Diamond Rock (French: single span > rocher du Diamant ) is a 175 meters (574 feet) basalt island located south of the "Grande Anse du Diamant "before arriving from the south at Fort-de-France, the main port of the Caribbean island of Martinique. This uninhabited island is about 3 kilometers (1.9 million) from Pointe Diamant.
The island gets its name from a reflection whose sides are thrown at certain hours of the day, which evoke images of precious stones. This is important for events during the Napoleonic Wars.
Video Diamond Rock
HMS Diamond Rock
Diamond Rock occupies a strategic position at the northern end of Straits. Lucia. Stone ownership allows a navigation ban between Martinique and its southern neighbor, St. Lucia.
In September 1803 Commodore Sir Samuel Hood sailed to the rock aboard the Centaur (Captain Murray Maxwell). Hood accepts the task of blocking the bay at Fort Royal and Saint Pierre, Martinique.
Centaur was lying in anchor at Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, on the morning of December 1 when the scouts saw a schooner with a lifeboat behind him about six miles away to make Saint Pierre. Hood sent his boat of advice, the Sarah, after the lifeboat, and told Maxwell to sail Centaur in the pursuit of a schooner. After chasing about 24 leagues (120 km, 63 million), Centaur captured the schooner, which turned out to be privateer Ma Sophie, from Guadeloupe. He has 45 crew members, and is armed with eight weapons, which he has discarded during the chase.
Hood took Ma Sophie to the service as a tender, charging his captain, Lieutenant William Donnett, by watching the channel between Diamond Rock and Martinique for enemy ships. Donnett often visits the rocks to collect the thick, broad-leaved grass that will be woven into a sailor's hat, and a spinach-like plant called callaloo, which, when boiled and served daily, keeps the crew of Centaurs and > Ma Sophie from scurvy and is a great addition to a menu that is overly dominated by salted beef.
Aided by the calm weather, the British were able to run the landline and deploy two 18-pound cannons to the top of the rock. Britain hastily built the fort and provided a position with food and water for the garrison of two lieutenants and 120 men under the command of Lieutenant James Wilkes Maurice, first lieutenant Hood. Hood officially commissioned the island as the "lifeboat" of HMS Diamond Rock (a "stone frigate"). A six-shot lifeboat, designated Fort Diamond , supports the castle. In honor of the admiral, Maurice was designated as the one-one-24-pound "Veil Battery" he placed for fire from a cave in the center of the stone's side. Britain also placed two 24-pounder weapons in batteries ("Centaur" and "Queen's") at the base of the rock, and a 24-pound carronade to cover the only landing site. One account puts two 24-pounds on top, but all other accounts put 18-pounder in there. At a certain point when this happens, Ma Sophie explodes for an unknown reason, killing all but one of his crew.
With the work completed on February 7, Hood decided to formalize the island administration, and wrote to Admiralty, announcing that he had commissioned the stone as a lifeboat, under the name of Diamond Rock. Lieutenant Maurice, who had impressed Hood with his efforts when setting the position, was rewarded by being commander.
The cave in the rock serves as a bed for men; officers use tents. The military court will reprimand Lieutenant Roger Woolcombe in Plymouth on December 7, 1805 to "commit a gentleman's unrighteousness" for having disrupted (eaten) on a rock with part of a ship's company.
Sailors use pulleys and ropes to increase supply to the top. To supplement their uncertain food supply, the garrison had a small group of goats and a group of guinea chickens and chickens that survived on little leaves. Britain also set up hospitals in the cave at the base of the rock that became a popular place to put sailors and marines who recovered from fever or injury.
Just before Centaur left a stone, a group of slaves made secret excursions at night to trade fruits and bananas. They brought word that a French engineer lieutenant colonel had arrived at their plantation to observe the altitude opposite to the mortar battery used to blow up the stone. One of the slaves has been sold by its owner from England to France when the owner left the island. He does not like his new master and claims the protection of the British flag. Hood gave him protection, and promised that he could serve in the Royal Navy as a free man in exchange for guiding a landing party to his old master's home. A landing party of 23 people, including a guide, and under Lieutenant Reynolds, landed at midnight, walked four miles to the plantation house, and brought in engineers and 17 prisoners, before returning safely to Centaur. Apparently the lieutenant colonel was the only engineer in Martinik, so no mortar battery materialized.
On June 23, 1804, when Fort Diamond was doing an expedition in Roseau Bay, St. Lucia, a French boarding party from schooner came to her in two paddle boats, boarding her at night while most of the crew fell asleep under the deck. The next military trial at HMS Galatea in British Harbor, Antigua, sentenced Lieutenant Lieutenant Benjamin Westcott for letting his ship be captured. The council fired him from the Royal Navy, never allowed to serve in the navy again. He became an American citizen three years later.
For 17 months, the castle could disrupt the sending of French who tried to enter Fort-de-France. The weapons on the rocks really dominate the channel between it and the main island, and because of their altitude, are able to shoot deep into the sea and force the ships to give him a wide berth, with the result that currents and strong winds would make it impossible for them to pick up in Port Royal. During this time the French forces in Martinique made several unsuccessful attempts to reclaim the stone.
Capture
When Admiral Villeneuve started his 1805 journey to Martinique, he got orders from Napoleon to reclaim Diamond Rock. The combined strength of the French-Spanish sea of ​​16 vessels under the French Captain Cosmao-Kerjulien attacked Diamond Rock. Between May 16 and May 29, the French fleet completely blockaded the stone. On the 25th, the Frenchman was able to cut from under Maurice's rifle, an English shovel arriving from St. Lucia with some supplies.
The actual attack occurred on 31 May, and the French were able to land some troops on the rock. Maurice had anticipated the landing and had moved his men from an unbearable low job to a further position, and at the top. After the French landed, the British fire trapped the landing parties in two caves near the sea level.
Unfortunately for the garrison, their stone tank has been cracked, due to earthquakes, so they lack water, and after exchanging fires with the French, they are also almost running out of ammunition. After a fierce bombardment, Maurice surrendered to the superior forces on June 3, 1805, after rejecting two French seventy-four, one frigate, a corvette, a schooner, and eleven warships. Britain lost two people dead and one wounded, and 20 Frenchmen were killed and 40 wounded (British accounts), or 50 dead and wounded (French accounts), and three warships.
France took garrisons from 107 people as prisoners, splitting them between two of their 74-guns, Pluton and Berwick's former British. France returned the prisoners to Barbados on 6 June. The subsequent military trial of Maurice's commander for the loss of his "ship" (ie the fortress) freed him, his officers, and his men and praised him for his defense. Maurice took delivery to England, where she arrived on August 3, and was given the command of the brig-sloop Savage .
Battle of Diamond Rock in literature
There is a now unclear poem from forty stanzas four lines based on the incident, titled "The Diamond Rock".
The author of "Sea Lion" (the pseudonym of Geoffrey Bennett, a career naval officer), based on his 1950 novel The Diamond Rock at the 1804 event, as did Dudley Pope in his 1976 novel > Ramage's Diamond .
The Royal Navy still considers "HMS Diamond Rock " as a commission (as "stone frigate"). Therefore, the Royal Navy ship is necessary, when passing the island, to show respect, personnel on the upper deck to stand in attention and face the stone while salute the bridge.
Maps Diamond Rock
Natural history
The rock is a volcanic plug, the rest of the powerful volcanic activity that affected the region about a million years ago. However, Captain Hansen of the Norwegian steamer Talisman reported that on May 13, 1902, he observed what he took as a volcanic eruption from a hole in the rock. This happened at the time of the volcanic eruption that destroyed Mount Pela which destroyed Saint Pierre. Hansen did not investigate further.
Like the other 47 islands that surround Martinique, it has its own ecological characteristics. Brighter than the main island, drier, and subject to long dry seasonal periods. Today covered with bush and cactus.
Relatively inaccessible and unfriendly, the island is uninhabited, which has allowed it to remain a shelter for species believed to be extinct. A natural survey has stated that Diamond Rock may be the last refuge for a reptile species ever endemic to Martinique, couresse snake grass ( lyophyl cursor ). The snake was last seen in Martinique in 1962 and has not been found since. It is now considered extinct.
Dive the rock
Underwater, the Diamond Rock cave, a deep triangular cave, is a popular attraction for scuba divers. The cave is said to contain lots of wonderful sea and rock enthusiasts, although strong currents make diving on the island as a risky venture.
One of the stone cannons toppled by the French from the top has been reported to have been found at the time of diving.
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Source of the article : Wikipedia
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