March 27, 2025

From 1853 to 1953, the French used these islands as a penal colony. Over 80,000 men were sentenced and assigned an island according to their criminal status. The most dangerous were kept on Devil’s Island. Steve McQueen portrayed the character Henri Charrière in the 1973 movie Papillion based on the book by Henri Charrière. Henri was convicted of murder in 1931 and pardoned in 1970.

I read that the author of the book watched the premier with McQueen and was pleased with the depiction. This movie horrified me. I was 18 years old and especially naive in 1973. However, being here inspired me to revisit the movie. I was surprised to find an excellent 2017 remake featuring Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek. It is still horrifying. Humans can be frightfully cruel.

We were all looking forward to going ashore. The local tender was this catamaran that made many attempts to come along side on both sides of the ship. Sadly the swells and tide just didn’t produce safe conditions. Maybe we’ll be back this way.

~ 🗝️ ~