Page 542 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles
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n 1636, the chamber of Zeeland of the ers sold arms and ammunition to anyone recognize the importance of the 1776 “First
willing to pay. It was one of the few places Salute”. He presented a large brass plaque
I Dutch West India Company took posses- from which the young United States could to St. Eustatius which is displayed today un-
obtain military stores. The good relation- der a flagpole atop the walls of Fort Oranje.
sion of the island that was then reported ship between St. Eustatius and the United The plaque reads:
to be uninhabited. As of 1678, the islands States resulted in the noted “First Salute”.
of St. Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Saba fell T he British took the incident seriously.
under direct command of the Dutch West O n November 16, 1776, Captain Isaiah Britain protested bitterly against the
India Company, with a commander sta- Robinson of the 14-gun American brig continuous trade between the United
tioned on St. Eustatius to govern all three. Andrew Doria,[9] sailed into the anchorage Colonies and St. Eustatius. In 1778, Lord
At the time, the island was of some impor- below St. Eustatius’ Fort Oranje. Robinson Stormont claimed in Parliament that, “if Sint
tance for cultivation of tobacco and sugar. announced his arrival by firing a thirteen Eustatius had sunk into the sea three years
In the 18th century, St. Eustatius’ geograph- gun salute, one gun for each of the thirteen before, the United Kingdom would already
ical placement in the middle of Danish American colonies in rebellion against Brit- have dealt with George Washington”. Nearly
(Virgin Islands), British (Jamaica, St. Kitts, ain. Governor Johannes de Graaff replied half of all American Revolutionary military
Barbados, Antigua), French (St. Domingue, with an eleven gun salute from the cannons supplies were obtained through St. Eusta-
Ste. Lucie, Martinique, Guadeloupe) and of Fort Oranje. International protocol re- tius. Nearly all American communications to
Spanish (Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto quired a two gun less acknowledgement of Europe first passed through the island. The
Rico) territories—its large harborage, neu- a sovereign flag. The Andrew Doria flew the trade between St. Eustatius and the United
trality and status from 1756 as a free port Continental Colors of the fledgling United States was the main reason for the Fourth
with no customs duties were all factors in it States. It was the first international ac- Anglo-Dutch War,1780-1784. The war was
becoming a major point of transhipment of knowledgment of American independence. disastrous for the Dutch economy. The
goods, and a locus for trade in contraband. The Andrew Doria had arrived to purchase island of St. Eustatius taken by the English
Its economy developed by ignoring the mo- munitions for the American Revolution- fleet in February 1781
nopolistic trade restrictions of the British, ary forces. U.S. President Franklin Delano
French and Spanish islands. St.Eustatius’s Roosevelt came to St. Eustatius in 1939 to
economy, under the Dutch, flourished. The
island was known as The Golden Rock. Trad-
