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| Prison Building on Devil's Island |
It was pretty amazing to see the Atlantic Ocean as we sailed
away from Belem, Brazil! Our last blog
entry indicated the tremendous volume of the watershed for the Amazon, but we
had no idea that the waters pouring into the Atlantic would make the ocean
brown for miles and miles! We left Belem
in the late afternoon of the 23rd, and even as late as mid-afternoon
on the 24th as we sailed ever northward, crossing the Equator for
the final time, the ocean waters were brown.
The captain referred to the striping of the waters, and indeed, we could
see what looked like small white stripes running through the surface of the
water as we sailed. We found it absolutely
astounding that the color of the ocean would be affected so far away from the
mouth of this tremendous river!
The day at sea between Belem, Brazil and Devil’s Island,
French Guiana was notable for more than just the brown color of the ocean! We finally bit the bullet and asked our cabin
stewards to deliver a couple of suitcases to our room. So the daunting task of packing has
begun. When we packed at home, we
started the task in late November, knowing that we would be leaving home on New
Year’s Eve. Now we will have to pack
everything up in less than a week!
However, the big difference here is that we only have to decide which
suitcase to put our possessions into because everything must go home. It’s a task we dread, but it will get done
between now and April 30th when we have to put our suitcases out.
Because of our 5-star Mariner brunch, I wasn’t able to go to
the theater and hear the drum roll along with the announcement of the photo
contest winners. No big deal because I’d
only entered so I could get 8x10 prints of a few of my favorite pictures. So later in the day I went to the photo
gallery and asked the department manager Lisa when I could pick up the
prints. We’d kind of gotten to know her
because she’s been the HAL representative on several of our shore excursions in
Africa and again Brazil. She asked for
my cabin number, and when I told her, she went to the back room and came out
with a folder, saying, “Congratulations!
You won 2nd place in the landscapes category!” Oh, my!
What a surprise! I was thrilled,
needless to say, and to think that the picture was hurriedly snapped out of a
bus window in the Seychelles makes it even more amazing! Timing was everything, I guess! I had a choice of three prizes, and I opted
to have 50 of my own pictures printed as 4x6 prints. Of course I had nothing else to do but to go
through the thousands of pictures I’ve taken and choose 50, but the sooner, the
better, I figured, which turned out to be a good decision. When I handed them my flash drive with the
pictures, the person who took it commented, “It’s a good thing you gave this to
us now. We’re running out of 4x6 photo
paper!”
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| Beach scene on Praslin Island, Seychelles (my 2nd place finish) |
Our last tender port was a very unique and interesting
place. Located just 9 miles from the coast of French Guiana, Devil’s Island is
known for having been a French prison.
French Guiana (which can also be spelled Guyana) is the
oldest overseas French department and is located on the northern coast of South
America. The name Devil’s Island is used to refer to three islands very close
together who lie about nine miles off the coast of French Guiana. Devil’s Island is actually one of the three Îles
du Salut, which also includes Île St. Joseph and Île Royale. Although nobody lives on these islands now,
their grim history makes this a fascinating stop! For about 100 years starting in 1852 these
islands were the most infamous prison in the French penal colony system. Those who were sentenced to Devil’s Island
were doomed to a grim life. If a
prisoner was sentenced to less than eight years, he was required to do an equal
amount of time on the mainland. If he
was sentenced to more than eight years, he was never allowed to leave the
island again. The French depended upon
the climate as well as malaria to finish off those prisoners who managed to
hang on. Those officials who were
assigned to command this prison were not exactly the “cream of the crop”, and
their often sadistic methods were ignored by the French government.
Île St. Joseph was used for solitary confinement and was the
burial ground for prison wardens. Those prisoners
who died were dumped into the sea to become shark bait. Île Royale was the main
prison, and ruins can be easily seen, some still containing the graffiti of the
convicts sentenced there. Île du Diable
became best known for its most famous inmate, Captain Alfred Dreyfus. In 1892 Dreyfus was falsely accused of attempting
to pass military secrets to the Germans. His only real “crime” was being Jewish
in an era of strong ant-Semitism and was sentenced to imprisonment on Devil’s
Island. Evidence was uncovered that another
French officer had actually been guilty but although he was court-martialed, he
was later acquitted.
Inmates could be sentenced for many reasons, running the
gamut from political dissidents to thieves and murderers. By shipping these prisoners off to French
Guiana, the French were assured that they would never see these more than
80,000 prisoners in France again.
Because the islands were located quite a distance from the mainland and
the waters around them not only had very strong currents but were also shark-infested,
this assured that it would be extremely difficult to escape. The movie Papillon, starring Steve McQueen and
Dustin Hoffman, is based upon a book written by ex-Devil’s Island convict Henri
Charrière that tells the story of his many attempts at escape.
We had heard another guest comment that she had never been
to a more hot and humid place than Devil’s Island. Although we have visited many hot and humid
locations on this cruise, we can certainly attest that at 5° N Latitude, this
island ranks among the top! Because
there is very little infrastructure on the island, no residents, and virtually
no wheeled vehicles, no shore excursions were offered there. While we would have loved to have an official
tour, we can certainly understand why none were available!
We had arranged to meet our friend Ange as well as his
tablemate Georgette to go ashore. Sally
wasn’t able to go ashore, and Georgette’s husband Leon was nursing an injury so
also decided he’d better stay on the ship, so the four of us got on a tender to
head ashore. Ange and Georgette had both
been there before, and Georgette was very familiar with the island so was able
to head us in the correct direction for the easiest walk. People are unable to visit the specific Devil’s
Island, but there was much more to see on the 70-acre island of Île Royale
because that was the main prison area.
Within minutes of setting foot ashore, we were greeted by a
few of the permanent residents. While no
humans inhabit the island, it certainly has a lot of interesting wildlife! Sunning themselves on the rocks were two iguanas. As long as we were quiet and didn’t get too
close, they were willing to pose for pictures.
We set off for a long leisurely walk along the coastline, enjoying the
beautiful palm trees and lovely seascape, a very beautiful and picturesque
scene, in drastic contrast to the grim events that haunt this island. As we circled around we came to the first buildings.
All that were left were the outside walls, mere shells of what had been there just
60 years ago. If walls could talk, what
stories they could tell!
Across a small strait was Devil’s Island, home of Alfred
Dreyfus. We had been told that we might
be able to see the building, but even with binoculars, we couldn’t make it out
probably because of the dense tropical foliage.
We could certainly see, though, how terribly rough the waters were
between the islands, even though we couldn’t have been more than 100 yards away! So we continued on the uphill path and came
to more buildings. These buildings, once
the Directors’ Quarters, were in far better condition. They actually still had rooms, and one served
as a small museum while another housed a very small gift shop where one could
purchase t-shirts, a limited amount of postcards, and a certificate stating
that we’d been to Devil’s Island. So we
each came away with another t-shirt for our growing collection of unique
locations.
Heading further uphill, now on a very uneven and mossy stone
walkway, we encountered more of the island’s current residents. Swinging through the trees and obviously very
comfortable to be around humans, were the monkeys. We aren’t sure what species they were (we later found out that they were howler monkeys), but
they had very interesting faces! Everyone
was stopped and mesmerized, cameras at the ready for those quick photos! That walkway, though treacherous (I really
had to watch my footing), was very entertaining!
As we continued, we spotted an even more unique creature, the island’s
resident rodent, the agouti. Now I
wouldn’t have cared to encounter rats, but these little guys looked more like
giant guinea pigs albeit with black-colored front ends and rust-colored back
ends. We kept missing getting pictures,
but finally spotted one hidden in the brush right near the walk. We were alone so we were able to stay quiet
and get some pictures. When we saw a
couple we knew approaching from the opposite direction, we gave the quiet
signal, and they crept up, asking, “What are we seeing?” We told them, and they shrugged and
commented, “They’re all over the place at the top!” And they were right! These little agoutis were followed by the
green monkeys, frolicking in the canopy.
Having had a close encounter with a green monkey in Barbados last year,
I was very careful, but these didn’t seem to be as territorial so I didn’t feel
as threatened!
Finally after about an hour and a half’s leisurely uphill walk,
we arrived at the top. This was where the
vast majority of prison buildings were.
It looked like a small community, although we were unable to go into
most of the buildings. They had a post
office, a chapel, a hospital, a hotel, and residences for prison supervisors,
most of which were shells of buildings. Oh,
and yes, there were lots of agoutis running around! We peeked into the chapel and walked over to
the hospital. Behind it was a lighthouse, and a short distance down another
path was a cemetery. This was a children’s
cemetery, a sad reminder that even children were witnesses to this horrific
prison. As we headed toward the hotel,
which housed a gift shop and small restaurant (ah – cold beverages!!!) we came
across the birds. Peacocks were everywhere
and shortly after we arrived upon the scene, a male peacock decided to display
his magnificent plumage – not for us of course, but for the several peahens that
were strutting around. He displayed his
colors for quite awhile, and we finally managed to pull away and move on to the
macaws, which were quite willing to strut around and pose for pictures.
Our final stop was the hotel. I managed to get a postcard with quite a
unique stamp (not a regular postage stamp, but a stamp with a stamp pad) and
tried to write it standing in the crowded quarters of that little gift
shop. In the meantime I was listening to
conversations between non-French-speaking fellow cruisers and
non-English-speaking clerks trying to get their points across. Unfortunately the postcard message ended up
being quite disjointed as I was busy translating simple phrases for both sides
of the conversations! But at least
someone will get a card with a Devil’s Island postmark! Next stop – the hotel for a much-needed can
of cold pop! It sure tasted good going
down because I was really hot! All
I can say is that with the heat and humidity, there was no need to use the
primitive restrooms that were provided!
After relaxing for awhile, we started our trek back down to
the tenders. What a surprise to discover
that the peacock was still parading his colors for the
women! Resisting the urge to add more
pictures to the dozen I’d taken earlier, we headed toward the path back
down. I had visions of that long, long
walk around the island, but discovered that there was a much shorter way back
to the pier. And of course there were
the many stops for more pictures of the monkeys that showed up. Because there were fewer people on the walk
at that time, there were more monkeys, giving us a better chance for some good
photos. (Too bad the sun and shade weren’t
cooperating to give us the best lighting!
But we never complain about too much sunlight!)
What took an hour and a half to navigate up the hill took us
about 20 minutes to go down. We wouldn’t
have missed the beautiful walk along the coast as we started out, but we were
very grateful to get back to the pier more quickly. By the time we were back on the ship, we were
soaked to the skin! I couldn’t wait to
peel everything off and hop into a cool shower!
All I could think about were those “poor” prisoners, some of
whom had done nothing more than disagree outspokenly with the politics of the
time, being sentenced to serve years on those hot, humid islands! As our travel guide Barbara commented, “If
you have an imagination and listen, you can almost hear the whispers of the
ghosts!”
That evening the entertainment was the movie Papillon. It had been about 40 years since I’d seen it,
and of course it means far more now than it did when I first saw it, so we both
found it very interesting, and a grim reminder of what life was like for these
hapless inmates!
We are very glad to report that we did escape Devil’s
Island, though not without incident! You
may have wondered why we titled this, “Marooned on Devil’s Island?” There was a reason for it! We were scheduled to set sail at 3:00 PM, and
just about that time, the captain made a general announcement. One of the tender platforms had mechanical
difficulties and they couldn’t get it closed.
Needless to say, we couldn’t sail with a gaping hole in the hull, so
they were working on fixing it. He
figured it might take an hour. Then they
added another half hour. By the time we
were leaving dinner at 6:30, we were still sitting off the coast of Île Royale,
wondering if we would become its next prison inmates! Very fortunately they managed to get the
platform fixed and we were on our way by about 6:45, just barely within the
time that would allow us to get to our final port of call, Castries, St. Lucia,
on time!
Devil’s Island was an absolutely fascinating place to visit,
but we certainly wouldn’t want to live there!
BT
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