Niuafoʻou (meaning: many
new coconuts) is the most northerly island in the kingdom of Tonga.
It is a volcanic rim island with an area of 15 km2
(5.8 sq mi) and a population of 650 in 2006. The Niuafoʻou language is
spoken on the island. The island is located in the southern Pacific Ocean between Fiji
and Samoa, 574 km (357 mi) north of Tongatapu island group and 337 km (209 mi) northwest
of Vavaʻu. It is still an active volcano. Other names for the
island are Good Hope island and Tin Can island. The latter name originated from
the fact that, since the island has neither a natural harbor nor a wharf, mail
was delivered and picked up by strong swimmers who would retrieve packages,
"sealed up in a biscuit tin" and thrown overboard from passing ships.
Established in the nineteenth century, Tin Can Mail was developed by a trader
named Charles Ramsey and later commercialised by a competitor, Walter George
Quensell, who festooned the mail with many colourful cachets that have become a
collectors' item. The Tongan government took over this tradition with special
Niuafoʻou stamps since 1983.
Niuafoʻou is a volcano
located on an underwater ridge 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the line of
all the other volcanoes of Tonga. The island contains a steep-sided caldera; the rim is over 120 metres (390 ft) high, rising
to a height of 250 metres (820 ft) at Mokotu. The coastline is rocky and
steep with only a few stony black sand beaches. The only landing place on the island is
the end of a lava flow at Futu, in the west.
All the villages are in the north and east. Public places—like the post office,
telecommunications station and airport (Niuatoputapu Airport)—are
in Angahā
in the north, while a high school is located in Muʻa.
The island ring encloses
two lakes. The larger, Vai Lahi, is a crater lake 23 m
(75 ft) above sea level, four km (2.5 mi)
wide, and 84 m (276 ft) deep. The lake contains three islands and a
submerged island that appears when the water level drops. Vai Lahi is separated
from the smaller Vai Siʻi (or Vai Mataʻaho) by a desolate landscape of sand
hills. The island is covered by forest on the inner walls of the crater lake,
and on the island's eastern and western slopes. Niuafoʻou has been an active
volcano for thousands of years. In 1853, the village of ʻAhau was destroyed,
killing 25 people. Lava flows from eruptions in 1912 and 1929 destroyed the
village of Futu, cut off the harbor, and killed all the vegetation on the
western slopes of the island. Other eruptions occurred in 1935, 1936, 1943, and
1946. The 1946 eruption was a particularly violent one and in December 1946
Niuafoʻou's inhabitants were evacuated and resettled on the island of ʻEua. ʻEua and Niuafoʻou share many place names, showing where
the resettlers went to. The first groups of inhabitants were allowed to return
to the island in 1958.
In the early part of the 20th century,
philatelists began seeking out postal cancellations from Niuafo'ou, a volcanic Tongan island. Since Niuafo'ou lacked a
deep water harbor to accommodate ships, postal deliveries were received via the
so-called "Tin Can Mail" system of having mail thrown overboard in
biscuit tins and retrieved by local swimmers. To swim mail out, Tongans adopted
the traditional fishing technique of using a buoyancy pole, called a fau, to
swim out with a biscuit or kerosene tin to visiting ships. Using the pole for
support the swim could take several hours. After a shark killed a Tongan
swimmer in 1931, swimming was banned and canoes had to be used. The specially
marked Tin Can covers of the 1930s and 1940s became collectors items after an
Englishman, Charles Ramsey, became the first and only white man to swim out
with the mail. A German trader, Walter Quensell, cashed in on what had become a
major tourist attraction with visiting cruise ships, by stamping all the mail
and sending it on. There was great rivalry between the two men. Ramsay, who was
an agent for Morris Hedstrom Ltd on the island, made 112 swims, many of them at
night. Frequently, they lasted for hours in treacherous seas. Ramsay started
the practice in commercial innocence but Quensell, who was an agent for the
rival trading company Burns Philp (South Seas) Pty Ltd was more shrewd. He set
up a shed on the shore and cacheted the covers for the passengers on the cruise
liners, in a totally unofficial but rather profitable operation. Ramsey, who
had given romance and created world interest in the special mail service, was
purposefully exploited by his commercial rival. Quensell never made the swim
himself, but his sister-n-law, Pauline Hoeft, a champion swimmer in Australia
became the only woman to make the swim, occasionally helping the Tongans. Tonga has issued stamps for Niuafoʻou since 1983.
The covers posted on August 29, 2016 and I received on September 19, 2016.
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