Port Royal, Jamaica

Port Royal, Jamaica. Source: Illustrated London News. Click on image to enlarge it/

“We present a view of Port Royal, Jamaica, which is the naval dockyard of Great Britain in the West Indies. It is situated at the extreme end of a sandpit called “The Palisades.” There are no docks, no careening accommodation, no means of repairing engines — in short, nothing to justify this place bring called a dockyard; and the authorities are obliged to send any of her Majesty's ships which come to grief to the Havannah [sic], there to to repaired in a Spanish dock. All the water for the use of the inhabitants has to be brought from Kingston, distant four miles, but there is plenty of rum instead. Port Royal is not an alluring place; and those sailors, soldiers, and civilians doomed to remain there are not over contented with their lot. In a military point of view, the place la capable of being made impregnable, but the present fortifications could not defend the entrance for twenty-four hours.”

Bibliography

“Port Royal, Jamaica.” Illustrated London News 46 (1 April 1865): 296. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Chicago Library. Web. 31 December 2015.


Last modified 29 November 2015