Ile des Saintes
We awoke to find the ship on the approach to the Iles des Saintes, an archipelago of seven islands just to the south of Guadeloupe. We anchored off the charming township of Bourg on the largest of the islands, Terre de Haut, and immediately following breakfast Zodiacs were landing us at the pier for a tour of Fort Napoleon that dominated the town.
The fort was garrisoned until the 1860s at which time - French and British finding themselves unusually on the same side against Russia in the Crimea - both the British and the French withdrew their garrisons from their Caribbean possessions. Today the fort houses an excellent museum and a botanical garden devoted to cacti, for the island is very arid.
On the ramparts several fine iguana specimens were lounging contently in the sunshine. In the museum, two rooms told the story of the Battle of the Saints (April 1782), the greatest naval battle of the eighteenth century. It was a battle won by the British against a French fleet that had been sailing triumphantly through the Caribbean in the afterglow of its success at Chesapeake Bay, heading for Jamaica with every intention of wresting control of the lucrative sugar trade from the British. Sir Charles Douglas, captain of the British flagship Formidable chose to break the line of battle, inspired by a squall that had disrupted the French fleet, the first time in naval history that this tactic had been used. With technical superiority deriving from copper-sheathed vessels and the recently invented caronnade, the British won a famous victory. Had the French gained control of the sugar trade there would have no financial crisis to precipitate a French Revolution and modern history might have unfolded very differently.
The remainder of the morning was devoted to excellent swimming and snorkeling before returning to the ship for lunch on deck and an afternoon's sailing off the coast of Guadeloupe, with a school of dolphins passing beside the ship at the close of afternoon tea.
In the evening, with fine weather prevailing, a deck dinner was organized, after which we were entertained by the ship's Shanty Gang.
We awoke to find the ship on the approach to the Iles des Saintes, an archipelago of seven islands just to the south of Guadeloupe. We anchored off the charming township of Bourg on the largest of the islands, Terre de Haut, and immediately following breakfast Zodiacs were landing us at the pier for a tour of Fort Napoleon that dominated the town.
The fort was garrisoned until the 1860s at which time - French and British finding themselves unusually on the same side against Russia in the Crimea - both the British and the French withdrew their garrisons from their Caribbean possessions. Today the fort houses an excellent museum and a botanical garden devoted to cacti, for the island is very arid.
On the ramparts several fine iguana specimens were lounging contently in the sunshine. In the museum, two rooms told the story of the Battle of the Saints (April 1782), the greatest naval battle of the eighteenth century. It was a battle won by the British against a French fleet that had been sailing triumphantly through the Caribbean in the afterglow of its success at Chesapeake Bay, heading for Jamaica with every intention of wresting control of the lucrative sugar trade from the British. Sir Charles Douglas, captain of the British flagship Formidable chose to break the line of battle, inspired by a squall that had disrupted the French fleet, the first time in naval history that this tactic had been used. With technical superiority deriving from copper-sheathed vessels and the recently invented caronnade, the British won a famous victory. Had the French gained control of the sugar trade there would have no financial crisis to precipitate a French Revolution and modern history might have unfolded very differently.
The remainder of the morning was devoted to excellent swimming and snorkeling before returning to the ship for lunch on deck and an afternoon's sailing off the coast of Guadeloupe, with a school of dolphins passing beside the ship at the close of afternoon tea.
In the evening, with fine weather prevailing, a deck dinner was organized, after which we were entertained by the ship's Shanty Gang.
