Port Royal is a city located at the end of the Palisadoes at the mouth of the Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1518, it was the centre of shipping commerce in the Caribbean Sea during the latter half of the 17th century. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1692 and a subsequent tsunami, and fires. Severe hurricanes have regularly damaged it. Another severe earthquake occurred in 1907.
Port Royal was once home to privateers employed to nip at superpower Habsburg Spain‘s empire when smaller European powers dared not directly make war on Spain. As a port city, it was notorious for its gaudy displays of wealth and loose morals. It was a popular homeport for the English and Dutch sponsored privateers to spend their treasure during the 17th century. When those governments abandoned the practice of issuing letters of marque to privateers against the Spanish treasure fleets and possessions in the later 16th century, many of the crews turned pirate and used the city as their main base during the 17th century. Pirates from around the world congregated at Port Royal, coming from waters as far away as Madagascar.
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The barque Woodmansterne calling for a pilot at Port Royal by John Lynn, 1828
After the 1692 disaster, Port Royal’s commercial role was steadily taken over by the town (and later, city) of Kingston. Current plans for Port Royal will redevelop the small fishing town into a tourist destination serviced by cruise ships. It is going to capitalize on its heritage, with archaeological findings at the heart of the attractions.
Today, Port Royal is known to post-medieval archaeologists as the “City that Sank”. It is considered the most important underwater archaeological site in the western hemisphere by Robert Marx, yielding 16th–and-17th-century artifacts and many important treasures from indigenous peoples predating the 1588 founding, some from as far away as Guatemala. Several 17th and early 18th century pirate ships sank within Kingston Harbour and are being carefully harvested under controlled conditions by different teams of archaeologists. Other “digs” are staked out along various quarters and streets by different teams. Port Royal has been featured as a location within Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean film series, though much of the location work for Port Royal was actually done on the island of Saint Vincent, not in Jamaica.
