The Development of Tristan Da Cunha

H. H. THE ADMINISTRATOR DISPELS SOME MYTHS Part 2: Development on Tristan da Cunha

SARTMA: Rightly or wrongly it was reported in the UK and South American press that last year the Royal Navy Shelled a section of Tristan da Cunha’s coastline to help build a new harbour. Obviously something was done. What actually was blown up and how is the project progressing?

BB: It wasn’t quite as dramatic as that. We are building a new harbour because the existing harbour is not good. It was built in a bit of a hurry when the Islanders got back to the island after the evacuation in 1961. It was built in the wrong place in a shallow area and basically it is unusable except for 60 days a year because the water is too rough at the harbour mouth to get in and out. It was built on doggy foundations and bits and pieces are gradually falling away. We have some really big storms and the whole thing could be knocked out. We need a new harbour, clear and simple. It’s our only lifeline and without it Tristan would be doomed because people couldn’t off-load goods. We identified a site and hired on a consultant who stayed with us for three months, studied the site, made some recommendations, and drew up a plan. There is more work to be done on that but he gave us the basic position beside our other harbour.

SARTMA: Would you give a little history as well as tell why the big bangs and what will that achieve?

BB: It was in an existing small pond which is protected at the moment by a bit of beach which came about as a result of the eruption in 1961. What the Royal Navy is helping us to do is, this small pond we wanted to use had a number of large rocks positioned where we didn’t want them in the inner harbour. I asked the Navy if they had a demolition expert that could help us get rid of these rocks. They said they didn’t but they knew a man who did. What the Royal Navy kindly offered was the transportation to bring someone from the Falkland Islands from the Military base here who was a demolition expert who could blow up our rocks for us. And the Royal Navy gave him a free passage out to Tristan because the new HMS Sheffield called into the Falklands last November on its way to Tristan da Cunha and the Commander agreed to let two men come with their equipment. We basically paid for them to come back.

It must have sounded like shelling but they came and blew up the rocks for us and cleared the site for us and that was done very successfully. It was quite a big bang, of course. There were several big bangs, in fact. So we now basically have a big hole ready to enlarge and make the main facility.

Though it is close to the existing harbour the point is it is in much deeper water. The access to it is in much deeper water so it will be a much more usable harbour in that we can use it over 250 days of the year instead of 60 days a year. Ships can also anchor closer to it because all the transfer of passengers and cargo is via barges that come out from the harbour to the ships which are moored maybe 200 to 300 yards offshore.

SARTMA: Will the new harbour have better facilities compared to the one presently in use for no-loading and off-loading people and goods?

BB: The new harbour has been designed to provide a new facility. One of the things at the moment because the present harbour is very small, there is no way that any ship including the small fishing vessels which we use for the crayfish industry can actually stay in the harbour overnight. They have to be lifted out by crane every night when they get back, which is a time consuming process. And if we can have a new harbour, which allows vessels, be moored overnight we can save actually about two hours per vessel each day we fish and that’s 40 man hours a day which is a considerable saving. As I say, the existing harbour is cracking up anyway so we’ve got to have a new one. Also, with the position of the new harbour it will save the amount of time travelling to and from the vessels as we are off-loading by about two thirds. That would be a big plus to make it much safer for goods and passengers. One of the great problems we have is getting passengers off of ships. There’s always a swell at Tristan and it’s not so much the swell at the ship. That’s difficult enough but there is always a wave breaking at the existing harbour mouth. It’s why we can’t always get people off. It’s the actual getting in and out of the harbour is the problem.

SARTMA: Given the new facility, are Tristanians preparing to import more products or are they interested in more tourism?