Answering the age old mysteries
Draining the Sunken Pirate City
Channel 5, 10pm
FORGET Las Vegas. If you’re looking for decadence, it seems the real Sin City was Port Royal. As the centre of English trade and commerce in the West Indie – and a popular hang-out for pirates – it was known for extravagance, liquor and sex, and was dubbed “the wickedest city on Earth”.
Sadly, for anyone who finds that an enticing prospect, Port Royal now lies beneath the waters of Kingston Harbour in Jamaica. On June 7, 1692, it was hit by an earthquake followed by a tsunami, which caused two-thirds of it to sink within minutes. More than 5,000 people lost their lives in the disaster and its aftermath.
Yet the legend of Port Royal lives on, in part due to our continued fascination with pirates. Archaeologist Dr Jon Henderson of the University of Nottingham says: “If you’ve seen the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Port Royal is the first town they go to where the Jack Sparrow character is introduced.”
It’s not just Johnny Depp fans who are intrigued by Port Royal. Since the remains were rediscovered in the 19th century, there have been numerous excavations of the site, which have led to the discovery of ruined buildings and pirate treasure.
Dr Henderson can understand why the site has proved such a draw to his fellow archaeologists. He told the University of Nottingham: “Port Royal is a true sunken city – but not only that, it is a catastrophic site. It went down so quickly that it was sealed in a moment in time.
“It’s sometimes called the Pompeii of the New World. The earthquake captured Port Royal at its prime everything people were using now lies sealed under the silt in Kingston Harbour.”
However, viewing it can be difficult. Dr Henderson adds: “The site is actually covered in silt and redeposited coral, so it is buried under about six to 10 ft of deposit. This is great from an archaeological point of view, because a lot of the site will be sealed, meaning it is in excellent condition, but it limits what can be seen.”
That’s where the latest high-tech survey equipment comes in. Henderson says: “New technology is opening up submerged archaeology for the first time. Now we can do photo realistic 3D surveys of what is actually under the sea and show it to people, which was not possible before.
“Previously we could only rely on drawings, photos and video but now we are at a point where people who would never have seen a submerged site before (unless they were a diver) will be able to see exactly how these sites appear on the seabed.”
In this fascinating document, Henderson uses that technology to virtually drain Port Royal and rebuild it in CGI to reveal its full extent for the first time.
In the process, he’ll attempt to solve some of the mysteries that surround the city including how it came to be a mercantile capital and whether its destruction was a freak disaster or a geological catastrophe waiting to happen.