Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-02-07
TIE DOOM i, OF VENICE
1T MAY BE TO LIE IN THE BOSOM OF
THE ADRIATlC.

of Old Port Royal-The Sunken
Cities of the World.
1t is believed by many that Venice
Is sinking into the Adriatic and that
she gradually will disappear beneath
the waters of the great lagoon from
which her palace crowned islands
nrise. Other cities have gone that
way before her, and ships now sail
over spots which were once teeming
with populous life.
At the entrance to the harbor of King
ston. jamaica, the original city of Port
Royal lies fathoms deep beneath the
blue and sunlit waters Of the CurIb-
bean sea. A narrow strip of land, on
which nre II small settlement and
fort Is all that Is left of what was
once the richest and wickedest town in
the West Indies. 1t was the resort of
pirates. who rested there from their
depredations and made the city hid
eous with their revelry. But these pi-
rates brought great stores Of their loot to
the city. and its commerce grew and
flour!shed. Palaces aud churches were
built, pirate often striving by rich
endowment of II church. to square his
accounts with heaven
Throughout the greater part of tho
seventeenth century no town In the
western world was SO magnificent rs
to its buildings or so luxurious as to Its
habits as Port Royal. Then one day In
1902 the anger of the Lord shook the
Ia MI IF loo Il ho 70,
Of Port Royal sank beneath the sea,
carrying with 1t hundreds of It's in
habitants. Towers, churches, palaces
and forts went down, many Of them
not tumbling in ruins by the shock
but sinking bodily beneath the waves,
On n bright day, sailing over the
spot where Port Royal once stood, one
IAN look far down through the clear
winter and see the remains of the city
still standing there on the ocean bot
tom, with fishes swimming about
among It's towers and great tropical
seawesds waving from its sunken
walls.
The negroes Of Jamaica-and some
white people, too-will tell you that be-
fore storm the eunken bell of the
great cathedral which went down with
the city on that awful day in 1902 can
I've heard distinctly to.ling below the
waves rung as a warning by the
ghostly hands of the spirits Of depart
ed buccaneers which haunt the subma-
rine city. People who do not believe in
ghosts, but think they have heard the
tolling OF the bell, say the explanation
Is that when the city sunk the great
bell OF the cathedral was not throw:4
from It's place, but still hangs as II
originally did, The coming storm be.
fore 1t reaches Jamaica stirs up tho
wntaSs OF the Caribbean and sends In
upon'the shore deep waves, which roll
through the sunlsen city and set the
bell n-tolline.
Another sunken city of renown Is
Bniae, that splendid resort on the Ital-
ian coast where Nero and Caligula
"reveled and drank deep" A strag-
Cling village and heaps OF marble ruins
still stand upon the shore and bear the
name Of Bainc, but the greater part OF
the city lies beneath the waters of the
Mediterranean. and tourists from Ma
pies so out there TO gaze down into the
waters and try to catch n glimpse OF
the submerged city.
The resort of all the wealthy mobiles
Of Rome when Rome was mistress Of
the world, Baae was marvel of lux
urious splendor. Palace after palace
was built OH the shore, and architects
designed magnificent structures ex-
tending out Into the sea.
When Rome decnyed and the Goths
ravaged Italy, Baiae was sacked by
the invaders. Soon after the city be-
gan to sink. First the buildings which
had their foundation in the water sub
sided beneath the waves, md then
the sea made an attack on the land.
Gradually the shore line receded, and
the Mediterranean flowed through the
streets where Hadrlan' had driven his
imperial chariot and Horace had WALK
ed thinking Of his next poem.
These promontorics, crowned with
grand towers and gorgeous palaces,
were undermined and toppled into the
deep until Mt last the major part OF
the splendid city was submerged. Its
disappearance was not sudden, like
that OF Tort Royal. and due to some
convilsicn of nature. but Balae went
down to its death gradually, as Venice
is said to he going.
In Holland The subsistence OF the
land has brought 1t about that many
towns once populous are now covered
by the sea. Tie old Roman camp at
Brittenburg. after sinking beneath the
waves, emerged again in 1920. only to
disappear, and its remains now lie In
deep water opposite the town of Kat
wiki. The original Katwijk itself now
Is beneath the waters, as also nre the
CT,