LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Now submerged, these cobblestone
streets once were home to the scourge of the Caribbean,
the pirates of Port Royal, Jamaica. 2/3 of the city lies
under water, the casualty of a devastating earthquake
and tidal waves of 1692. [music playing] ROBERT MARX: This was a
time capsule of history that suddenly slid into the sea. Here was the greatest place
where pirates congregated throughout any time in
the colonial period, and everything came to
an end in a split second. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Before the calamity, legendary pirates lived,
fought, and died here in what was once called the
wickedest city on Earth. ROBERT MARX: There
was no law and order. Pirates would come in
there and get bombed up and just start
cutting up people. They were having
gunfights in the streets. Some of these guys
were just incredible. I mean, they would cut people's
hearts out and make them eat it as they were dying, you know,
or cut somebody's heart out and makes somebody else eat it. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): What were the closely-guarded secrets
of their strange brotherhood? What was the role
of women pirates? Meet the real Blackbeard. And do the waters of Port
Royal hold a fabulous treasure waiting to be discovered? Join us as we explore
the intriguing mysteries of the pirates of Port Royal. [music playing] The pirate is among the
oldest and most familiar of images in
literature, the movies, and in our imagination,
terrifying figures of menace and violence. To innocent sailors in the
17th and 18th centuries, the pirates were
a lethal reality. Can't you imagine
what it must have been? You're a simple sailor, you
just want to get home safely. Suddenly, a ship
comes up alongside. There is a mad man on
the deck motivating another group of mad men
all armed to the teeth. You really don't want to fight. You really would rather
just put your sword down and pray for the best. Unfortunately, the
best was usually death. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): There
was more to the pirate life, however. The submerged ruins of an
extraordinary city, Port Royal, have given up clues to the true
nature of the buccaneers who once lived here. In this submerged time
capsule, archeologists are painstakingly
piecing together a new and startling picture of
the pirates of the Caribbean. ARCHEOLOGIST: That's typical
of what you find in really the 1600 to 1700s. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Port Royal was a pirate capital of the
world, the lair of thieves, gamblers, prostitutes,
slave traders. The dregs of the Earth. It sat on the end
of a tongue of land which form the south side
of Kingston Harbor, Jamaica. From its founding by
the British in 1655, until its catastrophic
destruction less than 40 years
later, Port Royal was a wild town where
anything was possible, and everything could
be had for a price. ROBERT MARX: It just
was a crazy, wild city. Every clergyman that
came there, whether it was a Catholic, or
Protestant, or Jewish rabbi, they just freaked out. They couldn't believe
the lawlessness that went on in the place. So it was like 50 times
worse than Dodge City, and probably a fun place. I wish I would have been there. [music playing] ACTOR AS CALEB
MATTHEWS: Port Royal is the Sodom of the new world. The majority of its population
are pirates, cutthroats, whores, and some of the
vilest persons alive. I thought my presence
there was of no use, and I could preach
the word of God elsewhere, among a
better sort of folk. Reverend Caleb Matthews,
Port Royal, 1666. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
As remarkable as the town itself is the story
of his creation, for Port Royal was deliberately
founded as a pirate stronghold by the English crown. DONNY HAMILTON:
Economically speaking, it was much more important
to the economy of England than Boston was to the
economy of England. Almost all of the gold and
silver going to England at this particular point
in time was coming in through Port Royal. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Since the time of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish had
dominated the Americas. Countless ships sailed
forth from the new world laden with treasure
bound for Spain. [cannons firing] The English encouraged
pirates to loot the Spanish of the treasures, which the
Spanish had themselves stolen from the Native Peoples
of the Americas. In return, the crown would
receive a large percentage of the spoils, as would the
English merchants of Port Royal who financed the
pirating expeditions. [music playing] For centuries, since the
catastrophe that destroyed it, the full extent of Port
Royal was a mystery. Recent evidence uncovered
through underwater excavations has revealed that Port Royal
was much larger than previously imagined. At its height, Port Royal
boasted over 7,000 people, and its deep water harbors
sheltered hundreds of ships. It was discovered that far
from being an obscure outpost in the Caribbean, Port Royal
was actually the biggest city in the new world. [music playing] AINSLEY HENRIQUES: The artifacts
that have been recovered from the sunken city
indicate that it really was a place of vast wealth. The Chinaware, the pewterware,
the silver, incredible, indicating that the merchants of
Port Royal, the people of Port Royal spent their money
on tremendous luxury. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): The
thousands of wine casks and rum bottles that litter
the ruins of Port Royal are testament that of all
the pirates' appetites, none was more voracious than
the thirst for hard liquor. In fact, one of the
pirates' favorite drinks was Kill Devil Rum, said
to be so powerful even the Devil could not survive it. Thinking it might
enhance their virility, the pirates even mixed gunpowder
into their potent drinks. Could there have been
any practical reason for their heavy drinking
beyond sheer debauchery? About one out of every
five rooms in the entire town were supposedly used to
serve drink of some sort, but then you had to
put that into context, because at this
particular point in time, there is no fresh
water at Port Royal, and any of the water
that's local is brackish. So at this time period,
people didn't drink water. You drank liquor. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Port Royal was filled with a profusion of
taverns, brothels, and gambling dens, but recent
archeology has also uncovered evidence of many
wealthy homes, vast warehouses, and shops. Surprisingly, the
pirates of Port Royal were a much more diverse group
than the bloodthirsty brutes of story and legend. JENIFER MARX: We really
can't stereotype pirates. They were attracted to an
independent life, and in fact, in a world where one
was condemned to remain in the little box
one was born into, it was literally
the only way of-- of beating the system. So sons of poor families
in the hinterland made their way to coastal towns
looking to go to the new world. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Despite its appeal, a pirate's life was as
short as it was brutal. If you did not die in
battle, and outlaw buccaneer could expect to end his
days on the gallows. Why, then, did so many take
up so hazardous a trade? Anyone who wanted-- thought they could
make a quick buck and not get hung in the
process would become a pirate. And so you have--
you have people from all stations in life. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Though they were undeniably
killers and thieves, contrary to the
popular myths, many of the pirates of Port
Royal and elsewhere were pious, god-fearing men. [music playing] AINSLEY HENRIQUES: There
were a lot of churches, and even a synagogue
in Port Royal. So whilst there was, on the
one hand, the wickedness of-- of-- of Port Royal, there must
have been a certain amount of-- of attempt for redemption. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): It
was said that one devout pirate captain went so far as to
shoot a disrespectful crewman during a shipboard
prayer meeting. Why would people who claim to
believe in God turn to piracy? In fact, religious hatreds
were used to justify piracy in the Caribbean. The French, Dutch,
and English pirates were Protestants, and were
motivated by religious hatred to attack the Spanish,
who were Roman Catholic. What drove a man
to become a pirate? Was it simply the lure of gold,
or were there deeper motives that encouraged so many to
embark on a life of robbery and plunder? Often, pirates were a far
cry from the characters of popular fiction. Many were deserters from
Royal Navy warships. Why would a sailor leave
the security and dignity of Navy life for the precarious
world of the buccaneer? They were British sailors who
escaped the harshness of life aboard a British ship,
which was pretty miserable. I mean, it was so miserable
that they wouldn't even let these guys go ashore
when they'd go back to port. Sometimes, they were on
ships for a couple of years at a time. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): Life
in the Royal Navy was brutal. Under an officer's
casual command, a sailor could be
flogged to death. [music playing] Pirate life was radically
different and democratic. On pirate ships,
physical punishment was rare and could be imposed
only by majority vote. Pirates were partners. They called themselves
the brethren of the coast. Before their ships
even left port, the captain and crew
signed an agreement which governed the
equal distribution of captured prizes. Its numerous bylaws controlled
behavior aboard ship, as well as promises to work
together as a community for shared goals. These agreements were known
as the ship's articles. There are some
uncanny resemblances between the pirates' articles
and our Bill of Rights, for example. Pirates elected their leaders. They deposed their leaders
when they were not successful. The fact that slaves
were brought in to piracy and they became free men
was another manifestation of this same underlying thing. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Buccaneers severely wounded in battle were not left
to fend for themselves. In fact, their partners in crime
had already made provisions to take care of them. JENIFER MARX: The concept of
workman's compensation started with pirates. The men who were especially
good were much sought after. Not only did they get
a piece of whatever pie they were going to be dividing,
but also, should something happen, and a man then lose
a limb, an eye or something, he was to be recompensed. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Pirates were ever alert to opportunity. If they chanced upon
a vulnerable ship, they would attack immediately. [weapons firing] Strangely, however,
most of their fighting took place on land. DONNY HAMILTON: The public
perception of piracy is two ships battling
out on the high sea, and this did happen on
occasion, but primarily, pirates more often attacked
coastal towns and ransacked them and
looted them and captured the important people of the
town and held them for ransom. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
The greatest land battle ever fought by pirates was
captained by Britain's most notorious pirate, Henry Morgan. Historians agree he was a
brilliant leader and tactician. He might have been
admiral of the fleet if he had chosen another life. Morgan is also the source of one
of the great pirate mysteries, a fabled lost treasure. On December 18, 1670, with an
army of over 2,000 pirates, and in command of
over 50 vessels, Morgan sailed from Port Royal. In a series of
ferocious attacks, he savaged the major
cities of the Spanish main, culminating in the
looting of Panama City, a wealthy Spanish stronghold. As they went into
battle, Morgan's men fought armed to the teeth. PETER NEILL: The weapons
fired single bullets. You wanted to carry
a bunch of them when you were involved
in close combat. You carried a sword
when the pistols weren't any good anymore. You carried a dirk when the
sword wasn't good anymore. If your leg had been
blown off by grape shot, you wore a peg leg. If your eye had been put out
by a pike, you wore a patch. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): When pirates were successful in their raids,
what became of their plunder? Did they really bury
it and draw maps upon which x marked the spot? Tales are told to this day
of Morgan's legendary buried treasure. In Panama City, Morgan was
looking for the town's prized possession, a golden altar, the
crowning glory of its church. Whether or not Morgan ever
stole it remains a puzzle to this day. And if he did take it,
how did he dispose of it? One of the greatest
mysteries of Port Royal is, where is this golden altar? And where are the
great golden statues that the buccaneers went
after on the Spanish main, and no one knows. Every island in the
Caribbean has a story about Morgan's treasure. To date, it's never been found. I don't care where
you go, they'll tell you Morgan buried his treasure. He didn't have a
treasure to bury. He brought it all
back to Panama, he divided it up
with his people, he paid his sponsors off. The governor got his share,
the king England got his share, so there's no Henry
Morgan treasure. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
However, if Morgan's treasure does not exist. Why did he go to
such extreme measures to protect his secrets? He insisted that he be buried
in a secret place so that he couldn't be dug up and for any
reason, give clues to where-- the whereabouts of
his famous treasure. His grave is still unknown. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Like Henry Morgan's treasure, most pirate loot was ephemeral. In fact, most pirates
died penniless. If buccaneers did come back
to port with ill gotten-gains, it would usually be squandered
within just a few days. DONNY HAMILTON: The merchants
were the ones primarily benefiting from the
action of the pirates. So whatever profits the
pirates might have been making would be spent rather quickly
in Port Royal in its taverns, its house of prostitution,
and then the merchants would eventually end up with it. ROBERT MARX: The interesting
thing is they were all pirates. Even the merchants were pirates. I found some rulers made out
of ebony wood and bronze. Even the rulers
were wrong, so I'm sure these were rulers being
used to sell cloth or something in a merchant shop. Even the scales for weighing,
I found the little scales for weighing gold weights
and everything like, the weights were off. Everybody was a crook,
everybody was cheating. You know, it was a bunch
of thieves, I'll tell you. They were all thieves. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): The days of this rollicking, wide open
city were numbered, for those who had inflicted such terrible
violence on so many others, were themselves about to
suffer a violent catastrophe. By the year 1692, the
pirate city of Port Royal was the richest town
in the new world. Its population at 7,000
rivaled that of London. All this was about
to end abruptly. Many people thought
of Port Royal as the Sodom of the new world. Traveling preachers even
prophesied that God's wrath would strike the depraved pirate
town, just as in the Bible, he smote Sodom and Gomorrah. Shortly before noon on June
7, 1692, disaster struck. A massive earthquake shook
the town to its foundations. More than 2/3 of Port Royal
sank into Kingston Harbor in a matter of minutes, but
it was only the beginning. [music playing] From the sea, massive walls
of water, waves 30 feet high, slammed into what was left
of the devastated city. DONNY HAMILTON: You have
the buildings sinking down in the harbor, then you
have a series of waves coming from the mainland of
Jamaica, hitting Port Royal, bouncing off,
hitting the mainland, and so you have an
oscillating wave. And so essentially, you have
the largest English town in the new world, 2/3 of
it sinking almost totally out of sight beneath the waters
of present day Kingston Harbor. MERCHANT: We continued
running up the street whilst on either side of us, we saw
the houses, some swallowed up, others thrown in heaps. The sand in the streets
rose like waves, lifting up all persons
that stood upon it, and at the same instant,
we saw a flood of water breaking in and rolling those
poor souls over and over. Port royal merchant, 1692. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
The tidal waves created as much damage and
death as the earthquake. Port Royal was built on sand. When the earthquake
struck, the water table underneath liquefied the soil,
turning the very ground they stood on into quicksand. DONNY HAMILTON: There's a--
a lot of local stories dating from-- in fact, accounts dating
from that time period of people being buried up to their
neck and then the ground closing back up on them. And there's even, you
know, stories of dogs coming along and eating the
heads of the dead individuals. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Even those dead and buried before the
earthquake were not spared. DONNY HAMILTON: You had the
coffins of recently buried individuals floating around,
and then, of course, you had all the victims
of Port Royal itself. Around 2,000 people were killed
immediately in the earthquake. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): But
what was a disaster for many became an opportunity
for others. Drunken mobs roamed the streets
murdering survivors and looting what was left of
the pirate lair. AINSLEY HENRIQUES: The dead were
floating all over the place. It was-- it was absolute chaos. Even before the bodies
were fully removed, there were people
who were diving down into the remains
of the sunken city to take out what
they could find. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Many of the buildings, however, had sunk in areas
too deep for salvage. Do the waters of Port Royal hold
the remains of fabulous pirate treasures still
waiting to be found? If someone were
to do to, you know, excavation extensive
enough, there would be material that could
be bullion, gold, most likely, in some part of the city. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): In
1966, using methods undreamed of 300 years earlier,
archeologist Robert Marx began a two-year
excavation of Port Royal. Among his discoveries,
a treasure chest containing
1,200 silver coins. The true pirate
treasure, however, may not be gold and
silver, but the insight we're granted into
the day-to-day life of the banished pirates. So we know how the pirates
and the merchants and all these people lived in Port
Royal by the things we found. We know the crockery, the
things that they brought, or the things that they
captured, the foods that they ate. We know the diseases that
they had from the bones. I even found fabrics. I found silks from China. So it made the life
come true, you know? I read all these
books about pirates, but when I'm down there
on the bottom excavating, even though it was pitch
black most of the time, as I grab this, I could
say, OK, god, I wonder which guy used this pistol? I think the real
treasure of Port Royal today certainly is the
archeological significance of what was the wealth and the
lifestyle of the 17th century in the new world. It's a story of what was
this fascinating collection of people that came
from all over the world with all kinds of
desires and practices, and to be able to
understand this is the real treasure
of Port Royal. [music playing] Although Port Royal had
been devastated in 1692, the pirates' spirit
could not be extinguished by mere earthquakes
and tidal waves. By 1710, Port Royal
was again the haunt of some of the most disreputable
characters the world has ever known. Some of these guys
were just incredible. I mean, they would cut people's
hearts out and make them eat it as they're dying, you know,
or cut somebody's heart out and make somebody else eat
it, could somebody's ears off. JENIFER MARX: There was a
pirate named Roche Braziliano, and he became a
denizen of Port Royal. Roche Braziliano would
take a big flagon out and go up and down the street
with his cutlass and a-- a pistol and with the
tankard under his arm, trying to get people to drink
with him, and if they refused his invitation, he would, like
as not, would shoot at them or have at them with his knife. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Once again, the pirates of Port Royal
terrorized the high seas. Sometimes, they resorted
to clever schemes to mask their identity and
lure nearby ships closer. In a diabolic masquerade, crew
members dressed up as women and stood in full view on deck. The unsuspecting vessels
thought they were just ordinary passengers
on an innocent ship. Usually, pirate dress
was more mundane. Like others seamen
of the time, they wore garments of heavy wool. Since they had no
change of clothing, pirates were frequently dirty
and ragged while aboard ship. On shore, however, pirates
often scandalized observers by wearing expensive clothing
reserved for the aristocracy. They were fops,
they were dandies. They used their dress,
their wealth to-- to-- to buy fancy dress,
and they used it, in fact, as an intimidating factor
that made them more visible. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Could there be other reasons to explain
the flamboyant dress of some of the pirates? Crewmen and officers
sailed as a team, and many formed strong
attachments that sometimes matured into love. JENIFER MARX: There, obviously,
were wonderful queens among the pirates, because
they loved to dress, and they would steals
the silks, the satins, the wonderful things that
came from the orient, and they would get up the most
incredible feminine garments sometimes. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Yet, these same pirates reveled in bloody combat,
adventure, and glory, a man's world through and through. [music playing] ACTOR AS DOROTHY THOMAS:
Howling like banshees, the pirate pair came raging
out of the cannon smoke, flashing their cutlasses
and singing the air with shrill oaths and curses. Only by the largeness
of their breasts did I know them to be women. Mrs. Dorothy Thomas, 1720. JENIFER MARX: There were
several women pirates. Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two
female pirates who operated out of Jamaica, are
history's most famous, and well they ought to
be, because they far out-shown the men they sailed
with in skill and courage. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): Both
of these fearsome women sailed from Port Royal with
the pirate John Rackham. To conceal their identity,
they wore men's clothes. Some believe that Mary Read
was brought up as a boy because her mother had lost an
infant son before her birth. Of the two pirates, Mary
was the more experienced. She was in the army as a
man, and so she signed on as a seaman, and that's how she
found her way to the Caribbean. She and Anne became a good team. They were in the thick of it. Once they signed on for this,
they participated fully. They were no shrinking violets. [music playing, cannons firing] In both the cases of
Anne Bonny and Mary Read, they had actually lived
and worked ashore as boys, so when they went to sea, it
was the natural thing for them to do. There's no question that
women are fully capable of-- of dealing with the
work aboard a ship. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
How could two women hide their femininity
among the boat full of men? JENIFER MARX: The
women probably were able to hide their sex because
of the loose, baggy clothing they wore. Men had long hair in those days. Most of the pirates
were pathetically young. So I think it's not
inconceivable to imagine these two women, who must have
found little nooks and crannies on the ship to do whatever a
woman had to do that would have indicated she was female. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): The
adventure ended for the two women in October of 1720. They, along with a Rackham
and the rest of his crew, were captured and
tried for piracy. Rackham and the men were
executed the next day. DONNY HAMILTON: He was
captured, hung, and then put in a cage outside the entrance
into Port Royal Harbor, and it seemed left his body
just to decay out there, to deterrent-- a deterrent
against other pirate activities. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): When
Anne and Mary were convicted, the judge asked if there was
any reason why they should not be hanged. When they were
asked how they pled, they both said, I plead
my belly, my lord. They were both pregnant. And Mary Read died in prison. Anne Bonny's sentence
was commuted. What happened to
her, we don't know. LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): Anne
Bonny mysteriously disappeared from Port Royal. Some say she traveled to
Charleston, South Carolina, where she moved in
with her parents. Anne and Mary had led
astonishing lives, at least the equal of the most
imaginative fiction. When we return, the true
story behind the legend By the year 1720, the
great age of piracy was drawing to a close. Pirate life was doomed
by a twist of history. [music playing] As the British colony
of Jamaica grew, its vast sugar plantations
produced wealth far exceeding the plunder
brought to England by the pirates. The British, the very power
which had created the pirates, now determined to destroy them. Port Royal was established
with the full blessing of the English government, and
they encouraged the buccaneers. But at a certain point,
it became apparent, they were going to have to
deal with the buccaneers and the pirates in
a different way, because you could not hope to
establish agricultural colonies with farmers and have a
place like Port Royal. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): The Navy was dispatched to capture,
imprison, and hang renegade pirate gang. The buccaneers had to be
eliminated to make way for a plague which would haunt
the new world for generations, slavery. [music playing] Plantation farming required
vast amount of human labor, and this was the beginning,
the origin, really, of the horror of the slave
trade of the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
As the age of piracy came to an end, the
myth-making began. In 1724, for Daniel Defoe, the
author of "Robinson Crusoe," wrote a history of
piracy in the new world. His book would forever change
the way the general public imagined buccaneers. For in this popular work,
which many have taken for a definitive
history, Defoe skillfully combined fact with fantasy. His greatest creation
was Blackbeard. ACTOR AS DANIEL
DEFOE: His beard was black of an extravagant length. He would twist it with ribbons
and turn them about his years. In time of action, he
wore a brace of pistols and stuck lighted matches under
his hat, which made him look fierce and wild, and altogether
worse than a fury from hell. Daniel Defoe, "General
History of the Pirates," 1724. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER):
Defoe's Blackbeard transformed his vessel
into an imitation of hell. He lived with 14
wives, each of which he shared with his
brutal companions, and went into battle
with explosives twisted into his beard. In fact, Defoe invented
these anecdotes, which are not found in
official records or newspaper stories of the time. Yet, Blackbeard did exist. His real name was Edward Teach. Unlike the superhuman
character presented by Defoe, Teach had a brief career
and only took a few prizes. There is no evidence that
he ever harmed his crew or captains. His death, however,
was sensation. He was finally caught after
a valiant battle by an English expedition that went after him,
and after fierce hand-to-hand combat, his head was
stricken from his body, carried on the English ship
back where it was exhibited as a trophy. [music playing] LEONARD NIMOY (VOICEOVER): From
Defoe's exaggerated accounts of Blackbeard, to Long John
Silver of "Treasure Island," from Peter Pan's Captain
Hook, to the motion picture acrobatics of Douglas
Fairbanks, the pirate has acquired mythical qualities. In fact, no one ever sang, yo,
ho, ho and a bottle of rum, or said, shiver me timbers. No one ever walk the
plank or drew cryptic maps where x marked the spot of
a fabulous buried treasure. PETER NEILL: These were
all things that crept into the popular imagination. The question, really, is why. What underlay that? What allowed us to sort
of forgive, if you will, what was this violent life and
condone it and-- and-- and-- and romanticize it. LEONARD NIMOY
(VOICEOVER): Perhaps it is because pirates
fulfill a fantasy forbidden to the rest of us. They lived freely, took what
they wanted, and feared no one. [music playing]
