Page 543 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles

dmiral Rodney’s sailors and troops
A pillaged the island. Britain declared
war on Holland, December 20, 1780. Even
before officially declaring war, Britain had
outfitted a massive battle fleet to take
and destroy the weapons depot and vital
commercial center that St. Eustatius had
become. British Admiral George Brydges
Rodney was appointed the commander of
the battle fleet. February 3, 1781, the mas-
sive fleet of 15 ships of the line and numer- trade and also the North-Americans, now
ous smaller ships transporting over 3,000
soldiers appeared before St. Eustatius pre-
pared to invade. Governor De Graaff did not
know about the declaration of war. Rodney
offered De Graaff a bloodless surrender to
his superior force. Ten months later, the
island was conquered by the French, allies
of the Dutch in the war. The Dutch regained
control over the devastated island in 1784.
t its peak, St. Eustatius may have had a population stood at a mere 970.
A largely transient population of about
10,000 people. Most were engaged in com-
mercial and maritime interests. A census
list of 1790 gives a total population (free
and enslaved people combined) of 8,124.
Commerce revived after the British left.
Many of the merchants (including the Jews)
returned to the island. However, French and
British occupations from 1795 disrupted
globally recognized as an independent
nation, had meanwhile developed their
own trading network and did not need St.
Eustatius anymore. The island was eclipsed
by other Dutch ports, such as those on
the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
During the last years of the 18th century
Statia developed trade in aging rum. The
economy declined in the early 19th century.
St. Eustatius never recovered the durable
robustness of the mid 18th century. The
large merchant class, that was the life
blood of St. Eustatius, did not fully return.
The population declined and in 1950 the
T he first record of Jews on St. Eustatius
dates to 1660. The Jews were mainly
merchants with significant international
trading and maritime commercial ties. Jews
were captains, owners or co-owners with
Christian partners, of significant numbers
of ships originating out of St. Eustatius. A
few were island plantation-owners. Jews
were estimated to have comprised at least
10% of the permanent population of St.
Eustatius. Two days after the island surren-
dered to the British in early February 1781,
Rodney ordered that the entire Jewish
male adult population assemble for him.
He immediately arrested and imprisoned
101 Jews in the warehouses of the lower
city. Rodney said, after he first learned of
the St. Eustatius Jews: “They (the Jews of St.
Eustatius) cannot too soon be taken care of
- they are notorious in the cause of America
and France.”