If you've ever seen the first pirates of the Caribbean, you might remember the scene where

we first meet Captain Jack Sparrow.

He's standing above the mast of his ship and bringing it into the harbor at Port Royal,

a city made for and by pirates.

And though Jack Sparrow isn't a real person, that city he sailed into was very much real.

In the 1600s, Port Royal on Jamaica's southern coast was a British stronghold in the middle of Spanish territory.

This made the city the perfect place for pirates who wanted to rob those Spanish ships

and bring that gold back to somewhere safe. Over time, the city gained a reputation for being

a place full of brothels, drunkards, and shi-pirates.

Regardless of that reputation, though, Port Royal was booming.

I mean, there was so much money rolling in. It was like the Las Vegas of the new world.

But the people of Port Royal had no clue they were sitting on a geological time bomb. That is until June 7,

1692, when disaster struck.

My name is Baudelaire, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we go to the depths of the Caribbean Sea

to see the hidden treasure that is Port Royal

and the story of the singular day

where three natural disasters

brought the city to the bottom of the ocean.

More after this.

Music More after this. Sophie Elwyn Harris makes documentaries that typically involve a lot of archaeology.

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