Besides Variety and the New Yorker (and a few other magazines,) National Geographic was a constant guest in our home.

This is the first issue I ever remember reading, at what would have been the age of 9. The article about Port Royal particularly intrigued me. I was recently reminded of it again as a result of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, (Arr!) which made reference to the town several times (although most of the shots were taken on St. Vincent and not in Jamaica.)

Painting by Robert W. Nicholson. Click to enlarge.

Port Royal was a latter day Sodom and Gomorrah, and I remember reading this article over and over again, marveling at the force of nature that destroyed almost the entire peninsula, and in awe of the artifacts that were dredged up during excavations.

As the pink area on the map key above shows, not much of the then-existing Port Royal survived the devastating earthquake.

I used to have hundreds of Geo’s, but they’re heavy, and moving them was a pain. I have trimmed my collection down to the 30 or so which contained my favorite articles, but this one (another copy of which I recently acquired) I consider the foundation of my National Geographic experience. To this day it remains my periodical of choice.

The Old Wolf has spoken.