° Fort de France
After 1783 and the end of 8 long years of war with Britain, America's Eastern Seaboard towns rapidly rebuilt its fishing and merchant fleets, increased its trade along the coast to the Caribbean and to Liverpool, England, and added ports in the Mediterranean. In the early years of the new century, while Europe spent its forces fighting Napoleon, the United States’ neutral position allowed American trade to prosper everywhere.
Attempting to bully neutral traders, Britain and France outlawed trading with the colonies of their enemies. For example, Americans who traded with Britain were prohibited from trading with France’s West Indian colonies. If Americans traded with France, they were not allowed to trade in the ports of British colonies, such as that of St. Thomas. The Americans side-stepped the prohibitions by inserting a short coastal voyage between the two ends of a vessel’s planned trade route. Samuel Eliot Morrison described this “indirect trade” undertaken to maintain peace and profits:
Plymouth custom-house records indicate the strange routes in 1806 and 1807: The brig Elisa Hardy of Plymouth enters her home port from Bordeaux with a cargo of claret wine. Part is sent to Martinique in the schooner Pilgrim, which also carries a consignment of brandy from Alicante in the brig Commerce, and gin from Rotterdam in the barque Hannal of Plymouth. The rest of the Elisa Hardy’s claret is taken to Philadelphia and thence to seven different vessels to Havana, Santiago de Cuba, St. Thomas, and Batavia.
The year of 1848 in the history of Martinique saw slavery abolished and thousands of immigrants reached the island from India and the surrounding area for work on the island's plantations substituting the once thriving slave labor. Martinique became the most precious of all French colonies during the eighteenth century when the sugar exports reached a major peak. Due to the boom in sugar, the island became one fought over by the British and the island saw a change of hands in official ownership several times over the passing years. Several small wars, violent events, and other strife saw a number of periodic takeovers yet in the end Martinique was retrieved and kept by the French. Some economic and political autonomy was granted to Martinique, French Guinea, and Guadeloupe in 1974 following strife and a political revolution. Guadeloupe and Martinique officially became part of the French Antilles in 1946.
Captains and crew faced danger at every turn. If they could avoid raiders, privateers and pirates, British dictates and being caught in doldrums (thereby losing necessary speed from port to port to sell goods at the higest prices and purchase the finest quality merchandise and food products), they also ran into hurricanes and volcanic eruptions.
The culture of Martinique exhibits a definitive French flavor, with St. Pierreknown as the Paris of the French Antilles until the eruption of Mt Pelee, but several other important influences create the fascinating medley of culture on the island. Creole is the second most dominant influence in the culture of Martinique. A mÉlange of languages, including Portuguese, English, French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean, Creole was born from numerous dialects and is spoken all around the West Indies. Finding plenty of times and ways to celebrate, there are many annual festivities and events hosted by islanders, most including heady Caribbean tunes, an abundance of tantalizing dishes celebrations of races, arts, culture, and much more.
Mt. Pelée in Martinique erupted in 1851, then fumaroles appeared in the summit crater in 1889, and by April of 1902, explosions were coming from the crater. On May 5, the crater burst and lava flowed into the valley of the Riviere Blanche reaching a rum distillery near the coast, burying all but its smokestack, and killing 24 workers. The mudflow entered the Caribbean Sea, generating a tsunami with 3 to 4 meter waves that flooded the low lying parts of St. Pierre. One of the commissioners reported to the local newspaper that "Mt. Pelée presents no more danger to St. Pierre than Vesuvius does to Naples!"
On May 8th, a loud blast emanated from the summit of Mt. Pelée, all clocks stopped, and part of the flow overtopped the valley walls and engulfed St. Pierre, killing all but two people out of about 29,000 in two to three minutes. Ships in the harbor catch fire and sink. Still, nearly all humans and animals die, even in parts of the city not knocked down by the blast.
September 18, 1891, Waterloo Daily Courier
Waterloo, Iowa, U.S.A.
HURRICANE'S TERRIBLE WORK.
A Private Letter from Martinique Tells of the Damage Done.
French and West Indian: Martinique, Guadeloupe, and French Guiana Today, Edited by Richard D.E. Burton and Fred RenoPHILADELPHIA, Sept. 18.—A. C. Grosholtz, of 226 Church street, has received a letter from Alfred B. Keevie, United States consul to Martinique, who is his persona! friend. The letter, which was mailed at St. Pierre, Aug. 30, gives some further details concerning the terrible work of the West Indian hurricane which almost devastated the islands on Aug. 18. Consul Keevie says: "We have just passed through a terrible storm, as you have doubtless heard. Your wildest imagination cannot picture the terrible affair and its results. Nearly every village on the island is wiped out of existence. Morne Rogue is entirely gone, Forte de France nearly all gone", and Fountain Shaude destroyed with the exception of the dining room and parlor. The hurricane demolished all the large mango and other trees, which were torn to splinters and hurled down the precipice. In fact, there is not a tree in all the visible part of the island that retains a leaf or small branch, and in most cases they are torn up by the roots."
