[grania]

That's interesting information. One of the islands that was a port of call in a 1961 cruise is Martinique. It was distressing to see people living in the volcanic ash, along the drive up to the crater. We got the story of the volcano, but never the part about France being complicit in the horrific death total. The story we were told is that only one person survived, a prisoner in a dungeon. Was that myth, to entertain tourists?

When I think back, the islands that were well-managed were under British or Dutch rule.

[gleeaikin]

The prisoner (short term trouble maker) was one of very few who survived within the city. About 100 give or take survived exposure to the pyroclastic blast. A few sailers and passengers in the harbor, and people on the outskirts of the city and those already fleeing who may have been burned, but not fatally. A few in the city died horribly after a few hours of torment, ironically the science teacher who was encouraged to write that the city was in no danger. It is a terrible and dramatic story. I found a 1903 “coffee table book” a few years ago and have assembled more material to write a scientifically accurate historical novel. I just need to find the time to travel to Martinique and St. Vincent where over 1,000 died when their volcano blew in the same 24 hour period. Then a trip to France to research the behavior of the “better” classes of Martinique who liked to travel there for clothes and entertainment. Several thousand died in Guatemala when a volcano there blew within a few months. The whole Caribbean Plate was very active that year. The link below has much scientific detail, not much political detail.

https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-may-8-1902-deadly-eruption-mount-pelee