The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-02-17


The earthquake that destroyed Port
Royal, Jamaica, on June Z, 1892, APP
pears to have made a far more COM
plete job of it than the shock that
damaged Kingston recently. Out of
1000 houses in the town only about 200
were left standing, and the loss of life
was from 1000 to 5000.
After that came a fire, and few
years later a hurricane that put the
finishing touch on the towns discour-
agement. The storm was SO severe
that out of fifty vessels in the harbor
only four men-of-war and two mer-
chant vessels were able to ride it out.
The result of this triple disaster was
that the people of Port Royal threw
up the sponge and abandoned the long
sand spit that had been the site of
their town, and moved seven miles to
the spot where they founded Kingston.
The clergyman who was rector of the
parish of Port Royal at that time
wrote a narrative of what occurred,
in which he says:
whole streets with their inhabitants
were swallowed up by the opening of
squeezed the people to death, and in
that manner several were left with
their heads above ground.
1T was a sad sight to see the har-
Dor covered with the dead bodies Of
people of all conditions floating up and
down without burial, for the burying
place was destroyed by the earthquake
which dashed to pieces tombs and the
sea washed the carcasses of those who
had been buried out of their graves"
AT Green Bay, not far away, is still
the grave of one Lewis Colby, who. ac-
cording to the inscription on his tomb
stone, was swallowed up by the earth
quake and by the providence of God
was by another shock thrown into the
sea where he was saved by swimming
until boat took him up. lie lived
many years after in great reputation,
beloved by all who knew MIN and much
lamented at his death"
The only pictorial account of the Port
ROYAL earthquake in existence is a
rude sketch drawn by a certain Capt.
Crockett. This sketch is now in the
British Museum and was reproduced
about twenty years ago in historical
pamphlet published in Kingston.
1t will be perceived by anybody who
glances at this sketch, as shown here
with, that Capt. Crockett was no great
artist and perhaps the most that one
can say OF mis- performance is that 1t
indicates the possession on the part OF
its perpetrator of much earnestness of
purpose and a conscientious regard for
detail. Capt. Crockett accompanied his
sketch with a letter to a friend in
England and this is how he labeled
his achievement:
a True and Perfect Relation of that
most sad and Terrible Earthquake, at
Port Royal in Jamaica. Which hap
pened on Tuesday, 7th June, 1872.
Where. in Two Minutes Time, the Town
was sunk under Ground, and Two
Thousand Souls persisted. With the
manner of il AT Large; in Letter from
Thence Written by Capt. Crockett: Be
ing dreadful Warning to the Sleepy
World: Or Gods Heavy Judgments
showed on a Sinful People, as Fore
runner OF the Terrible Day of the
Lord
II win be seen from the diction thus
EMPLOYED that Capt. Crockett was at
least sufficiently aware of the pictur-
esoueness of his subject
Dr. Heath was the only clergyman
in Port Royal at the time of the earth
quake. but ne must have been an
amazingly active minister, for II VIII
be noted that Capt. Crockets sketch
represents him in one place with the
ground rolling under his feet, in an
other place kneeling in prayer with the
people around him. in another place as
preaching in a tent and in still another
as going from ship to snip to visit
the brushed people
About half an hour after Eleven
o'clock in the morning Capt. Crockett