Port Antonio

Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about 60 miles (100 km) from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for bananas and coconuts, as well as one of its most important tourist attractions, tourism being a major contributor to the town’s economy.

History

Port Antonio was a sleepy coastal town until the 1880s, when Lorenzo Dow Baker started the banana trade in Jamaica and successfully promoted Port Antonio as a destination for wealthy American travelers. "Portie" became a boom town. The banana trade and the tourists who came in the banana boats, was once so large that at one time, weekly sailing from Port Antonio was greater than weekly sailing from the great English port of Liverpool.

The island was glamorized by Hollywood as a model of paradise in movies of the 1940s and '50s, such as Club Paradise and Cocktail. This image was added to by the arrival of movie star Errol Flynn in 1946 when his yacht, the Zaca washed ashore in bad weather. He subsequently bought nearby Navy Island, part of historic Fort George in Port Antonio as well as hundreds of acres of farmland along the Portland coast.