In the Caribbean, there is a little port city that had its heyday during the Golden Age of Pirates.

But much like those cheeky buccaneers, things didn’t really turn out in its favour, although it did live life to the fullest.

Port Royal above ground

Our destination of Port Royal today was suggested by the lovely people over at Gnome Road Publishing. They wanted to hear about an underwater destination, and what could be cooler than an underwater pirate city. If you’d like to learn more about Gnome Road Publishing and their range of children’s books, check out their website.

Now if you’re a fan of pirates and all things pirating, you may have already heard of Port Royal. The port is actually a natural harbour that you can find on the southeast coast of Jamaica, and did it become a hotspot. The town of Port Royal was founded at the end of a 16km long sand spit, giving it nice and easy access to shipping and trade. Which in almost any circumstances would see a place flourish.

So when the Spanish arrived in the 1500s, they took advantage of this nice little spot to clean their boats and make them ready for the return journey. In fact it was actually Christopher Columbus who arrived in 1494 and left some Spaniards behind on the island.

The real reason the Spanish liked the spot was for its closeness to the trade routes. It was a perfect stop over to clean and repair your ship before continuing on. And it seemed that the arrangement the Spanish had did well enough for about 140 years. Until that is, the English decided they wanted this prime piece of real estate for themselves.

So it was that in 1655 the English, under Cromwell, invaded the Spanish stronghold over at Hispaniola, which you’ll recognise today as Haiti and the Dominican Republic, then the centre of the Spanish trade system throughout the Caribbean. Unfortunately for the English, things didn’t really go to plan and at the end of the day they found themselves empty handed. So what does one do when their primary objective hasn’t quite worked out? They go to the secondary objective, and taking Jamaica turned out to be the ‘better than nothing’ option. The English is also where the place gets its name of Port Royal.

While in control of Port Royal, the English worried about being attacked by other people. So just a couple years later in 1657, the newly installed Governor of Jamaica, a one Edward D’Oley, thought of, what I guess was, a pretty ingenious solution to keep them safe. He would essentially invite and hire a group of privateers to help keep Port Royal safe and in return would turn a blind eye to their, quite obvious, illegal doings.

This hired group of privateers were known as the Brethren of the Coast, and it included the infamous Henry Morgan, who just as a side note would go on to become the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica and who the Captain Morgan rum is named after, talk about a legacy.

Now the Brethren of the Coast weren’t one to let opportunities pass them by and it soon became obvious that the natural protected harbour location of Port Royal made it the perfect place for pirate doings. It was close to Spanish shipping trade routes and other ports, what did they expect an aspiring pirate to do?

So the Brethern concentrated their attack on Spanish ships, mainly because the English at the time were not particularly fans of the Spanish, so if the Spanish were doing well it meant the English were not. In hindsight, the constant attacks on the Spanish by the Brethren actually had quite the impact. Thanks to the continuous attacks on their shipping lines, the Spanish government actually invested more in to defending themselves, which meant there wasn’t really anything left to focus on the attacking side of things, meaning that Governor D’Oley’s strategy of getting the Brethren to help defend his port city seemed to have done the trick incredibly well.

Because D’Oley’s plan had worked so well, the British Crown thought, why not officially sanction privateering? Then all our ports can be safe. So they sent out an official letter of marque and reprisal, or some might call it a Pirate licence, and the deal was that the pirate doings, especially against the Spanish, would be sanctioned by the British, but a portion of all booty captured would need to be paid to the government. Sounds like a decent deal, with I’m sure plenty of holes in the contract to make it worth the pirates while. And this is where we see the Golden Age of Piracy come up, with legendary figures like Edward Thatch, more commonly known as Blackbeard, to be a frequent figure in the area.

From 1655 to 1692, Port Royal was the fasted growing town controlled by the English in the New World. In 1689 pretty much half of Port Royal’s population was involved in privateering in some way, with reports from 1692 confirming 10 000 inhabited Port Royal.

Because Port Royal was the headquarters of several pirates throughout the 17th century, it has become associated, not only with pirates, but with everything that comes along with piracy. Pirate culture ruled the day in Port Royal.

And when Captain Henry Morgan made Port Royal his headquarters, gold that he and his team plundered came pouring in, which meant merchants, artists and those willing to make a quick buck catering to the appetites of the pirates followed.

Here’s Peter Gordon, a local historian, explaining how it would have been back then:

These buccaneers had a free hand to literally do as they pleased, as they were viewed as being the defenders of Jamaica. The authorities had no option but to let them alone.

Here’s Gordon again describing what Port Royal would have looked like:

Imagine a city where lots of gold was born with these men of questionable character, and freedom to do what they wanted. Brothels, bars and churches were of equal number so you can imagine the rough atmosphere that was Port Royal.

With all that money rolling around, Port Royal was not a poor place to be by any means, it’s reported that over 800 people lived in fine brick houses that were two or even three stories high. And you only got that if you had the money to build it.

But the raucous ways of the inhabitants and the wealth of the port gave it the title of the

richest and wickedest city in the New World.

And did it live up to it.

But with all this trade and wealth, the English Government thought that they could do even better if they worked with Spain and regularised the trade and worked on increasing the Jamaican economy, especially in terms of its agriculture.

But they needed someone to hold down the fort in Jamaica, and this is where we meet our pirate friend once again. Captain Henry Morgan, in a deal with the English, was made the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica in 1675, and in this role he was meant to help stamp down piracy.

With trade with Spain regularised and the threat of piracy somewhat lessened, Port Royal became a prime and rich trading point, particularly with slaves.

As Port Royal continued to go from strength to strength, the cosmopolitan population brought with it skilled tradesmen. You could find architects, engineers, masons, blacksmiths, carpenters. Everything you could need to build and maintain a thriving commercial centre. Port Royal also attracted the likes of cobblers, seamstresses, cabinetmakers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, hat-makers and all other sorts. And these tradies must have done a pretty top job, because Captain John Taylor write this about the port city in 1688:

A formidable City: well built, strongly fortified, and populated by a valiant inhabitant.

Now with these tradesmen following the money, it surely meant that the inhabitants of Port Royal could pay well. And according to Francis Hanson, who wrote a pretty detailed account of the level of wealth that the average inhabitant of Port Royal held in 1682:

…Almost every house hath a rich cupboard of plate which they carelessly expose, scarce shutting their doors in the night, being in no apprehension of thieves for want of receivers … for in Port Royal there is more plenty of running cash (proportionally to the number of its inhabitants) than in London.

Sounds like those tradies knew what they were doing, moving to a place with people so rich they weren’t even worried about their precious possessions being stolen.

And it was at this time, throughout the 17th century, that Port Royal was at its height of wealth and importance, especially as the centre of the British merchant trade. Here’s a little something from UNESCO:

Typical of an English colonial port town, yet unique in its unprecedented consumer wealth, carousing buccaneers, and thriving middle class, Port Royal was unparalleled anywhere in the world.

Now while the pirates based out of Port Royal gave the place a certain reputation, the word ‘wicked’ has been bandied about quite a bit, it actually wasn’t all that bad. They were pretty relaxed about pretty much most things. They weren’t really fussed with what religion you were, with Catholics, Quakers, Presbyterians and Jews all living alongside each other without any major issues. While it was technically run and controlled by the English, it was a very multi-cultural place and welcomed anyone and everyone.

But as we well know, nothing lasts forever, and the same can be said for Port Royal and its pirate loving lifestyle. An earthquake would bring everything crashing down. And while the whole city was almost destroyed in its entirety, there were some, who didn’t fancy the pirate lifestyle, who thought that it was pretty tidy solution to an ugly problem.

The Earthquake

Usually when we talk about looking at ruined cities, we talk about the pieces left behind. We usually only have access to some discarded objects, pieces of buildings or things that were preserved by being buried. But the ruins of Port Royal are different.

By the time we get to 1692, Port Royal is at its peak, it’s a wealthy place, a part of a strong trade route and its buildings and forts, mostly made of stone, reflect its position as a heavily defended city.

But all that changed in a moment on the 7 June. A 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the island. Normally when an earthquake strikes, things fall apart thanks to the shaking of the earth. But if we remember, Port Royal wasn’t built on land, it was built on a sand spit. And when sand is shaken to such a level as that of an earthquake, a process called liquefaction happens, which is when sand, normally a solid, takes on the properties of a liquid. So throughout the duration of the earthquake, Port Royal and the people living there may as well have been living on a city built on water. Buildings, roads and people were all sucked into the ground. And with the tsunami that followed pretty closely behind, about 2000 people were killed. Here’s a contemporary account of what happened from an eyewitness:

The sand in the street rose like the waves of the seas, lifting up all persons that stood upon it, and immediately dropping down into pits; and at the same instant a flood of water rushed in, throwing down all who were in its way; some were seen catching hold of beams and rafters of houses, others were found in the sand that appeared when the water was drained away, with their legs and arms [sticking] out.

The extent of the damage was incredibly severe with about 33 acres of the city dragged under water.

As the news of the destruction of Port Royal spread around the world. Those of a more conservative persuasion used it as a chance to demonstrate what would happen to those who strayed from the path of light. The destruction and extensive death toll were seen as retribution for living a frivolous and ‘sinful’ lifestyle.

Port Royal underwater

Now you might have thought that an earthquake, seemingly sent by the almighty, was a pretty good reason to give up your pirate ways, or at least move them to a more inconspicuous spot, but no Port Royal continued to be a good stopping point for pirates looking for some stray Spanish ships for roughly another 50 years.

Although things did change quite significantly after the earthquake. Port Royal was no longer the bustling metropolis it once was. They didn’t abandon Port Royal but it was a lot smaller in scale, especially after most people relocated to Kingston, the current Jamaican capital, and set up shop there.

And it also didn’t really help that Port Royal struggled through several natural disasters after the 1692 earthquake. There were fires, hurricanes and more earthquakes that kept people from fully returning to Port Royal. And in 1951, a pretty big hurricane that went by Hurricane Charlie, pretty must destroyed what was left, with only a handful of original buildings remaining.

Port Royal did remain a British naval base however, with the British once again establishing themselves in 1735 as they struggled against the French this time. And the British hadn’t given up its goal of ridding the Caribbean of pirates, which they continued to do, especially since escorts were needed to keep the ships safe that were carrying precious Jamaican commodities like sugar.

And it was here in Port Royal that the British Navy would remain until the start of the 19th century when their importance would start to wane, although the naval base would hang around until 1905.

Now let’s turn our attention to the portion of Port Royal that now lay underwater. It’s actually believed to be one of the best conserved underwater heritage sites. And it’s quite a large chunk of Port Royal that was lost on that fateful day. Here’s Selvenious Walters, who’s the Technical Director of Archaeology over at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust to tell us just how much:

Approximately two thirds were destroyed and sank into Kingston harbour. The earthquake decimated the buildings and a lot of people died from collapsing walls. Approximately, more than half of the population perished.

So the earthquake really did have quite the devasting impact. In fact, the underwater ruins of Port Royal are in the category of ‘catastrophic sites’, which are reserved for sites that were devasted by natural disasters and are since preserved in situ.

What’s really fascinating about Port Royal is that it’s a city that is fairly unknown outside of Jamaica and the Caribbean, which is quite surprising given how fascinating the place is. And the fact that it sits literally just a couple of metres below the water’s surface means that it’s easily accessible and, by having been submerged in an oxygen-depleted environment since the 17th century, it’s now considered a time capsule into colonial port town life. Here’s Walters again:

It is believed to be one of the best-conserved underwater heritage sites in this hemisphere… And it is perhaps the only one of its kind in this part of the world. So, it is very important not only for Jamaica, but the world as a whole, that we protect and preserve this valuable heritage asset.

Sometimes going by the ‘Pompeii of the Caribbean’, which I think gives us a pretty good idea as to its preservation level and significance, Port Royal is currently in the process of becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site which would give even greater significance to a site in a part of the world that often gets overlooked. There’s still a fair bit of paperwork that needs to happen before certification is awarded, but locals are hopeful.

Locals like Heather Pinnock, who is the General Group Manager of the Urban Development Corporation, which is a government department overseeing the redevelopment of the Port Royal area, is really focused on making sure Port Royal has a sustainable future, and that includes the ruins. Here’s Heather to give us some more info:

You have the history but at the same time we’re honouring the biodiversity and looking really to the future… The entire area is designated as an environmentally sensitive site so there’s a lot that has come together. It requires a lot of thorough and careful planning.

In fact, Port Royal is home to many fragile coral reefs and threatened sea species, which means that Port Royal has some pretty major sustainable development goals which include reducing marine pollution, reducing overfishing and reducing ocean acidification. They hope to meet their set targets by 2030 for the whole area, so it seems time will tell, but they do appear to be on track.

And as we well known, tourism is a major factor in keeping things running, and if you have a well preserved, easily accessed underwater city, then you’re pretty much set. And that is where Sustainable Port Royal 2020 comes into play, and with the slogan ‘Honouring the Past, Visioning the Future’, I think it’s pretty easy to figure out what they’re all about.

The project’s aim is to

transform the area into a world-class heritage, environmental and cultural attraction.

Currently in the concept phase of the plan, it will be interesting to see what comes of it in the following years. So keep your eyes peeled.

Visiting Today

With the capital now sitting at Kingston, Port Royal today is actually a quiet fishing village still sitting at the end of the sandbar.

Of course you can visit the more famous part of the town, which as we know now sits underwater. There were actually reports in the 1900s, that visitors could still see the tops of the city just below the waves, which I imagine would have been quite eerie.

It was in the 1950s, that Edward Link found something really fascinating when scoping out the area, it was a pocket watch stopped, supposedly, at the exact time the earthquake struck: 11:43. After that excavations of the underwater site would continue throughout the 60s, although the most extensive research carried out would take place in the 80s, and would be handled by the Nautical Archaeology Program of Texas University who collaborated with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, which brought to light many an artifact that showed 17th century port life.

Today, the ruins of Port Royal are still visible under the waves and look like ghostly silhouettes of a long lost town. Here’s UNESCO describing just how well preserved they are:

As the only sunken city in the Western Hemisphere, the assemblage of buildings both on land and underwater illustrate a vivid picture of life during the era of colonial expansion in the new world.

Now if you wanted to get out there and dive among the ruins of Port Royal, you will need a special access grant from the government as the ruins sit in a restricted area, but you can see the artefacts that have been found over the years above ground at the Museums of History and Ethnography over at the Institute of Jamaica in Kingston.

Sustainable development for the area means that there are plans for visitors to engage with the ruins as part of a historical trail that will one day, hopefully, include museums, interactive exhibits and archaeological dig sites.

Now the ocean around Port Royal doesn’t just contain the ruins of the city, it’s an archaeological gold mine. Remember there were pirates that would fight and do piratey things in the area. A recent sonar survey of the underwater city by the Archaeological Division of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust actually revealed a sunken pirate ship in the Kingston Harbour, and that’s not even going into the thousands of artefacts that are littered throughout the area.

Now if you ever do find yourself in the Port Royal above water area, make sure to check out Giddy House at Fort Charles. Originally built in 1888, the building was knocked into quite a precarious position thanks to an earthquake in 1907 and now sits at a 45 degree angle. You’re welcome to walk through the building, although beware, many a walker through have described feeling quite nauseated by the off-kilter effect.

The local government also has aims to restore the Old Naval Hospital and hope it will become a major tourist attraction as an original part of the pirate run Port Royal.

So if you want to see a decently well preserved city that isn’t that too far underwater, then Port Royal is for you. But perhaps wait a couple of years until they get their infrastructure updated so that you can enjoy the experience of exploring a sunken pirate city in style.

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