The Diamond Rock is situated within three-quarters of a mile of the southwest end of the island of Martinique, in latitude of 14-24 north, longitude 61-06 west. Its height, as measured by a quadrant, is 600 feet, and its circumference rather less than a mile. The south side of the rock is inaccessible, it being a flat steep, like a wall, sloping a little towards the top. The east side of it is also inaccessible, with an overhanging cave about 300 feet high; there are other caves of great magnitude on the southwest side, but here, also, the rock is impregnable. The west side, where breakers run into the sea, affords the only landing, and that not at all times practicable on account of the surf; and, even when a person is landed, he has to creep through crannies and over dangerous steeps till he reaches the northwest side, where the eye is suddenly relieved by a sloping grove of fig trees. It was in the latter end of the year 1803 that Commodore Samuel Hood, of the Centaur, 74, then cruising in Fort-Royal Bay, sent a party to land on this barren rock. The knowledge that vessels bound to Fort- Royal usually pass close to it suggested the idea of making it a sort of depot, or stationary cruiser, whence boats could be detached to harass the enemy’s trade.
In the course of January and February, 1804, with incredible difficulty, five guns, three long 24’s and two long 18-pounders, from the Centaur, were mounted on different parts of the rock; one 24-pounder, on a circular carriage, commanded the landing place, and nearly across the bay; another was mounted on the northeast side; a third about midway up the rock; and on the summit, which commands an immense distance,
were mounted the two 18-pounders. On or about the first of March, Lieutenant James Wilkes Maurice, first of the Centaur, with the rank of commander, and a crew of 120 officers, seamen, and marines, supplied with four months’ provisions and water, took possession of the British “sloop-of-war” Diamond Rock. A writer who was on the spot says:
Were you to see how, along a dire, and, I had almost said, a perpendicular acclivity, the sailors arc hanging in clusters, hauling up a four- and-twenty pounder by hawsers, you would wonder; they appear like mice hauling a little sausage; scarcely can we hear the governor on the top directing them with his trumpet, the Centaur lying close under it, like a cocoa-shell to which the hawsers arc fixed.
1 Owned by Commodore James Parker, U. S. Navy, (Retired) who kindly permitted its use by the author.
Diamond Rock was a thorn in the side of the French from the outset. The Governor of Martinique was unable to capture or reduce it, and for two years the little garrison lived in pure enjoyment a Robinson Crusoe life amongst the caves, incessantly raiding and cutting out. When Admiral Missiessy, with his Rochefort force, arrived at Martinique in March, 1805, the Governor in vain entreated him to devote a portion of his force to Diamond Rock before he left. In spite of his vehement protests Missiessy refused, and forthwith sailed away in accordance with his program. Napoleon, disgusted with Missiessy for the lack of energy and initiative he had displayed throughout his West Indian cruise, unbosomed himself to Deeres on the particular subject of Diamond Rock. "I choked with indignation,” he said, “when I read he had not taken the Diamond.” And, again, “That Rock will be an eternal monument of shame to this expedition.”
Villeneuve arrived at Fort-Royal May 14, 1805. Whether or not Napoleon had ordered Villeneuve to take the Rock, history does not reveal to us. He had, however, ordered that officer to wait a month in the Antilles, in order to give Ganteaume an opportunity of joining, and his orders, among other things, included an injunction to do all possible injury to the enemy. The want of provisions in the fleet, or of unanimity in the council, or some other unexplained cause, kept Villeneuve’s ships in the harbor of Fort-Royal until the latter end of May (1805), when two of the 74’s moved out to attack the Diamond Rock, which, with its sloop’s company of officers and men, still persisted in firing at and annoying every French vessel that passed within range of its heavy cannon.
The expedition now destined to retake this very harassing and not informidable “King’s ship,’’ consisted of the Pluton and Berwick, 74’s, 36-gun frigate Syrene, 16-gun brig Argus; Fine armed schooner, and eleven gunboats, under the orders of Captain Cosmao of the Pluton, having on board from 300 to 400 troops of the line commanded by the Chef d’escadron Boyer. On May 29, at half past five in the afternoon, the expedition sailed out from Fort-Royal. By the morning of the thirtieth the ships had not made much progress, but on the thirty-first, at daybreak, they were far to windward of the Rock and at seven bore down towards it. The Diamond had been blockaded ever since the arrival of the combined fleet at Martinique. Therefore Captain Maurice, when he saw Captain Cosmao’s squadron sail out, guessed its destination, and prepared accordingly.
Considering it impossible to defend the lower works against such a force as was approaching, Captain Maurice abandoned them, spiking the two guns, drowning the powder, and cutting away the launch. At eight the ships opened their fire, which was
returned by Hood’s battery and Fort-Diamond, the one being the 24-pounder about midway up the rock, the other the two 18- pounders on the summit. The ships bombarded the rock during May 31 and June 1, and until half past four o’clock on the afternoon of the second, when Captain Maurice, having, as he states, "but little powder left, and not sufficient ball-cartridges to last until dark,’’ threw out a flag of truce. At five the Fine schooner hoisted a similar flag; and terms honorable to the garrison, which consisted of 107 officers and men, were agreed to the same evening. The British sustained a loss of only two men killed and one wounded. The Chef d’escadron Boyer enumerates the loss of the French troops, “from a hasty calculation,’’ at about fifty in killed and wounded. Captain Maurice considers the loss of the French, who landed at the foot of the Rock, to have amounted to at least thirty men killed and forty wounded, exclusive of what was sustained on board the ships and boats; three gun-boats and two rowing boats are stated to have been entirely lost. The French put their landing force at 260, but Maurice believed they had 1,500 ashore from first to last.
It was a gallant and useless defense. Captain Maurice, on his subsequent trial by court-martial for the loss of “His Majesty’s late sloop Diamond Rock,” was not only honorably acquitted, but highly complimented for his firm and determined behavior.
Two days after the surrender of Diamond Rock, Nelson arrived at Barbadoes and, almost coincidently, Villeneuve left Fort- Royal. Captain Maurice lost no time in sending to Nelson a report of the loss of the Rock, but, because of the latter’s fruitless movement to Trinidad, the news did not reach him until June 8. However it gave definite confirmation as to Villeneuve’s whereabouts and, on the strength of it, Nelson stood away to the northward on the chase that ended at Trafalgar.