Photos by Andy Isaacson

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hat is life like on the world’s remotest settled island? If you’re curious to see how the people on Tristan da Cunha live you first have to pass a vetting process then take a week-long boat trip from Cape Town and wait another month to be picked up. Journalist Andy Isaacson intrigued by people who live at the end of the world set sail to find out

Andy Isaacson was looking for a new kind of adventure — something really unusual but with a human angle as well. As a tourism reporter working for National Geographic and other publications Isaacson had already had his share of exploits but this time he was looking for something very specific: he wanted to find and visit the remotest inhabited island in the world.

Where exactly is that island? Don’t feel bad if you don’t know the answer: Isaacson didn’t either. He typed “most remote island in the world” into a search engine and up popped an answer: Tristan da Cunha.

Isaacson like most people had never heard of the place — and for good reason. To reach the island which is only about 13 kilometers (8 miles) wide you have to sail southwest for seven days from Cape Town South Africa the closest civilized area to the island. After traversing 2 805 kilometers (1 743 miles) you finally arrive.

“Distant isolated places intrigue me as does the psychology of the people who live there” Isaacson told Mishpacha. “Why would someone want to live in a place that is so disconnected in a society of just a few hundred people? But I learned about Tristan and discovered it has a very interesting history.”

They Decided to Stay

Located in the South Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa the island was discovered in 1506 by Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha who named the dot in the water after himself. Dutch and French explorers followed but Britain annexed the island in 1816 and has owned it ever since. English is the spoken language on the island.

“The first settlers were soldiers who were sent there by the British Empire to keep an eye on the relatively close Saint Helena Island where Napoleon was exiled” explains Isaacson. “When the force was asked to clear the island a few people chose to stay.”

Those people included one soldier a Scottish corporal named William Glass and two British builders who were sent to help the military force. Together they built homes and boats from tree trunks that were washed up on the beach. They also wrote a constitution for their new settlement which promised a community established on equality and cooperation.