The Battle Over a Rock in the Ocean
Early during the Napoleonic Wars, Commodore Sir Samuel Hood of the Royal Navy sailed towards Martinique, a small Caribbean island under French control, under the orders of blockading its two main ports: Fort Royal and Saint Pierre. Upon arrival, Hood found a convenient spot to stop: at a small rock not two miles from Martinique’s shores.
Hood went on to capture the rock in 1803, an easy task considering bats inhabited it. This capture led the British to fortify their new rock.
Two 18-pounder cannons were placed on top of the rock. A 24-pounder gun was placed halfway up, and two other 24-pounder guns were placed at the base. This was all managed by a total of 120 men under the command of Lieutenant James Wilkes Maurice.
Caves on the rock (fiercely taken over from the bats) were used as sleeping quarters for the men, and also allowed a hospital (yes, a hospital) to be set up in the rock.
If all this wasn’t enough, a six-gun sloop, the HMS Fort Diamond, was also assigned to guard the rock.
The rock went on to be considered a ship by the Royal Navy — this led to the creation of the term “stone frigate.”
In June of 1804, the HMS Fort Diamond was captured by a French boarding party. This loss, however, did not stop Maurice from continuing to harass French ships that wandered too close to the rock.
For a total of seventeen months, Maurice and his men continually harassed the French; his success was of such magnitude that it attracted the attention of Napoleon himself.
In 1805, Admiral Villeneuve sailed to Martinique, under Napoleon’s direct orders to recapture Diamond Rock. The French and Spanish fleet assigned to the task was composed of 16 ships sailing under the command of Captain Cosmao-Kerjulien.
The French-Spanish fleet was able to blockade the rock in late May of 1805, met with massive resistance from Maurice. This marked the beginning of the Battle of Diamond Rock.
On May 31, the French were able to land troops on the rock. Maurice, however, had been expecting this and had moved his men to the top of the rock in advance.
Maurice was able to put up a good fight, sinking three French gunboats, two rowing boats, and causing 50 French casualties in the process (70, according to Maurice: 30 dead and 40 wounded).
However, due to earth tremors, the British-built cisterns on Diamond Rock were cracked, and Maurice’s supply of water had become dangerously low — and the French blockade cut off his access to more water. The blockade also cut Maurice’s ammunition access, which started running low.
The shortages of both water and ammo led to Marice’s surrender on June 3, 1805.
The British suffered considerably fewer casualties than the French, having only two men dead and one wounded.
After the surrender, Maurice was returned to Barbados. A court-martial tried him for losing his “ship,” a standard procedure at the time.
He was acquited, and the court-martial even recognized that “Maurice did not surrender the Diamond until he was unable to make further defence for want of water and ammunition, the Court do therefore honourably acquit Captain Maurice accordingly.”
As for Villeneuve and his fleet, they had been so damaged by Maurice’s struggles that they had no more victories throughout their campaign.
“We have been masters of the sea for three weeks with a landing force of 7000 to 8000 men and have not been able to attack a single island.” — General Honoré Charles Reille
Diamond Rock remained under French control until, in 1809, the British took over the whole island of Martinique.
