An item reported that as a result of the First World War the regularly sending of exiles to the bagno of French Guyana was ended. The special transport La Loire was required and fitted out as a merchant steamship to be torpedoed in March 1918 in the Mediterranean. Since the signing of the armistice were 5,000 convicted criminals waiting in several prisons for transport to Guyana. The Department of Colonies responsible for this transport of the so-called indésirables did not possessed a floating bagno and so despite the complaints of directors of the prisons was none transport executed. In February however was the British steel build Duala purchased and renamed Martinière and soon was the first transport planned.(1)
Note
1. The Milwaukee Journal dated 30 April 1955 reported that she as a convict ship steamed twice a year to the notorious Devils Island bringing there more as 30,000 men on an one way ticket. This paper suggests that she was used during ten months as the bananas freighter Douala and then until 1938 as a the convict ship La Martiniere. During the Second World War was she just lying in the navy harbour of Lorient and a few weeks earlier towed to Saint Nazaire to be broken up.
Devils Island or Ile du Diable is the smallest of the Iles di Salut on a distance of around 6 nautical miles of the coast of French Guiana and since 1852 used as a penal colony for exiles including criminals and political prisoners. The former French officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted to this colony which also became known due the book Papillon of a former convict Henri Charrièrre.
The website http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675044395_673-convicts_Ship-La-Martiniere_guards-with-guns_sixty-murders shows a small film fragment of such a transport dated 2 March 1931.
The website www,sabotagetimes.com suggested in an item dated 14 August 2011 that she was a former German freighter. This url is apparently not longer available.
See for more information the website http://www.trussel.com/maig/Maigret-in-France/bagn1.htm
The website http://mdhistory.net/msa_sc2970/scm7361/pdf/msa_sc2970_scm7361-0053.pdf supplies some details about this ship. Most important is that the voyage was around 20 days with the prisoners locked up in three days behaving afraid for the punishment. Just like the Russian convict ship in the eighties of the 19th century there were a large number of steam pipes fitted to fill the cages with steam!
The Nieuwe Tilburgsche Courant dated 23 October 1931 described this ship in an item titled the floating prison. She left twice a year La Rochelle for Devils Island. At that moment was she again underway from 300 convicts. She was fitted out with four cages. Fresh air came available via some small air ducts. The prisoners were allowed to move strictly guarded during one each day. The steam control was confirmed. She was underway to visit just one other harbour namely Algiers to embark another 300 prisoners. The edition of the same newspaper dated 10 September 1935 described the difference between and forced labourers and the exiles. The first were mostly murderers which committed at least one murder. There was a difference in the clothing of both groups and the forces labourers had shaved heads while the exiles were allowed to keep their head hair.
