Name: The World's Most Useful Airport [Documentary]
Uploaded: 2021-06-24T07:15:48.000Z
Duration: 46 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

What you're about to watch is a Nebula original meaning it was first released on Nebula—the

streaming site founded by myself and plenty of other creators.

Producing this documentary was an enormous project which involved flying myself and a

crew 10,000 miles to one of the most remote places on earth, and it was entirely funded

That's because Curiosity Stream has partnered with Nebula to offer a bundle deal where,

if you sign up at CuriosityStream.com/Wendover, you also get a Nebula subscription—easy

On there you'll find loads of other great originals by independent creators, but for

It was this precise moment, early on a Saturday afternoon in October, 2017, that changed the

course of history for one of the world's most remote societies.

This moment that ended 500 years of isolation from the world—cutting travel time to there

from six days on a boat to six hours on a plane.

It was this small moment that changed everything for the island—an island where the thing

they need most of all, as much as it might hurt, is change.

It was this moment that long in the future will be recognized as the single most consequential

You'd be forgiven for not knowing exactly what or where St Helena is.

It's not a place that one hears a whole lot about.

If you have heard of it, that's likely thanks to Napoleon.

It's here, on St Helena, where the infamous Emperor of France was exiled by the British

Since then, though, the island has been up to quite a bit.

It's now home to about 4,500 of the friendliest people you'll ever meet.

Walking a block through its capital of Jamestown, it's tough to go without saying hi and hello

Driving past someone without giving a wave—well, that's practically a crime.

Saints, as its residents are called, are as proudly British as the come and fly their

The island is, after all, a British Overseas Territory.

Life on St Helena is quite unlike life in the UK, though.

They've got their own money, their own accents, their own culture, their own government, but

most of all, what makes life on St Helena different is where it is.

The island sits in the same neighborhood as nothing.

Mainland Africa is 1,100 miles or 1,800 kilometers to its east.

Mainland South America is about 2,000 miles or 3,300 kilometers to its west.

London is over 4,600 miles or 7,500 kilometers to its north.

St Helena's isolation defines and shapes it, in absolutely every way—including, perhaps

You see, St Helena is not a wealthy place.

Its GDP per capita averages just above $12,000, compared to about $40,000 in the UK.

The issue is that getting people and things to and from the middle of nowhere costs a

great deal, so there just aren't too many industries that can profitably operate on

a place as tiny and isolated as St Helena.

Beyond the traditional goods and services sectors that any small community would have,

“We have some of the rarest coffee in the world which sells for, I know, 90, 100 GBP

in the United Kingdom for just 100 grams.

If we could increase that to some extent, that would bring revenue to many of the farmers

They also sell a good amount of tuna and honey, but then there's another sector that capitalizes

“The predominant economy here at the moment is there is niche tourism--diving, history,

walking tours, birdwatching, those sorts of things--plus also a growing market of people

One week away from the Internet and given the Internet prices here and that's quite

But tourism would be nothing without a means to get off and on to St Helena Island.

It was only recently that this became something that the government had to worry about.

In the early days of the island's human history, shipping was what brought a population

It was the perfect stopping point on the route from the far east to Europe around the Cape

of Good Hope—so perfect, in fact, that for a while the entire island was run by the British

Eventually, though, the Suez canal opened and so fewer boats would round the southern

This, of course, diminished St Helena's importance, but still, up until the 1970's,

the island served as a regular stopping point for ocean liners traveling between the UK

and South Africa, meaning there was reliable link to the outside world.

But then, throughout the 20th century, as air travel grew more popular and profitable,

passenger ocean lines around the world increasingly struggled to fill their ships and one-by-one

The last shipping line with passenger service to St Helena collapsed in 1977, leaving the

island marooned—with no way to get to the outside world.

The British stepped in, buying a ship for their overseas territory which would be called

The RMS was part cargo ship, part passenger ship.

In the front she carried dozens of shipping containers, acting as the primary supply-line

for the island, and in the back she was adorned with pools and bars and sun loungers.

Her regular journey consisted of the five nights from Cape Town to St Helena, then she

would continue on to Ascension Island, in two or three nights, where she would meet

and connect her passengers to one of the bi-weekly Royal Air Force flights to the UK.

This method, via Ascension, allowed travelers to get from the UK to St Helena in relative

Most, though, took the longer route from South Africa.

Locals and tourists alike adored the RMS.

She was thought of as the perfect transition from St Helena to the outside world or vice

She was a legendary, storied vessel, but, after decades of heavy use shuttling passengers

to and from the island, in the early 2000's, the RMS was getting old and worn and the government

started to think about what would replace her.

Initial assessments found that replacing the ship would cost up to $100 million.

This led to the question: with that kind of money, was a ship really the best option?

The answer, it turned out, was probably not.

After decades of feasibility studies, discussions, debates, false starts, delays, and bidding,

a contract was produced, and with a few quick signatures, life on St Helena would change

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The World's Most Useful Airport [Documentary]

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