At which Jamaican town was pirate Calico Jack executed in 1720?

Pirate Calico Jack was executed at Port Royal, Jamaica, in 1720.

Calico Jack was the nickname of John Rackham, an English pirate active in the Caribbean during the early eighteenth century. He is especially remembered for sailing with Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women who joined his crew.

Rackham and his crew were captured in October 1720 by the privateer Jonathan Barnet near Jamaica. After a trial for piracy, Rackham was hanged at Gallows Point in Port Royal on 18 November 1720. His body was displayed as a warning to other pirates.

Port Royal had once been a major English privateering center, but a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the town in 1692. By Rackham’s execution, it remained an important Jamaican port and a venue for colonial legal proceedings. A common mix-up is confusing Rackham’s execution site with the Jamaican town where Bonny and Read were tried: Spanish Town.