Devil’s Island is one of the three Iles du Salut (Salvation Islands), 7 miles off the coast, we actually tendered into Royal Island the largest of the three islands. It was a little bumpy and it seems we were lucky to get off, as lots of times the sea is too rough.
These islands and some of the coast of French Guiana were set up as a penal colony by the French in 1852. In 1854 the French instituted “doublage” rule that forced prisoners serving less than eight years to remain on the island for a period equal to their sentence. Those with longer sentences were exiled for life. It didn’t matter much as 40% of prisoners didn’t survive more than a year.
Political prisoners were exiled on Devil’s Island. They had a cable car arrangement to get people and supplies to and from the island as it was extremely difficult to land boats, due to high cliffs, sharks and severe water currents.
Devil’s Island was made famous by Henri “Papillon” Charrière, one of only two prisoners to escape the Island. The film, Papillon, with Steve McQueen is just one of those made based on Henri’s memoirs. The other was Clément Duval who escaped after 20 attempts. A famous inmate was Alfred Dreyfus who although pardoned, still served his sentence and then brought public attention on himself and this brought an international spotlight, on the conditions experienced by prisoners on Devil’s Island, giving it a reputation as one of the most terrifying places on earth. In 1938 the French stopped sending prisoners but took a further 15 years to shut down the prison complex.
On the island there are lots of buildings, some of which have been restored including the cells, warden’s quarters, chapel and others still in disrepair like the hospital, butchery, convent. There is even a hotel if you fancy staying on the island!
It was transferred to the Guiana Space Agency who installed a number of scientific devices. There is a memorial to Zhang Tong, the president of China Great Wall Industry (CGWIC) who drowned near Devil’s Island in 1997, during a visit to the European Space Agency’s Kourou launch site.
We saw Capuchin monkeys, Agouti (medium sized rodent like animals), peacocks, lots of birds and the odd flowering plant.
We took the coastal path to the right of the pier, headed towards the main area of buildings and then passed the lighthouse to the Children’s Cemetery before heading back to the pier on the other coast road. It was very hot with 90% humidity and after a couple of hours, we were very hot and sweaty and glad to be returning to the ship.