08 Jun 2008, South Coast Of Martinique
Strange lumps of rock in the Caribbean part 2!
Following on from Redonda here's Diamond Rock, a British Naval War Ship. Paraphrased Wikipedia entry below.
In 1804 Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, aboard HMS Centaur and aided by calm weather, was able to run lines ashore and hoist five cannons to the summit of the Rock. Fortifications were hastily built, and the position supplied with food and water for a garrison of twenty men under the command of Lieutenant Maurice, Hood's 1st lieutenant. The Royal Navy garrisoned island was officially commissioned as a Man-of-war HMS The Fort Diamond.
For 17 months the newly commissioned ship harassed the French fleet on it's way to and from Fort De France, and then on his voyage to Martinique in 1805, Admiral Villeneuve was ordered by Napoleon to recapture Diamond Rock. A French-Spanish combined naval force of sixteen ships attacked the garrison on Diamond Rock. The garrison's stone water cistern had cracked, due to an earth tremor, so they were without water and short of food. After a fierce bombardment, they surrendered to the superior force on June 3rd, 1805.
A more romantic version is that the French floated barrels of rum ashore and then captured the rock from the drunk garrison!
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01 Jun 2008, St Pierre, Martinique
As you can see from the photo we are anchored under a stunning volcano off a quaint little town of about 5,000 inhabitants. After exploring ashore we found out the incredible story of this place and the 1902 eruption of Mt Pelee the volcano.
On 7th May 1902 St Pierre was a city of 30,000 inhabitants, with a cathedral, an 800 seat theatre, wide boulevards etc etc. It was the largest city in the French West Indies and known as the Paris Of The Caribbean.
By 8am on the 8th of May, all but one person was dead and the town completely destroyed, after the side of Mt Pelee exploded and a cloud of superheated toxic gas swept over the town with a force equivalent to 40 Hiroshima bombs.
The only survivor was a prisoner in solitary confinement at the town gaol, which is sighted under a cliff and one of the few buildings not completely destroyed. He was found 4 days later by rescuers and later toured with PT Barnum as a sideshow displaying his burns.
The town museum has a few artifacts from the explosion, most notably the molten and bent remains of the cathedral bell, the harbour has the wrecks of about 20 ships that were in harbour on the day of the explosion, and a few stairways and the foundations of the theatre remain in town - that's it, everything else vanished.
If you want to see a photo of the town post explosion take a look at Mt Pelee Album
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29 May 2008, Iles Des Saintes, Guadeloupe
We have just spent a cracking 10 days or so in Guadeloupe, with the exception of losing the Champions League final that is - watched the game in a tiny bar tabac with a huge TV screen, no joke it was half the width of the building!
A wonderful place, Caribbean island charm but part of France, so baguettes, wine and funny little cars as well.
We managed to get a couple of dives in at the Jacques Costeau underwater park - not sure what the park signifies as we watched fishermen hauling nets on the reef, but still some great diving.
From there we sailed down to Iles Des Saintes, three tiny islands just off the south coast. We are at Bourg a small village with no traffic, a boulangerie and a Napoleonic fort. A few days of pottering and now we will head on to Martinique.
We have caught up with about 6 boats we were in the Bahamas with as we now all start to funnel down the island chain towards Trinidad.
On the blog front have added photo albums to Picasa, there is a link on the right hand side of the page.
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