Free Republic

Spain laid claim to the Island of Jamaica from the time Columbus landed there in 1494. In 1503, Columbus was shipwrecked there for a year. In 1655, Jamaica was captured by British Admiral William Penn, the father of Pennsylvania's founder. Jamaica was too far from England to defend, so the inhabitants turned to privateers, freebooters, buccaneers and pirates for protection. The likes of Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Captain Henry Morgan, namesake of the rum, attacked Spanish ships and settlements, then returned to Jamaica with their booty. The skull pirate flag, called the "Jolly Roger," was adapted from the flag of...

Port Royal was called "the richest and wickedest city in the world" or "the Sodom of the New World." Suddenly, JUNE 7, 1692, an earthquake and tsunami sank Port Royal under the sea, followed by violent aftershocks...

Judge gives man 10 years for supplying drugs to woman who died By CHRIS W. COLBY, cwcolby@naplesnews.com March 2, 2004 With a sob, clutching a religious book, Brenda Zook said outside a courtroom Monday she accepts the apology of the man who gave a fatal amount of drugs to her daughter. Jennifer Robinson was 19 when she died from an overdose of a combination of the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, Valium, cocaine and heroin. For that death, Marc Liebig, 24, of Port Royal, said Monday he was sorry. He said it to the judge, and then he looked back at the...