Devil's Island

Hi All,

Today we visited Devil’s Island, the infamous French prison colony in French Guiana which operated from 1852 to 1946.   Actually,  what is commonly called Devil’s Island is a group of three very small islands which are collectively called Iles du Sulat (Islands of Salvation).   The three islands are called Ile Royal, Ile St Joseph and Ile du Diable (Devil’s Island).

 More than 80,000 men were imprisoned on these islands.  Each island served a different purpose in the penal colony.  Ile Royal  was the site of the administrative center, the guards’ housing, and for prisoners deemed less dangerous.  Ile Royal is shown here (The German cruise ship Bremen was anchored next to us).

The more troublesome convicts and murderers were kept at Ile St Joseph shown here.

Political prisoners were held in isolation on Devil’s Island.  The most famous of these prisoners was Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer who was falsely convicted of treason.  In this picture of Devil’s Island, you can see the small house were Dreyfus was held.  (He was later cleared in a retrial and set free).

Today only Ile Royal can be visited.  We took the ship tender to the island’s small dock.

Many of the island’s buildings remain.  The church

Hospital and light house

Warden’s house

Prison walls

Administration building walls

Cells for the condemned.

Our guide said the guillotine sat on these blocks in the yard in front of the cells for the condemned.

Cells for those in solitary confinement.

It feels a bit strange to be walking around this place where so many horrors occurred.  However, it is quite beautiful and a nice walking path circles the entire island.  Also, lots of animals live on the island, like this monkey.

And this rodent, not sure what they are called.  Kind of like a very big rat with no tail.

Lots of these running around.

Many pretty trees on the island.

The island in now used by the French space agency as a tracking station for rocket launches from French Guiana.  There is a small hotel for visitors.  We saw these folks enjoying a swim.  The waters around the island used to be shark infested, hopefully not now.

Many years ago, this swimming area was built by the inmates for the warden so he could swim without the danger of sharks.

Part of the path around the island, this also built by inmates.

So that is a look at our day on Devil’s Island.  This was our third visit, but we still find it interesting and enjoyed our walk around.  We are now on our way to Barbados, we arrive Thursday morning.  Today we were given our instructions for leaving the ship in Miami.  The end is near!!  Bye for now.

Jer and Helen