The Picton Castle, with her spanker set keeping her head to wind, is anchored pretty close to the black sand beach that is the shore at St Pierre, Martinique. This is necessary as the shore drops off steeply here. I make my way to sit on a mahogany chest next to the wheel box up on the quarterdeck with a cool cup of overnight coffee. Very smooth it is. A none-too broad strip of colourful buildings along the shore makes up the town. Some are built in among ruins, and are all that remains of the once thriving metropolis of “the Paris of the Caribbean”. Now a lovely and friendly town grows in its ruins, but big city it ain’t. There are plenty of spots where the ruins remain intact and have not seen any rebuilding. A modest swell gives a gentle motion to the ship and we can hear the small surf rolling down the beach. On this early morning, this soothing water music is accompanied by the occasional cock-a-doodle-doo of a rooster, or bark of a dog. The sun is still below the high mountain giving us a pleasant shade before the heat of the day takes over.
Looming over the landscape, tall conical Mount Pelee is in brilliant green as it catches the sun before we do in the shadow of the mountains.
The marketplace is starting to bustle ashore just after dawn. Horns and reggae and creole music waft across the water and it is not yet 6 o’clock. A colorfully painted wooden pirouque, a canoe of sorts, passes ahead with two divers to set a seine net to gather up small fish, which we might eat of tonight at a local café. The imposing two steepled church, painted a cream colour, with strong the green of the mountainside behind it, towers over a mosaic of red roofs and variously coloured houses of St Pierre. Palm trees along the waterfront with their bursts of fronds sway slowly in a dance. Soon enough the morning sun climbs over the mountain top, flashing bright and hot, just in time for our 7:00 swim call. In these Caribbean islands we have taken to swimming off the ship in the morning before breakfast just because we can. So sweet.
The market right off the jetty hosts all sorts of vegetables and fruits one day. Then the next day something of a flea market. The cafes and convivial local watering holes find custom in our crew. I get asked what I like about St Pierre. My answer is that “I just love it.” West Indian, French, colorful, friendly as can be and beautiful. Just love it.
For more on the devastating eruption of Mt Pelee in 1902:
The fact that Mt Pelee erupted and destroyed this city was and remains the dominant feature of St Pierre. Here we have from Wikipedia.
- The 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée was a volcanic eruption on the island of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the eastern Caribbean, which was one of the deadliest eruptions in recorded history. Eruptive activity began on 23 April as a series of phreatic eruptions from the summit of Mount Pelée. Within days, the vigor of these eruptions exceeded anything witnessed since the island was settled by Europeans. The intensity then subsided for a few days until early May, when the phreatic eruptions increased again. Lightning laced the eruption clouds and trade winds dumped ash on villages to the west. Heavy ash fell, sometimes causing total darkness. Some of the afflicted residents panicked and headed for the perceived safety of larger settlements, especially Saint-Pierre, about 10 km (6.2 mi) south of Pelée’s summit. Saint-Pierre received its first ash fall on 3 May.[3]
- Mount Pelée remained relatively quiet until the afternoon of 5 May when a mudflow swept down a river on the southwest flank of the volcano, destroying a sugar mill. The massive flow buried about 150 people and generated a series of three tsunamis as it hit the sea. The tsunamis swept along the coast, damaging buildings and boats. The explosions resumed the night of 5 May. The following morning, parts of the eruption plume became incandescent, signifying that the character of the eruption had changed. The phreatic eruptions had finally given way to magmatic eruptions as magma reached the surface. These eruptions continued through the next day and night.[3]
- A brief lull was shattered by a tremendous eruption at about 8:00 a.m. on 8 May. A ground-hugging cloud of incandescent lava particles suspended by searing turbulent gases called a pyroclastic surge moved at hurricane speed down the southwest flank of the volcano, reaching Saint-Pierre at 8:02 a.m. Escape from the city was virtually impossible. Almost everyone within the city proper—about 28,000 people—died, burned or was buried by falling masonry. The hot ash ignited a firestorm, fueled by smashed buildings and countless casks of rum. One survivor within the city was a clueless prisoner who was locked in a windowless underground jail cell, later being discovered by rescue workers.[4] The only other survivors were a few tens of people caught within the margins of the cloud, who were all badly burned.[3]
- Explosive activity on 20 May resulted in another 2,000 deaths as rescuers, engineers and mariners brought supplies to the island. A powerful eruption on 30 August generated a pyroclastic flow that resulted in over 800 people killed. The eruption continued until October 1905.
