THE MOST MARVELOUS MAN IN THE WORD
SOLE SURVIVOR AMONG 30,000 VICTIMS -Ludger Sylbaris (1 June 1874– c. 1929, aged 55) was an Afro-Caribbean man who was one of the survivors in the city of Saint-Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique during the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on May 8, 1902. Saint-Pierre, known as the "Paris of the West Indies", was in the direct path of a pyroclastic flow, which destroyed the city and killed an estimated 30,000 people
Sylbaris later travelled with the Barnum & Bailey circus and became something of an early 20th-century celebrity. celebrity in the process, advertised as "the man who lived through Doomsday" or "the Most Marvelous Man in the World". He was the first black man ever to star in Barnum and Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth"
At 7:52 AM on May 8, the upper mountainside of Mount Pelée tore open, causing a dense black cloud to shoot out horizontally. A second black cloud rolled upwards as a column of ash and rock, forming a gigantic mushroom plume that darkened the sky within a 50-mile (80 km) radius. The initial speed of both clouds was later calculated at more than 670 km/h (420 mph). The vertical cloud plunged down the western slope of the volcano, raced down at 161 kilometers per hour, and destroyed Saint-Pierre in less than a minute. The area devastated by the pyroclastic flow covered about 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi), with the city of Saint-Pierre taking its full brunt. The cloud consisted of superheated gases and fine debris, with searing temperatures of over 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). All of the city's infrastructure was flattened, and almost the entire population burned or suffocated.
Four days after the eruption, a rescue team heard Sylbaris' cries from the rubble of the prison. Although badly burned, he survived and was able to provide an account of the event. According to his account, at about breakfast time on the day of the eruption, it grew very dark. Hot air mixed with fine ashes entered his cell through the door grating, despite his efforts in urinating on his clothing and stuffing it in the door. The heat lasted only a short moment, enough to cause deep burns on Sylbaris' hands, arms, legs, and back, but his clothes did not ignite, and he avoided breathing the searing hot air
THE MOST MARVELOUS MAN IN THE WORD
SOLE SURVIVOR AMONG 30,000 VICTIMS -Ludger Sylbaris (1 June 1874– c. 1929, aged 55) was an Afro-Caribbean man who was one of the survivors in the city of Saint-Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique during the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée on May 8, 1902. Saint-Pierre, known as the "Paris of the West Indies", was in the direct path of a pyroclastic flow, which destroyed the city and killed an estimated 30,000 people
Sylbaris later travelled with the Barnum & Bailey circus and became something of an early 20th-century celebrity. celebrity in the process, advertised as "the man who lived through Doomsday" or "the Most Marvelous Man in the World". He was the first black man ever to star in Barnum and Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth"
At 7:52 AM on May 8, the upper mountainside of Mount Pelée tore open, causing a dense black cloud to shoot out horizontally. A second black cloud rolled upwards as a column of ash and rock, forming a gigantic mushroom plume that darkened the sky within a 50-mile (80 km) radius. The initial speed of both clouds was later calculated at more than 670 km/h (420 mph). The vertical cloud plunged down the western slope of the volcano, raced down at 161 kilometers per hour, and destroyed Saint-Pierre in less than a minute. The area devastated by the pyroclastic flow covered about 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi), with the city of Saint-Pierre taking its full brunt. The cloud consisted of superheated gases and fine debris, with searing temperatures of over 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). All of the city's infrastructure was flattened, and almost the entire population burned or suffocated.
Four days after the eruption, a rescue team heard Sylbaris' cries from the rubble of the prison. Although badly burned, he survived and was able to provide an account of the event. According to his account, at about breakfast time on the day of the eruption, it grew very dark. Hot air mixed with fine ashes entered his cell through the door grating, despite his efforts in urinating on his clothing and stuffing it in the door. The heat lasted only a short moment, enough to cause deep burns on Sylbaris' hands, arms, legs, and back, but his clothes did not ignite, and he avoided breathing the searing hot air