Saint Helena

HISTORY

The South Atlantic island of St Helena was discovered by the Portuguese navigator João de Nova on May 21, 1502.

The island was named by de Nova after St Helena the consort of Roman emperor Constantius Chlorus, mother of Constantine the Great. She is traditionally credited with finding the relics of the True Cross.

Oliver Cromwell granted the English East India Company a charter to govern Saint Helena in 1658. The following year, the company decided to fortify the island and colonize it with planters.

Its capital, Jamestown, was founded in 1659 by the English East India Company and named after James, Duke of York, the future King James II of England.

Jamestowm. By Andrew Neaum,  

St Helena has been a British Overseas Territory for longer than anywhere else except Bermuda.

After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to St Helena.

Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène by Francois-Joseph Sandmann

Napoleon spent his last six years on St Helena watching clouds, gardening, playing cards and chess and lying in his bath.

Napoleon had high praise for the coffee on Saint Helena.

The converted cattle barn where he lived at Longwood, St Helena is now a museum containing some Napoleon mementos.

Longwood House (photographed June 1970) By Photograph by Isaac Newton

Charles Darwin visited St Helena in 1836 spending five days there. He wrote "It is a curious little world within itself; the habitable part is surrounded by a broad band of black desolate rocks, as if the wide barrier of the ocean was not sufficient to guard the precious spot."

The British used St Helena as a prison for some 5,000 Boer War captives including the Boer general Piet Cronjé.

St Helena was an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa for centuries.

The flag of Saint Helena was adopted on October 4, 1984. The shield from the coat of arms of Saint Helena is centered on the outer half of the flag. The shield features a rocky coastline and three-masted sailing ship, with a Saint Helena plover, also known as a wirebird, atop.

The first ever aircraft landing on Saint Helena was made at the island’s newly built airport on September 15, 2015.

GEOGRAPHY 

Saint Helena lies in the South Atlantic, 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) east of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and 1,950 kilometres (1,210 mi) west of the Cunene River, which marks the border between Namibia and Angola in southwestern Africa.

Map of Saine Helena. By Oona Räisänen (Mysid) 

Saint Helena is ten miles long, five miles wide and covers an area of just 122 km2 (47 sq mi),

FUN FACTS 

Saint Helena has a population of about 4,250 inhabitants, mainly descended from people from Britain – settlers ("planters") and soldiers – and slaves who were brought there from Africa from the beginning of settlement.

It has its own currency, the Saint Helena pound, which is at parity with the pound sterling.

St Helena has two newspapers, The St Helena Independent and The Sentinel and one internet service provider.

It has an international dialing code of 290.

St Helena is the only place on this planet where the mating of whale sharks has been seen by humans.

Source Daily Express