page_title: Inaccessible Island
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Inaccessible Island / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Group of "Rock Hoppers" (penguins) at Inaccessible Island. An engraved illustration after a photograph
context_page_description: Inaccessible Island is an extinct volcano, last active six million years ago, with Cairn Peak reaching 449 m. The island is 12.65 km² in area, rising out of the South Atlantic Ocean 31 km south-west of Tristan da Cunha.
  Inaccessible Island is part of the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, which is part of the overseas territory of the United Kingdom known as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Tristan da Cunha itself is accessible only by sea via a seven-day sail from Cape Town, South Africa, by landing during the 60 days of the year that the harbor allows for access to the island.
context_section_description: Inaccessible Island was discovered in January 1656 during a voyage by  ’t Nachtglas ("the night glass"), a Dutch ship under the command of Jan Jacobszoon, 146 years after Tristan da Cunha was first sighted by Portuguese sailors. Jacobszoon originally named it "Nachtglas" island.
  There are two explanations for the name "Inaccessible" island. One is that on maps the newly found island was referred to as "inaccessible" because the Dutch crew who landed were not able to reach its interior. The other claims that French captain d'Etcheverry renamed the island in 1778 after not being able to land.
  In 1803, US sealers led by Amasa Delano made landfall on the island.
  The Stoltenhoff brothers, who arrived on Inaccessible from Germany in 1871, lived there for two years intending to make a living sealing and selling their wares to passing traders, though such trade was minimal. Due to the scarcity of food, they were "overjoyed" to be rescued in 1873 during HMS Challenger's visit to examine the flora and fauna there.  The South African author Eric Rosenthal chronicled the Stoltenhoffs' adventure in 1952. The nearby Stoltenhoff Island is named after the brothers.
  In 1922, the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition's ship, the Quest, stopped by Inaccessible briefly, and on-board naturalist Hubert Wilkins discovered a bird later named (after him) the Wilkins finch (Nesospiza wilkinsi). In 1938, the Norwegian Scientific Expedition spent three weeks on the island, during which time they managed to gain access to the plateau and extensively catalogued plants, birds, and rocks. Another attempt at mapping the island was made during the Royal Society's expedition of 1962 to Tristan da Cunha, which took scientists to Inaccessible Island. Like many other explorers before them, the scientists were not able to reach the interior of the island.
  Inaccessible Island was declared a nature reserve under the Tristan da Cunha Conservation Ordinance of 1976. Tristan islanders, however, were still permitted to harvest seabirds from the island. In a 1982 expedition  (October 16, 1982 – February 10, 1983), students and faculty of Denstone College in England made detailed maps of the island, studied its flora, fauna, and geology, and carried out a bird ringing programme on more than 3,000 birds.
  In 1997, Inaccessible Island's territorial waters out to 22 km (14 mi) were declared a nature reserve under the Tristan da Cunha Conservation Ordinance of 1976. Currently, only guides from Tristan are allowed to take visiting cruise ships to Inaccessible; indeed, most trips to the island are now made at the request of expatriates. In 2004 Inaccessible Island was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gough Island to create a new site of Gough and Inaccessible Islands.
caption: Northern rockhopper penguins, from an engraving after a photograph, published in a book by the naturalist aboard HMS Challenger
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