The Taino people, who called the area Caguay, used the narrow spit of land at the end of the Palisadoes for fishing expeditions but never settled there permanently. They understood something the English colonists would learn the hard way: the place was nothing but sand. Christopher Columbus first landed in Jamaica in 1494, and the Spanish established permanent settlements from 1509, but they too left Port Royal largely alone. It was the English who saw opportunity in its strategic position at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, building forts and inviting privateers to use it as a base for raiding Spanish treasure fleets. The arrangement was officially sanctioned -- letters of marque made piracy legal, and the plunder made Port Royal fabulously wealthy. Henry Morgan's 1668 raid on Portobello alone produced loot worth 75,000 pounds, more than seven times the annual value of Jamaica's entire sugar export. By the 1660s, the city had earned its reputation as the 'Sodom of the New World.' In July 1661 alone, forty new tavern licenses were issued.

The transformation was rapid. When Henry Morgan was appointed lieutenant governor, the very pirate who had made Port Royal rich began to dismantle the system that enriched it. Pirates were no longer needed to defend the port, and respectable citizens grew tired of the city's infamy. Jamaica passed anti-piracy laws in 1687, and Port Royal pivoted from safe haven to execution ground. Gallows Point became the last sight for some of the Caribbean's most notorious figures: Charles Vane and Calico Jack Rackham were hanged there in 1720. Five months later, Mary Read -- one of the few known female pirates in the Caribbean -- died in a Jamaican prison in Spanish Town. In a single month, forty-one pirates were executed. The Royal Navy established a permanent presence, building careening wharves, cooperages, workshops, and a naval hospital. Port Royal became respectable, which is to say it became less interesting -- until the earth opened beneath it.

Port Royal was built on sixty-five feet of water-saturated sand, with the water table only two feet below the surface. The English knew it. Contemporary accounts describe the ground as 'hot loose sand.' But the city kept growing, and as land ran out, residents filled in shallow water and built on top of it, or simply added stories to existing buildings. They adopted heavy brick construction in the English style, ignoring advice to build low wooden structures as the Spanish had done. On the morning of 7 June 1692, all of these decisions came due. The earthquake caused the sand to liquefy, and the northern section of the city -- its densest quarter -- slid into Kingston Harbour. Forts James and Carlisle sank entirely. Fort Rupert became open water. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed between 1,000 and 3,000 people outright, nearly half the city's population. In the months that followed, malignant fevers swept through the survivors -- people left homeless, without clean water or medicine -- killing an estimated 2,000 more.

What makes Port Royal extraordinary to archaeologists is how it sank. Entire blocks dropped straight down into the seabed without tumbling, preserving rooms, possessions, and the texture of daily life in a low-oxygen environment that prevented decay. In 1981, the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University began a decade-long underwater investigation of the submerged city, recovering organic materials that would have disintegrated on dry land and reconstructing the details of English colonial life with a precision impossible at most archaeological sites. Port Royal's commercial role passed to Kingston, which grew into Jamaica's capital. The fishing village that remained at the tip of the Palisadoes never recovered its former importance, and today fewer than 2,000 people live where around 6,500 once crowded. In 2025, UNESCO designated Port Royal a World Heritage Site -- recognition that the sunken city beneath the harbour is as historically significant as any standing monument. A floating cruise ship pier, completed in 2019, now brings visitors to walk above what lies below.