Diamond Rock lay off Martinique's principal French port and had been commissioned by the Royal Navy as HMS Diamond Rock. When its garrison exhausted its water and surrendered, the commanding officer faced the normal court-martial for losing a ship. The legal language sounded absurd because the "ship" was an immovable mass of stone, but the tribunal still examined whether every reasonable effort had been made. He was acquitted after the court accepted the physical and supply limits of the defense. The episode reveals how naval law, blockade practice, and shore fortification could intersect in an exceptional command.
Notable Point · 23:13-23:58
HMS Diamond Rock and a court-martial for an island
The commissioned shore position at Diamond Rock became an unusually literal naval command whose surrender still triggered the formal loss-of-ship process.