TRISTAN DA CUNHA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 200, 24 August 1945, Page 4

TRISTAN DA CUNHA

A WARTIME SECRET AIR-NAVY WEATHER STATION PRETORIA. The South African Government has operated a meteorological station on Tristan da Cunha for the past three years. Its establishment has not been announced until now for security reasons, but its operation has revolutionised weather forecasting in South Africa.

The South African Air Force and the Royal Navy played a prominent part in establishing the station, which was built on Tristan da Cunha after a survey party visited this and two other islands—lnaccessible and Nightingale—which are within 20 miles of each other. 1500 miles south-south-west of St. Helena. In March, 1942, 35 South African service engineers were landed on the island and one month later the meteorological observations began.

One of the observers' main problems was the landing of supplies, especially in winter, when gales are frequent. One of the first of the meteorological party to land in 1942 was Warrant-Officer A. B. Crawford, a South African engineer who surveyed the island in 1938, and in 1941 completed the chart now used by the Royal Navy.

Generations aeo the ielancThsd a local council, but it had lapsed in recent years. When ' Lieutenant- £°" 1 3??? der E - J - s - Wooley, R.N.V.R., was appointed supreme authority on the island he resuscitated the council and established laws to govern the island's 53 families—with a total population of 222 Warrant-officer Crawford established a weekly newspaper—the Tristan Times—which first sold for three cigarettes or four potatoes a copy before currency was introduced when it sold for a halfpenny. Captain W. A. Bishop, R.N., then chief naval meteorological officer with the rank of instructor commander, was a member of the original party of March, 1942.