1692: A massive earthquake destroyed Port Royal, Jamaica, which had long served as a primary outpost for pirates and masterless people from across the region.

1692: A massive earthquake destroyed Port Royal, Jamaica, which had long served as a primary outpost for pirates and masterless people from across the region. This event marked a physical and symbolic end to the heyday of the buccaneers in one of their most significant Caribbean haunts. Following the disaster, the character of the Caribbean shifted rapidly toward the establishment of rigid colonial hierarchies. Within a half-century, the “enchanted” islands of the frontier had been largely absorbed by the expanding plantation system.