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The Making Of....

„Piraten der Karibik - Wer Jack Sparrow wirklich war!”
The „Galileo Special“ - „Piraten der Karibik“ is comparing Jack Sparrow alias Johnny Depp with Henry Morgan the famous Buccaneer, in a kind of Hollywood myth versus historical relevance documentary.

Oceans Discovery, whose expedition team discovered between 1999 and 2004 several of Henry Morgan’s pirate ships off the south coast of Haiti, has been involved with this documentary from the very beginning, providing script writers and producers with research material about Henry Morgan and his time frame. The documentary has been filmed on original locations in Port Royal, Spanish Town and Kingston, Jamaica. Re-enactments and some of the dive scenes have been taking place in St. Lucia.

Spanish Town, Jamaica – Historical Background
1509, Christopher Columbus bequeathed Jamaica to his heirs. For some 30 years early Spanish colonists settled in or near to St. Ann’s Bay until they realized that these locations were plagued by swamps. They looked south to a town on a wide fertile plain, a town they named Villa de la Vega (Town of the Plain). Now known as Spanish Town, it was founded in 1534 and became the capital in 1538. Having been a Taino settlement beginning close to 500 AD, and subsequently the seat of Spanish and British colonial governments for some 333 years, Spanish Town is the oldest continuously occupied city in the Western Hemisphere. Its history is largely the history of early Jamaica.

"Rodney's Arms" - This monument has been restored by the Jamaican Government and is one of Spanish Town's finest pieces of architecture. Behind this structure are the buildings of the Jamaica National Archives located.

Abbildung: Rodney's Arms, restored by the Jamaican Government -

In general, Spanish Jamaica was poor and badly governed. Its economy was based on cow hides and lard. It never prospered and was more of a burden than a benefit to Spain. Indeed, Spanish governors were rarely present and many of the settlers became discouraged and abandoned the island, frustrated that they had no luck finding the gold they so desired. Spanish Town, however, was a good choice for a capital because for the first time since arriving in Jamaica the Spanish chose a site where the land was good for farming. Spanish Town’s proximity to the Rio Cobre was considered important in terms of health, and its closeness to a major waterway, the Kingston Harbour, important in terms of safety.

The town’s inland location meant an added level security against marauding invaders a significant problem in the late 16th and early 17th centuries as other nations sought to weaken Spanish dominance in the region. Jamaica’s main use at this time was as a supply depot its immense agricultural resources and strategic value were unrecognized and it was left virtually defenceless, its coasts often unprotected, making it a prime target for attack. English Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was well aware of this fact and unlike the Spanish; he realized the strategic and political value of the Caribbean islands, particularly Jamaica, which, with its location close to Central and South America was to Cromwell, a thorn in the flesh of Spain’s soft underbelly.

Captured
On the morning of May 10, 1655 two Spanish fishermen said to be out searching for turtles off Port Morant looked up and in shock saw a fleet of 38 ships with large cannons moving towards them. The British had arrived. Turtles forgotten, the fishermen spread the word and messengers set off for Villa de la Vega to warn the settlers. Close to 9000 men, one of them young Henry Morgan, were said to have disembarked from those 38 ships, some 3000 more than the actual population of the island at the time. The capital city fell within days. Yet when the British realized that many Spaniards had fled to Cuba taking their valuables with them, they burned many buildings in anger. Much of Spanish Town was later rebuilt but during that time Port Royal acted as the unofficial capital, and the pirates based there protected the island from invasion until the devastating 1692 earthquake.

Under the British
From the 1500s to the early 1600s, Spanish Town, renamed such by the British, was the only settled town in Jamaica. It remained the capital under the British until 1872 when the young city of Kingston assumed that honour. In 1670, after years of war with Spain, Jamaica was officially given to Britain by the Treaty of Madrid. It was also the seat of entertainment and the location of numerous balls and concerts. All new governors were feted in style and then required to repay the colonial gentry by holding open houses during the sitting of the Assembly, a practice about which pirate-turned-governor Henry Morgan complained cost him some $1,000. All distinguished visitors to the island were brought to Spanish Town, among them: Horatio Nelson. Captain Bligh known for having survived a mutiny amongst his crew and for having brought the breadfruit among other plants and fruits to Jamaica. Admiral Rodney, for whom a statue now stands on the north side of Spanish Town Square, was also a distinguished visitor.

Sources: Dr. Rebecca Tortello, Black, C. (1960). Spanish Town - The Old Capital. Spanish Town: Parish Council of St. Catherine. Buisseret, D. (1996). Historic Jamaica from the air. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, Sherlock, P. and Campbell, H. (1998). The Story of the Jamaican People. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers. www.nlj.org.jm/docs/spanishtown.htm, www.discoverjamaica.com/gleaner/discover/tour_ja/tour3.htm

Institute of Jamaica -Historical Museum, Spanish Town

Underwater Filming

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