Penquins, Potatoes, & Postage Stamps

A Tristan da Cunha Chronicle

by Allan B Crawford

Contents
Preface 9
Foreword by HRH Prince Andrew 14
Acknowledgements 12
My arrival on Tristan da Cunha
1	1937	Voyage to the South Atlantic 16
2	1942	World War II: Island becomes HMS Job 9 22
3	1946	The 'Potato Stamp' designs 27
4	1948	Marion Island South Indian Ocean Post Office 35
5	1948	Developments on Tristan 40
6	1950	Administrator's duties 42
7	1955	Return visit to Marion Island 45
8	1961	Volcano on Tristan (Post Office closed) 48
9	1962	Royal Society Expedition 50
10	1962	Islanders in UK; audience with HM The Queen 52
11	1963	Plans for repatriation 53
12	1980	150th Anniversary: Royal Geographical Society 59
13	1984	Stamp Advisory Committee meeting 65
The stamps
14	1985	Shipwrecks (first series) 68
15	1985	Flags 73
16	1985	Centenary of the lost lifeboat 84
17	1986	Halley's Comet 88
18	1986	Shipwrecks (second series) 91
19	1987	Flightlessness (birds and insects on stamps) 100
20	1987	Shipwrecks (third series) 108
21	1987	Additional Shipwreck Ideas 113
22	1987	50th Anniversary Norwegian Scientiflc Expedition 115
23	1988	Handicrafts, illustrated on stamps 123
24	1988	Whaling in the 19th century 128
25	1995	Sealing in the 19th century 136
26	1995	50th Anniversary of the end of World War II 138
27	1996	50th Anniversary of the 'Potato Stamp' 143
28	1997	Visual communications 145
29		Reflections 151
Appendices
A		Postal cachets 154
B		Full Petition for Postage Stamps 155
C		Search for the Asthma Gene 158
D		Designing Postage Stamps 161
		Index 162
		Stanley Gibbons 167
List of colour illustrations
1		Portuguese Navigator Admiral Tristan da Cunha
2		Albatross and Tristan da Cunha
3		Jonathan Lambert
4		Jonathan Lambert's Flag
5		View from the ship's anchorage
6		Wreck of the Allanshaw, 1893
7		The mystery figurehead
8		Cave Point, Tristan Island
9		Origins of 7 family names
10		'Potato' stamp
11		Tristan Crawfish or Rock Lobster
12		Postal Services