Goats...

Capra Wessalia

Goats are very important on Tamba- Tamba.
do Tristao mentioned herds of wild goats in his account of the island.
Wessel's islanders had kept domesticated goats for centuries before the arrival of the Dutch.
Several goats were taken from Wessel's on board the Dreadful, and the majority of the domesticated goats on Tamba-Tamba are descended from this stock.
No cow has ever set foot on the island, and goats have provided generations of islanders with milk, cheese and meat.
Even in the downtown Palmerston you will see goats grazing in vacant lots.

Captain Paul Nixon Crowther (1775- 1815).

In the early days of the British Occupation (1795) the amount of maritime traffic calling at Tamba- Tamba increased phenomenally.
In 1797 a military detatchment called at Tamba- Tamba on board HMAV Glorious. Among the soldiers was Ensign Paul Nixon Crowther. Nixon Crowther was the son of a London wine merchant. His romantic tendencies precluded him from following his father into business, and he joined the army seeking adventure. Even though Nixon Crowther's stay on the island was brief he vowed to return.
Having risen to the rank of Captain and somehow accumulated a considerable personal fortune, Nixon Crowther was invalided out of the army in 1803.
He paid for his passage to Tamba- Tamba on the first available ship.
When he arrived on Tamba- Tamba neither Governor Bentall nor Citizen Renton Cock was sure how to receive him.
The islanders were apprehensive about newcomers- the community was close knit and there were limited resources.
Bentall was unsettled by the arrival of this dashing adventurer (although he now walked with a pronounced limp), and wanted to deport him at the earliest opportunity.
Nixon Crowther asked to be allowed to address the Council.
He told them of how the lifestyle he had seen on Tamba- Tamba had seduced him, and how he admired the way in which the people conducted their everyday lives. He assured the Council that he was not seeking an easy life, but just wished to be allowed to settle on the island unmolested.
As a show of goodwill (or a means of purchasing their favour) Nixon Crowther put his considerable personal wealth at the disposal of the community.
Of course, the islanders had no use for money or gold, they produced their goods in common and traded with Wessel's or passing ships on a barter basis.
The Council approached Bentall regarding the establishment of independent trade between the islanders and England .
Bentall drew up a list of prohibited items (basically firearms) and also forbade any trade in imported goods between the islanders and the garrison.
Nixon Crowther was also responsible for carrying on Thomas Cock's vision of a literate island, establishing the rather basic and informal educational system that lasted well into the 20th century.
He set up home in a rather ramshackle cottage (built by the Berrys) with a series of concubines from Wessel's Island.
When his health declined his companions wheeled him around Cocktown in a rudimentary bathchair, his face shaded by a hat with a very wide brim. Such hats are still referred to as 'Crowthers' on Tamba- Tamba.

The Fishing

Fishing has, of course, always been of great importance to the inhabitants of Tamba- Tamba.
When HMS Dreadful left the island the settlers retained (after what Cock described as 'much heated bargaining') the ship's jolly boat, and this was the principal craft of the island until it was damaged during the bombardment.
Berry, the ship's carpenter was soon engaged in the construction of other boats modelled on the jolly boat.
Other mutineers (Hooper, Rowley and Stock) had experience of fishing, and this was put to good use.
Fish commonly caught in the waters off Tamba- Tamba include Cod, Hargreaves Skate, Gurnard, Toppimuri, Slingfish, Hargreaves Bristleback and Southern Ocean Bass.
Pair trawling between two small boats remains the most common practice, although Orlando Hooper was running a sophisticated modern trawler, The Gannet, brought from Rhode Island as early as 1952.

Gannet II

Interestingly an English visitor to the island in 1955 noted that a type of coelacanth were regularly landed by Tamba- Tamba boats and were considered commonplace by the locals.

Coelacanth photographed at Hooper's Point in 1955 by Archibald Mackenzie- Smith.