BRIEF HISTORY

The Roraima was a steal hulled Quebec Line steamship, and is the largest wreck in the bay. She was transporting a cargo of potassium when the eruption occurred. Her combustible cargo caught fire, and she burned for three days before sinking.

Her burnt remains are now sitting upright with a slight tilt to her port side. She sits on a sloping bottom where her depth ranges from 138 to 185 feet. The Roraima is mostly intact except for her bow which has broken down and her stern which has split from the main wreckage.

read more messages below for this ship...

"We had been watching the volcano sending up smoke. The captain, who was killed, said to my mistress, "I'm not going to stay any longer than I can help." I went to the cabin and was dressing the children for breakfast when the steward, who was later killed by the blast, rushed past shouting "the volcano is coming!" We closed the door and at the same moment came a terrible explosion which nearly burst the eardrums. The vessel was lifted high into the air and then seemed to be sinking down. We were all thrown off our feet by that shock and huddled crouching in one corner of the cabin. My mistress had the girl baby in her arms, the older girl leaned on my left arm while I held little Eric in my right.


"The explosion seemed to have blown in the skylight over our heads, and before we could raise ourselves hot moist ashes began to pour in on us. They came in boiling splattering splashes like moist mud without any pieces of rock. In vain we tried to shield ourselves. The cabin was pitch dark- we could see nothing.

"A sense of suffocation came next, but when the door burst open air rushed in and we revived somewhat. When we could see each other's faces they were covered with black lava, the baby was dying, Rita, the older girl, was in great agony and every part of my body was paining me. A heap of hot mud had collected near us and as Rita put her hand down to raise herself up it was plunged up to the elbow in the scalding stuff.

"The first engineer came, and hearing our moans carried us to the forward deck and there we remained on the burning ship from 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The crew was crowded forward, many in a dying condition. The whole city was one mass of roaring flames and the saloon aft as well as the forward part of the ship were burning fiercely.

"My mistress lay on the deck in a collapsed state. The little boy was already dead. The lady was collected and resigned, handed me some money and told me to take Rita to her aunt, and sucked a piece of ice before she died.

(Clara King, nurse to the children of the Clement Stokes family of Gramercy Park, NYC)

The Roraima continued to burn for at least a day after the eruption. She eventually sank by the stern in 165 feet of water, where she remains. Clara King was still alive, in Barbados, as recently as 1945 and was likely- along with Rita Stokes -to have been the final survivor of Pelee and St. Pierre...

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Here is an account by the Roraima's cooper, James Taylor:


"Hearing a tremendous report and seeing the ashes falling thicker, I dived into a room, dragging with me Samuel Thomas, a gangway man and fellow countryman, shutting the door tightly. Shortly after I heard a voice, which I recognized as that of the chief mate, Mr. Scott. Opening the door with great caution, I drew him in. The nose of Thomas was burned by the intense heat.

"We three and Thompson, the assistant purser, out of sixty-eight souls on board, were the only persons who escaped practically uninjured. The heat being unbearable, I emerged in a few moments, and the scene that presented itself to my eyes baffles description. All around on the deck were the dead and dying covered with boiling mud. There they lay, men, women and little children, and the appeals of the latter for water were heart-rending. When water was given them they could not swallow it, owing to their throats being filled with ashes or burnt with the heated air.

"The ship was burning aft, and I jumped overboard, the sea being intensely hot. I was at once swept seaward by a tidal wave, but, the sea receding a considerable distance, the return wave washed me against an upturned sloop to which I clung. I was joined by a man so dreadfully burned and disfigured as to be unrecognizable. Afterwards I found he was the captain of the Roraima, Captain Muggah. He was in dreadful agony, begging piteously to be put on board his ship.

"Picking up some wreckage which contained bedding and a tool chest, I, with the help of five others who had joined me on the wreck, constructed a rude raft, on which we placed the captain. Then, seeing an upturned boat, I asked one of the five, a native of Martinique, to swim and fetch it. Instead of returning to us, he picked up two of his countrymen and went away in the direction of Fort de France. Seeing the Roddam, which arrived in port shortly after we anchored, making for the Roraima, I said good-bye to the captain and swam back to the Roraima.

"The Roddam, however, burst into flames and put to sea. I reached the Roraima at about half-past 2, and was afterwards taken off by a boat from the French warship Suchet. Twenty-four others with myself were taken on to Fort de France. Three of these died before reaching port. A number of others have since died."
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Consul Ayme of Guadalupe, who was in Fort de France at the time of this disaster, gave this statement:

"Thursday morning the inhabitants of the city awoke to find heavy clouds shrouding Mont Pelee crater. All day Wednesday horrid detonations had been heard. These were echoed from St. Thomas on the north to Barbados on the south. The cannonading ceased on Wednesday night, and fine ashes fell like rain on St. Pierre. The inhabitants were alarmed, but Governor Mouttet, who had arrived at St. Pierre the evening before, did everything possible to allay the panic.

"The British steamer Roraima reached St. Pierre on Thursday with ten passengers, among whom were Mrs. Stokes and her three children, and Mrs. H. J. Ince. They were watching the rain of ashes, when, with a frightful roar and terrific electric discharges, a cyclone of fire, mud and steam swept down from the crater over the town and bay, sweeping all before it and destroying the fleet of vessels at anchor off the shore. There the accounts of the catastrophe so far obtainable cease. Thirty thousand corpses are strewn about, buried in the ruins of St. Pierre.... Twenty-eight charred, half-dead human beings were brought here. Sixteen of them are already dead, and only four of the whole number are expected to recover."
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And the first letter Clara Prentiss wrote to her sister, Alice Fry, of Melrose, Massachusetts:

"My Dear Sister: This morning the whole population of the city is on the alert and every eye is directed toward Mont Pelee, an extinct volcano. Everybody is afraid that the volcano has taken into its heart to burst forth and destroy the whole island.

"Fifty years ago Mont Pelee burst forth with terrific force and destroyed everything within a radius of several miles. For several days the mountain has been bursting forth in flame and immense quantities of lava are flowing down its sides.

"All the inhabitants are going up to see it. There is not a horse to be had on the island, those belonging to the natives being kept in readiness to leave at a moment's notice.

"Last Wednesday, which was April 23d, I was in my room with little Christine, and we heard three distinct shocks. They were so great that we supposed at first that there was some one at the door, and Christine went and found no one there. The first report was very loud, and the second and third were so great that dishes were thrown from the shelves and the house was rocked.

"We can see Mont Pelee from the rear windows of our house, and although it is fully four miles away, we can hear the roar of the fire and lava issuing from it.

"The city is covered with ashes and clouds of smoke have been over our heads for the last five days. The smell of sulphur is so strong that horses on the streets stop and snort, and some of them are obliged to give up, drop in their harness and die from suffocation. Many of the people are obliged to wear wet handkerchiefs over their faces to protect them from the fumes of sulphur.

"My husband assures me that there is no immediate danger, and when there is the least particle of danger we will leave the place. There is an American schooner, the R. F. Morse, in the harbor, and she will remain here for at least two weeks. If the volcano becomes very bad we shall embark at once and go out to sea. The papers in this city are asking if we are going to experience another earthquake similar to that which struck here some fifty years ago."