On 10 October 1961, the eruption of Queen Mary's Peak forced the evacuation of the entire population of 264 individuals. The evacuees took to the water in open boats and were taken by the local lobster-fishing boats "Tristania" and "Frances Repetto" to uninhabited Nightingale Island. The following day they were picked up by the diverted Dutch passenger ship "Tjisadane" that took them to Cape Town. The islanders later arrived in the UK aboard the liner "Stirling Castle" to a big press reception and, after a short period at Pendell Army Camp in Merstham, Surrey, were settled in an old Royal Air Force camp near Calshot, Hampshire. The following year a Royal Society expedition reported that Edinburgh of the Seven Seas had survived the eruption. Most families returned in 1963.