Recent History
A final devastating earthquake on January 14, 1907, again liquefied the sand spit, destroying nearly all of the rebuilt city and submerging additional portions.
Today the area is a shadow of its former self with a population of less than 2,000 and has little to no commercial or political importance. This is in part a result of abandonment of plans begun in the early 1960s to develop the town as a cruise ship port and destination. The plans stimulated the archaeological explorations on the site which, in turn, led to the suspension of development solely as a port but now possibly including archaeological and other attractions.
In 1981 the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University began a ten-year underwater archaeological investigation of the portion of Port Royal that sank underwater during the 17th century. The area the team focused on had sunk directly into the sea, and suffered very little damage. Due to very low oxygen levels, a large amount of organic material could be recovered. The efforts made by the program have allowed everyday life in the English colonial port city to be reconstructed with great detail.
In 1998, the Port Royal Development Company commissioned architectural firm The Jerde Partnership to create a master plan for the redevelopment of Port Royal, which was completed in 2000. The focus of the plan is a 17th century-themed attraction that reflects the city's heritage. It has two anchor areas: Old Port Royal and the King’s Royal Naval Dockyard. Old Port Royal features a cruise ship pier extending from a reconstructed Chocolata Hole harbour and Fisher's Row, a group of cafes and shops on the waterfront. The King’s Royal Naval Dockyard has a combination shipbuilding-museum and underwater-aquarium with dioramas for views of the native tropical sealife. The Royal Naval Dockyard also includes the headquarters for the Admiral of the Royal Navy. The redevelopment plan also includes a five-star hotel.
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. Michael Crichton's posthumous novel, Pirate Latitudes, has extensive scenes taking place in Port Royal in the mid-1660s. Port Royal is also the "City Beneath the Sea" in the 1953 film of that name.
Read more about this topic: Port Royal
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)