Catastrophe (part sixteen)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part sixteen)                           XI. The Day of the 8th at Fort-de-France The account of the newspaper L’Opinion     As a journalist, I naturally asked a fellow journalist for the story of the “terrible day”. The […]

Catastrophe (part fifteen)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part fifteen)                       “From my window I saw a thick cloud come out of the volcano. Its base reached the peaks of Carbet. The height of it filled the sky, to more or less six thousand meters. The […]

Catastrophe (part fourteen)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part fourteen)                       “They followed, these black waves, one on another in a furious push. One on another, with thunder, making the sea recoil. Splinters, swirling… A sloop was hurled 150 meters to kill one of my foremen […]

Catastrophe (part thirteen)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part thirteen)                             Those Who Have Seen    VIII. Some Interviews     How was the destruction at Saint-Pierre accomplished? By what force were they thrown to earth, set afire, these ruins through which, in […]

Catastrophe (part twelve)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (twelve)                       To raise a monument to the great emancipator, following I don’t know what baroque idea, they could not find a better place than the foyer of the theater. The philosopher’s image was to preside over the […]

Catastrophe (part eleven)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part eleven)                       But what, better than phrases, will permit you to imagine this destruction, are photographs. I have brought back many. I am publishing a few. Look at these, consider these—a countryside of crushed stone. And crushed […]

Catastrophe (part ten)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part ten)                       It seems to me, when my mind’s eye evokes the spectacle…it seems to me that I become stupid again, as I was when the boat stopped, and a canoe landed me on the beach. Once, […]

Catastrophe (part nine)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part nine)                             VI. The Funeral Boat On Land…What We Saw There     I had seen the volcano in passing near the coast, aboard the Saint-Domingue. I had remarked the terror it threatened to […]

Catastrophe (part eight)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part eight)                       A few Americans had planned to realize it, this classic ascent become obligatory. They were at Morne-Rouge. Fully equipped, they departed: wagons, horses, mules, guides, and provisions. They had dined, very calm, and happy in […]

Catastrophe (part seven)

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (part seven)                       I have rediscovered an old and very dear friend, a friend of my young years. We go out to dinner, to a place for admiring the scene of apocalypse, which the sky—if you prefer, the […]