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If
there’s one place in our imaginations that conjures up
images of cavorting pirates decked in bright silks,
drunk on rum, brawling and whoring before they take too
there vessels and there deadly trade on the high seas,
its Port Royal Jamaica.
This long forgotten port was known for a brief period
as “The wickedest city on earth!” before it sunk beneath
the waves of an earthquake and subsequent Tsunami in
1692. It had been the stop off point for many famous sea
roving characters. Those such as Sir Christopher Ming’s
& Captain Kidd had definitely visited the port and even
Black beard himself was rumoured to have spent his youth
there, most famously of course it was from there that
Sir Henry Morgan led his great raids on the Spanish Main
dealing a great blow to the Spanish Hapsburg Empire.
Once a pirate haven Port Royal also became known
as a pirate hunters base of operations as the
authorities stamped down on the brethren of the coast
and the gibbet hanging over the harbour entrance was a
common sight to entering ships. But still it remained a
city of sin, lawlessness, drunkenness, lewdness and
corruption remained rife in the wicked city right up to
its final moments. No preacher who ever entered the port
hoping to convert the wayward masses of the island ever
lasted more than a few weeks before departing to more
civilized climbs.
The origins of Port Royals piratical legacy start
with the English Invasion of 1655, after a disastrous
expedition to Santo Domingo an English Privateer fleet
was looking for an easy target. The Spanish owned Island
of Jamaica was for them an afterthought, an easy victory
to try and gain at least something back from a failed
mission. As they settled on the island a natural base of
operations was the Situated at the western end of the
Palisadoes sand spit that protects Kingston Harbour,
Point Cagway was well-positioned as a harbour. By 1656
both military and civil intuitions were in place.
Palisade walls and gun emplacements at the fort
protected the harbour and six sutlers where licensed to
provide stores to the islanders. Soon storehouses,
taverns and homes were popping up by the day and by
1659, two hundred houses, shops, and warehouses
surrounded the fort. By 1660 the town was a bustling
hive of activity and when news arrived of Charles II
restoration, Fort Cromwell was quickly renamed Fort
Charles and Port Cagway became known as Port Royal in
his honour.
In 1664 Henry Morgan and his crews
sailed from Port Royal to begin one of histories most
amazing
 periods
of buccaneering, these were not pirate fleets attacking
other vessels but transports for private armies made up
of English, French and Dutch sailors and soldiers. Over
the next 6 years Morgan would terrorize the Spanish Main
leading overland expeditions through treacherous jungles
and swamps inhabited by head hunting Indians to sack and
plunder the riches of the Spanish gold & silver routes.
Villahermosa, Grenada, Puerto Principe, Porto Bello and
Panama were all famously targeted and Morgan and his
crews returned to Port Royal each time loaded with
excess plunder, rich beyond there wildest dreams.
When they returned a few invested there new gains
in land or estates, Morgan was one of the few who did
this and profited by it. But the way of the buccaneer
was not so ordered and most of those that came back from
these expeditions squandered there cash quickly in the
taverns, brothels and at the gaming tables. Port Royal
was ready to greet these new wealthy men with open arms
and over time more and more shanty buildings set up
shop, jutting further and further out onto the shore
line which would prove so fatal some years later. By
1680 it was larger than any other English or French
colony except Boston.
However Port Royal was becoming a little bit too
prosperous and self important for the English crowns
liking, A tenth of all revenue was supposed to go to the
lord high admiral and another 15th to the King, however
widespread corruption from Sir Thomas Myford the
Governor of Port Royal and other officials meant that
while the city its self was becoming wealthy very little
was returning to England. It reputation was also
spreading; the city had become a den of vice. Pirates of
all nations flocked to the port to seek shelter
in-between raiding shipping and there ill got gains were
readily spent by there crews. At the height of its
popularity, the city had one drinking house for every
ten residents. In July 1661 alone, forty new licenses
were granted to taverns. During a twenty-year period
that ended in 1692, nearly 6,500 people lived in Port
Royal. In addition to prostitutes and buccaneers, there
were four goldsmiths, forty-four tavern keepers, and a
variety of artisans and merchants who lived in 200
buildings crammed into 51 acres (206,000 m²) of real
estate. 213 ships visited the seaport in 1688.
After the attack on Panama King Charels II had to
appease the Spanish whom he was now at peace with and
the Governor Myford was ordered back to London in
disgrace, but died on route and Morgan himself was under
suspicion for sometime. In Port Royal the selling of
slaves took on greater importance and upstanding
citizens disliked the reputation the city had acquired.
In 1687, Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws. Instead of
being a safe haven for pirates, Port Royal became noted
as their place of execution. Gallows Point welcomed many
to their death, including Charles Vane and Calico Jack,
who were hanged in 1720. Two years later, forty-one
pirates met their death in one month.
On June 7, 1692, it all ended when disaster
struck on the form on an earthquake causing the sand on
which it was built to liquefy and flow out into Kingston
Harbour. The effects of three tidal waves caused by the
earthquake eroded the sand. Buildings and people
literary sank into the ground and soon the main part of
the city lay permanently underwater. Between 1,000 and
3,000 people were killed during the disaster, this was
combined, over half the city's population. Disease also
ran rampant over the next few months, claiming an over
2,000 additional lives. Many believed the destruction
from the earthquake to be an act of God resulting from
the city's sinful reputation.
Attempts were made to rebuild the city, starting
with the one third of the city that was not submerged,
but these met with mixed success and numerous disasters.
An initial attempt at rebuilding was again destroyed in
1703, this time by fire. Subsequent rebuilding was
hampered by several hurricanes in the first half of the
18th century, and soon Kingston eclipsed Port Royal in
importance. The Wickedest City on Earth had passes
its hey day and is now just a sleepy backwater, however
the importance of this well known city of sin and its
part in bringing about an end to Spanish power in the
new world should not be underestimated nor forgotten!
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Bibliography; Empire of Blue Water; the
Wordsworth Dictionary of Pirates; Under the
Black Flag; Osprey: Pirates 1660 – 1730;
Buccaneers 1620 – 1700 Net Resources; Wikapedia;
the Port Royal Project |
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