NAM.1971-02-33-492-1

Engraved frontispiece for the series 'Picturesque views of the Diamond Rock, taken on the spot and dedicated to Sir Samuel Hood KB’, 1803. Uncoloured aquatint by W Reynolds after a drawing by John Eckstein, published by J C Stadler, 1805. The frontispiece includes a portrait of Sir Samuel Hood (1762-1814), ‘Commodore and Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Ships and Vessels employed in the Windward and Leeward Charibbee Islands’. Diamond Rock, off the island of Martinique in the West Indies, was occupied by the British in 1804 as a strategic asset. The Rock’s position facilitated control of the navigation between the islands of Martinique and St Lucia. In particular, Commodore Samuel Hood (1762-1814) aimed to counter French privateers preying on British merchant shipping. Men from HMS Centaur established batteries on the rock and fortified a cove from which light armed vessels could intercept ships entering or leaving neighbouring ports on Martinique. The island was commissioned as a ‘stone frigate’, and named HMS Diamond Rock. Caves and tents housed the garrison which, while it maintained some livestock and water cisterns on the rock, was largely dependent on resupply vessels. The French attempted to capture the rock on a number of occasions culminating in an assault on 31 May 1805. The garrison eventually surrendered on 3 June 1805 when its supplies of water and ammunition ran low.

Diamond Rock, Occupation of, 1803 (Napoleonic Wars, West Indies 1803-1810)