Jonathan Greenland explains to Richard Humphreys how Jamaica’s national museum and port authority are working together to showcase and protect the country’s heritage When Port Royal in Kingston, Jamaica, opened to cruise passengers at the start of 2020, they were given the opportunity to explore the country from a new perspective and learn how the destination is built on history and community. “Sharing the history of Jamaica and the foundational role Port Royal has played are important aspects of the development,” says Jonathan Greenland, director of National Museum Jamaica. The port, once known as “the richest and wickedest city in the world”, has a long and vibrant history. It was part of the Spanish Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries before Britain took control of Jamaica following the Treaty of Madrid in 1670. “Before the Spanish Empire and the British conquest, the location was used as a fishing ground by the Taino, the original Jamaicans,” says Greenland. “The Spanish then used it for careening ships because of the shallow waters, where they could bring in ships at high tide before turning them on their sides at low tide for cleaning. The British created a fortress called Fort Cromwell [renamed Fort Charles in 1660] at the tip of a string of little islands because it controlled the deep-water channel into Kingston Harbour.” The British had a naval presence in Port Royal from the 1670s and built Port Royal Dockyard. “The dockyard progressively got busier, and it became almost like other colonial stops in the British Empire, such as Gibraltar, the Cape of Good Hope or Madras,” says Greenland. “In 1905 the British Royal Navy effectively pulled out and took everything with it, leaving the port as a small naval base without a dockyard. It survives now as a very beautiful little town with a military base manned by the Jamaica Defence Force.” Much of the port’s long history remains despite Jamaica experiencing devastating earthquakes through the centuries, including one in 1692 that CARIBBEAN: INTERV IEW History at the heart of Port Royal development An 1864 watercolour of Fort Charles, which is part of the National Library of Jamaica’s collection Image: National Library of Jamaica 2 1 3
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