Port Royal, Jamaica

As Port Royal flourished, its cosmopolitan population created a demand for a wide range of tradesmen with specialized skills. Surveyors, architects, engineers, masons, carpenters and blacksmiths constructed the city’s various commercial and public buildings and its many private residences. On the busy docks, there were large numbers of shipwrights and sail-makers who refurbished visiting ships, while wherrymen and porters moved the vast array of goods arriving in the city. Coopers were particularly important, since fresh water had to be transported to the island city in barrels. Coopers also made casks for storing wines, liquors and pickled meats, as well as for the export of dyes, sugar, rum and molasses.

It was about 11:42 am on Wednesday, June 7, 1692. The residents of Port Royal were retiring home, or to a tavern, for a drink and their main meal when a roar came from the hills across the harbour. Shockwaves had the land suddenly ‘rowling and moving’ and, within minutes, three tremors tore through the ground. The sea swept in from all sides. The earthquake had struck.

An anonymous eyewitness stated: ‘The sand in the street rose like the waves of the sea, 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 out’.

By the end, only 25 of Port Royal’s original 60 acres remained. The earthquake claimed approximately 2,000 lives instantly. A further 3,000 succumbed to injury, fever and vandals who fell upon the suffering and dying. One Port Royal resident, a Frenchman named Lewis Galdy, was swallowed up by the earth and subsequently spewed out alive. Most, however, did not have his good fortune.

To many, the calamity was a sign of God’s wrath, His retribution upon this ‘Sodom of the Indies’ with its hosts of reckless filibusters, harlots and moneylenders. Following the earthquake, survivors established Kingston across the harbour but did not abandon Port Royal. The community rebuilt itself, though it continued to be devastated by fires, hurricanes and earthquakes.

In 1905 Britain closed its naval station at Port Royal. With the withdrawal of this source of employment, the residents of the community were forced to pursue other occupations, such as fishing, fish mongering and ferrying. Some moved across the harbour to Kingston to seek work. Despite these changes, the town maintained its original layout and traditional character, with two and three-story nineteenth-century dwellings, lodging houses, shops and bars huddled together.

In 1951 Hurricane Charlie wiped out Port Royal, leaving only a few of its wooden buildings standing. The old Naval Hospital, which remained intact, provided a safe home for almost the entire population. Once again, the citizens of Port Royal rebuilt their town. The proud community carried on its daily life, as captured in photographs shot by Maria LaYacona during the 1980s. Surviving buildings of the naval station served as a police academy and small military base and, at present, provide a headquarters for the Jamaica Coast Guard.

Today, Port Royal’s ruins from the 1692 earthquake appear as ghostly silhouettes at the bottom of the shallow murky waters surrounding the existing town. Since the 1950s, myriad artefacts have been recovered through underwater archaeological excavations, though less than 10% of the catastrophic site has been surveyed to date. Whether crushed, mangled, shattered or in pristine condition, these artefacts are evidence of the history of a town that has seen many defeats as well as numerous attempts at rebirth. In 1999 the Jamaica National Heritage Trust designated Port Royal a National Heritage Site. The underwater city is undeniably one the world’s archaeological wonders.