Port Royal, Jamaica Earthquake

Reconstruction of Port Royal was ultimately a big problem. It had so little land left that everyone wondered how it could continue to carry its former responsibilities. Kingston was not an acceptable alternative for several reasons: it had a high death rate because it was so unhealthy and it was not easily defended if attacked by land and sea simultaneously. Furthermore, since sailing ships were the only kind available in the late seventeenth century, Kingston was not accessible in windy weather. England decided to let both ports, Kingston and Port Royal, share responsibilities for all shipping.

In 1907, a submarine landslide occurred in almost the same location as the one that occurred in 1692. This new submarine landslide generated a tsunami that overwhelmed the peninsula where Port Royal had stood. The earthquake that gave rise to the tsunami caused enormous damage to places all along the shores of Jamaica. At one location, the sea was observed to withdraw as far as three hundred feet within three minutes after the earthquake and to return as a destructive eight-foot wave. The fact that only three minutes elapsed between earthquake and tsunami makes it clear that the landslide happened very close to shore. A pilot and crew of a ship witnessed the return to shore of the tsunami. They saw both the peninsula and the town of Kingston disappear from view for some time. Shortly afterward, seiches as high as eight feet were observed in Kingston Harbor. One thousand people died in the town of Kingston, mainly from falling buildings, and another thousand were injured. Approximately 90,000 were left homeless.

Nothing like seventeenth-century Port Royal remains in that location today. Visitors now see a fishing community of less than 2,000 along with an abandoned British Naval Base, now used by the Jamaican Coast Guard. Jamaica is an independent nation now so the marks of former British activities lie, for the most part, under the sea. The ships and houses that sank in 1692 now form part of a magnificent museum and a unique center for archeological research. On land and sea above all these, in the years since 1692, Jamaica has experienced many more disasters. There was a fire in 1703, completely destroying all that was left or had been rebuilt of the old city of Port Royal. Hurricanes hit it in 1722 and again in 1744 and on both occasions everything came down and had to be rebuilt. Two earthquakes came later, one in 1770 and one in 1907. The former destroyed the hospital and the latter a large part of the dockyard. Another fire, in 1815, did extensive damage to all the buildings, and a third earthquake destroyed the old fortifications.