On the coastal road connecting central Côn Đảo with Bến Đầm Port, between high mountains and the open sea, stands a memorial associated with an extraordinary event in the history of Côn Đảo Prison. It marks the escape attempt of 12 December 1952 by 198 forced-labour prisoners, of whom 81 died at sea and 117 were recaptured.
The escape did not achieve its aim of bringing the prisoners back to the mainland. Nevertheless, it was a large, carefully prepared armed uprising that expressed the longing for freedom, solidarity and determination of people imprisoned on Côn Đảo under French colonial rule.
Today, the memorial preserves not only a historical event but also the memory of people who risked their lives in the search for freedom.
Where is the memorial to the 198 escaping prisoners?
The memorial to the 1952 escape stands on the road to Bến Đầm Port, on Côn Đảo.
The journey from central Côn Đảo to Bến Đầm Port is approximately 15–17 kilometres, along one of the island’s most scenic coastal routes.
The road winds around mountainsides, with sections overlooking the sea and rocky shores below. Visitors frequently use this route when travelling between Bến Đầm Port and the town centre.
Few, however, realize that this area was once associated with years of forced labour by Côn Đảo prisoners.
During French colonial rule, many prisoners were brought here to quarry stone, carry materials and build roads under extremely harsh working conditions.
Today’s memorial marks a tragic yet especially significant event in the history of prisoners’ struggles on Côn Đảo.
Background to the escape of 12 December 1952
In 1952, Côn Đảo remained under French colonial administration and was used to imprison patriots, revolutionaries and various other groups of prisoners.
Prisoners endured strict supervision, deprived living conditions and many forms of forced labour.
Among them were prisoners sent to work on roads in the Bến Đầm area.
During the day, they worked under guard, carrying out heavy tasks such as moving stone, extracting materials and constructing roads.
It was in these circumstances that an escape plan secretly took shape.
According to historical documents, the uprising was organized under the leadership of the Côn Đảo Island Party Committee, with the aim of taking the initiative, crossing the sea to the mainland and continuing the resistance.
This was not a spontaneous flight by a small group, but a plan prepared through coordination among several groups within the prison.
Secret preparations for the escape
To leave Côn Đảo, the prisoners had to solve a major problem: finding a means of crossing the wide stretch of sea separating the island from the mainland.
Under close surveillance, preparations for boats, materials and personnel all had to be conducted in secret.
According to published recollections, participants used materials they could obtain during their labour to build wooden boats.
The craft were hidden until the moment came to carry out the plan.
Accounts of the uprising state that the escape group prepared five boats to take almost 200 people off the island.
Besides building boats, the plan involved coordinating action, overpowering the guards and enabling the prisoners to board the vessels.
Organizing an escape involving so many people under strict prison control demonstrates the participants’ preparation and determination.
The night of 12 December 1952: 198 prisoners rise up and set out to sea
On 12 December 1952, the uprising was carried out according to plan.
According to the recollections of Đoàn Duy Thành, a former Côn Đảo prisoner who participated, the prisoners overpowered more than a platoon of European and African troops, disarmed them and took control of the operational area.
This was a notable achievement, as prisoners had managed to organize and execute a plan while still in detention.
After taking the initiative, the 198 escape participants boarded the prepared wooden boats and began their journey away from the island.
Ahead lay the open sea, while their craft were rudimentary and the weather unfavourable.
They carried hopes of escaping prison, returning to the mainland and resuming revolutionary activities.
However, the greatest difficulties emerged once the boats had left the shore.
Tragedy at sea: 81 dead and 117 recaptured
According to historical sources, after reaching the sea the boats encountered bad weather and large waves.
Some accounts state that after travelling just over three kilometres, the wooden boats began to fail. Built and hidden under conditions of scarcity, the craft could not withstand the wind and waves.
Of the five boats, three sank and the remaining two were seized.
The consequences were devastating: 81 people died at sea and 117 were recaptured and returned to Côn Đảo.
Those caught faced continued imprisonment, while those who died never reached the mainland.
The escape ended in heavy losses, leaving a profound mark on the history of Côn Đảo Prison.
For its participants, it was a struggle to escape the detention regime and find a path back to freedom.
Why is the 1952 escape especially significant?
Throughout Côn Đảo Prison’s history, prisoners engaged in many forms of struggle, from protests against detention conditions and hunger strikes to escape plans.
The events of 12 December 1952, however, stood out for their organizational scale and method of action.
The uprising aimed not merely to take a group out of detention, but involved preparations of personnel, vessels and a plan to overpower the guards.
At a scholarly conference marking the event’s 60th anniversary in 2012, researchers and former political prisoners described it as the largest armed uprising, self-liberation and island escape attempt in the prison’s 113-year history.
Although it failed to achieve the sea crossing, the event demonstrated prisoners’ organizing ability and determination even under close control.
The escape also exposed limitations in the French colonial prison administration on Côn Đảo.
In the history of revolutionary struggle, it clearly expresses imprisoned people’s determination to win freedom.
A memorial to an unsuccessful escape
To remember the participants, a memorial was erected in the area associated with the event, on the road to Bến Đầm.
The structure includes a relief showing prisoners in boats at sea, recalling the perilous crossing of 1952.
Below it are inscriptions in Vietnamese and English explaining the event, the number of participants and the losses.
The memorial records that 198 forced-labour prisoners took part in the uprising on 12 December 1952, with 117 recaptured and 81 dying at sea.
These figures are more than historical information. Behind them are the lives of people who had endured years in prison and hoped to return to the mainland.
The monument therefore serves as a collective memorial where residents and visitors can learn about an extraordinary struggle in Côn Đảo’s history.
The 1952 escape in the memories of former Côn Đảo prisoners
Many decades later, former prisoners who took part in or witnessed the uprising continued telling the story of its preparation and execution.
Their recollections became important sources helping researchers reconstruct the escape’s course.
In 2012, for the 60th anniversary, a scholarly conference brought together former prisoners, researchers and others interested in Côn Đảo Prison’s history.
Papers and witness accounts helped clarify the historical circumstances, preparations, action and losses during the attempted sea crossing.
Witnesses particularly emphasized the prisoners’ solidarity, organizational coordination and determination to return to the mainland and continue revolutionary activity.
Through these memories, the 1952 escape can be understood not simply in terms of success or failure, but through the circumstances and choices of those directly involved.
The escape’s imprint on the literary work Escape from Côn Đảo
The struggle and stories of Côn Đảo prisoners also inspired the literary work Escape from Côn Đảo (Vượt Côn Đảo) by Phùng Quán.
The work was first published in 1954 and received an award from the Vietnam Literature and Arts Association for 1954–1955.
After the Geneva Accords of 1954, Phùng Quán met revolutionary prisoners returning from Côn Đảo during prisoner exchanges at Sầm Sơn, Thanh Hóa.
Their accounts of prison life, determination and escapes helped shape the work.
Escape from Côn Đảo is a literary work developed from historical stories and memories, not a complete account of every stage of the events of 12 December 1952.
Nevertheless, it brought the image of Côn Đảo’s prisoners and their longing for freedom to generations of readers.
Visiting the memorial on the road to Bến Đầm Port
Today, the road from central Côn Đảo to Bến Đầm Port is frequently used by visitors and ferry passengers.
Alongside its mountain and sea scenery, the route is linked with traces of forced labour and resistance in Côn Đảo Prison.
For those interested in history, the memorial to the 198 escaping prisoners is a particularly meaningful stop.
Visitors can examine the relief, read the inscriptions and learn about those who attempted the sea crossing in 1952.
When visiting, keep the site clean, do not write or draw on the monument and avoid activities that disturb the commemorative setting.
As the memorial is near a road, choose a safe place to stop and avoid obstructing passing traffic.
If time allows, combine the visit with Côn Đảo Museum, the prison complex and Hàng Dương Cemetery for a fuller understanding of the island’s history.
Remembering the 81 people who died at sea off Côn Đảo
More than seven decades have passed since the escape attempt of 12 December 1952.
The Bến Đầm road now serves residents and tourism. Ships continue to enter and leave the port, connecting Côn Đảo with the mainland.
Meanwhile, the roadside memorial recalls a sea crossing that could not be completed.
The 198 participants, 81 deaths and 117 recaptures are numbers inseparable from that extraordinary uprising.
Behind each number lies a life, a set of circumstances and a longing to regain freedom.
For those studying Côn Đảo’s history, the 1952 escape memorial is more than a marker of an event. It remembers those who died at sea and those who endured further imprisonment after the failed escape.
Amid Côn Đảo’s mountains, forests and sea today, the memorial preserves the memory of a December night in 1952 when 198 prisoners sought a path across the sea together, carrying the hope of living in freedom.
Reference sources
- Nhân Dân newspaper, Sacred Land of Côn Đảo, reporting at the historical site of the armed escape of 198 forced-labour prisoners.
- Vietnam News Agency, Côn Đảo: Traces of Heroism, 4 July 2012.
- Vietnam News Agency, Conference Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Côn Đảo Escape, December 2012.
- People’s Army newspaper, Steel Resolve in Hell on Earth, 10 December 2012, citing the recollections of former Côn Đảo prisoner Đoàn Duy Thành.
- Phùng Quán, Escape from Côn Đảo (Vượt Côn Đảo), first published in 1954.