The Foreign Service Journal, May 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2020 51 close-up view of the events unfolding, as the rear windows of her residence faced Mt. Pelée, looming just four miles away. Unfortunately, the location of the U.S. consulate and the failure to evacuate in time would doom the entire family—Consul and Mrs. Prentis, and their young daughters, Louise Lydia and Christiana Hazel—as well as Vice Consul Amédée Testart. Given the magnitude of the event, it is interesting that most people outside Martinique have never heard of the erup- tion of Mt. Pelée and the destruction of St. Pierre. Indeed, it was a somewhat random Google search—I was looking for “consuls in the Caribbean” as part of my interest in consular history—that led me to Thomas Prentis and, thus, the eruption of the volcano. At the time, I was serving as consul general to Barbados, and the island of Martinique was within my area of responsibility. My interest thus piqued, I set out to learn more about Prentis, his life and his fate. No Stranger to Bad Luck Thomas Prentis was born in 1844 in Michigan, but his fam- ily soon relocated to Vermont where Thomas lived the simple life of a farm boy. Later, after the Civil War, he was engaged in the hotel business. At some point, possibly due to the business and civic connections he forged as a hotel manager, he earned the support of Sena- tor George Edmunds (R-Vt.), who helped him secure his first appointment as consul, in December 1871, to Mahé in the Sey- chelle Islands. Prentis remained in the Sey- chelles for nine years, marrying Louisa Frye, the daughter of an American sea captain, there. Prentis was later transferred to Port Louis, Mauritius, where he served for 14 years. Thomas Prentis was no stranger to bad luck, if two inci- dents befalling him during two separate home leaves are any indication. The first occurred in August 1877. On leave from his position in the Seychelles, Prentis traveled with his family to Waitsfield, Vermont, to visit his father. Their arrival caused quite a scene, because they brought with them a servant and Here is where U.S. Consulate St. Pierre was located before its destruction in the 1902 eruption. (Inset) Plaques in memory of Consul Thomas Prentis (top) and his family and Vice Consul Amédée Testart (bottom) on the exterior wall of Mémorial de la Catastrophe de 1902 – Musée Frank A. Perret, the volcanological museum in St. Pierre. SDR.SEBASTIENPERROT-MINNOT,UNIVERSITYOFWEST INDIES,MARTINQUE SDR.SEBASTIENPERROT-MINNOT,UNIVERSITYOFWEST INDIES,MARTINQUE