St. Helena

Thursday, February 05, 2009
This is the 39th day at S22° 51.2’ and W14° 51.6, sailing at 7.5 knots with 1880 NM to Cape Town remaining.

The nearest land to our location is St. Helena Island, off to the northeast some 720 NM. One might say that we are remote. That island is one of the remotest plots of land on earth, and that is why Napoleon was imprisoned there. It lies over 700 miles from the nearest land, the Ascension Islands, 1200 miles from Africa and 1800 miles from South America. In the modern era, one scheduled liner from Cape Town stops with mail and cargo once a month. In 2010, there will be an airport available, and limited air service will begin.



A seamount is a deep ocean mountain that rises at least 1000 meters above the sea floor, but does not reach the surface, and hence is not an island. There are two seamounts near St. Helena. All three are composite volcanoes. The island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, but was taken and held by the British in1653, becoming the remotest penal colony on earth.

Aboard his prison ship, the first thing Napoleon would have seen of his new home was Diana Peak, which leaps out of the ocean some 2600 feet and can be seen from forty or more miles distance on a good, clear day. Some of the cliffs of the island rise sheer out of the ocean for a thousand feet. The land mass itself is only 10X6 miles and is rough, undulating country. Names of prominent points hint at its character: Lot, Lots Wife, and Gates of Chaos. Climate is dry subtropical in the coastal and lower areas, with annual rainfall running only four to ten inches a year. The central hills may receive as much as 40 inches per year, so there are a lot of washes and canyons. Today’s population is about 6000 highly subsidized Brits. During Napoleon’s stay it was fewer civilians, but a substantial garrison of troops to guard their infamous prisoner and to defend the Commonwealth’s island. Defense was made simpler by the natural size of the seas and the terrain. There was only one suitable landing for ships. That was Jamestown, which was well protected by big guns. Elsewhere, the island was too jutty, too rough, and combined with heavy sea swells to have made landing a sailing ship impossible.

Napoleon abdicated his throne after a series of losses, primarily of the debacle in Russia, a former admirer. Napoleon’s invasion succeeded, but the Battle of Borodino did him great damage, and the Russians would not capitulate. Napoleon took Moscow, but the natives commenced burning it. Light on supplies and long on a logistics trail, he was forced to withdraw during a very bad winter and was sniped and attacked furiously and incessantly by Russians, who also scorched the earth ahead of the retreating French army. Napoleon came to Russia with a Grande Armee of 400,000. When he at last retreated to Paris, his army was down to about 10,000. Those missing had suffered miserable fates by freezing, or starving, or being mutilated, or all. Furthermore, his war in Spain continued to go badly, as the Spaniards chose to fight. Wellington slipped ashore in nearby Portugal and marched inland, steadily increasing the size of his British Army, which fought its way into France. Napoleon lost popular support and abdicated his throne after Paris surrendered without a fight. He was exiled to Elba, an Italian island and was accompanied by 1100 men, French soldiers who were his body guard. As well, he had a large house-hold staff of French people. He was allowed to be emperor of Elba, to make laws and administer governance. That was not enough, and his thoughts returned to France.

He and 600 of his “body guard” slipped ashore in France and rallied forces to him, many of whom were still loyal, and many of whom deserted the new army of King Louis XVIII, another Bourbon king, and the last. Very shortly Napoleon’s new Grand Armee came to be 280,000 soldiers, and Napoleon penned a note to the king that read, “Dear Brother, please stop sending troops. I have enough.” However, he had no external support and carried his burden alone with five of his loyal marshals.

Wellington was in Belgium with 130,000 and Blucher’s Prussians approaching his flank. Napoleon moved with lightning speed, a stroke of genius from former times, and split the British and Prussian Armies. It was his strategy to split those armies and for his own army to reduce Wellington. It was necessary for Marshal Ney to attack and scatter the Prussians, but his performance was lacking and he was held up at a critical junction, allowing Blucher to withdraw in good order.

Napoleon attacked Wellington in force and had the upper hand when Blucher’s army unexpectedly showed up (the result of Ney’s lackluster performance),and attacked Napoleon’s flank, thus settling the issue. The Grande Armee was defeated and Napoleon split for Paris, where five days later, he abdicated, but this time it was permanent. He was taken to remote St. Helena with a modest house-hold staff and four of his most loyal officers and two of their wives . He lived in an adequate—if non-palatial— abode on top of a rise overlooking very much very deep ocean. The Atlantic quickly drops to a depth of 15,700 feet just off St. Helena. Photos of that house and St. Helena are attached. He lived reasonably well there for six years, dying of uncertain causes in 1821 at 51 years of age. His quarters remain, as do two fine museums. His original tomb is fenced in and well-kept to this day, but Napoleon has been exhumed and transplanted in Paris.

Napoleon aided the United States in 1803 by selling to us the Louisiana Territory for a sum of $15,000,000. This transaction was Thomas Jefferson’s apex, although some in Congress wished to void it as “unconstitutional,” being haughty and stupid as always. Originally a French possession, it was ceded to Spain in 1762 as the war between France and England stewed. Napoleon recovered the land to French possession secretly in 1803 by the Treaty of Ildefonso. Weeks later he sold it to the US and penned the words:
“The accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride.”
The Louisiana Purchase amounted to 828,000 square miles and increased the size of the United States at the time by 23 per cent.