Third point. ASCENSION ISLAND
The flight from St. Helena to Ascension Island and back is called the "shuttle", and it differs from the Cape Town flight in the more measured atmosphere on board. Life is no longer boiling, but lazily freezes. More games and doing nothing on deck. And so for two and a half days. It's great. How do they work there without me? Like nothing, we adapted.
We left Saint Helena on October 12, and in the early morning of October 15, Ascension Island appeared on the course.
Here, as well as on the island of St. Helena, there is no berth for such a vessel, therefore "St. Helena" stops at the roadstead opposite the island's capital - Georgetown. The containers are delivered to the shore on a platform one at a time, and a small ship comes to pick up the passengers. But first, all landing parties are checked by the arriving doctor for measles. The doctor asks if you have measles, and his assistant measures your temperature.
Disembarkation from this small vessel on the shore is very difficult even with slight waves: the vessel now and then bounces off the berth for a couple of meters. Children are carried in their arms, and adults, with the help of a command, catching the moment, jump ashore themselves. It is not without reason that passengers are warned before disembarking from the St. Helena that both hands must be free.
The first impression that Ascension Island leaves is quite harsh. But, unlike the island of Saint Helena, there are wide sandy beaches.
On the island there is one large hotel Obsidian Hotel with 17 rooms.
Ascension Island was discovered at about the same time as Saint Helena, in 1501 (two years later, the island received its current name), but unlike the latter, it remained uninhabited for another three hundred years. Interestingly, being uninhabited, the island served as a sort of postal sorting center: passing ships left letters in a certain place on the island, which were picked up by other ships going in the right directions. The eastern end of the island, where this happened, is still called Letterbox ("letterbox"). But no traces of the box itself could be found. It remains unknown where exactly the letters were put to wait for the desired ship. It is assumed that the letters were sealed in bottles and simply left on the shore.
Sometimes ships came here to replenish food supplies and repair.
In 1815, with the arrival of Napoleon in exile to Saint Helena, a military garrison was placed on Ascension Island to prevent the attack on Saint Helena by French ships and Napoleon's flight to Europe. Initially, it was not planned that the military would remain for a long time on the island, practically devoid of fresh water sources. But this place turned out to be so convenient from a strategic point of view that after the death of Napoleon, the military did not leave: the base of the British naval forces settled on the island, which remained here until 1922.
In 1899, the first underwater telegraph cable was laid on Ascension Island, and soon the island became an important communication point between in different parts Sveta. Since 1922, Ascension Island has become a dependent territory of Saint Helena (which, in turn, is a dependent territory of Great Britain). In this case, in fact, the island was transferred to the management of the Eastern Telegraph Company (now known as Cable and Wireless).
Now, military specialists live on Ascension Island, which I will talk about later.
Georgetown is an unusual city. Here, as in the rest of the island, there are no permanent residents. People come here to work on a contract, usually for two years, and then leave the island, and many never return here. No one is allowed to purchase real estate here (an exception is made for the church), and no one is allowed to stay on the island after the expiration of the contract. Therefore, there is literally a shadow of "temporary residence" on everything here. This is a striking contrast to the cozy inhabited island of St. Helena.
Fort Hayes was built in 1860 to protect the island. Now it is part of the museum, the building of which is located nearby.
The local art gallery is also located in the museum building.
To the north are the remains of another fort called Tronton. This fort was built by the military of the first garrison, which settled here in 1815, and is the oldest surviving building here.
Built in 1847, St. Mary's Church, the only church in Georgetown, is open 24 hours a day. True, so that one of the donkeys or rams wandering around the city does not go inside, the doors of the church are closed with a latch that can be easily opened from the outside.
The first official post office was opened on Ascension Island in 1867. Later, in 1924, the island first issued its own postage stamps, which immediately became a philatelic rarity. Currently, the island publishes five sets of postage stamps annually, some of which are canceled with a special stamp on the day of issue and sold together with envelopes issued with each set. Stamps and envelopes are most often dedicated to the nature of Ascension Island, but sometimes they also have other themes. The same can be said about Saint Helena, the stamps and envelopes of which are also highly valued by collectors from all over the world, and on Saint Helena, the theme of stamps and envelopes is more varied - from the royal dynasties of Great Britain to manned space flights (although the latter topic is hardly related to this island).
The post office on Ascension Island is served by just three employees who come to work from Saint Helena on two-year contracts.
Although there are no permanent residents on Ascension Island and all the houses are temporary housing, some of them look quite cozy. Most of the temporary workers come here from Saint Helena. Working under contracts on Ascension Island gives them the opportunity to make good money, especially given the high unemployment rate at home. For them, Ascension Island is just a place where you can earn your living and never come back here.
Considering that most of the employees come here from Saint Helena, it was planned to open a sea passenger line from Saint Helena to Ascension Island in the 1990s, served by one passenger ship with weekly departures. However, this did not happen, and the islands are connected only by the voyages of the motor ship "Saint Helena", performed approximately once a month.
Ascension Island is the place where the sea green turtles from Brazil lay their eggs from January to April. Scientists cannot yet give an unambiguous answer to the question of how turtles find a small island in the Atlantic Ocean. But the fact remains: thousands of turtles annually travel by difficult sea routes to Ascension Island to lay their eggs and swim back to Brazil. And two months later, little turtles, hatched from eggs, boldly crawl into the water and, obeying unknown instincts, also swim away to Brazil. Both on land and in the water, they are trapped by birds that are not averse to feasting on young turtle meat. Therefore, only one out of a thousand newly born turtle gets to its destination.
Since the first military garrison appeared on the island in the 19th century, people have used turtle meat for food. And over time, a trade in turtles was established on the island, since the passing ships required replenishment of food. The turtles were brought from here even to London (alive), where they made soups. Only very wealthy people could afford such soups.
In Georgetown, pools were set up where the captured turtles were delivered. Catching a turtle meant flipping it over onto its back to render it helpless and loading it into a boat. From the pools, turtles in the required quantity were delivered to ships. The last time turtles served as food for the military on the island was during the Second World War. Americans enjoyed eating turtle sandwiches.
Fishing for turtles has long been banned, but the pools have been preserved in dilapidated form.
In 1964, the village of Too Boats was built in the center of the island, where BBC employees settled, serving the equipment that provides broadcasting to Africa and South America. Unlike Georgetown, this village looks like a cozy village in the tropics. Here is the only school on the island, a swimming pool and even a bar.
The village of Tu Boats is located at the foot of the Green Mountain - the most high mountain on the island and the only densely covered with tropical greenery. Several walking paths are laid along the mountain, from which you can observe many birds that live in these places. Green Mountain is a protected area.
Moreover, it is the Green Mountain that is the very volcano, thanks to which the island was formed. The last eruption of this volcano occurred about five hundred years ago, so it is still considered active.
Boats are dug in some parts of the island so that people can hide from the heat. Hence the name of the village in the center of the island - Two Boats, that is, Two boats.
There is a place on the island called One boat - One boat. This is not a village, but just a boat at a road crossroads, in the shadow of which are collected sports awards received in different years teams and athletes of Ascension Island. These values \u200b\u200blie absolutely unattended: no one on the island encroaches on someone else's property. The bus stop sign was put here for a joke: there is no public transport or taxi on the island.
As I mentioned, since 1922, Ascension Island has been under the control of the Eastern Telegraph Company. And during World War II, the Americans sewed on the island, who, by agreement with the British government, built an airfield here in record time (one hundred days).
One of the places where the American military arrived on the island was stationed in 1942 is marked with a memorial sign.
It was not without an unexpected difficulty: on the site chosen for the airfield, thousands of black terns hatched eggs. They greatly interfered with construction. The birdwatchers suggested a simple solution - to destroy all eggs, and then the birds may begin to look for another place for themselves. And so it happened: the military promptly destroyed 40 thousand eggs, the airfield was completed without delay, and the terns flew away from this place forever.
Between 1943 and 1945, American warplanes made 25,000 landings here en route to war zones, delivering troops to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. At that time, few aircraft could cross the Atlantic Ocean without landing, so they landed on the island for refueling. The American pilots had a saying: "If I don't find Ascension Island, my wife will receive a pension."
In 1956, the United Kingdom and the United States signed a new agreement under which American forces would use Ascension Island as a training ground. In 1957, with the return of the Americans to the island, a new military base was opened, a training camp was built, and the airfield was used jointly by the American and British Air Force. In the 1960s, specialists were trained on Ascension Island within the framework of the human flight to the moon and the Space Shuttle program. To land the shuttle, the airfield was lengthened, but it never flew to the island.
The camp, base and airfield function to this day. In 1982, during the British-Argentine War for the Falkland Islands, British Air Force planes landed here, delivering everything they need to the war zone.
Despite the abundance of tropical vegetation on the Green Mountain in the center of the island, the scenery here is mostly deserted. This is due to the volcanic origin of the island. In some places, Ascension Island resembles Mars or the Moon (it was not for nothing that the island was chosen for the "lunar program"), and donkeys and sheep roam freely in the middle of all this.
Sheep and donkeys were brought to Ascension Island by man. Goats and sheep were brought in first: this happened back in the 16th century, after the discovery of the island. Goats and sheep multiplied, and for many decades became a source of food for passing ships. Donkeys appeared on the island in 1815, together with the first garrison, which construction works, and it was impossible to do without the help of strong hardy animals.
There are no goats left on the island, and donkeys and sheep walk freely wherever they please, and sometimes enter houses. Over the decades, they ate most of the island's greenery, almost completely destroying one of the rare species plants. They are periodically shot to regulate the population.
The rats that got to the island from one of the ships that sank in these waters in the 18th century became a big disaster for the local fauna. The vessel gave a leak and entered the island for repairs. They did not have time to do the repairs: the ship sank, and the rats hit the shore. Before that, there were no predators on the island, and birds in large numbers nested and laid their eggs right on the rocks. Before the arrival of the first military garrison, the rats managed to destroy most of the birds arriving on the island, including several species that science never knew, completely.
Cats were brought to the island to fight rats. It was then that the end came to the remaining birds, as cats became interested not in rats, but in birds, as easier prey. Having bred on the island, they destroyed almost all the birds that could now nest only on the neighboring rocky islet, inaccessible to cats and rats. In the end, the cats were either shot or taken away from the island, but now the birds have begun to return to Ascension Island, and it is assumed that their population will soon be restored.
The island is also home to rabbits imported by humans, which are frequent victims of road accidents.
And this strange sculpture is called the Lizard. According to a long-standing tradition, anyone who splashes paint on it before leaving the island will never return. Numerous layers of paint on the "lizard" show the attitude of many people to their temporary home - Ascension Island.
Until 2004, Ascension Island was closed for free visits. Now visiting the island has become possible with a written permission from the local administration, which must be obtained in advance.
Getting to Ascension Island is somewhat easier than getting to St. Helena, but not easy either. The motor ship "Saint Helena" comes here only once a month, and is en route to Cape Town for ten days (with a three-day stopover on Saint Helena). There is no civil airport on Ascension Island. There is only the airfield of the British Air Force, through which there is a flight from the Bryze Norton Air Force Base near Oxford to the Falkland Islands and vice versa. A British Air Force plane makes a landing on Ascension Island for refueling. Recently, twenty seats on each flight have been allocated for sale to civilians, and thus it has become possible to quickly get from Ascension Island to the mainland. True, the British Department of Defense, which is operating this flight, does not guarantee civilians a place on the plane until the last moment, even if tickets are available, since priority is given to military personnel and military cargo. It is also not guaranteed that the flight will be performed in accordance with the announced schedules: the flight can be postponed for several days forward or backward.
The flight on the route Falkland Islands - Ascension Island - Bryze Norton base on October 16 was completed without delay. Previously, these flights were operated by historic Tristar aircraft, and a few years ago they were replaced by Boeing 747s. Now, due to the repair of the runway in the Falkland Islands, the line is temporarily using smaller Boeing 767 leased from civilian airlines. For the same reason, both weekly flights now operate on the same day, with an interval of six hours. Don't have time - stay on the island for a week.
Our aircraft, leased from Air Seychelles, arrived at the Ascension Island airfield right on schedule. Transit passengers, mostly military, returning from the Falkland Islands, settled in an open-air "waiting room" while the aircraft was refueling.
All announcements were made by the local military man - in a loud commanding voice. In civilian airports you usually hear: "Ladies and gentlemen, now be so kind ...". Everything is different here. "Attention! Now those who have seats from the twentieth to the thirtieth row are getting on the plane!" In a military way, it is rude, but clear and understandable.
On the plane, it was unusual to hear not the usual "On behalf of the airline ... welcome aboard ...", but "On behalf of the UK Department of Defense, welcome you ...". The rest of the flight did not differ from usual.
Eight and a half hours later, we landed at Bryze Norton Military Base, where you can see the historic Tristar and VC-10 aircraft still in service with the Royal Air Force. From Bryze Norton, I was kindly driven to Heathrow Airport, along with several military personnel, without charging a penny. The next morning I flew from there to Nizhny Novgorod - I did not have time to go home to St. Petersburg. Work doesn’t wait, and it’s no less interesting than traveling.
However, this glorious journey can be considered over.
Plan
Introduction
1. History
2 Military establishment
3 Population
3.1 Settlements
3.2 Religion
4 Climate
5 Tourism
5.1 Message
Introduction
Ascension Island (eng. 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 (eng. Georgetown).
1. History
The island was discovered by the Portuguese Juan da 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 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 deployment The BBC station decided to appoint an administrator.
2. Armed forces
During World War II, the United States Government, in accordance with an arrangement with His Majesty's Government, built the Wideawake airstrip. In 1943-45. more than 25,000 US aircraft transited cargo destined for the North African, Middle East and European theaters of operations. In 1957 the American presence was re-established and the airborne staging area was enlarged and is now also the US 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.
3. 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 for 2005 was 1,100, mostly from Saint Helena, as well as 150 from the United States and 200 from the United Kingdom.
There are five settlements on the island: As well as several cottages in the Green Mountains. Religion
The main religion is Protestantism. In Georgetown is the Anglican Church of St. Mary, and there is also a small Roman Catholic Church on the island.
The climate of the island is subtropical, 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 Zelenaya Gora region (600-800 m above sea level).
5.1. Message
Ascension Island can be reached in two ways:
1. By plane of the British Air Force to the RAF Bryze Norton military airfield near Oxford, UK. To travel to Ascension Island, in addition to a British visa, a special entry permit from the UK Department of Defense is also required. You also need to have full medical insurance... Only 26 seats are reserved for civilians on the weekly flight.
2. On the Royal Mail Ship “Saint Helena”, which sails between Cape Town (South Africa) and Saint Helena, with a call to the bays of Ascension Island and sometimes the Tristan da Cunha Islands. The ship departs once a month and carries 130 passengers.
View in Google Maps
Weather on Ascension Island (eng.)
· Basic information. Traveler's Diary (eng.)
Flora of Ascension Island (eng.)
NASA station on the island (eng.)
· Local site. Photo galleries (eng.)
· Impressions of tourists visiting the island with photographs (eng.)
Modern territory Former territories Former territories within the Commonwealth Kingdoms
A housewife in the United States, as always by chance, finds the island with the help of a satellite. And on this island, he suddenly sees a large group of incomprehensible structures in the form of Tesla towers. The mystery of this island has not yet been revealed.
A bit of history. Studying the healing water, I found such a person as Valery Kondratov on the net. He studied the secrets of Hitler's flying saucers and studied the work of Viktor Schauberger. Then, suddenly he began to study the runes. And then, suddenly he flew on a trip to various places in the Atlantic. And so, in the course of his flight in an airplane, he sees something in the ocean that interested him. And here is a new metamorphosis. Kondratov begins to study the ocean floor. First the Atlantic, and then all the other oceans on Earth. There in the ocean, Kondratov finds many scientific radio towers. Which lead him to the secret science program HAARP. What is this program in the USA? This is a program on how to use waves to control the climate and masses of people anywhere in the world. Let's tell ourselves frankly that we live in a society where the principle of the Animal Mind (Cunning and Deceit, Aggression and Force) rules. The people call it “Divide and Conquer”. Literally in parallel with Kondratov, a certain Ridgen (Teacher from the East) appears in Kiev. He creates a society called AlatRA. A few years later, this society writes a report titled Primordial Physics of AlatRA. In this book, a new concept of physics is introduced - the Activity of the influence of the general Septon field on the human community. How does it feel? It is this physics of AlatRA that explains why we need Nikola Tesla's towers. And at the same time the mistake that Tesla made. The fact is that this Septon field can control human consciousness! If earlier the Atlanteans knew about this field, now the modern heirs of the Anunaki (or simply Power) can introduce mental attitudes for the young generations of the human race, beneficial to the authorities (remember the TV and a magician like Kashpirovsky). And if any power has not yet been re-polarized to Service to Others and it still has only the Animal nature (Service to Self), then it tries to manipulate scientific discoveries to increase fear, hatred and servility. Ancient spiritual traditions said. That true spiritual knowledge makes people free, independent from the illusions of the material world, reveals inner spiritual strength.
However, when religions began to form in human society as institutions of priestly power, spiritual knowledge, power-hungry priests began to remake this knowledge into a convenient form for manipulating people. Valery Kondratov recently went on an excursion to Egypt. And what did he see there? A whole group of temples, which had one purpose to control the people of Egypt with the help of the septon field (with elements of sound). Today, looking at the pictures of Tesla towers on the islands in the Atlantic Ocean, we can see how the influence on the consciousness of people occurs. Let me remind you once again that in order to understand the purpose of many Tesla devices and their new varieties, you need to understand information about the origin and structure of elementary particles, about the fundamental principles that make up matter, about the relationship of elementary particles and cosmology in the light of the theory of a unified field, about electromagnetic and gravitational interactions, about alternative energy sources. 
Valery Kondratov begins to notice amazing things in the ocean. For example, the presence of a wall in the ocean. What does it mean? And this wall goes across the Atlantic! Kondratov continues to study the ocean floor and finds more and more signs of the presence of intelligent beings in the ocean. By posting the received photos on the network. It has already moved to both the Bermuda Triangle and south to Africa. And at this time a woman from the USA appears. Here's what they write about her on the net. Researcher "Reverend Michelle Hopkins" (pseudonym) has made an amazing discovery. In the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, she discovered a point from which powerful radiation emanates. 
Having established the coordinates, she first discovered an unnamed island, about which nothing is known, and then another one, where, most likely, the base of the US naval forces is located. On the island lost in the ocean, there is a modern infrastructure, an airport, many buildings, including a residential area, storage for oil products, and most importantly, buildings with recognizable installations, very similar to those known in the HAARP system, and are the development of Nikola Tesla's technologies ... According to the direction of the radiation waves, the author of the find suggests that the activity of these installations could be the cause of 2 recent earthquakes. It is also possible that the purpose of the radiation installations on this strange island is to cause massive earthquakes in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, in order to provoke a giant tsunami that could strike both the south and the north of everything. east coast America? At the very least, the range of action of the waves indicates such a possibility. Do you know what is strange and secret in this, the truth is like everything connected with the Cosmos? First, the real name of this lady is unknown. First, just a movie appears on the net. Like I saw something interesting. It takes 1 year. It is unknown who is investing in the development of this information. And already the film crew begins to somehow explore this island in the ocean. 
A new, more scientific film about this mysterious island appears in the USA and on the Internet. Now someone is already shooting in different frequency ranges. And we are all in shock! Rays thousands of kilometers long emanate from the island towards the United States.
It is strange that this topic deserved so little attention, because the first 2 minutes of video is quite enough to understand that no military base or radar station can produce such a scale of radiation, excuse me, but there is a coverage area half the Atlantic Ocean. With a high probability, it can be assumed that, most likely, some hidden, secret object is located underground, whose it is and why is difficult to understand. If something produces such a signal, it is clearly not those round structures or any other on the surface of the island. The name of the island also attracts attention, of course, that it was named so long ago, but the word Ascension carries a lot of information for a knowledgeable person. Yeah! Sensation. An island unknown to mankind. Ascension Island. During World War II, the US government, in accordance with an agreement with His Majesty's government, built the Wideawake airstrip on the island. Between 1943 and 1945, more than 25,000 American aircraft transited cargo destined for the North African, Middle East, and European theaters of operations. 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, 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. In the light of modern knowledge, I can assume that experiments are being carried out in the United States to manage new secret fields. And while we are told in the news that two planes can shoot down 3 buildings in New York, the secret of this island will remain for you and me.
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Image copyright Alamy Image caption Ascension Island is located in the South Atlantic, between Brazil and Africa
Ascension Island is a small green dot in the South Atlantic Ocean, a volcanic outpost of the empire, where it is both cold and hot, writes Matthew Taylor.
This piece british territory, lost in the tropical waters of the Atlantic somewhere between Brazil and Africa, never ceases to amaze with its oddities.
Officially, there is no population here. British authorities do not provide 800 local residents permanent residence rights on the island, despite the fact that some have lived here for decades. As a result, they all have temporary guest status.
To come here, you need the written permission of the Queen's representative on the island, whose position is called very prosaically - administrator.
The airport, which once had the longest runway in the world, is designed to accommodate the US space shuttle.
The airport is operated by the US Air Force. From here, NASA specialists watched the Apollo landing on the moon.
From here, the European Space Agency oversees the launch of rockets into space.
The tops of the hills here are built up with satellite dishes of various modifications. But no one here is eager to tell about who and what is listening with their help.
The nature and location of Ascension Island create ideal conditions for this unusual activity.
Top of the volcano
One hot afternoon, I drove past Wideawake airfield, which legend says was so named because British Air Force planes between Great Britain and the Falklands were refueling here at night.
Descending to the shore, I ran into beak to face the real reason for this name - hundreds of thousands of sooty terns. These seabirds are also known as wideawakes for their constant hubbub around the clock.
From a geological point of view, Ascension Island is very young. This is the tip of an underwater volcano that rose above the ocean surface only about a million years ago. The last eruption of this volcano probably happened quite recently - in the 16th century.
The unforgiving waves of the Atlantic have just begun to wash away the curved, coal-black solidified lava flows that surround the island along its coastline... They look like they just got cold yesterday.
Image caption From a geological point of view, Ascension Island is very youngIt is about the size of the island of Guernsey, its main territory is a scorched desert. The island was uninhabited until the British landed on it in 1815.
The largest living creatures that lived on the island were crabs. The ships were not delayed here.
However, sailors who landed here in 1726 found a tent and a diary on the island.
These things belonged to the Dutch sailor Leendert Hasenbosch, who was left on the island as punishment for his homosexuality.
The diary tells the story of Hazenbosch's desperate search for water and food. As a result, he had to drink first the blood of turtles and seabirds, and, in the end, his own urine.
Nothing is known about the death of the sailor: his skeleton was not found.
Garrison
Almost 80 years later, a British garrison appeared on Ascension Island.
It was quartered here so that the French would not try to save Napoleon, who was exiled to the closest piece of land to the Ascension Island - St. Helena Island, located 700 miles to the southeast.
The British, too, could not find fresh water on the island.
"Nothing grows off the coast," wrote Charles Darwin, who visited Ascension Island. "The island is completely devoid of trees."
Darwin discussed with his friend Joseph Hooker how to make the island more livable.
Joseph Hooker, who later became director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in London and visited the island in 1843, drew up the plan.
He decided to plant trees on the top of the 859-meter Green Mountain, the highest point of the island. The foliage was supposed to retain moisture brought in by the constantly blowing southeast wind. This moisture would collect below, and it should have been enough to supply the garrison with water.
Hooker also decided to create pastures for livestock and areas suitable for growing vegetables.
“As you can see from the vegetation around us, this plan has been surprisingly successful,” says biologist Sam Weber, with whom we stand in a forest of ficus, bamboo, ginger and guava trees that now cover Green Mountain.
Devastating consequences
We're just a short drive from a hot lava plain, but it's cool and windy up here.
“Whether he was right or not is another matter. By today's standards, many scientists would call his project a complete disaster. Outwardly, it all looks like a tropical paradise: it is humid, a lot of vegetation. But if you dig deeper, there is not much going on here. traces of a complex ecosystem typical of a true tropical fog forest. And all types of vegetation that previously existed here are dying out, "he says.
Image caption It is now a completely uncontrollable chaotic mass of invasive species, says biologist Sam WeberAmong these species, which grew here before the arrival of Homo sapiens on the island, are several species of grass, including a tiny little finger-tall fern.
For a long time this plant was considered extinct, but in 2009 it was rediscovered on the slope of Green Mountain. After careful cultivation in the London Botanical Gardens, it was again planted here.
Hooker, admittedly, understood that his plantings would replace the endemic ferns. Perhaps he did not realize how devastating the consequences of this process would be for the ecology of the island.
“I don’t think we will ever be able to call Green Mountain a fully functioning ecosystem. At least not in the near future. It will take thousands of years,” says Weber.
"Now it is an absolutely uncontrollable chaotic mass of invasive species. Some begin to dominate, others die. Trails are overgrown with them, and this makes the mountain less attractive for walking," says the scientist.
Mexican thorn
The BBC has contributed to the destruction of the natural ecology of the island.
Its engineers arrived in the mid-1960s to install transmitters here to broadcast BBC World Service programs to Africa and South America.
They built a new village a few kilometers from the sleepy capital, Georgetown, and planted a mesquite bush, known as a Mexican thorn, to fortify the parched land.
Now dry and prickly low-growing mesquites have grown over the vast territories of Ascension Island.
"According to the most conservative estimates, there are now 398,000 of these bushes," says Weber.
"It is very difficult to physically control its growth, the roots of the shrub go 20-30 meters underground. Therefore, we resort to biological control methods using pests that are specific to this plant in its natural range," says the scientist.
All this, as well as Weber's work to conserve ficus trees, which have become an impromptu habitat for ferns, makes the nature of Ascension Island even more unusual.
The situation has gone too far to attempt to restore the island's destroyed ecosystem.
Weber's plan is to use the invasive species as part of a broader strategy aimed at at least partially rebuilding the island from the destruction initiated by Darwin and Hooker over the next hundred or two hundred years.
Turtles
This long-term project extends to the marine ecosystem as well. For most of the last 500 years that man has visited the island, turtles have served him as dinner.
Image copyright Alamy Image caption It wasn't until the 1970s that the island's turtle population began to growSailors usually caught these animals, weighing up to 250 kg, lifted onto the ship and turned over on their backs. So they lay, sometimes remaining alive for weeks before they made soup from them.
Turtle trapping ceased in the 1930s. But it took decades for the turtle offspring to reach maturity and return to the island to lay their eggs here.
The turtle population on Ascension Island began to grow only in the 1970s.
"Since then, we have seen an incredible recovery in the number of turtles," says Nicola Weber, director of conservation at Ascension Island.
In this context, the sand, which one of the local turtles showered me with, carelessly moving its flippers, I took as a great honor.
