For The Pirate Challenge, which was the monthly badge back in September, I need to review a book or movie about pirates. I tried listening to a non-fiction book about pirates, which started off in a very promising fashion but became very tedious in the middle - so much so that I gave up on it. I then tried to read picture books about pirates, but those were also not very good or memorable. So, tonight, John and I watched Drain the Sunken Pirate City, a documentary about Port Royal, Jamaica. A portion of the city, which was once the most famous pirate city in the world, sank in 1692. Jim Henderson was working to map the sunken portion of the city, determine why it sank, and to secure UNESCO world heritage designation. Success all around!
Modern documentaries have a tendency to make everything as extremely dramatic as they possibly can, which is both irritating and insulting to everyone involved. It makes me feel as thought they think I have the attention span of a gnat and as though the subject of the documentary is extremely boring, so if they don't make it sound like the stakes for everything are at an 11, then we might notice how dull everything is. Rude. (Note: Ken Burns does NOT do this.)
I knew nothing about Port Royal or underwater archeology and found the whole thing fascinating. The city sunk in a matter of a few minutes. It must have been terrifying and astonishing at the time - it still is now. I think folks should go watch this, so I'm not going to tell you anything about why it sank. You can watch it on Disney Plus and the National Geographic Youtube Channel.
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