Within minutes the town covering an area of almost 33 hectares, including buildings, roads and houses and their contents lost in the sea water. Today, underwater metropolis lives leaving about 13 acres, at a depth ranging from a few inches to 40 feet.
In 1981, Nautical Archaeology Program Texas A & M University, in collaboration with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT), began underwater archaeological investigations ranging from the submerged 17th-century town of Port Royal, Jamaica . Now evidence suggests that while the area of Port Royal is located along the edge of the harbor were destroyed when they sank, destroying most of the archaeological context, the area investigated by the TAMU / INA, is located some distance from the harbor, sunk vertically, horizontally with little interference.