Diamond Rock

Diamond Rock (French: Rocher du Diamant) is a 175-meter-high (574-foot) basalt island located south of "Grande Anse du Diamant" before arriving from the south at Fort-de-France, the main port of the Caribbean island of Martinique. The uninhabited island is about 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from Pointe Diamant and its area is 5.3 ha (13.1 acres). The island gets its name from the reflections that its sides cast at certain hours of the day, which evoke images of a precious stone. It is notable for having been commissioned into the Royal Navy as the stone frigate HMS Diamond Rock in February 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars. In mid-1805, a Franco-Spanish squadron captured the rock in the Battle of Diamond Rock and held it until the British recaptured it in the invasion of Martinique in 1809. Diamond Rock was returned to French control as part of a postwar trade of Martinique in 1815, and it remains part of Martinique.