Page 70 - 2003 - Atlantic Islands

ST. HELENA

Area Map

Local Map

(5 43 S & 15 55 W) Beaufort 2, temperature 72

This morning we awoke to discover that we had completed the 700 miles from

Ascension to Jamestown, St. Helena Island. We had dropped anchor in James Bay at

midnight though most of us were not aware of that fact at the time. We were tucked

into our beds being gently rocked. Since we wanted to see St. Helena early, we had

asked for a wake-up call at 6 and we hopped up to look out the window. The great

rugged volcanic cliffs of the Island are really grim and forbidding and there are no

sandy beaches anywhere here. The cliffs rise hundreds of feet into the air and are

dark and steep. It was easy to think that we could imagine how Napoleon’s heart

must have dropped when he first beheld this unfriendly sight! His prison was a

tropical island with a land mass of 47 square miles—this, for The Emperor of the

French who for a time bestrode the world like a colossus.

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