The Saint-Pierre, Martinique Doomsday—and the One Man Who Survived

Dylan Thuras: Hey, Baudelaire, how’s it going?

Baudelaire Ceus: How you doing, Dylan?

Dylan: I’m good. You’re in the studio. It’s fun to see you in the like real recording studio.

Baudelaire: Yeah, you know, it’s nice to come into the city, feel like I have a job, you know, do the thing.

Dylan: Yeah. And you’re going on like a family trip soon too, right?

Baudelaire: I am. I am. I’m going to Grenada in the southeast of the Caribbean.

Dylan: It seems like you’ve taken an interest in that part of the world. You’ve been pitching some like stories from the Caribbean lately.

Baudelaire: Yeah, absolutely. You know, my interest, it started in Haiti, but then like I found these parallel stories in other parts of the Caribbean, right? And then these other islands in the Caribbean have similar ingredients, right? Like, you know, European colonizing and, you know, indigenous people, Africans brought there, but they each created something unique at the same time.

Dylan: There’s a lot there, totally.

Baudelaire: Yeah. Yeah. So like in my search throughout the Caribbean, I found this one story that I think, I think you’re really going to be into it.

Dylan: Where are we going in the Caribbean?

Baudelaire: All right. We’re going to Martinique, southeast Caribbean, and we’re telling the story of a volcano eruption.

Dylan: This is like one of the most disastrous volcano eruptions of all time, right? This is like one of the truly, ultimate volcano disasters?

Baudlaire: Yes, absolutely. Right at the turn of the century, 1902 clears out an entire city and only one man survives.

Dylan: This is such a, I know this is such a crazy story.

My name is Baudelaire, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Today, I tell the story of Ludger Sylbaris, possibly the best ever example of being in the wrong place at the right time.

This is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world’s strange, incredible, and wondrous places. Find the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps.

Dylan: All right. So where does the story start? Set the stage for us.

Baudelaire: Okay. So, the story starts May 7th, 1902, in what was known as the “Paris of the Caribbean,” Saint-Pierre, Martinique.

Dylan: Tell me a little bit about it. What’s it like there?

Baudelaire: All right. Well, it’s like the economic and cultural hub of Martinique. You know, coastal city, busy port, colorful homes.

Dylan: This is a rich colonial port city.

Baudelaire: Absolutely. But on this specific day, May 7th, we got a bunch of people coming in from the countryside, and they’re all saying that this mountain, Mount Pelée, which is only eight miles outside of the city, there’s gas coming up from the volcano. Birds are starting to fly down the volcano towards the city. Ants are starting to come in droves towards the city. So, they think something’s up.

Dylan: When all of the spiders and snakes start fleeing, that’s a strong indication that things are not going to go well.

Baudelaire: Exactly. So, people come to the city and they tell the authorities like, hey, something’s probably about to happen. And the authorities are like, nah, you’re overreacting.

Dylan: Oh, really? They’re not doing anything?

Baudelaire: No. Authorities are like, nah, don’t worry about it. Not a big deal.

Dylan: Okay. So if the authorities are not helping evacuate this island, which does seem like maybe the thing they should be doing, what are they up to with their time?

Baudelaire: Well, a few authorities are worried about this guy, Ludger Sylbaris. He works by the docks and he’s a guy that likes to enjoy a drink or two, we’ll call it.

Dylan: Of course, you’re a dock worker. It’s 1902. Let the man have a drink. I’m sure he’s drinking responsibly.

Baudelaire: Yeah. But the thing about Ludger is when he would start drinking, usually he would either end up in a brawl or be in the middle of starting a brawl. So he’s becoming a risk to public safety, we’ll call it. And on May 7th, Ludger gets arrested. We actually don’t know what it is that he did wrong on that day. And we’ll get to why we don’t know later. But we know Ludger was up to something. And the authorities had had it and pretty much decide, We’re putting you in this cell for the night.

Dylan: What kind of jail are we talking about? Is it like, Old West kind of jail? What does it look like, this thing?

Baudelaire: So it’s a solitary cell in the side of a hill. Half of it is underground. So it’s made out of stone wall. It’s not too big. There’s no windows. And really the only opening is this slit under the door.

Dylan: I mean, this is, normally, this is like a truly horrible place to be. It’s like an awful solitary prison cell. It’s half underground. It’s basically almost like a cave. A horrible place to be.

Baudelaire: Yes. Except this one night where it was the best possible place to be.

Dylan: Okay. So we’re in the Paris of the Caribbean with this highly active volcano. Mount Pelée is only eight miles from the city. The snakes are fleeing. The spiders are fleeing. Ludger, maybe drunk, is in this half underground solitary confinement cell. I’m going to guess what’s about to happen.

Baudelaire: Yes. Go for it.

Dylan: I’m thinking that this giant volcano does in fact explode.

Baudelaire: Yes, it does. And when it does explode, black clouds cover the sky for 50 miles. So I want to point out that the mountain exploded in the early morning, about 7:52. So suddenly we’re back into complete darkness. Also, the volcano starts spewing a deadly combination of superheated gas, ash, and rock that races at 400 miles an hour from the volcano.

Dylan: Right. This is the thing. It’s not the lava that gets you. It’s this superheated wall of poisonous air, right? That’s this thing that starts—400 miles an hour. You’re not running away from that. This sounds very bad. You know, is anyone able to get to shelter?
What is the survival rate of this disaster?

Baudelaire: Everybody dies.

Dylan: Like, everybody?

Baudelaire: Almost immediately, everyone’s gone.

Dylan: Like 30,000 people?

Baudelaire: The entire city, every building, everyone’s gone. Except one man does survive.

Dylan: Ludger, you lucky, lucky S.O.B. Oh, my God. How is it that he is able to survive this? What is the qualities of that cell that basically make him the sole survivor of this insane eruption?

Baudelaire: Well, his cell being half underground helped, as well as it being completely made out of stone, allowed it to keep it from the extreme temperatures to an extent, right? Like, it was hot in there, obviously. He’s on the verge of death. But even as the air is coming from under that slit in his door, he puts his clothes to cover the slit and has to pee on his clothes to keep the air.

Dylan: Oh, so he almost forms, like he turns it into a little bubble. He keeps the air that’s in there, in there. And all that rock absorbs this heat and whatever. And so this is able to basically pass over him.

Baudelaire: Absolutely.

Dylan: That’s nuts. But also I can’t help but notice he’s in prison. He can’t get out. Everybody’s dead and the city’s gone.

Baudelaire: Exactly. So imagine the surveyors when they’re like, you know, walking amongst all this devastation and they hear the moans and the cries of a man in what isn’t even in a noticeable cell, right? It’s covered in ash. And so they have to kind of move towards this and are like, are we hearing a human in there? And so they dig out and once they open the door to the cell, they see Ludger within inches of death.

Dylan: Yeah. He was basically put into a bomb shelter. Unknowingly, the police put him into a bomb shelter. And so he is the only survivor. So he does the impossible. He survives this insane volcanic eruption. What happens next? Is he put back in prison or like what happens after this incident?

Baudelaire: Well, after he makes a full recovery, he’s pardoned for all his crimes for two reasons. One: because authorities figure he suffered enough. Also, no one knows what he did because everyone who was there …

Dylan: Is dead.

Baudelaire: Is dead. The police station is gone.

Dylan: I love this part of this story because there’s like this mystery left. Like, had he just committed murder? We don’t know. We’ll never know. Did he ever say what he was in prison for? Well, so, after he makes a full recovery, he is recruited by P.T. Barnum from the infamous—or, from the famous Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Dylan: Yeah, infamous, famous, both.

Baudelaire: Infamous, famous, yeah. So he goes on tour with Barnum & Bailey. And so his setup on the tour is basically him telling his story next to a makeshift cell. He never says what exactly he does, which kind of lends itself to the idea of like, did you do something so bad that you don’t want to say?

Dylan: Yeah, it’s interesting.

Baudelaire: And also at this time, Barnum & Bailey is, it’s segregated. So another aspect of the Ludger Sylbaris story is that he is seen as the first Black person to go on tour with Barnum and Bailey, like, nationally.

Dylan: Whoa, all it took was 30,000 people being killed in a volcanic eruption.

Baudelaire: No one else on the tour can even compare to him. The thing that he had to do to make it versus the tricycle guy is like, what do we, you know, but.

Dylan: Oh, man. Whoa. So then does he just like, I mean, obviously he probably makes some money doing this. Does he just go on to live the rest of his life?

Baudelaire: Yeah, as he probably deserves to at that point.

Yeah, for sure.

Baudelaire: You survived doomsday, man, go get it.

Dylan: What about the city? Does it still exist in any way? Is there currently a Saint-Pierre?

Baudelaire: There is, but it is much smaller than it was even in 1902. I believe it’s only a city of about, I want to say 4 to 8,000 now. So much smaller. Yeah, pretty small, especially compared to what it once was. And you could still go there and you can actually visit Ludger’s cell, it’s still there.

Right. Okay. Are you going to go visit?

Baudelaire: Well, you know, it’s funny. My mom was just telling me she wants to go to Martinique’s, so I’m sure we’re going to visit it sooner than later.

Dylan: You got to go check it out. Is the volcano still there?

Baudelaire: The volcano is very much still there and very much active.

Dylan: Oh, well then. All right. I wish you luck on your trip.

Baudelaire: But the next time the animals are coming down from the volcano, everyone’s probably going to get out of town.

Dylan: Baudelaire, if you see some snakes making their way towards the sea, get out of there.

Baudelaire: If I even see a bird flying in the direction of the town, I’m completely out of there.

Dylan: Man, volcanoes are nuts.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps.

This episode was produced by Baudelaire. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Stitcher Studios. The people who make our show include Doug Baldinger, Chris Naka, Kameel Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Manolo Morales, Baudelaire, Amanda McGowan, Alexa Lim, Casey Holford, and Luz Fleming. Our theme music is by Sam Tyndall.