few flying fish but around St Elina plenty of ndis right ndis uh Tropic Birds Master Booby Brown booy so Captain about where where are we right now we're about 26 6 and 1/2 South now which is about halfway between s Lina and Tristan there's Tristan and there's s Lina we're also about equid distance between Africa and South America too aren't you almost almost so we're a long way from anywhere just now I see silly question but uh just what would happen if we lost this engine how would you get U help from anybody if you were stranded sea I think we've be sitting here for quite a while before we could get a tug out here so we have we have to fix it ourselves lovely hello Tristan radio Tristan radio Tristan radio Tristan radio Tristan radio this is St Elina St Elina St Elina to Tristan radio how do you read [Applause] please what's going to happen to a stranger like uh myself for instance when I get there are people going to U accept me well I spe it mainly depends on you I reckon mainly depends on you I mean if you if you want to sort of like be shy of people and don't sort of like want to go up and speak to them they got Pride as well they sort of like go up and speak to you but if you sort of want to want to mix with the people then they like people like that they like people people who like to mix they do so if you want to mix like I said I don't think you'll have no problem what are you going to do when you get back what's the first thing you going to do when you get back well that's that's a good question I got a lot of things in mind but I everything I got the time to do it and while Julian Swain plotted his brief stop over at Tristan I sought out others who were going to Tristan to stay one was Bernard psort the Island's newly assigned administrator and his wife Patricia I have a feeling that that the Island community of Tristan is different from every other Island community it just seems to be an anomaly in the world today that something could be as uh desolate U as an island like that and still be inhabited by people who by choice want to live there and and who in fact made that choice toiv with because when the volcano went up in 60 and they were all evacuated to England 90% of them asked to be repatriated to the island and went back because they couldn't they didn't like Southampton there's a lot of people who don't like Southampton of course but they didn't they didn't like it at all and back they all went 90% of them so they made their choice as a deliberate one not just the accident of birth and not being able to get off Tristan Duna it's hardly a place it's a destination of the Mind Tristan Nuna it's become a kind of sing song folk music of this ship I'm beginning to have my doubts not sure I really want to get there anymore just in case I'm let down Tristan Duna nearly 7,000 ft High 7 m across cliche that it is perhaps it's better to travel hopefully than to arrive [Music] the anchor will go out fairly rapidly and you will get a lot of dust and you may get some water coming out of the chain Locker okay so don't be alarmed when it goes out just stay exactly where you are and all will be Ticky boo all right so much for my doubts but long last Tristan for me it had been a voyage of one week in the high seas from Ascension for the ship 3 weeks from Britain I scramble to be the first to [Music] shore [Music] come on come on in the event my enthusiasm got me to the shore long before anyone else including the film crew and the Island's new administrator Julian the Sailor home from the sea for as long as the RMS stated anchor played the Island's returning hero dressed for the part but where were the women with me the men were clearly shy but what was puzzling was their absence of curiosity not a greeting not a question not even a stare [Music] first night on the island first illusion shattered rock and roll had preceded me to Tristan I suppose I was expecting folk dancing said about you here at last were the women and dancing with gusto but each time the music stopped they retreated all Mass to their Corner talk about segregation of the Sexes I had a lot of questions to ask my first morning on Tristan not just exposed rock but Green Meadows in all directions with every glance another illusion bursts afternoon how are you all right right where where you bringing the cattle from huh where you taking the cattle from CLE from over up up here by the volcano yeah where are they going now I see of course I didn't see I hadn't understood one word I had to keep reminding myself that everything that doesn't grow here or can't be made here must come a minimum of 1500 miles of course some things they don't need door locks there are no thieves in Tristan still I find myself decisively locked out Tristan my home for the next 2 weeks 7 m across but everyone living in the village bounded on one one side by the new volcano on the other by the farmed land a place called the patches Tristan this is the Tristan I suppose I dreamed about it's not exactly what I had in mind part 20th century part Middle Ages part of the world walk along these roads people seem to avoid me are they threatened or are they just plain annoyed by the intrusion I I can't tell I've been to many remote destinations before but I've never seen a place so remote the people were totally indifferent to a [Music] newcomer afternoon how are you than do these people won't talk to me they won't even glance my way hello hello even the dogs don't trust me I wondered if my fellow passenger Bernard would Faire better than I I Bernard Edward psort swear that I will well and truly serve her majesty Queen Elizabeth II her heirs and successors in the office of administrator and I will do right to all all manner of persons after the laws and usages of this Colony without fear or favor affection or ill will so help me God in the afternoon a less conspicuous ceremony the last cargo from the RMS was unloaded its predecessor had died of diseases related to over use and Salt Air okay hold just hold up come down a bit get [Music] like the wind had gathered and the Seas were Rising the RMS St Elina decided not to linger I felt like a cast of way for life well if the Islanders wouldn't talk to me maybe I might learn something from their ancestors the oldest headstone one William glass a member of the original British Garrison became back in 1821 with a wife settled for life became the forefather of this remote Outpost post Scots Irish English American Dutch and finally Italian cast ways of the world who somehow found each other and for whom differences became a bond glass Rogers Hagen Swain green lavarello and repetto the islands roll call only seven families refined remixed and redefined for nearly two centuries my wanderings brought me here where history is also accumulating Auntie Martha 95 the oldest of all the Islanders and best of all the first to talk to me auntie Martha how did your father come to this island well he was shipwreck sir said could you say that again EV was shipwreck yeah my father Andria repin gatana Lao and they stayed and got married and they had quite a large family and but they all they all to go to the rest now you see and my father always used to tell me Tell H not only me remember be kind to strangers remember he was a stranger on the island once be kind to strangers I like that everybody on this island had once been a stranger I like that too and all these strangers had somehow developed a way of living together in harmony but of course there was a pattern to this harmony I noted it at Church my first Sunday here once again the Sexes were segregated Bernard had made the mistake of leaving with the Wind women not wanting to break with tradition I hung back and made my move with the men later I chatted with two women I hadn't seen in church I asked them if they accepted the segregation of the Sexes well I mean it's sort of what we grew up with sort tradition really what in other words inequality is what you grew up with yeah I mean well it's demens or what provide the food and income and out so and the women who stay at home keep the house I mean some wom and we are there jobs that women would like to do that they can't yeah I mean if if I could do any any job I wanted I wouldn't have been working in the office I'd want to been a mechanic but that's not a sort of job a girl gets offered here how would I ever uncover a secret on Tristan you wouldn't because I mean like a lot of Tristan in the past have had so many journalists come here they write about what they want to write about not what the Islanders tell them and us right they're very weary of people like you journalists interest in Tristan is fairly recent it dates from October 1961 when the Earth opened at the edge of the village the Island's way of life would never be the same but still these things keep shaking on the shelves and keep on and something you got to hold some fast to the think something said look this is something and it just went and went on till they keep getting wor and wor and then this Sunday was a Sunday I knew we was for a birthday master and I and a the ground start to crack along the roads you see it was the first of several eruptions burning Ash ignited one house and several farm animals perished amazingly no one died or was seriously injured there the volcano R that's when the Navy ship I think came I brought along a copy of the news reel that had put Tristan on the map I wanted somehow to share with Julian's family those epic events which changed Tristan's destiny and that's so William Rogers the Island's administrator acted decisively Tristan's entire population was evacuated to Britain there they would stay for 2 years before insisting on returning for all the tristani this was a first view of the outside world a first encounter with the 20th century a traumatic experience for all but especially so for the parents of a two-month-old infant Lou is that you you with Julian in your arms yes that's me I was a goodlooking young man then he was nice and thin now he's too fat what do you imagine life's going to be like when you get to Britain well we don't really know cuz we haven't been to outside well yet but what do you think well I think you good Lord will look after us and we be happy there were the people nice to you in England yes very nice it's very kind to us he couldn't wish have the only thing we long for a homest in hland was so different to us you know have you ever seen television no it's a box with a picture in it and you see Cowboys in it would you like to see that yes we didn't us had no television we never no gas no refrigerators we never nothing like that but after to we come back to Tristan we got everything is up to date you have Dallas now yes is it better because of Dallas I like to come back to Tristan for the taking my children because in England you have to keep them indoors all the time and that's one thing we ain't used to is our doors lock and our children shut up inside all time but ear and TR is a free life for them they can run about they can go where they like you haven't got any worry about with them life in England's better and there's better prospects in England for the younger people would you say you were pretty contented to be back yes rather I wouldn't part with my little highing home for anything too quiet and lovely is it the same with you beg your pardon sir is it the same with you well it's no place like home no it's just quite too lonely it can be lonely but it's no place like home are you happy to be back in Tristan happy in a way s sad in another for the piece of my heart is in England and I long to be there for to be lay at rest beside him but that can never be but my brother-in-law is looking out this grave the keep keep it nice and clean but I send a what a little money I I send to help him do you know flowers and England it's like on Tristan Tristan you come one another SC and say oh can I have a bunch of flowers yes go and pick what you want but in England you have to go and buy those flowers you see everything in England is money there's nothing we get without money you won't get a pen you won't get a needle no you telling me you won't get a pen and you won't get to need if you ain't got the money to buy it I've been in England and I know England England is a nice place and a lovely place a beautiful place and the people is very kind but everything is money Bernard is Tristan it's it's just a vesage of of Empire what's in it for Britain I think there anything in it for Britain Britain has a moral responsibility to govern this tiny islands and these people in the best interests of the inhabitants after all we acquired it during a period of Colonial expansion as it were in what the early 1800s and uh we're here now and until the Islanders tell us that they want us to go we will stay does it cost Britain anything no not a thing no it does to the extent there's a certain amount of Aid money that uh tops up the salary of the teacher and the doctor and so on but the running of the of the uh of the island and all of its services is financed out of Revenue that comes from the the crayfish concession and the postage stamps both of which are very good money earners postage stamps had been my Boyhood linked to Tristan Duna for a while they were the centerpiece of my collection Alan we've got the the the proofs of the next issue of stamps from Capco for our comments I didn't have anything to do with the design of these you saw it from the very beginning yes they've made a number of suggestions of where it can be cleaned up now I could see how the Island's second biggest industry actually worked nothing mechanical here it was in fact a production line composed of two stamped Liquors all day long they went at it with unflagging precision and Care the stamps and first a covers are all printed in Britain but there they have no value it's only when they come in contact with the Tristan postmark and Tristan Salt Air with the fastidious care of a Tristan liquor only then they become valuable beautiful stamps celebrating everything from the Epic to the mundane on this Windswept [Applause] Island the weather on Tristan is so violent that even the harbor is no protection for a fishing boat the only safe birth is high up in the land and only one day in five are the Seas still enough for a launching fishing not only subsidizes is the island it's at the heart of the Island's soul for every island man is deep down a [Music] fisherman [Music] [Applause] [Music] the crayfish there's probably no richer population than in the Deep Waters of Tristan but crayfish are Way Beyond the means of Tristan families who catch process and deep freeze them for the world's more affluent diners standing out from the crowd is not a Tristan trait so there's a price to pay for being a highly paid Islander as long as I'm Factory manager down there there are lots of people in Arland who just ignore you you know uh they don't like you for your ways they don't like you the way you react and Tristan is always like that and always will be they they don't like somebody else uh being above them in their own Community it is a lots of people who do not like to take responsibility uh I don't know why but I think uh they find out that if they take responsibility they're going to fall out with somebody I'm the sort of person who don't live by people's lives I mean if a person don't like me well he doesn't like me that's fine but I'm not going to uh uh give up just because he doesn't like me is he I soon discovered that one of the most sociable occasions of the week is on Saturday when everyone who can Journeys the three miles out to the patches to dig their potatoes it's a tradition as old as the Island's history when potatoes were the staple diet in fact a substitute for money now in those days you had no money tell me what it was like not having any money and how it's different today oh dear sir I don't think I'd really tell you you couldn't understand how we live without money but we didn't look for it we couldn't we didn't think about it we used to they used to B you know get their food from ships The Exchange they come here and get like meat and potatoes or vegetables and then they'd give you an exchange like flour tea sugar or any little luxuy what they had in exchange and then when we got it we share it out between each other perhaps I'm too spoiled by the outside world to find much comfort and Island routine I'm drawn time and again to the flatsome from afar to messages of other lives that continually roll up on the beach not so with the tristani here it's either a church day a fishing day a potato day here it's sharing and togetherness ritual and tradition survival is cooperation and the seas are to the tristans with the heav Happ s maybe to others the boundaries of the [Music] world tristani I'm beginning to understand don't want the world to get any smaller they want the sea to be as large and as daunting and as unforgiving as it's always been that way it will always separate them from the outside world that way they'll always know peace a newly built home on Tristan it belongs to Pat Patterson his is the First new surname this Century he was admitted because he married an island girl but why did he choose to retire to Tristan well we're far from the Ming crowd here as you can see it's quiet and peaceful I think a lot of people would like to find a little island somewhere and we've got one what is the downside of life here in Tristan it's not all glory well one disadvantages everyone knows each other's business to some extent such a small community and you know it's petty petty little squabbles and jealousies but I think uh overall the people are just like you'd find people anywhere else is gossip and Scandal something which affects women because it's such a small community it depends who it is really cuz some people just don't worry about it but like me I do so probably Caren don't really worry didn't you no I don't care what you think about me it's almost a certainty that you're going to marry somebody that you've been to school with and that you've known since birth is that true yeah how do you I can't conceive of it I'm sorry how do you feel about well how do you expect us to feel well I mean it's it's it's a foregone conclusion that you already know the man you're going to marry even when you're 3 years old but as way has always been unting doesn't bother you no no surprise yeah if a Tristan girl got pregnant is it a hideous stamp against a blot on her character no I don't think so not now it's accept it now I think it is accept it a lot of a lot of women seem to get pregnant don't they uh before marriage in fact it seems to be the the the step you get pregnant and then you get married no not here it depends persons or persons probably half the time is accidents anyway that's right how about abortions could could one get an abortion on something no it's illegal is it yes would there be could there be such a thing as divorce on the island it it could be a thing as divorce but it's it's so much pava involved in it that I don't think people would go through it divor especially gossip prob I mean it's never been a divorce on trist and with all this pav and it I didn't think there would people would [Music] divorce it was extraordinary on almost all other Islands I've known there's escape the kids dream of great cities and of oceans skipping Ambitions here there's no such thing what's more I discovered it's one of the first rules the kids learn to accept one continuous Horizon one mountain one perspective unless British nationality laws are to change trinian children have no automatic right to live and work in Britain they must look to careers uniquely [Music] [Music] tristananvilcaster photographic device I joined a party of Island teenagers one day on an albatross survey 2,000 ft above the [Music] village on go on grab him before he throws up again all over me go on now okay look look you hold the pliers and the ring right and I'll show you how it's done okay now look can you take his take his neck from me now Look okay now come right up can you feel his sort of skull under there now don't grip him too tight yeah don't worry I think you're grip him a bit too hard actually turn him around this way a bit cuz I want to get this leg here that's it so wind goes on the right leg like this there it is okay let him go now terrific Jim how many years years has it been since you've been ringing these birds this is a fourth year now and there was my predecessor um started all off he did one year um and found I think about 18 nests in the first year and the next year um one of the doctors was very interested in birds and he used to come up here with me that was quite a successful year and when he left i s took over the whole project and uh involved the school children more I want my children to have if I can help it I couldn't have in my days when I go up I had a bit of schooling quite a bit and I try hard but I want them to beat me if I can give them that chance but they'll never have the opportunity on Tristan unless I can do something and get them away to a school out toy well I will do my uttermost best to do it so we send both our daughters to Denson College in the UK now one trained to be a nurse and the other one trained to be a teach teacher not not a teacher a catering doing catering work in hotels and all the that they're never going to come back here so they're not going to come back here now although I get one coming back but she's only here for six months because she couldn't she had to give up nursing and she can't get a Visa in England to stay so we we really with the VISA in the UK I'd like to say we Clause Britain as the mother hen but it seems to me that we're the ugly duckling we just left out in the go both my girls were born in England so they they're entitled to British passports if they're bright when the time comes if they're bright they can go back to University or poly Technic you've got everything in other words that the Islanders really don't have have a certain flexibility yeah naturally I worry about those kids who won't have that flexibility unable to go elsewhere for work and unlikely to find a partner not named glass Rogers Hagen Swain green lavarella or repetto won't they be in danger one day of inbreeding I asked the Island's only doctor one assumes that any any of the major problems are so dilute that even with only eight families on the island you're not going to see any serious disorders demonstrated were it ever to be uh a significant problem for a few individuals this is the sort of community where they would blend in and be accommodated uh without question or stigma remarkable Community this is Tristan this is Tristan and more Tristan than anything else are the longboats made of wood and canvas according to plans 100 years old they are for these people emblems of the Tristan life for them it would be a sacrilege if they were fiberglass or metal empowered by anything less than the wind so several times a year when conditions are right in the Seas forgiving they neglect Church potatoes and CR fish to launch these frail craft for a weekend outing to neighboring Nightingale some 20 M away and it was on this voyage that for one moment I didn't feel like an outsider you're not going to tell me how old you are eh I will not if you tell me you H I'll tell my age that's a that's a secret okay it's a secret just listen listen carefully now we call be like H chickens I hope he metant spring chicken first time I've been called that when us two old fogies leave uh these young kids are they going to have a Tristan that's just the same as it is uh as it is today well that icon I don't I don't know that's a question I can't answer you but I can't care less because I be done and gone or gone to own make this own no tristans are neither Romantics nor poets nor magicians of the heart realists to a man they bear no illusions of their place in the World tiny specks in a great and inhuman sea like nightingale's rock copper Penguins tristani know they [Music] belong oh Caroline Caroline Caroline hello Caroline Caroline Caroline TR any you to Caroline 2182 how do you read police the shortwave radio Tristan's one shaky link to the outside world and for me the chance to contact the fishing troller charted to take me home thousands of nautical miles in distance light years in spirit Caroline Caroline Caroline uh this is John hemway speaking Caroline uh John himo speaking uh just one question um do you have any on my 14th and final day on Tristan I had what I consider an island right of passage I threw a birthday party and one fifth of the Island's population turned up they showered me with presents 23 pairs of knitted wool socks the traditional Island gift where's Margaret Margaret Margaret very shy Margaret on Margaret come on I see you there ah thank you very much I'm very very touched indeed can I give you a big kiss Thank you hardly momentous this birthday yet I'm touched Tristan Duna its self-sufficient people have shown me the significance of a small otherwise inconsequential Milestone of my life and now my leaving takes on a deeper meaning on this island I Came Upon Rich guarantees we never have at home the guarantee of unconditional friendship the guarantee of help under any circumstance the guarantee of freedom from crime a passion for peace yet here I am ill at ease with all this security straining to find the vessel that will take me back to a world where there is no peace where there are no guarantees and where friendships are all too often conditional so in setting out to realize a dream I also found something unexpected in [Music] myself [Music] thanks for joining me on Tristan Duna I'm John hemway see you next time on travels travels is made possible

Channel: britishdocs

Views: 378,230

Keywords: Tristan, da, Cunha, Isolated, place, in, the, world, Saint, Helena, Ascension, St, John, Hemmingway, yt:stretch=16:9, yt:crop=16:9

Id: rpPesVPfWlk

Length: 56min 55sec (3415 seconds)

Published: Fri May 25 2012