On November 16, 1776, the Continental brig Andrew Doria sailed into the harbor at St. Eustatius, a small Dutch island in the Caribbean. She flew the Grand Union flag and carried a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
Her captain, Isaiah Robinson, ordered a 13-gun salute, one shot for each colony. Governor Johannes de Graaff ordered the guns of Fort Oranje to answer. Eleven shots came back.
It was the first time any foreign government acknowledged the United States as a nation. The colonies had declared independence four months earlier, and until that afternoon no one abroad had said so out loud.
The island paid for it. St. Eustatius had been quietly moving gunpowder, weapons and ammunition to the American cause for years, and the salute made the arrangement impossible to ignore. Britain eventually declared war on the Dutch Republic, and in 1781 Admiral George Rodney sacked the island.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
