Ramage's Diamond

AUTHOR'S POSTSCRIPT

In 1804 Commodore Samuel Hood, who was responsible for blockading the French in Martinique, reported to the Admiralty that he had taken possession of Diamond Rock, writing: 'I think it will completely blockade the coast in the most perfect security . . . Thirty riflemen will keep the hill against ten thousand...'

Unfortunately Hood gave the Admiralty very few details of how he put the 74-gun Centaur alongside the Rock and swayed up 24-pounder guns to the top, but it was seamanship of epic proportions. The garrison held the Rock for seventeen months, and the episode has become one of the legends of the Royal Navy in the Caribbean.

While sailing past the Rock some years ago, my wife and I became fascinated by Hood's feat. The adventures of Captain Ramage described in this book are the result, and they bear out the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. Although the Fort Royal of Ramage's day is the Fort de France of today, the Rock remains unchanged. Recently some of the cannons swayed up by Hood (using the method adopted by Ramage) were recovered from the sea below the site of one of the batteries.

DP.

Yacht Ramage

Tortola, B.V.I.

West Indies