COCOFINA COCONUT WATER LEGEND AND LITERATURE

The Great Coconut Escape

There are few prisons as redoubtable as that of Devil’s Island, off the coast of French Guineau. A combination of perils – steep cliffs, rocks below, vicious tides and sharks – justified its claim that “No one who tried to escape could hope to survive.”

One man had other ideas.

He was Henri Charriere, a French convict transported to the penal colony in 1931 and immortalised first in his autobiographical account of his attempts to escape, then in the 1973 classic film ‘Papillon’ starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

The dramatic climax to Charriere’s adventures came when he risked all by throwing himself into the sea on a raft made of sacking and coconuts. Against the odds, he was not dashed on the rocks. Aided by the buoyant coconuts, he reached the coast and gained his freedom.

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