The Foreign Service Journal, May 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2020 55 rescuers. Both bodies were recovered, but in a mad scramble back to the ships as loud booms and fire emanated from the volcano, Japp’s body was “unceremoniously” dropped, never to be recovered. The crews managed to get Prentis’ coffin aboard the Potomac , which then made haste to escape the smoke and ash. According to contemporary newspaper reports, Thomas Prentis’ body was transported to Fort-de-France where, on May 22, a funeral took place, with the commander of the Cincinnati officiating. He was buried “under an acacia tree” in a cemetery located “back of Fort-de-France.” I had the opportunity during my tour in the Eastern Carib- bean to go to Martinique, and during two visits there I made inquiries into the whereabouts of Consul Prentis’ grave. Our consular agent, Leah McGaw, and I searched the main cem- etery in the capital and submitted requests to the French gov- ernment seeking information, all to no avail. I also contacted some of Prentis’ ancestors via Ancestry.com, none of whom knew where exactly he was buried. It is possible that the rescue mission and recovery of Prentis’ remains never happened. Recently, colleagues working on the Consular Affairs History Project put me in contact with Dr. Sébastien Perrot-Minnot, a professor at the University of the French West Indies in Martinique, who has researched the disaster and written about the history of the U.S. diplomatic and consular presence on the island. He brought to my atten- tion this message that Louis H. Aymé, U.S. consul in Guade- loupe and acting U.S. consul in Martinique in May and June 1902, sent to the Department of State, on July 21, 1902: “It is a matter of deep regret to me that I could not succeed in rescu- ing the remains of our late consul nor any of the archives of the consulate. All were buried under many feet of volcanic mud and ejecta.” And so, it seems, ends the quest for our unlucky colleague, Consul Thomas Prentis. His name is engraved, along with his vice consul, Amédée Testart, on the AFSA Memorial Plaques in the State Department lobby. n