The Wickedest City on Earth

As a boy I lived in Kingston, Jamaica for a season, and nearby is the famous city of Port Royal. Or, I should say, was. In 1692, the city that was known as "the richest and wickedest city on earth," "the Sodom of the New World," and "the Sodom of the Caribbean," was destroyed by an earthquake, and mostly submerged under the sea.

In the 17th century, Port Royal became a pirate haven. It was a melting pot, as well -- a mix of religious refugees, entrepreneurs, sailors, merchants, prostitutes, slaves and many others who made this capital city of Jamaica their home. The pirates were expelled some years before the great earthquake, but it was still very much a boom town consisting of a population of around 6,500 permanent residents (and -- along with churches for Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Huguenots, Baptists, Quakers, Jews and the like -- a ratio of one tavern for every 10 inhabitants) when the ground began to rumble on the morning of June 7, 1692.

Contemporary accounts indicate that the earthquake occurred shortly before noon; in the 1960's, underwater archaeologists uncovered a pocket watch that had stopped at precisely 11:43 am. Following an initial light tremor, a more powerful shockwave caused houses to begin sliding into Kingston Harbor. The city had been unwisely built upon a small bedrock foundation along with built-up sand. Houses built on the bedrock withstood the impact, but those on the unconsolidated sediment collapsed as it began to liquefy, sliding into the water. Two-thirds of the city was destroyed, and around 2,000 inhabitants were killed by the quake, with another 2,000 killed soon after by disease.

It was a disaster of Biblical proportions, and it reverberated spiritually on both sides of the Atlantic. Cotton Mather mentioned the event in his diary and in Magnalia Christi Americana, Vol. 1, p. 99. Sermons were preached about the judgment of God upon this debauched city which had provoked the Lord with its audacious display of evil. When a major earthquake hit Belgium and was felt across the Channel in England later that year on September 18, many understood this to be another in a series of God's providential judgments punishing men and calling them to repentance. Example: Thomas Doolittle, Earthquakes Explained and Practically Improved: Occasioned by the Late Earthquake on Sept. 8 1692. in London, Many Other Parts in England, and Beyond Sea (1693).

But while the earthquake was a disaster for many, one tale of delivery at least is worth noting. The story of a French Huguenot refugee who survived has been told and retold in the annals of remarkable providences, and his tombstone (once located at Green Bay, opposite Port Royal, but since transported to the cemetery at St. Peter's Church in Port Royal) summarizes it succinctly:

Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy, Esquire, who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22d of December, 1736, aged eighty years. He was born at Montpellier, France, but left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island; where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year 1692; and, by the Providence of God, was, by another shock, thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming, until a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation, beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death.

Port Royal never recovered from this disaster, although the surviving residents tried to persevere. However, a fire in 1703, a flood in 1722, another fire in 1750, a major hurricane in 1774, another fire in 1815, a cholera epidemic in 1850, and another major earthquake in 1907, all ultimately led to the decline of what remained of Port Royal, along with the rise of Kingston in importance. When I visited the site, I saw many artifacts retrieved from the ruins underwater, and I sailed over the submerged city, but what remained on that spit of land by Kingston Harbor was negligible. I also sailed by Rackhams Cay (also known as Hangman's Cay), a tiny uninhabited island, which got its name from being the execution site for pirate Calico Jack (John Rackham) in 1720. I had my own adventure being stranded on nearby Gun Cay for a day, but that is another story.

Port Royal is also the place where Scottish Covenanter Alexander Shields died on June 14, 1700, and was buried, following the failure of the New Caledonia colony in Panama, where the Scottish General Assembly had sent him as a missionary.

Port Royal, once known as "the wickedest city on earth," now known as "the city that sank," is today an historical footnote to some -- an underwater ruined city to archaeologists and a monument to providential judgments to church historians. Increase Mather spoke for the Puritan viewpoint that "[t]here never happens an earthquake, but God speaks to men on the Earth by it: And they are very stupid, if they do not hear his Voice therein" (A Discourse Concerning Earthquakes, Occasioned by the Earthquakes Which Were in New England...June 22, 1705 (1706), p. 8).