At
3:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 21, we stood on the bow of the ship and watched
with great anticipation as we approached the island of St. Helena. The captain
had opened the bow of the ship, usually closed to passengers, to anyone wishing
to view the island straight ahead. We could see it in the distance rising out
of the mist. To us St. Helena has always been one of the remotest places on
earth, and we couldn’t believe our luck being in the middle of the South
Atlantic and getting to see it.
St.
Helena
St.
Helena is the second oldest British colony behind Bermuda. Because the island
only has a population of approximately 700, two thousand passengers
disembarking from the ship would have overwhelmed the islanders, so the ship
will only sail by the island, but close enough to get a good view of it. Having
a set of binoculars helps.
The
Portuguese discovered the uninhabited island in 1502 and named it St. Helena.
Since then, the Portuguese, Dutch, and British have laid claim to it. For such
a remote place in the middle of the South Atlantic, it became a stopping off
place for many famous voyagers, including Captain Drake, during his circumnavigation
of the world 1577-1580; Captain Cook on his way back to England after discovering
Australia; Charles Darwin, on his ship The Beagle; and in 1676, Haley (of
Haley’s Comet fame). Haley established an astronomic observation post on a St.
Helena mountaintop, which has since been named Haley’s Mountain.
St.
Helena is best known as the place the British took Napoleon, following his
defeat at Waterloo. As we drew close to the island, I couldn’t help but think
of the despair Napoleon must have felt approaching a place that must have taken
weeks in a 19th century sailing ship to get to and would become his
prison. Previously, Napoleon had escaped from Alba and managed to raise another
army, so the British were determined that he wasn’t going to escape again.
Napoleon
arrived in Jamestown, St. Helena in October 1815 and lived there until his
death on May 5, 1821. There are a number of theories as to the cause of his
death. The French accused the British officers who oversaw his detention of
poisoning him. (If I had been sent to this remote place to act as a jailer, I
think I would have been tempted to move his demise along.) One theory is that
he died as a result of arsenic poisoning caused by the green wallpaper in his
bedroom. During that time, arsenic was used to create the deep green coloring
in wallpaper. Today the problem caused by the green wallpaper is so widely
known that an episode of “Doc Martin” addressed it.
Napoleon
was buried on the island, but his body was later removed and taken to France,
where it now rests under a grand monument.
St.
Helena looks like one big volcanic rock with mountains that reach from the
water’s edge and tower over the island. We didn’t see any beaches. The town of
Jamestown sits on one side of the island in a slight valley and stretches high
into the hills. Currently travelers can only get to St. Helena by a ship that
sails once a week from Cape Town, and it takes several days to get there. An
airport is being constructed on the island and should be finished this year,
which will greatly increase the number of people visiting the island.
Jamestown,
St. Helena
Before
leaving home, we had the good fortune to see an episode of the TV series,
“Globe Trekker,” where the star of the program took viewers on a tour of St.
Helena. We got to see Longwood House, where Napoleon lived; the town of Jamestown;
the governor’s mansion; and Jacob’s Ladder, a set of 600 or more steps that go
from Jamestown to a mountaintop, which might have been Haley’s observation
post. The TV tour coverage was extensive, so we feel we saw a good deal of the island
without stepping foot on it.
In
addition to the islands of Ascension and St. Helena, Tristan da Cunha is another
British island in the South Atlantic. These islands rest near or are a part of
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a long underwater mountain range that stretches north
to south in both the North and South Atlantic Oceans.
All
in all, it was a memorable day.
You sent me back to my world map to find Saint Helena. Then reading this month's Travel & Leisure magazine, they listed Saint Helena as a place to visit in 2016. They are building an airport and expect to open sometime in 2016. Thanks for sharing your journey! Susan
ReplyDeleteI was so lucky to be on QM2 when we anchored and tendered boats onto St Helena on the 2010 WC - all schools shut for the day so Cunard could requisition the coaches to transport passengers across the island and many islanders welcomed us into their homes. A very special place and way of life that the opening of the airport will change for ever. Susan, London
ReplyDelete