1692 - After an earthquake and the formation of quicksand, Port Royal, the capital of the Jamaican pirates, “the refuge of the gentlemen of fortune” and the “funniest” city on the coast, was destroyed and sank underground. The disaster killed about 5,000 lives.
What could have caused the tragedy and why did contemporaries call it "the Lord's punishment"?
On the southeast side of the island of Jamaica, where the Blue Mountains rise, there is a large cove that forms a beautiful natural harbor - Kingston Harbor. On the coast of the bay is the city of Kingston - the capital and main port of the island. But it was not always so. In the 17th century, at the end of the existing and nowadays sandy spit of Palisadeous, 13 km into the ocean, there was the famous pirate capital - Port Royal.
Once upon a time there was a fort on this place, which was periodically conquered from each other by the British and then the Spaniards. 1655 - When Jamaica finally came under British jurisdiction, the fort expanded to the size of a city. It had a convenient harbor and a fortified coast, which is why it was soon chosen by sea pirates. It was far away from the metropolis, and the authorities very quickly ceased to cope with the establishment of order on the island. 1674 - King Charles II of England was even forced to appoint the most famous of the sea robbers, Henry Morgan, to the post of mayor of Port Royal.
But even this could not help - the city firmly held the palm among the most dangerous places on Earth. They robbed both at sea and on land. Every merchant had their own urban bandits. Easy profit gave rise to drunkenness and debauchery, the size of which confused even seasoned pirates who dreamed of resting in a quiet harbor. The slave trade flourished in the port, and there was one of the largest slave markets in the world.
Before the disaster, Port Royal had about 2,000 buildings. Most of these were the dwellings of the local population, some were for entertainment, the rest of the buildings performed economic functions. The city had two well-fortified forts, a church, a large number of shops and warehouses. The buildings that were located on the very shore of the harbor were usually wooden.
One historical chronicle of the 17th century describes this largest shopping center in the entire Caribbean: “The taverns are jam-packed with gold and silver cups, sparkling gems stolen from cathedrals. Simple sailors with heavy gold earrings with precious stones play on gold coins, the value of which nobody cares about. Any of the buildings here is a treasury. Many considered this place cursed and perceived the terrible earthquake as God's revenge on the people who had retreated from it.
In fact, in terms of seismic hazard, it was perhaps the most vulnerable place in the world: the city was literally built on sand. In our time, scientific studies have shown that the surface 20-meter layer of sand on the Palisadeous Spit is not compacted tightly, and, moreover, is saturated with water. Beneath it is gravel and rock debris. Even not a strong earthquake could have done a lot of trouble there, and the hard sand could become "quicky" overnight.
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The formation of these quicksands follows this pattern. At first, deep in the thickness of the sand, an underground source begins to beat, then the water, rising upward, fills the space between the grains of sand and pushes them apart. The adhesion of soil particles is largely reduced, the sand turns into "liquid" and begins to float underfoot. The second, faster way to turn plain sand into quicksand is an earthquake, which also breaks the bonds between soil particles.
1692, June 7 - A powerful earthquake struck Port Royal, causing most of the pirate capital to disappear from the face of the earth. For a long time, it was believed that the city “slipped” into the sea under the influence of tremors and the resulting tsunami. However, recent research shows that he simply went into the sand on which he stood. The tremors led to the disruption of the dense structure of the soil, in less than a minute the sand became flowing, and the city "fell through the ground."
Literally 10 minutes after the earthquake, the sands regained their properties, burying 2/3 of the city and about 2/3 of the population (approximately 5,000 people). To this day, letters from ministers, city officials and merchants, witnesses of the catastrophe, G. Sloen, then secretary of the British Royal Society, have survived, which testify that the Blue Mountains, which were 2 km from the coast, were moved by an earthquake and that the coastline is now completely a different look than before.
It all started at 11:43 am with complete calm at sea and wonderful weather. There were only three shocks, of which the last was the most powerful. After the first shock, the walls of the structures cracked; inside the premises, utensils and furniture fell on the floor. A hurricane came from the sea, and some of the residents rushed to the upper part of the city, closer to the Blue Mountains. And that saved them. Then a second, stronger blow of the elements followed, from which the buildings began to collapse and go underground along with all their contents. A huge wave formed on the sea, rushing to the shore and carrying with it everything that came in its way.
But for some people, this deadly tsunami was life-saving. The giant wave lifted the frigate "Swan", which was pulled ashore for repair work. The ship flew over the city that remained below, pulling the lashing ropes and railings behind it. People who managed to grab hold of them stayed afloat. When the Swan crashed into the roof of the dilapidated structure and stopped, they got out into shallow water and survived.
By a miracle, one of the inhabitants of Port Royal, the merchant Lewis Goldie, was able to get out of the sand trap. He was sucked underground by almost everything, and he realized with horror that he would die. However, here the doomed felt that a powerful stream of water was pushing him out from below. A moment later, it flew out of the sand like a champagne cork. After a severe nervous shock, the merchant, nevertheless, did not leave the accursed island and became one of the most famous people in the entire area. He willingly told visitors tales about the terrible Jamaican earthquake of 1692, which he was able to survive.
A few minutes after the third, most powerful shock, the sand became hard again, and pieces of walls and the heads of the unfortunate inhabitants of the pirate capital, who could not get out of the quicksand, remained on the surface of the earth. As the Reverend Father Emmanuel Neath wrote later, "these heads later served as food for stray dogs." Another eyewitness testified in a letter: “People were seized in the arms of the Earth and strangled by it. They were buried like that - with their heads above the surface, and some were eaten by dogs. For a long time, everyone tried to bypass these places."
Survivors of the earthquake began to restore the surviving houses and rebuild the city again in the same place. But 10 years after that terrible earthquake, there was a massive fire in Port Royal, which destroyed everything that was restored. This was followed by several powerful hurricanes, and the remnants of the "pirate oasis" were covered with a thick layer of silt and sand. Back in 1859, the curious could see the remains of several houses on the site of the city that had sunk through the ground, the walls of which peeped out of the coastal sand for one or two meters. But then another strong earthquake, which happened here in 1907, hid from human eyes and these silent evidence of the catastrophe.
Since that time, many adventurers and easy money seekers have tried to unearth the treasures of the pirate capital, buried at the bottom of the sea. The chronicle of the tragedy in the Caribbean, which has reached our time in numerous descriptions, gave hope that the inhabitants of Port Royal, taken by surprise, simply did not have the opportunity to transfer their treasures to safety. Gold miners dreamed of huge chests with looted valuables that survived in ruined houses buried under a layer of sand and water. Divers who explored the waters of Kingston Harbor in the 19th and 20th centuries confirmed the presence of ancient ruins under the water.
The first expedition to the shores of Jamaica aboard the Sea Diver, specially equipped for underwater archeology, was carried out in 1953 by Edwin A. Link. Long-term operation of the suction pump did not give the expected results for a long time. The researcher was disappointed, but decided to try his luck again. Moving the intake hose just a few meters to the side, he immediately came across what he was looking for. The most unique find was the lifting of a gold watch, made in 1686 by the Amsterdam master Paul Blondel, on the hands of which the time of the disaster was recorded - 17 minutes to noon.
But the minor funds that Link received from the National Geographic Society of America allowed him to survey only the kitchen and shop in the fort of the deceased Port Royal. Then he regretfully parted with the "pirate Babylon". The next expedition was carried out by the American scientist Robert Marks, who turned out to be luckier than his predecessor. Marx was able to find a tavern, two surviving buildings and … a treasure chest from a Spanish galleon, which was wrecked in a flotilla in 1691.
Who knows how many more secrets the cursed city of Port Royal, so imprudently built by pirates on the sand, can keep?
V. Sklyarenko