That’s what happened to 264 people on Tristan da Cunha in 1961. No time to pack much. No idea when you can come back. By October, everyone had to go, and the farm animals were left behind. A few months later, scientists reached the island and found better news than they had feared.
Imagine being told to leave your home right now. The island’s volcano began to stir that August, according to a Royal Society article by archivist Jon Bushell.
Its main village, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, had a population of 264 in 1961. Based on them, a small resettlement party returned to the island in September 1962 to start the task of cleaning up and repairing the village. By 1963, most of the islanders who had been displaced had returned home. The first group arrived in April, and about 200 more followed in November.
Tristan da Cunha is a small group of islands in the South Atlantic. You can’t fly there, and it’s a six-day sail from the nearest port. The first local earth tremors were felt in August. They became more frequent and more intense through the month of September. By early October, a massive lava dome had formed a few hundred feet east of the village. Residents decided to leave. They sailed south to Nightingale Island by boat. They were rescued by a Dutch ship that was due in the next morning. By early November, the entire population was safely in England , with no idea when they could return home. The results of the expedition were encouraging. When the team left, the volcano was still showing signs of life, with gases and vapor steaming out of the crater. But its activity was clearly waning, and another major eruption seemed unlikely. For the islanders, the key reassurance was that it was safe to return home. Their community lived away from home for roughly two years, and the herds they left behind kept going.
