Jolly Roger

To make it's way to Port Royal, Jamaica. The home of the pirates. 

During the “Golden Age of Piracy” in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Port Royal, Jamaica stood as one of the most popular ports of call for thieves, prostitutes and pirates of every stripe. The small harbor’s association with marauding began in the mid-1600s, when Jamaica’s governors offered it up as a safe haven for pirates in exchange for protection from the Spanish. The buccaneers accepted the deal, and the town soon became a major staging ground for British and French privateers—ship captains commissioned by the Crown to disrupt Spanish shipping in the Caribbean and Atlantic. One of the most famous of these state-sanctioned pirates was Sir Henry Morgan, a Welsh captain who used Port Royal as a base of operations for raids on the Spanish strongholds at Portobello, Cartagena and Panama City.

Port Royal prospered on the back of its pirate economy, and by the 1660s its streets were lined with taverns and brothels eager to cater to the whims of young buccaneers flush with Spanish loot. Contemporary accounts describe a seamy harbor overrun with gambling, prostitution and drink, where hard-living mariners often squandered thousands of Spanish reals in a single night. Even after the age of privateering had ended, the so-called “wickedest city on Earth” continued to serve as a retreat for a new brand of lawless, freelance pirates. But when these raiders began indiscriminately plundering shipping traffic in the Caribbean, Port Royal’s colonial authorities were finally stirred into action. By 1720, the town had begun to clean up its act and its “Gallows Point” became a notorious site for pirate hangings. Among countless others, buccaneers like the ruthless Charles Vane and the flamboyant “Calico” Jack Rackham would eventually meet their end in Port Royal.

Please send me to my home in Port Royal. Of course, I would love to have pictures posted on other sandy beaches and places along the way.