Our
sail up from St Lucia to Martinique turned out to be our gentlest
inter-island passage of the season to-date . Having ripped the tendon
on my bicep during the storm off Mustique it was a relief for me not
having to face some physical sailing and straining my arm and for
most of the crossing we had 15kns of wind slightly forward of the
beam and with a full main and genoa we held 7kns of boatspeed until
the wind started to die just short of the south coast of Martinique .
To
avoid arriving in the dark off St Anne we fired up our Perkins and
motor-sailed the last few miles dropping anchor right behind our good
friends Jim & Carol onboard Nepenthe . We were welcomed to dinner
and spent the evening catching up on all the happenings since we last
sailed off in different directions from Union Island in the
Grenadines .
The
next morning while having our first cup of coffee we switched on our
FM radio and we may as well have been in the heart of Paris going on
what we were hearing over the radio . The one thing about the French
is that they don't short change themselves at all when it comes to
living in one of France's offshore territories . Excellent French
food not to mention French music and fashion make the island a
paradise for Francophiles . The one advantage they have over their
counterparts back on mainland France is the tropical climate along
with some magnificent beaches .
" Joie
de vivre “ is the credo in this French enclave .
Carol
had been planning our island tour long in advance but this time our
best option was to hire a car and conduct our own tour with me as the
designated driver and Carol the navigator and tour guide . We hired a
neat little Citroen and set off for the famous rum distillery
Habitation Clement which is renowned for their old matured rums . Rum
is my favourite tipple and by the end of our visit l was a lot
clearer on what goes into producing the Caribbean's most popular
drink. In the tasting room l spotted a 1952 vintage selling for 1250
euros .
Apart
from the distillery the Creole plantation home which is now 250 years
old and is also a listed heritage building was very impressive , set
in a magnificent old garden which forms part of a 16 hectare estate .
Part of the estate includes an amazing palm grove with a huge variety
of different palm species .
The
next part of our tour was a tortuous drive up through the rain
forests past the pitons along the windiest road l have ever driven on
. Steep inclines and tight turns best describes the mountain road we
took finally arriving in St Pierre on the north-west coast .
The
Mont Pelee eruption and the devastation it caused is clearly visible
throughout the town with the remaining ruins that survived the
disaster incorporated into the current structures . A museum tells
the story that unfolded on that fateful day in 1902 in the
Caribbean's most developed city at the time .
Martinique
is the largest of the Windward Islands and it is also the island
where Empress Josephine , Napoleon's first wife and impressionist
painter Paul Gauguin called home .
But it
is most famous for Mont Pelee , one of the tallest volcanoes in the
Caribbean which erupted in 1902 killing some 30,000 people in just
two minutes .
While
passage planning to St Pierre l noticed that the chart showed
numerous wrecks littered all over the anchorage which pricked my
interest as to what had caused so many ships to go down in such a
concentrated area . After a bit of research l discovered that most of
these ships were casualties of the eruption of Mont Pelee . All in
all , twelve ships were lost in one day .
The
rise and fall of St Pierre is one of the most remarkable stories in
Caribbean history . Martinique's modern history began here in 1635 .
By the turn of the 20th century St Pierre was a
flourishing city of 30,000 people . It was the most modern town in
the Caribbean with electricity , telephones and a tram As many as 30
ships at a time stood at anchor taking on rum,sugar,coffee and cocoa
.
The
volcano gave some warning signs that trouble was brewing . Minor
rumblings began early in April and on the 23rd April a
sizable eruption occurred covering the town in ash . People started
pouring in from outlying villages . On the 2nd May a major
eruption occurred covering the city with enough ash to kill birds and
animals . Later on the same day Pierre Laveniere the owner of an
estate to the south of St Pierre went to inspect his crops with a
party of workers and they were all swept away by a vast avalanche of
boiling volcanic mud .
Then
on the 5th May it was the turn of one of the richest
estates in the area known as the Guerin Estate . A massive torrent of
volcanic effluent including mud,lava,super-heated gasses and rocks
estimated to be a quarter mile wide and a 100ft high completely
buried the estate killing the family and many workers .
The
end came on the 8th May at 8.02am when the side of the
volcano facing St Pierre glowed red and with two thunderous
explosions Mont Pelee split in half creating a giant fireball of
super-heated gas that flowed down over the city releasing energy 40
times greater than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima . Toxic
gases and lava heated to 3600 degrees F raced down the mountain at
250mph completely vapourizing everything in its path including 30,000
people in less than two minutes .
Twelve
ships were completely destroyed at anchor and the only survivor
turned out to be a prisoner who was locked away in an underground
stone cell proving the point that on occasions crime does pay , maybe
not in cash . The poor guy being the sole survivor and having lived
through this massive human tragedy later hit the road and joined the
Barnum & Bailey Circus as a sideshow attraction .
Many
ruins still remain today and a museum depicts that era and the
tragedy itself . Standing in the town and looking up at the volcano l
tried to picture the scene on that fateful day in St Pierre .
Fortunately for those who were there, the end came quickly .
Having
read up a lot on this event it is fascinating how money and politics
played a role in this tragedy which led to the unnecessary deaths of
thousands of lives .
Another
great story is the one about HMS Diamond Rock which in fact is a rock
commissioned as a ship because at the time the British were a little
short on ships . In 1804 , Napoleon was in control of Europe but the
British had naval supremacy and largely controlled the Caribbean .
Diamond
Rock was perfectly situated on the south coast of Martinique and
after the arduous task of scaling this steep sided rock infested with
snakes , the British had equipped this pinnacle with cannons and
enough supplies and water for a full complement of men .
For
some 18 months HMS Diamond Rock was a very unpleasant surprise for
any unsuspecting French ship sailing to Martinique via it's south
coast . Napoleon threw his toys out of the cot . The French got wind
of the fact that the British were getting cabin fever on their
isolated rock and they arranged for barrels of rum to drift up onto
the rock . The French easily overpowered the inebriated British
sailors taking control and liberating the rock .
While
in Martinique we based ourselves in the St Anne anchorage but decided
to overnight anchored off St Pierre on route to Dominica . After a
decent broad reach all the way up Martinique's west coast we dropped
the pick right opposite the famous ruins on the waterfront . The
wrecks of the ships that were destroyed in the eruption were all
around us and l tried to imagine what those sailors must have seen
minutes before they were vapourized .
On the
day of our tour while we were in the museum we were told that Mont
Pelee's peak is very seldom seen as it is always shrouded in cloud
but guess what , on our last day in Martinique while slowly motoring
out of the anchorage at first light , the cloud cleared exposing the
entire peak not once but on four separate occasions over a period of
half an hour before the cloud rolled over once again .
What a
way to end our stay on this beautiful island . We felt very
privileged .
