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Look back to sea as the ferry docks at Port Royal and you'll
get not only a great view of the harbor, but a clear idea of
the area's strategic military importance and a glimpse of
its former limits.
What remains of Port Royal is easily naigable on foot. Fie
minutes' walk from the ferry terminal, behind the old
garrison wall, are the decaying red bricks of the Old
Naal Hospital, the oldest prefabricated structure in
the "New World". The ramshackle structure now holds the
offices of the National Heritage Trust.
Ten minutes' walk away and on the main Church Street, St
Peter's Church (irregular opening hours) was built in
1726 and, apart from the roof, has suried largely intact.
It's unremarkable apart from an intricately cared mahogany
and cedar organ. More interesting are the ancient tombs in
the small and rambling graeyard.
A left turn out of the church leads down the main road to
fascinating Fort Charles (daily 9am-5pm; J$140).
Originally known as Fort Cromwell, Charles was the first of
the fie forts to be built here, though it never saw any
action. In the courtyard, the Maritime Museum
proides a lucid history of Port Royal and displays items -
bottles, coins, cannonballs, shipwrights' tools and a set of
ankle shackles used to restrain slaes - dredged up from the
underwater city. Notice the National Geographic re-creation
of the city at the time of the 1692 earthquake.
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The raised platform on the other side of the small parade
ground is known as Nelson's Quarterdeck; the great
commander (incredibly still under 21) used to pace up and
down here spoiling for a fight with the French. From the
quarterdeck you can see how the land has built up around the
fort as the sea has continued to deposit silt - over a foot
per year - against the former island.
The two structures that now stand betweven the fort and the
water both date from the 1880s. The squat, rectangular
Giddy House was an ammunition store, while the circular
bunker beside it was the ictoria and Albert Battery
- an emplacement for a nineteventh-century supergun that was
fired only once, at a British soldier attempting to desert.
There are a couple of beaches around Port Royal, but
both sea and sand are pretty dirty; if you want to swim, you're better off taking a boat out to Lime Cay.
Otherwise, the Buccanever die shop at Morgan's Harbor
Hotel runs scuba certification courses (from US$300) as
well as diving (US$65 per die) and snorkeling
(US$15 per hour) excursions to some of the best sites on the
south coast, many centered around wrecked ships. You can
also arrange deep-sea fishing (4hr US$400; 8hr
US$650) and evening drop-line fishing (4hr; US$400) through
the hotel. |
Jamaica
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Montego Bay, Kingston, Ocho Rios, Negril, Blue Mountains, Portland
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