Due to weather this port was canceled this morning. Chuck said it was my fault since I opened an umbrella indoors. I don’t think so. It is a tender port, meaning we have to take a life boat to shore as the water is too shallow at the port or they don’t have a dock large enough. It might be too rough for get ashore. We were told more rough weather is coming. We will experience weather issues throughout the cruise and not surprised but we are disappointed.
I’m posting the story of Devils island below. Laurie did a fantastic job in this compilation of history so I’m copying almost word for word. It just can’t be expressed any differently.
Welcome to Hell, at least that’s what Devil’s Island was for a hundred years. This may be a long story but if you’ve seen the movie Papillon the you’ll understand after reading.
This will be a different kind of post, just trying to give you an understanding of this small archipelago, the les du Salut, or Salvation Islands. I had very little knowledge of this place other than that it was a prison that less than a handful of prisoners escaped from, but I’ve got a much better grasp now so I’ll share what I’ve learned with you.
First thing to know is that there are three islands here, not just one, and all three were part of the French penal colony called “Bagne de Cayenne” in French Guiana, as well as a town on the mainland called St. Laurent-du-Maroni, Maroni is the river it was located on. St. Laurent is important to note as it was the first place that the ships that carried prisoners from France would stop to offload and process the inmates. Most of the men, and all of the few women sent to French Guiana, would stay at this location to work at a logging camp. The incorrigibles and political prisoners were the ones sent out to the islands. As France was trying to populate this colony the policy was that once the prisoners had served their sentence they were then required to stay in French Guiana for the same number of years as their sentence before they could return to their native land. For example, if a man were sentenced to serve a nine year sentence doing hard labor, once he had served that time he then had to stay another nine years in country before he could go home.
The transport of what would eventually be close to 80,000 prisoners to French Guiana over the years began in 1852 when Napoleon III wanted to get rid of political enemies who had opposed his coup d’état the previous year. Along with political prisoners there were murderers, anarchists, thugs, rapists, the occasional innocent man, and thieves, whose crimes could range from stealing money or jewels to a loaf of bread. Sending prisoners here became a way France rid itself of an undesirable slice of
society. The Atlantic crossing was horrific for these inmates in the bowels of a transport ship, but only a taste of things to come, especially for those who were were sent to the iles du Salut.
Today they are collectively better known by the name Devil’s Island, although besides that small island, we should be able to see Saint Joseph Island and Tle Royal, the latter is the one where we tender to and where most of the ruins of the prison can be found. Sea currents can be strong here and the waters are shark infested so there was little chance of escape. The ironic thing is that the first colonists who came to the islands were escaping the mainland and the tropical diseases, like yellow fever and malaria, that were decimating their numbers, this outpost became their “salvation” until they could be picked up and taken back to France. It was certainly not that for the men who were subjected to prisoner on prisoner violence, being shackled in the heat and humidity, starvation, cruel treatment from the guards, disease, or being forced to stand and keep moving all day without being allowed to sit down. Devil’s Island itself was often the place political prisoners were sent, the most famous being Alfred Dreyfus, who was accused of being a spy for Germany, found guilty of treason and sentenced to serve his time in French Guiana beginning in 1895. After several years of appeals and pressure on the French government, he was pardoned, then later acquitted after he returned to France. He owed his release mostly to his wife who never gave up her efforts to prove his innocence. To learn more you can look up “The Dreyfus Affair”, it’s quite fascinating. Saint Joseph Island was where prisoners were sent for solitary confinement, the worst spot there being “the black hole” where the only time there was any light was when food was handed in. If you were on this island you were absolutely forbidden to speak, a torture in and of itself.
ile Royal, the largest of the three islands, was where the prison staff were housed. If you plan to tender in you’ll see the graveyard here which was only for the families of the guards, dead prisoners were just taken by boat out into the straits between the islands and dumped into the sea to become shark food.
Of the 80,000 that I mentioned earlier almost three quarters of them died while incarcerated, a huge indicator of the type of treatment they received, or didn’t receive as the case may be. Also on the island is a restored chapel that was originally built by the prisoners. There are abandoned prison buildings, preserved prison cells, the old administrative buildings, lots of tropical vegetation and a small museum here as well.
Three men who were known to have escaped the penal colony and lived to tell their tale wrote books about their time on Devil’s Island. All eventually made their way to the United States. A French anarchist named Clément Duval escaped in 1901, Rene Belbenoit, a thief who served his time but escaped the country while waiting out his “double” sentence, and convicted murderer Henri Charrière, who was also known as “Papillion”. You may have seen the 1973 movie of the same name, although it’s said that Charrière’s writing was more of a compilation of various prisoner’s experiences, not just his own on the island.
The final convict ship sailed to French Guiana in 1938. Recognizing that the penal colony was no longer viable plans were put in place to close it down but then WW2 happened and France’s focus shifted elsewhere. By 1947 most of the prisoners had been sent back home and everything was closed up in 1953. The islands and their decaying structures were off limits to anyone and everyone until the 1990s when Devil’s Island became a tourist destination. And here we are, a ship full of tourists here to learn about the sad stories of those who lived and mostly died here in what was once one of the most horrific places on earth. What tales these cells could tell!
May God bless you always!
Chuck and Lea Ann
WorldTravelReynolds 