The Wickedest Place on Earth

In the 17th century Jamaica was the center of piracy in the Caribbean.  The island became wealthy and earned a nefarious reputation.

Transcript

After the British conquest of Jamaica in 1655, they were aware that the Spanish who lost possession of the island, may give serious thought to reconquering it. After all the Spanish had a significant military presence in both Cuba and the island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Welcome to Small Excellence where I discuss various nations around the world.  I'm your host Ngai.  This season we are speaking about my homeland, Jamaica.  In this episode, I want to share the story of Port Royal in the 17th century.

“[Port Royal boasts] an intriguing and turbulent history as it rapidly grew to become the most important trading post in the New World”.  How did it achieve such a reputation?  Simple, through the endorsement of the British, Port Royal, a strategic port, transformed into a sanctuary for buccaneers commonly known as pirates, who would wage an unofficial war on Spain thus allowing England a type of plausible deniability of wrongdoings.  The British technically legitimized the buccaneers, sanctioned their activities of ransacking and pillaging and sharing in their ill-gotten gains of Spanish treasures.  As a pirate stronghold it wasn’t long before Port Royal became known as the wickedest place on earth, not to mention one of the richest “[conjuring] images of marauding pirates, daring naval conquests, looting, riches, destruction and devastation.  From Port Royal the buccaneers, led by Captain Henry Morgan were able to launch raids against many Spanish towns and ships throughout the Caribbean.  However, not long after the buccaneers and other delinquents took control of Port Royal things got out of hand. Establishments of ill repute - taverns and brothels were located throughout the town, and crime and debauchery were the order of the day; not exactly a surprise since the place was being run by criminals.  As a part of its encouragement and reward for the work the pirates were doing for Britain, some buccaneers were given Royal Commissions. Henry Morgan was knighted and made deputy governor of Jamaica. This was a very calculated move by the British, as with Morgan’s new position, his former associates submitted to his authority. 

At the height of its glittering wealth, Port Royal met a biblical end on par with Sodom and Gomorrah.  What was a bustling town and a British naval station was reduced to rubble, swept by fires and wind, two thirds of the town swallowed by the sea and approximately 5,000 people dead.  The destruction of Port Royal began with a tremendous earthquake the morning of June 7th, 1692 at 11:15am and lasted for fifteen minutes.  It is estimated that the magnitude of the earthquake could be as much as 7.5 or more.  In the days following the earthquake there were many significant aftershocks which ultimately brought down most of the few buildings that did not fall with the initial tremor.  This earthquake also triggered a tsunami and the combination destroyed more than ninety percent of the buildings in the city. When the earthquake shook the city of Port Royal, the earth opened and building after building disappeared into the sea. At the time of this earthquake, Lewis Galdy, a French merchant, who lived in Port Royal, was in prison when he was swallowed by the sea and remained submerged for days before the earth spat him out again following one of the many aftershocks.  In my research I couldn’t find an explanation of this phenomenon which allowed him to survive.  Nonetheless, this was a life altering event for Galdy who dedicated the next 47 years of his life to God and public service. This massive earthquake spared nothing, even the cemetery was swept away by the subsequent tsunami.  Port Royal, the unofficial capital of Jamaica at the time, was gone, and following a series of fires and hurricanes the town was never restored to its former glory.  Today, Port Royal continues on as a small fishing village.

For the survivors of the Great Quake of 1692 life undoubtedly marched forward and over to Kingston, a piece of land that could be described as a large pig pen, which was across from Port Royal on the other side of Kingston Harbor. This land however became the foundation of the city of Kingston. It was developed into a grid plan city with broad streets and narrow lanes running north to south alternately from east to west. Because of its harbor which gave access to ships for trading and its flat terrain for commercial and industrial buildings, Kingston eventually became the capital of Jamaica.         

However,1692 was not the last time Jamaica was devastated by a natural disaster.  In 1907 Kingston experienced an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2, at that time it was described as one of the world’s deadliest earthquakes recorded. It is claimed that approximately 1,000 people died, and every building in the city was damaged. The financial damage was about US$30M in 1907 which is equivalent to $1B in 2022. 

Hurricanes, storms and the subsequent flooding from both are the mainstay of Jamaica’s natural disasters.  The two most devastating hurricanes we have had to date are Hurricane Charley in 1951, and Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.  Nothing however has compared to the levels of destruction caused by the great earthquakes of 1692 and 1907. 

I hope you garnered some knowledge from this episode.  Tune in next time to learn more on Small Excellence.  Walk good, my friends.