belem's history
May 8th, 1902, the disaster of Mont Pelée
Chauvelon’s fourth campaign aboard the Belem is a voyage to Martinique from Le Havre with a return in Nantes (from March 19th till August 6th, 1902).
He [the captain Chauvelon] was on board in the harbour of Robert during the disasters of May 8th and 26th, 1902 when the eruption of Mont Pelée destroyed Saint-Pierre-de-la-Martinique making forty thousand victims. Two French three-masters, the Tamaya of Nantes, Captain Mahée and the Biscaye, Captain Trévilly, went down with all hands during the disaster and the Belem, which was only thirty kilometers as the crow flies of the terrible volcano, was able however to escape the disaster. But the bridge was covered with ashes and pebbles, her rigging and her masting underwent some damages; the thick coat of volcanic dusts was transformed some hours later by torrential rain into a caustic and thick mud difficult to remove, as hard as a mortar. [Louis Lacroix, 1945].
At this beginning of May, 1902, the Belem arrived in the harbour of Saint-Pierre but its place was taken by the sailboat Tamaya (Captain Mahée) of shipowner Rozier of Nantes. This small incident is going to save the Belem.
Le Tamaya
3 mâts carré de 566 tonneaux de jauge brute (pour réf. Belem : 527 tonneaux).
Construit en fer en 1862 aux chantiers de Liverpool.
Immatriculation au long cours n°356. Armement Rozier, Nantes.
Armé le 18 février 1902 pour la Martinique.
Perdu corps et biens le 8 mai 1902. Rayé de l’effectif de la Marine Marchande le 21 juillet 1902.
Commandant : Théophile Mahéo, né le 30 août 1860 à l’île aux Moines.
Rôle d’équipage :
Charles Le Cerf, second capitaine.
Joseph Sujet, bosco.
Gabriel Le Ian, cuisinier.
Jean Goubeyre, Michel Gallard, Yacinthe Lab, Pierre Rouxel, J.-Marie Peyraud, Alexis Auvray, Frédéric Mallert, Pierre Gallapel, Raymond Crequier.
Chauvelon had to go cast anchor to Robert, on the other side of the island.
In this time, Saint-Pierre was the capital of Martinique and the economic centre of the West Indies. Nicknamed Small Paris, it was a pleasant city. One of its prides was the italian-styled theater presenting various shows, the exact replica of Bordeaux’s theater. It had also a world-famous botanical garden. Mont Pelée, depicted as an extinct volcano without danger for the population, was a touristic sight.
From February 1902, different outward signs of the volcano should have pull the alarm. Showers of ashes had already covered Saint-Pierre. Schools were closed since May 3rd. The population waited in the anxiety. Some fleed. Worried more by the organization of the second tour of the general election which should take place on May 11th, the authorities tried to reassure the population. On May 5th, Guérin’s sugar refinery, located three kilometers from the city, is destroyed by a mudslide, making numerous victims. A tidal wave follows on the natural harbour.
The harbour regulations forbade captains to weigh anchor without authorization. On May 7th, a man nevertheless, Captain Ferrata, commanding the Orsolina, decided to leave. The boat was already covered with ashes. He knew well the angers of the Vesuvius and he saw the danger. Customs refused to let him leave, and threatened him of heavy penalties if he weighted anchor nevertheless. He left them by answering: “Who will apply them to me? Tomorrow, you will all be dead!”. The boat will be the only survivor of those that were in harbour.
On May 8th, at 8 o’clock, Saint Pierre was completely destroyed. Just in few seconds, an enormous burning mass rushed over the city, covered it, suffocated it, put fire to it then ran over the sea. The city is plunged into the darkness. Nothing was spared.
Chauvelon was ready to land to go on horseback to Saint-Pierre, lunch with the Captain Mahée. The noise of the explosion and the spectacle of the panache of smoke attracted all crewmen to the bridge. A shower of ashes arrived on the Belem.
The candidates for the general election, Fernand Clerc and Louis Percin had already fled the city at 6.30. About 28 000 inhabitants died suffocated and burned. Of this tragedy, only two survived: Léon Compère and the well-known Louis Auguste Sylbaris, said Cyparis.
The Tamaya’s remains are one of the rare remains of the harbour that was identified because a bell, bearing the inscription Tamaya 1862, was brung back up to surface in 1984 by Dominique Serafini. This bell was handed to the volcanologique museum of the City of Saint-Pierre.
Below, the wreck of the Tamaya in 2001 (photo JP Plongée):
The Belem, loaded with sugar, cleaned by its ashes, leaves her shelter on August 6th.
Eight campaigns in the “West Indies” are going then to succeed one another without dramatic events from 1902 till 1907:
- Nantes / Cardiff / Trinidad / Haïti / Nantes,
- Nantes / Cayenne / the Barbados / Haïti / Nantes,
- Angleterre / Guadeloupe / Nantes,
- Saint-Nazaire / Belém / Nantes, from June 3 to September 3, 1904, with as passenger, the wife of Julien Chauvelon by way of honeymoon trip,
- Saint-Nazaire / Belém / Martinique / Nantes,
- Saint-Nazaire / Martinique / Nantes,
- Saint-Nazaire / Belém / Nantes,
- Saint-Nazaire / Cayenne / Connétable.