Ascension Island. Ascension Island: history of discovery, location and territorial affiliation. A story that began with the discovery

Ascension Island ( AscensionIsland)

It is a volcanic island located in the Atlantic Ocean 1,600 km west of the African coast.

It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, from which it is located 1287 kilometers to the northwest. The main city and port is Georgetown (Georgetown).

The island was discovered by the Portuguese Juan di Nova in 1501, but he did not make any descriptions of the island. In 1503, on the day of the Ascension, the island was rediscovered by the navigator Alfonso d "Albuquerque, who gave the island the name it still bears. Being dry and barren, it was of little interest to the sailors of the East India Fleet. The island remained uninhabited until 1815. when a small British garrison was stationed there.After Napoleon's death in 1821, the island became a supply base for ships that impeded the slave trade on the West African coast.From 1922 to 1964 the island was operated by the Eastern Telegraph, and from 1964 in connection with the BBC station -See it was decided to appoint an administrator.

There is no local population as such on the island. The inhabitants of the island are mainly employees and military men with families. The population for 2005 was 1,100, mostly from Saint Helena, as well as 150 from the United States and 200 from the United Kingdom.

How to get there

Ascension Island can be reached in two ways:

By plane of the British Air Force or Air Atlanta (Air atlanta ) to the RAF Bryze Norton military airfield near Oxford, UK.

On the Royal Mail Ship "Saint Helena" (Royal Mail Ship "Saint Helena "), which sails between Cape Town (South Africa) and St. Helena with a call to the bays of the Ascension Island and sometimes the Tristan da Cunha Islands. The ship departs once a month and takes on board 130 passengers.

Oliver, W6NV will be active again from Ascension Island in October - November 2016 as ZD8W.
He will take part in the CQ WW DX SSB Contest October 29 - 30, 2016 and the CQ WW DX CW Contest November 26 - 27, 2016.
Before and after the competition he will be QRV on 160 - 6m.
QSL via home callsign.
Address for QSL direct:
Oliver Sweningsen, III, PO BOX 90, Orinda, CA 94563, USA.

Ascension Island. ZD8W QSL.

Ascension Island

Island ship open twice

There are many islands in the Atlantic Ocean that invariably attract close attention of tourists, but Ascension Island does not belong to such in any way. Even the most inveterate travelers who, traveling the world, like to visit the most distant and exotic corners of our planet, appear on it quite rarely. In principle, this is not at all surprising, because, despite the seemingly very advantageous geographical position from the point of view of tourism, it is not very attractive for its nature, and therefore the tourism industry is not developed there at all.

Ascension Island is located slightly south of the equator, about halfway between Africa and South America. Its total area is 91 square kilometers, it is home to about 900 people, and Georgetown is the administrative center, the largest settlement and port. In terms of nationality, it is part of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Interestingly, this small and sparsely populated piece of land on the Internet has its own domain.

Discovery and settlement of Ascension Island

Historians competently claim that Ascension Island was, in fact, open twice. In 1501, during his voyage to India, the Portuguese traveler Juan da Nova stumbled upon him, and he simply reflected this fact in the logbook, but did not examine it. Two years later, just on the eve of the Christian church holiday of the Ascension of the Lord, another famous Portuguese, Alphonse d'Albuquerque, visited this island, who gave it its current name.

Another famous historical figure who had a chance to visit Ascension Island was William Dampier, a British pirate and traveler who was shipwrecked nearby. It was he who found on the island a source of fresh water, which was used until the beginning of the sixties of the last century.

The first inhabitants on Ascension Island appeared only in 1815, when the British authorities decided to place a small garrison on it. However, one serious obstacle arose on the way to the implementation of this measure: there was simply no money in the treasury for this. Then the witty and resourceful British simply renamed the island to "The Ship of Her Majesty Ascension", which is constantly on the raid, and funding followed from the "naval" budget line.

In the 20s of the XIX century, a base was established on Ascension Island, which served to supply warships that prevented the transport of slaves from Africa to South America, and at the end of the XIX century a telephone cable was run through it, which connected Great Britain and South Africa. At the end of the last century, a spacecraft tracking base was located on Ascension Island, and it is the maintenance personnel of this facility that now make up the entire local population.

Ascension Island nature and climate

This island is located in a tropical climate zone, and throughout the year the air temperature there fluctuates within +25 ° C. As such, there is no rainy season on it, and tropical hurricanes bypass it.

Ascension Island is of volcanic origin, with the last powerful eruption there took place about 500 years ago. The highest point is Zelena Gora (about 800 meters above sea level). As for the flora and fauna, they are extremely poor on this island: there is quite lush tropical vegetation only on the slopes of Green Mountain, and of the animals there are only a few species of small turtles, earth crabs and several species of insects (almost all of them, by the way, , endemic, that is, they are not found anywhere else on the planet.

What to do on Ascension Island?

Due to the fact that there are several military facilities and a space tracking station on Ascension Island, tourists' access to it is limited and is possible only in small groups with special permission from the authorities. Most of the travelers come to it from the USA, and they are attracted by the very ascetic nature, which is practically untouched by any human economic activity, as well as magnificent "wild" beaches, located mainly on the southern coast. Amateurs and connoisseurs of technology are of great interest to space antennas, unique in their design and very beautiful in appearance, as well as the British cruising tank Covenanter, installed on a small pedestal next to the local military museum. By the way, how exactly he got to this island is still not reliably known even to specialist historians.

Video Ascension Island

Ascension Island is a volcanic island located in the Atlantic Ocean 1600 km west of the African coast. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, from which it is located 1287 kilometers to the northwest. The main city and port is Georgetown.

The island was discovered by the Portuguese Juan di Nova in 1501, but he did not make any descriptions of the island. In 1503, on the day of the Ascension, the island was rediscovered by the navigator Alfonso d "Albuquerque, who gave the island the name in honor of the Ascension of the Lord, which it still bears. Dry and barren, it was of little interest to the sailors of the East Indies fleet. The island remained uninhabited. until 1815, when a small British garrison was stationed there.After Napoleon's death in 1821, the island became a supply base for ships preventing the slave trade on the West African coast. The BBC station decided to appoint an administrator.

During World War II, the United States Government, in accordance with an arrangement with His Majesty's Government, built the Wideawake airstrip. From 1943-45 more than 25,000 American aircraft transited cargo destined for the North African, Middle East, and European theaters of war. In 1957 the American presence was re-established and the airborne staging area was enlarged and is now also the Air Force Southeast Tracking Station. A NASA tracking station was built in 1967, but has since been closed. There is a weekly US Air Force flight service between Ascension Island, Antigua and Florida Air Force Base. Ascension Island is still a stopover for British flights between the UK and the Falkland Islands. So in 1982, during the Falklands conflict with refueling on Ascension Island, the British Nimrod patrol aircraft made several flights into the conflict zone, which became a new record for long-range reconnaissance operations of the British Air Force.

The island is home to one of five antennas used in the GPS satellite navigation system. The other four are located in Kwajalein Atoll, Diego Garcia Island, Colorado Springs and Hawaii. There is no local population as such on the island. The inhabitants of the island are mainly employees and military men with families. The population for 2005 was 1,100, mostly from Saint Helena, as well as 150 from the United States and 200 from the United Kingdom.

Coordinates: 7 ° 56'33 ″ S sh. 14 ° 22′05 ″ W etc. /  7.94250 ° S sh. 14.36806 ° W etc./ -7.94250; -14.36806 (G) (I) Water areaAtlantic Ocean A countrySaint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha

Area91 km² Highest point859 m Population (2008)710 people Population density7,802 people / km²

Climate

The climate of the island is subequatorial, the temperature ranges from 25 to 27 ° С, the coldest month is September, the warmest month is March. There is no rainy season as such on the island. Average annual precipitation is 130-150 mm in the main part of the island, 750-800 mm in the area of \u200b\u200bZelenaya Gora (600-800 m above sea level).

History

In 1701, the English pirate and traveler William Dampier, shipwrecked on a then uninhabited island, discovered a fresh water source. A system of tunnels and pipes built in the 1830s brought fresh water to Georgetown. At the end of the 19th century, everything was filled with concrete to increase productivity, and in this form the island's water supply survived until the sixties, when the BBC built a power plant with a desalination plant.

The island remained uninhabited until 1815, when a small British garrison was stationed there. After Napoleon's death in 1821, the island became a food base for ships that thwart the slave trade on the West African coast. In 1836 the naturalist Charles Darwin visited it. In 1898, British signalmen first appeared on the island: the Eastern Telegraph Company (now Cable and Wireless) runs a telegraph cable from the United Kingdom to South Africa through the island.

From 1922 to 1964 the island was operated by the Eastern Telegraph, and from 1964, in connection with the location of the BBC station, it was decided to appoint an administrator. In 1982, from here they fought with Argentina for the Falklands. In the 1990s, the European Space Agency built a ground station here in connection with the Ariane 5 rocket program. The current population of the island consists of British and American military and signalmen, their families and service personnel.

Military establishment

Population

There is no local population as such on the island. The inhabitants of the island are mainly employees and military men with families. The population at the 2008 census was 1,060 people, mostly from Saint Helena (710 people), as well as 150 military personnel with US families and 200 from the UK.

Settlements

There are five settlements on the island:

Locality	original name	Population, people (2008)	Comment
Georgetown	Georgetown	560	Port and administrative center
Two Bots Village	Two boats village	120	Located 3 miles from the coast
Traveller's Hill	Travelers Hill	200	The British garrison is located here
Cat Hill	Cat hill	150	Here is a US military base
Red Line	Red line	30	Administrator's residence
Total:		1060

And also several cottages in the Green Mountains (eng. Green mountains).

Religion

Tourism

Message

Ascension Island can be reached in two ways:

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Europe and the Mediterranean North America Latin America, Caribbean and South Atlantic islands Australia, Oceania and Antarctica Prince Andrew followed her with a courteous and sad expression. “You have grown old, Tikhon,” he said, passing, to the old man who was kissing his hand. In front of the room in which the clavichords were heard, a pretty blonde Frenchwoman jumped out of a side door. M lle Bourienne seemed distraught with delight. - Ah! quel bonheur pour la princesse, ”she said. - Enfin! Il faut que je la previenne. [Ah, what a joy for the princess! Finally! We must warn her.] - Non, non, de grace ... Vous etes m lle Bourienne, je vous connais deja par l "amitie que vous рorte ma belle soeur," said the princess, kissing the Frenchwoman. - Elle ne nous attend pas? [No, no, please … You are Mamzel Burien; I already know you from the friendship that my daughter-in-law has for you. She does not expect us?] They came to the door of the divan room, from which they heard again and again the repeated passage. Prince Andrew stopped and winced, as if expecting something unpleasant. The princess entered. The passage ended in the middle; a scream was heard, Princess Mary's heavy feet and the sound of kisses. When Prince Andrei entered, the princess and the princess, who had only once met for a short time during the wedding of Prince Andrei, clasping their arms around them, pressed their lips tightly to those places that they had fallen into in the first minute. M lle Bourienne stood beside them, her hands clasped to her heart and smiling devoutly, evidently ready to cry as much as to laugh. Prince Andrew shrugged his shoulders and winced, as music lovers frown when they hear a false note. Both women let go of each other; then again, as if afraid of being late, they grabbed each other's hands, began to kiss and tore off their hands, and then again they began kissing each other on the face, and quite unexpectedly for Prince Andrey, both burst into tears and began kissing again. M lle Bourienne cried too. Prince Andrew was obviously uncomfortable; but it seemed so natural for two women that they were crying; they didn’t seem to have imagined that this meeting could have taken place otherwise. - Ah! chere!… Ah! Marieie! ... - both women suddenly started talking and laughed. - J "ai reve сette nuit ... - Vous ne nous attendez donc pas? ... Ah! Marieie, vous avez maigri ... - Et vous avez repris ... [Ah, dear! ... Ah, Marie! ... - And I saw in a dream. - So you weren't expecting us? ... Ah, Marie, you've lost so much weight. - And you've grown so much ...] - J "ai tout de suite reconnu madame la princesse, [I immediately recognized the princess,]" inserted m lle Burienne. “Et moi qui ne me doutais pas!…” Exclaimed Princess Mary. - Ah! Andre, je ne vous voyais pas. [And I had no idea! ... Ah, Andre, I didn’t see you.] Prince Andrew kissed his sister hand in hand and told her that she was just as pleurienicheuse, [crybaby,] as she always was. Princess Marya turned to her brother, and through her tears the loving, warm and gentle gaze of her beautiful, large, radiant eyes at that moment rested on the face of Prince Andrey. The princess spoke incessantly. A short upper lip with a mustache now and then flew down for a moment, touched, where necessary, to the ruddy lower lip, and a smile shining with teeth and eyes was again revealed. The princess recounted an incident that was with them on Spasskaya Gora, which threatened her with danger in her position, and immediately after that she announced that she had left all her dresses in Petersburg and that God knows what would be walking here, and that Andrei had completely changed, and that Kitty Odyntsova married an old man, and that there is a groom for Princess Marya pour tout de bon, [quite serious,] but that we'll talk about this later. Princess Marya still looked at her brother in silence, and in her beautiful eyes there was both love and sadness. It was evident that her own line of thought was now established in her, independent of the speeches of her daughter-in-law. In the middle of her story about the last holiday in St. Petersburg, she turned to her brother: - And you decisively go to war, Andre? Oia said with a sigh. Lise shuddered too. - Even tomorrow, - answered the brother. - II m "abandonne ici, et Du sait pourquoi, quand il aur pu avoir de l" avancement ... [He leaves me here, and God knows why, when he could get promoted ...] Princess Marya did not listen to the end and, continuing the thread of her thoughts, turned to her daughter-in-law, pointing with affectionate eyes to her belly: - Probably? - she said. The princess's face changed. She sighed. “Yes, I guess,” she said. - Ah! It's very scary… Lisa's sponge dropped. She brought her face closer to that of her sister-in-law and suddenly burst into tears again. “She needs to rest,” said Prince Andrew, wincing. - Isn't it, Liza? Take her to you, and I will go to the priest. What is he, all the same? - The same, the same; I don’t know about your eyes, ”the princess answered joyfully. - And the same hours, and walks along the alleys? Machine? - asked Prince Andrey with a faint smile, showing that despite all his love and respect for his father, he understood his weaknesses. - The same clock and machine, more mathematics and my geometry lessons, - Princess Marya happily answered, as if her geometry lessons were one of the most joyful impressions of her life. When those twenty minutes that were needed for the time of the old prince's rise had passed, Tikhon came to call the young prince to his father. The old man made an exception in his lifestyle in honor of the arrival of his son: he ordered to let him into his half while dressing before dinner. The prince walked about in the old fashion, in a caftan and powder. And while Prince Andrew (not with the grumpy expression and mannerisms that he put on himself in drawing rooms, but with that lively face that he had when he talked with Pierre) entered his father, the old man was sitting in the dressing room on a wide, morocco-upholstered armchair, in a powder-man, leaving his head in the hands of Tikhon. - AND! Warrior! Do you want to conquer Bonaparte? - said the old man and shook his powdered head as much as the braided braid in Tikhon's hands allowed. - At least you should accept him well, otherwise he will soon register us as his subjects. - Great! - And he stuck out his cheek. The old man was in good spirits after an afternoon nap. (He said that after dinner it was a silver dream, and before dinner it was golden.) He happily looked at his son from under his thick overhanging eyebrows. Prince Andrew approached and kissed his father at the place indicated by him. He did not answer his father's favorite topic of conversation - teasing the current military people, and especially over Bonaparte. - Yes, I came to you, father, and with a pregnant wife, - said Prince Andrey, following with lively and respectful eyes the movement of every feature of his father's face. - How is your health? - Unhealthy, brother, there are only fools and libertines, and you know me: busy from morning to evening, restrained, well, healthy. - Thank God, - said the son, smiling. - God has nothing to do with it. Well, tell me, ”he continued, returning to his favorite skate,“ how the Germans and Bonaparte taught you to fight according to your new science, called strategy, ”. Prince Andrew smiled. “Let me come to my senses, father,” he said with a smile, showing that his father’s weaknesses did not prevent him from respecting and loving him. - After all, I have not yet accommodated. “You're lying, you're lying,” the old man shouted, shaking his pigtail to try if it was braided tightly, and grabbing his son by the hand. - The house is ready for your wife. Princess Marya will bring her together and show her, and chat with three boxes. This is their woman's business. I'm glad to see her. Sit down and tell me. Michelson's army, I understand, Tolstoy too ... a one-time landing ... What will the southern army do? Prussia, neutrality ... I know that. Austria what? - he said, getting up from an armchair and walking around the room with Tikhon running and handing over parts of his clothes. - Sweden what? How will Pomerania be transferred?