The British did not want to lag behind their enterprising French colleagues, and international centers of piracy also began to emerge in the British colonies in America. One of them was the famous city of Port Royal in Jamaica. The Indian name of the island is "Shaimala", which means "land of waters and forests." Scientists suggest that the indigenous people - the fish-ki-arawaks - have been using this piece of land since 1300. They grew cassava, sweet potatoes, maize, tobacco and were happy in their land. Grief and misfortune came with the appearance of the Spaniards, and for a century and a half of their rule in Jamaica, the Arawaks were completely exterminated.
At the southeastern end of the island was a small sheltered cove, into which a long 13 km long Palisades spit juts out. Long and narrow, like a sword, it has long been adapted for observing and repelling the attacks of uninvited guests. At the end of this spit, the settlement of Port Royal is located, and although the defensive fortifications did not always withstand the onslaught of the enemy, much attention was paid to their construction.
It quickly developed into the most important trading post in the Caribbean, due to its strategic position on the trade routes between the New World and Spain. Over time, Port Royal became a notorious center for pirate gatherings, gambling, women of easy virtue and booze. It even earned the nickname of the craziest city on earth.
Let's find out its history …
An expedition sent by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 recaptured the island from the Spaniards - the direct heirs of Christopher Columbus, to whom Jamaica was bestowed as a royal gift. Over time, the island became the main base of the Caribbean pirates, as well as a market for them.
extraction. Already in 1658, Commodore Mings, who stood at the head of the English pirates who settled in Port Royal, stormed the Mexican city of Campeche and several cities in Venezuela, after which he took everything looted to his Jamaican refuge.
By 1664, the English colony in Jamaica looked more representative than the nest of French filibusters on Tortuga: the thriving city was much more populous, and its deep-water harbor with many berths was wider. Lured by easy prey, representatives of different races and peoples poured into Port Royal. Here the Babylonian pandemonium was truly happening: Africans, mulattoes, mestizos and other people with bronze, black, yellow and white skin. The Dutch, Germans, French, Spaniards, Portuguese, Irish and Scandinavians opened taverns, taverns, brothels and gambling houses, craft workshops and trade shops …
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The long boardwalk was crowded with many ships, arriving with cargo or waiting for it. In Port Royal, no one was interested in the origin of the goods or the past of its owner. Shop counters were bursting with jewelry, velvet, silk, brocade and other goods, all trade in the city pursued only one goal - to lighten the pockets of pirates thirsty for entertainment.
Although the city was built on sand, there were about 2,000 stone, brick and wood buildings, some of which were four stories high. Port Royal was home to four markets, churches, a synagogue, a Catholic chapel, a Quaker meetinghouse, extensive storage facilities, military parade grounds, and of course the city was well fortified.
Jamaica occupied an even more advantageous strategic position than Tortuga: Santo Domingo and Cuba, Florida and Mexico - everything was close. The island lay 180 nautical leagues from Panama, where the treasures of the Golden Fleets were brought. In the face of competition with Spain, the British government deliberately supported its "gentlemen of fortune", whose main targets were the Spanish ships. Most of the pirate's wealth settled in the chests of city merchants, as greedy as the filibusters themselves. Their safes and warehouses were filled with a wide variety of goods: gold and silver bars, jewelery with precious stones, brocade and silk fabrics. And even icons! All this wealth was waiting to be sent to England or to the continent …
The temperament of the pirates, which became more and more, determined the way of life of Port Royal. The fame of the dissolute city spread all over the world, and it was not for nothing that it was called "the pirate Babylon". Its inhabitants were famous as "the most unbelieving and depraved people", orgies, violence and murder were common in the pirate city. Along the streets were numerous pubs, taverns and brothels, where they vied with each other offering intoxicating rum, abundant food and women of all colors and skin tones. There were much more noble places where gambling flourished than on Tortuga. Their spacious halls could accommodate as many people as they wanted, and therefore no one had to pave their way to the table with their fists or wait on the street for a place to become free.
Henry Morgan.
Port Royal reached the zenith of its glory under Henry Morgan - "the greatest scoundrel of the era of scoundrels", who went down in history as the brightest leader of the pirates of his time. When 30-year-old Henry Morgan arrived in Jamaica, the governor of the island was T. Modifor, who received orders from London to stop the filibusters' outrages. But everyone understood perfectly well that this document should not be taken as a guide to action.
Although filibusters of the Caribbean had ravaged Spanish colonies before, Henry Morgan was the first to realize that the capture of large settlements, even well-defended ones, promises much greater benefits than sea raids. He was convinced that "where the Spaniards defend themselves, there is something to profit from." In 1667 G. Morgan decided to seize Panama - the city, which was founded by the governor Pedro Arias Davila, nicknamed the Cruel. In 1519, he took a fancy to this place on the Pacific coast, as it was drier than the Darien coast. The Indian guides approved of his choice and, circling the bay with their hand, said: "Panama", which meant "fishing place".
In beauty and wealth, no other city in the New World could compare with Panama, it was not for nothing that it was called the "Cup of Gold". The city warehouses were filled to the brim with bars of gold and silver; sometimes there was not enough space on them, and the precious metal lay right on the streets. Nobody even tried to pull off this exorbitant weight1
Following the conquistadors, merchants, who at first cowardly shrank from any ringing of steel, reached Panama. But soon it was they who became the true masters of the Isthmus of Panama: traders raised food prices, seized jewelry and made profits that were difficult to even calculate. The Genoese slave traders who settled in Panama built huge premises for their "goods", where black slaves sat in countless cells, who were sold to whoever paid the most. In warehouses belonging to the king, one tenth of all that was produced by these generous lands was stored. Once a year, caravans of ships came, the treasures were transported across the Isthmus of Panama on mules, loaded onto ships and sent to Spain. Panama was truly the "cup of gold"!
For half a century, the Spaniards thickened the walls of Old Panama. The treasury spent so much money on this that the royal court in Madrid asked if the builders were making them out of gold. In addition, after the attack on the city at the end of the 16th century by English pirates under the command of F. Drake, this port was even more fortified and began to be carefully guarded. The finest troops watched over the royal storerooms, slave barracks and stables with thousands of mules. When rumors reached Panama that the terrible Henry Morgan was coming at them, everyone took it as a funny invention. However, bad news crept from all sides, and soon the townspeople were already mad with fear. They began to remember the brutal massacres that pirates committed in the captured cities, and many turned pale from these stories.
For the planned expedition G. Morgan needed as many people as he had never gathered before. “Everyone will get rich if we succeed,” read his message, and this cry was heard. Soon ships and people began to gather at the agreed place: a violent brotherhood from Tortuga arrived, time-worn pirates from Goav and fearless adventurers from all over the world.
Henry Morgan was not at all embarrassed by the fact that a year before his planned expedition, the English and Spanish kings had concluded an agreement under which the British pledged not to destroy the Spanish possessions. He decided to attack Panama from land, from the Atlantic Ocean, passing through swamps and rainforests. The first skirmish occurred at Fort San Lorenzo, located at the mouth of the Chagres River. Henry Morgan easily took possession of the fortress, which was defended by a garrison of 200 people, and left his own detachment in it to protect his rear. He knew that the Chagres River was navigable for large vessels only for a stretch of 40 miles, and therefore took several canoes with him, on which he decided to go further up.
At the end of the journey, Henry Morgan's squad had to wade through the tropical jungle. Unaccustomed to such transitions, the pirates suffered severe and cruel hardships; on their way came across alligators, poisonous snakes, jaguars and cougars. But this was not the greatest evil, the "gentlemen of fortune" suffered painfully from the bites of mosquitoes, spiders and poisonous ants that swarmed the jungles of Central America.
Soon the army of G. Morgan reached the place of the narrowing of the river. Gathering and seating 1400 people on pies, longboats and boats was not an easy task, but at last the filibusters set off. Georges Blon, in the book already mentioned, writes that in the town of Juan Callego, where there was a weak Spanish garrison, Henry Morgan wanted to interrupt him and seize provisions. But this calculation was not justified, since the houses and wretched huts were empty, and they did not have corn, not a single pig, not even the dogs ran through the streets. I had to continue moving on an empty stomach.
The Spaniards devastated the entire area on the way of filibusters, and people were hungrier than even in the desert. Once the pirates discovered several canastra (made from chest skins), which were, of course, empty, but people were already so starving that they began to eat these skins. And in the area of the Cruz post, a very strange thing happened. The people who were walking at the head of the column suddenly began to fall dead, although there was complete silence all around and the enemy was not visible. The wounded tried to pull Indian arrows out of their bodies, the column got mixed up, many rushed back … And then the village of Cruz burst into flames, and soon the fire left nothing. Only warehouses with stone walls did not have time to burn, in which the pirates found several boxes of last year's crackers. With these stale bread crumbs, they seized cats and dogs, which they managed to catch and roast. Barrels of wine were found in the cellars, but Henry Morgan warned that it could be poisoned …
After a difficult journey, the pirate squad finally saw the emerald waters of the Gulf of Panama and the beautiful city on its coast. The defenders of Panama came up with a seemingly cunning trick: they drove several hundred heads of wild cattle on the attackers, but this plan turned against them. Distraught with the shots, the animals rushed back and crushed the Spanish cavalry that followed them. Henry Morgan took the city by storm, plundered and burned it. The prey was so great that the pirates loaded it onto mules for a week. But Panama continued to defend itself even at a time when church gold, silver and other jewels were already loaded onto pirate ships.
In Jamaica, they were in for a triumph, but Port Royal was destined not to live too long. In June 1692, at about noon, powerful tremors destroyed the famous capital of pirates and slave traders. And many perceived this catastrophe as God's punishment sent down to the city.
The sky was cloudless that day, the Caribbean was calm, the sun was already approaching its zenith, and Port Royal was dozing in streams of intoxicating heat. About 20 ships with low sails swayed lazily on the smooth surface of the harbor. Dinner was approaching, and a delicious stew of beef and turtle meat was already boiling in the copper cauldrons of many taverns. However, this stuffiness nevertheless worried the townspeople, because almost every year it was in such hot and calm weather that tremors were noted. However, residents are also accustomed to them, so it seemed that nothing could disrupt the usual course of life.
And suddenly the earth trembled. From the mountains came a dull roar, reminiscent of distant peals of thunder, and then another powerful blow shook the earth, followed by another, and another … The massive walls of Fort Jones and Fort Carlyle collapsed in the blink of an eye. Deep cracks that split the ground greedily devoured buildings and panic-stricken people. The bell tower of St. Paul's Church, which stood not far from the shore, fell with a crash; the bell rang desperately and died down only when the waves closed over the ruins of the church. And a new huge wave was already being born in the sea, it rose higher and higher and, reaching the city, flooded the remaining part of it. It was all over in a few minutes. The disaster claimed the lives of 2,000 people, and Port Royal itself disappeared under the sea surface.
The event did not take place at night, as is often the case with local earthquakes: the city died at 11 hours 43 minutes of the day, when fine weather, almost complete calm and the sun at its zenith did not bode well. There were only three shocks, of which the last, the third, was the most powerful. But the hurricane, which rose in a few seconds, after the first shock, has already inflicted the first destruction, forcing people to hide under the protection not so much of roofs as of walls. The wind blew from the sea, and some residents, anticipating a great disaster, made the right decision: they rushed to the upper part of the city. There they were saved. When the disaster subsided, it turned out that two-thirds of the city was not only destroyed, but also went under water: the coast acquired a completely different configuration. The former glory of Port Royal has since become only a legend.
A dozen years later, the remaining and rebuilt city was destroyed by fire. Then several hurricanes swept through, and Port Royal ceased to exist, brought in by a thick layer of silt and sand.
The old maps, compiled, however, after the death of the pirate capital, still gave hope that the rich warehouses of looted valuables caught unawares still contain these values inside (a small part of them, however, was extracted immediately after the tragedy), and the history, so ruthless to living cities, unrecognizably changing their appearance, here indulgently stopped and left everything as it was. Divers of the 19th and 20th centuries were convinced of this with their own eyes, confirming the presence of ancient ruins under the water.
In 1953, Edwin A. Link began work off the coast of Port Royal in his specially equipped and personally equipped vessel Sea Diver for underwater archeology. The first activation of the suction pump did not give any results. Disappointed was Edwin Link suddenly realized that he was clearing the sidewalk! And in fact: having moved the intake hose just a few meters and started pumping, he came across the long-awaited finds. Among them is a unique one: a brass clock made by Paul Blondel in 1686, which recorded the time of the catastrophe - 17 minutes to noon …
Having examined only the fort, the kitchen and the shop, Link, regretfully parting with the "pirate Babylon", hoped that this was only the beginning. The expedition of Robert Marx then found a tavern, two uncollapsed buildings and … a chest of jewels from the Spanish galleons that crashed in the flotilla in 1691!
But the catastrophe of the 17th century did not teach the descendants anything who settled above the sunken city: quite modern bandits demanded their share from Marx, threatening to finish off the members of the expedition. Port Royal's traditions have been enduring. Thank God the police intervened! For treasure hunters and archaeologists, already putting their lives at risk every day, everything worked out.
Today in Port Royal, work is being carried out jointly by the government of Jamaica and the Institute of Underwater Archeology at the University of Texas.
Today's Port Royal is a city notable for its dilapidated fort and small fishing village, home to about two thousand people, not counting the ghosts. Once there were six forts with 145 guns. Only Fort Charles has survived. Open every day from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, admission $ 2 US. Charles is a heritage fort, the pride of the local people.
The St. Peter's Church contains a trophy silver platter of Henry Morgan, which he captured in the Cathedral of Panama. Next to the church there is an old cemetery with beautiful tombstones.
You can get to Porta Royal by bus # 98 or by minibus. Departure from Parade, downtown Kingston, costs around US $ 2. A licensed taxi costs $ 40-50 US round trip.