Islands of Refreshment

Infobox Micronation
fullName = Islands of Refreshment
shortName =
status = Historical
flag

second

secondImageType =
motto =
englishMotto =
anthemName =
anthemComposer =
location = Tristan da Cunha location.jpg
purpOrgStruct = Monarchy
leadership = Jonathan Lambert
foundationDate = February 4, 1811
areaClaimed = 207 km^{2
membership = 4 (1811)
language = English
purpCurrency = Spanish dollar
currencycode =
capital = Reception
ethnicgroups =
demonym =
gdp =
timezone =
footnotes =}

Islands of Refreshment was the name given to Tristan da Cunha by its self-proclaimed ruler Jonathan Lambert in 1811.

At this time American whalers frequented the neighboring waters and, on December 27, 1810, the Boston ship the "Baltic" put ashore an American named Jonathan Lambert "late of Salem, mariner and citizen thereof" along with one Thomas Currie or Tomasso Corri in his employ, and a man named Williams. These three were the first permanent inhabitants of Tristan, and they were soon joined by one Andrew Millet.

Lambert declared himself sovereign and sole possessor of the island group (which he renamed Islands of Refreshment) "grounding my right and claim on the rational and sure ground of absolute occupancy." ["Boston Gazette", July 18, 1811] Lambert's sovereignty was short lived, as he, Williams, and Millet were drowned while out fishing on May 17, 1812. Currie was joined, however, by two other men and they busied themselves in growing vegetables, wheat and oats, and in breeding pigs. ["Tristan d'Acunha, etc.: Jonathan Lambert, late Sovereign thereof, "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine", vol 4 no 21 (Dec 1818), pp 280-286]

War having broken out in 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the islands were largely used as a base by American cruisers sent to prey on British merchant ships. This and other considerations urged by Lord Charles Henry Somerset, then governor of Cape Colony in South Africa, led the British government to authorize the islands being taken possession of as dependencies of the Cape. The formal proclamation of annexation was made on August 14, 1816. This is reported to have primarily been a measure to ensure that the French would not be able to use the islands as a base for a rescue operation to free the deposed Napoleon I of France from his prison on Saint Helena.

References