France's,Napoleon III, established a penal colony used from 1852 to 1946 on French Guiana and the 3 small islands 7 miles off its coast. There are 3 small countries on the northeast corner of SA: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, that lie between Venezuela and Brazil. French Guiana is still under French control but the other two countries have gained their independence. Today, the economy is based on the near equatorial Guiana Space Center, the European Space Agency's primary launch site. At yesterday's lecture on space, I learned that it is easier to launch space vehicles from the equator. I must have been sleeping during my physics class as not sure why this is!
The penal colony consisted of 2 prisons on the coast of French Guiana and then the 3 small islands 7 miles off shore. The prisoners came by prison ships to Kourou on the mainland to be processed and assigned to work camps or solitary confinement. During most of the Papillon movie takes place in the mainland prisons. It was at the end when Papillon was on the islands. The French sent 56,000 prisoners there and only 10% of them survived. Those sentenced to death were beheaded, others died of disease, starvation, and horrendous work conditions.
We are stopping from 1 to 6pm at the largest of the 3 prison islands, Isle Royale. The other two islands are Isle Saint- Joseph and Devil's Island. Over time the mainland and island prisons became known collectively as "Devil's Island". Isle Royale is where the administration buildings were located. Governor's house, guard housing, hospital, church, other infastructure buildings, as well the prisons. Devil's Island was the smallest and only 30 of the most infamous political prisoners at a time were located there. Escape was almost impossible due to the very strong currents and rip tide plus sharks inhabiting the waters surrounding the islands.
I went ashore this morning about 10:30 after we attended the Sunday worship service. We first had breakfast down in Compass Rose to take advantage of our last Sunday caviar with breakfast. Rebecca stayed aboard to workout. The tender ride was a short one. It was VERY HOT on the island even in the shade. During the time that the island was a prison the French made the prisoners cut down all the trees so they could not be used to make rafts for escaping. I cannot imagine how hot is must have been with no shade. I forgot to pick up a map telling what the buildings were but those who had the maps could not figure out what we were looking at most of the time. There are around 30 residents on the island that are taking care of the park. Didnot see air conditioning?? The prison was closed 66 years ago and has not been preserved. Now some of the old buildings have roofs over them to help preserve them. It would be very interesting to see what it looked like back then. It would have been real nice to have a guide take me through here. I think the French should have been taking better care of this historic place.
We arrived earlier than planned today as there was a medical emergency and a passenger had to be taken off the ship. As a result of arriving early we are sailing at 4pm instead of 6pm. There is a "White Elephant" auction at 5:30 to raise money for the "Crew Fund". The ship uses this fund for crew emergencies. Should be a lot of fun. I may be bidding. Our veal parmesan last night was best yet. Tonight I have requested soft shell crabs again. One week from today we will be back home. YUK!
