Ruperts, Saint Helena
Ruperts, also written as Rupert's, is a village in the island of Saint Helena, in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, an overseas territory of the in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a waterfront settlement located within the island's Jamestown district. It features a valley settlement with infrastructure including a major commercial port, power station, and fuel installations.
History
The name likely refers to Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who used the valley as a haven in the 17th century. Dutch captain Jan van Riebeeck documented Rupert's activity in the island. In the 19th century, the valley housed thousands of Africans who were rescued from slave ships by the Royal Navy, whose mass graves were discovered during excavations. In the early 20th century, it houses Boer prisoners of war during the Second Boer War. Later, it hosted a leper hospital till the 1950s.Geography
Ruperts belongs to the district of Jamestown. The settlement is composed of Rupert's Valley in between two hills, and upert's Wharf by the sea in front of Rupert's Bay. The rocky shoreline with a small sandy beach transitions inland into a narrow valley, rising steeply to rugged hills. The valley is sparsely populated with and a census data showed 90 inhabitants in the village. The surrounding seabed supports various biofauna, with green turtles nesting on the beach.Infrastructure
The valley hosts the island's power station and bulk fuel storage facilities consisting of eight large tanks. It also hosts the island's animal quarantine station since 1999. The settlement hosts a commercial port, and a wharf, which was opened in 2016 and became operational from 2020 after rock stabilization works. The wharf is the main facility to receive large cargo ships on Saint Helena. It allows ships of up to length and draft.The Haul Road was built for supply transport for a new planned airport, linking Jamestown to Ruperts. A narrow-gauge railway served an early 20th‑century desalination plant, which no longer exists.