"By far the best book in English on the tragedy is La catastrophe by Alwyn Scarth . . . . Basing his book on meticulous research, Scarth has assembled the most revealing and reliable testimony, together with a collection of vivid photographs. He carefully probes and exposes "the lies and innuendos" that followed the disaster." Steven Soter in Natural History
. . . engaging account . . . the photographs selected by Scarth are the most numerous, varied and clearly reproduced; they allow the reader to compare "before" and "after". The Times Higher Education Supplement
As well as being of great interest to geologists, because the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée is one of the "classics", this is a book which is of general interest: the author puts the story into its economic, social and political setting . . . My non-geologist brother-in-law could hardly put the book down when he was staying for a weekend and kept talking about the awesome power of the nu‚e ardente. . . . this is a book to buy. Journal of the Open University Geological Society
. . . a riveting read; it is very thoroughly researched and graphic . . . Well, do read this book to get the full, true story; it is not as I thought. . . . highly instructive in its details . . . I recommend this exceptional case study to all those interested in volcanoes and their hazards: from amateurs to professionals, teachers to administrators. <I>La catastrophe<i> is very well illustrated, with many contemporary photographs and copies of poignant documents, and it is pleasingly produced; its cost . . . is a tad high, but it is worth it, as the definitive account of a shattering lesson delivered by nature, and a gripping tale to boot. Peter Kokelaar in Geological Magazine
Noted volcanologist Scarth (Vulcan's fury: man against the volcano) has produced the definitive study of the horrendous 1902 eruption of Martinique's Mount Pelée, which annihilated the Caribbean island's capital. While the destruction has long been infamous Saint Pierre, the capital, was leveled in less than two minutes its tragic dimensions are fully explored for the first time by Scarth, whose analysis of archival research, eyewitness accounts and his own research show how the city's residents could not have guessed their fate, for Mount Pel‚e threw a lethal type of eruption at them that scientists had never previously fully recognized or studied. Scarth's day-by-day and hour-by-hour account remains gripping from beginning to end. His prose (Mount Pelée roared like a rampant lion throughout 7 May, punctuating its monotonous background noise with muffled cannonades that hurled huge blocks high into the air) skillfully contrasts the historical facts about Saint-Pierre, the home of white supremacy, with its self-made image as the Pearl of the West Indies, providing a much-needed sociological dimension to the natural tragedy. He also breaks out hardcore scientific data into engaging sidebars. By providing a wealth of archival photos from before and after the destruction, Scarth maintains the reader's interest without watering down his formidable knowledge of how volcanoes actually work. Publishers Weekly
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A century ago, 27,000 people lost their lives in the greatest volcanic catastrophe of the twentieth century. There may have been larger eruptions, but none wreaked the devastation that Mount Pelée inflicted on the French colonial town of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, in a few minutes on a single day: 8 May 1902. The tragic story of this stupendous event is told with painstaking care in this comprehensive and eminently readable account, the authority of which is firmly underpinned by the author’s masterly command of the French language, in which almost all of the original sources were written. It is only from these sources that the true story can be gleaned, and La catastrophe sets out to correct many of the inaccuracies that gained currency soon after the cataclysm and have persisted ever since, especially in the English language.
The eruption reached its terrible climax within less than three weeks. The people who panicked and fled saved their own lives. Those who behaved rationally and stayed in the city met an appalling and entirely unexpected death. The type of eruption that Mount Pelée unleashed on that fatal morning was virtually unknown to science in 1902, and therefore no-one had any means of taking steps to avoid it. This was the now notorious nuée ardente, the scorching cloud at 400°C that razed Saint-Pierre to the ground at 500km an hour. Lungs were burned out by searing gas and ash, the dying bodies bombarded by hot rocks and falling masonry. Most of the corpses were never recovered, let alone identified.
This is the story of what happened during the growing volcanic crisis and it is also a sustained attempt to set the record straight about the various myths that have clung to this famous eruption. For instance, it is often held that only two people survived and that one of them was a murderer; that the governor surrounded the city with troops to prevent the citizens from leaving Saint-Pierre because elections were in full swing; that the aid sent to the devastated area was totally mis-spent on high living; and that the eruption was one of the most powerful of the century, when in fact it caused such destruction because its main blast was directed straight onto the unfortunate city, whereas the other side of the volcano was almost undamaged. Further, the importance of a clear understanding of the sources in French is illustrated by the erroneous original translation of the French word professeur, which has continued to give a school science teacher an image of academic authority that the unfortunate man never claimed to possess.
Informed by the author’s own field research in Martinique, the book is based principally on contemporary archives and especially on eyewitness accounts, letters and the local press, because only these original sources provide the most accurate impressions of events and what people felt about them. The author has also had ready access to the manuscript sources in the French Naval archives and the Library of the Départements d’Outre-Mer (the government departments dealing with the former French colonies) and to the Lacroix archives at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
Helpful fact boxes complement the text with an explanation of what was happening, what the people should have noticed, what the volcano was doing, how the dangers were increasing – to put the event into a sound volcanological context. Also, the political context is placed into proper perspective, which is crucial in, for example, exposing the tales and half-truths about Governor Mouttet, and due attention is at last given to the hitherto wholly neglected economic and social background in the decades leading up to the eruption. Then there is careful consideration of the creation of myths about old Saint-Pierre as a kind of nostalgic compensation for an inexplicable catastrophe – this too has been ignored in the other accounts. These new perspectives are important in helping to eradicate the woeful inaccuracies that have permeated the whole story of the tragedy.
Fully illustrated with maps and photographs, both archival and modern,
this is a book for all those who are interested in learning about how people
cope with a sudden, incomprehensible and all-embracing environmental disaster.
The story shares many qualities of the “thriller”, with events
leading to a rapid and growing climax within a short period. It is above
all a human story, both before and after the disaster, and it needs no embellishment
by the exaggerated and sensationalist language so wilfully deployed in other
accounts. The narrative pace therefore needs little artificial stimulus.
The outcome is truly tragic in that the victims suffered in events that
they could neither comprehend nor control. The supreme irony is that the
tragedy was all the greater because the people who behaved rationally were
doomed and those who panicked survived: as the author himself says, “If
I had been in Saint-Pierre on the morning of 8 May, then I would have stayed”.
Preface; Acknowledgements
The eruption in 1792; The eruption in 1851; Perceived implications of the eruption in 1851; Fumes in the Etang Sec
Warning fumes; The eruption begins
Sunday 27 April; Other activities
The first ash and dust fall on Saint-Pierre; Repentance at Le Morne-Rouge; The governor visits Saint-Pierre and Le Prêcheur; Charles and Emilie Dujon flee to safety; A volcanic shroud for Saint-Pierre; Volcanic zeal; A weekend for writing letters
The destruction of the Guérin factory; The sea wave, or tsunami; The exodus from Fonds-Coré; The arrival of the Suchet; Governor Mouttet’s second visit to Saint-Pierre
A turbulent night; A change in activity; Governor Mouttet returns again
to Le Prêcheur; A prophecy;
A chance to leave Saint-Pierre
Abbe Parel returns to Sainte-Philomène and Le Prêcheur; Cable repairs; Governor Mouttet appoints a scientific commission; An interview with Monsieur Landes; An alternative view from the Orsolina; Lieutenant Hebert visits the Fort market; The first nuées ardentes; A rival eruption; Anguish in Saint-Pierre; Governor Mouttet moves to Saint-Pierre; Miraculous repairs; More decisions to leave Saint-Pierre; 7 May in Le Morne-Rouge; The night of 7–8 May at Trouvaillant; Moods in Saint-Pierre on the evening of 7 May; The last letter from Saint-Pierre
Telegraphic testimony; The nuée ardente; The return wind; Death in Saint-Pierre; The fires; The death of Gaston Landes
The first survivor; The escape of the Raybaud family; Life and death on the fringes of the nuée ardente; Two miracles; The escape of Edouard Lasserre; The eruption experienced from Le Morne-Rouge; The flight from Beauregard
The Teresa Lo Vico; The Diamant; The Gabrielle; The adventures of the Roddam; The Roraïma; Italians saved from the Roraïma
Fort-de-France, 8.00 a.m., 8 May; The role of the Suchet on 8 May; The third trip of the Rubis; The rescue of the fugitives from Beauregard; A visit by RMS Esk
Friday 9 May at Saint-Pierre; Supplies from Guadeloupe; Saturday 10 May at Saint-Pierre; The dead
The evacuation of Les Abymes; Saturday 10 May at Le Prêcheur; The evacuation of Le Prêcheur on 11 May; The role of the Valkyrien at Le Prêcheur; Foreign help
Lies about Louis Mouttet; A restless volcanic interlude; A reconnaissance to the northern villages; Problems and a lesson for the French navy; Another great nuée ardente
Victims of the nuée ardente on 8 May; Survivors of the nuée ardente on 8 May; Displaced persons; The eruption of 30 August at Le Morne-Rouge; The victims of the eruption on 30 August 1902; Parsimony and planning; The dome and the Needle of Pelée; Tourists
Bibliography; Index
234×156 mm 256pp. 5 maps, 66 photographs
ISBN: 1-903544-11-4 HB £24.95
ISBN-13: 978-1-903544-11-2
Published in 2002
A Terra original publication
Distributed in North America by Oxford University Press under the OUP imprint
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