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PORT ROYAL |
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A short drive or ferry ride from downtown Kingston, PORT ROYAL
captures the early colonial spirit better than any other place in
Jamaica. Originally a tiny island, this little fishing village is now
joined to the mainland by the Palisadoes , a series of small cays that
silted together over hundreds of years and, with a bit of human
assistance, now form a roadway and a natural breakwater for Kingston's
harbour.
After wresting Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the British turned the island
into a battle station , with five separate forts and a palisade at the
north to defend against attackers coming over the cays. As added
protection, they encouraged the buccaneers who had for decades been
pillaging the area to sign up as privateers in the service of the king.
Merchants took advantage of the city's great location to buy and sell
slaves, export sugar and logwood, and import bricks and supplies for the
growing population. The privateers wreaked havoc on the ships of Spain,
and the fabulous profits of trade and plunder brought others to service
the town's needs; brothels, taverns and gambling houses proliferated,
and by the late seventeenth century, the population had swollen to six
thousand.
The huge earthquake that struck the city on June 7, 1692, dumped sixty
percent of Port Royal into the sea, killing two thousand people in
seconds; within a week, a thousand more had died. Most of the remaining
population fled for Kingston; almost all who remained later died or
deserted when a massive fire swept the island in 1703.
Despite the destruction, Port Royal continued to serve as the country's
naval headquarters until the advent of steam ships saw the British Navy
close its dockyard in 1905. Though Port Royal still retains its naval
traditions as home to the JDF naval wing and the Jamaican coast guard,
it's a far less exotic place today, a small and tidy fishing village,
proud of its very low crime rate and happy to serve up some of the
tastiest fresh fish you'll find anywhere in Jamaica.
The Town
Look back to sea as the ferry docks at Port Royal and you'll get not
only a great view of the harbour, but a clear idea of the area's
strategic military importance and a glimpse of its former limits.
What remains of Port Royal is easily navigable on foot. Five minutes'
walk from the ferry terminal, behind the old garrison wall, are the
decaying red bricks of the Old Naval Hospital , the oldest prefabricated
structure in the "New World". The ramshackle structure now holds the
offices of the National Heritage Trust.
Ten minutes' walk away and on the main Church Street, St Peter's Church
(irregular opening hours) was built in 1726 and, apart from the roof,
has survived largely intact. It's unremarkable apart from an intricately
carved mahogany and cedar organ. More interesting are the ancient tombs
in the small and rambling graveyard. A left turn out of the church leads
down the main road to fascinating Fort Charles (daily 9am-5pm; J$140).
Originally known as Fort Cromwell, Charles was the first of the five
forts to be built here, though it never saw any action. In the
courtyard, the Maritime Museum provides a lucid history of Port Royal
and displays items - bottles, coins, cannonballs, shipwrights' tools and
a set of ankle shackles used to restrain slaves - dredged up from the
underwater city. Notice the National Geographic re-creation of the city
at the time of the 1692 earthquake.
The raised platform on the other side of the small parade ground is
known as Nelson's Quarterdeck ; the great commander (incredibly still
under 21) used to pace up and down here spoiling for a fight with the
French. From the quarterdeck you can see how the land has built up
around the fort as the sea has continued to deposit silt - over a foot
per year - against the former island. The two structures that now stand
between the fort and the water both date from the 1880s. The squat,
rectangular Giddy House was an ammunition store, while the circular
bunker beside it was the Victoria and Albert Battery - an emplacement
for a nineteenth-century supergun that was fired only once, at a British
soldier attempting to desert.
There are a couple of beaches around Port Royal, but both sea and sand
are pretty dirty; if you want to swim , you're better off taking a boat
out to Lime Cay. Otherwise, the Buccaneer dive shop at Morgan's Harbour
Hotel runs scuba certification courses (from US$300) as well as diving
(US$65 per dive) and snorkelling (US$15 per hour) excursions to some of
the best sites on the south coast, many centred around wrecked ships.
You can also arrange deep-sea fishing (4hr US$400; 8hr US$650) and
evening drop-line fishing (4hr; US$400) through the hotel.
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