A Pilot's Tale
A Certain Adventure at Port Royal, Jamaica
Description:... The earthquake hit Port Royal, Jamaica 7 June 1692. A pocket watch found frozen in time recovered by a diver in 1969 indicated that the event occurred at precisely 11:43 a.m. A second quake followed with a tsunami that caused over 2,000 to perish and much of the "Wickedest City of all Places on Earth" to disappear below the surface of the sea. Twenty-eight years later-1720-Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts, no doubt under some alias, fetched up in Port Royal in time to witness the hanging of 'Calico' Jack Rackham out on Gallows Point. Born John Roberts in 1682, he was the most successful pirate of the 'Golden Age of Piracy.' Why was he there? How long did he stay? Did he leave anything behind? Miraculously, what is left of Port Royal remains today on the far western end of a long sandy peninsula of palm trees and mangroves, barely eking out an existence. Many of the simple folk remaining are in some manner related to pirates, freebooters and privateers of yore who once gave Port Royal such a sinful and wicked reputation. Some 300 years after the earthquake-1997-Marine Pilot and Master ship handler, Captain Bruce Fisher, received a message in a sealed envelope, the note read: "Captain, please contact ASAP. We would like to send you to Jamaica if you can be available." The assignment was to bring 80,000-ton Panamax bulk carriers into a long-abandoned site of the former Royal Navy Coaling Station. There was no navigable channel, no charts, no dock, no one even know the depth of water. Thus began a modern-day adventure requiring masterful skills of seamanship. Navigating through a narrow channel over a sunken city with only inches to spare, little did Captain Fisher know that what lie beneath held mysteries from the past and with untold intrigue and danger that would come to pass.
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