No, the wicked city wasn’t Sodom or Gomorrah — it was Port Royal, Jamaica.

The English, after failing to capture Hispaniola from Spain for Oliver Cromwell, grabbed up Jamaica instead in 1655. In the later part of the century, Port Royal was one of the biggest English cities in the Americas (along with Boston).

Port Royal had a lucky location, trade-wise: right at the separation between Kingston Harbor and the Caribbean. The deep water near the shore also made it easy for ships to unload and reload cargo.

The city became very wealthy, largely due to privateering and piracy. (Listen to the SYMHC podcast on Blackbeard for more on pirates.) Spain’s looting kept the money coming, and the city’s trade in slaves and sugar grew rapidly. In 1692, about 2,500 of Port Royal’s 6,000 or so inhabitants were slaves, according to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

The city got its wicked reputation from the pirates, prostitutes and other colorful characters who inhabited it, but the idea of its wickedness is interesting when you look at the religious tolerance Port Royal enjoyed — Quakers, Catholics, Jews, Anglicans and Puritans, all coexisting side by side.

Port Royal was riding high and just beginning to understand what kind of money could be made from plantation owning as opposed to piracy when tragedy struck.

Although the city’s location was lucky for trade, it was disastrous in terms of stability: It was located on a sand spit not far above the water table.

An earthquake hit on June 7, 1692 and the sand turned to liquid. A New Scientist article reports that two-thirds of the city simply sank. Two thousand people died instantly, with 3,000 more following due to disease and injuries, according to TAMU’s Port Royal Project. The eerie detail oft-repeated is the discovery during an excavation of a pocket watch frozen at 11:43 a.m., the exact moment the earthquake struck.

Much of the commentary at the time painted the Port Royal disaster as divine punishment, a smiting from a vengeful God for the city’s sinful ways. That mindset is still au courant — preachers and other public figures have identified God’s wrath as the will behind events ranging from AIDS to tsunamis to the 9/11 attacks.

Fire, earthquakes and hurricanes have slammed the city again and again over the years. The Port Royal of old isn’t in evidence any longer — the city today is a small fishing village, but with a sunken city in its harbor to rival Pompeii.

Thanks to Rob Sheppe for the New Scientist link.

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