Sint Eustatius ""17:28.8N 62:59.4W"

VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Fri 4 Mar 2011 22:51
Here we are in Sint Eustatius, or Statia. The island has been Dutch continuously since 1816 but as usual in these parts changed hands between the Spanish, English, French and Dutch 22 times in the 200 years following its discovery by Columbus (who claimed it for Spain without even bothering to land). The island is famous, I discover, as the very first place in the world to recognise the United States, in November 1776 - only four months after the Declaration of Independence. An armed American ship the 'Andrew Doria' fired a 13 gun salute on entering harbour (the island was supplying arms to the rebels) and the Dutch Governor at the time, possibly by mistake, caused a standard 11 gun response to be fired from the Dutch fort, thus giving international recognition to the rebels.
The island has recently voted for closer integration with the Netherlands (along with Saba and Bonaire); the first visible result of this seems to be the introduction of Customs for the first time (ever!) on 1 January this year. It's nearly as bad as Portugal. 
The first photo shows Alison at the (excellent) museum, originally a Plantation House and then briefly Admiral Rodney's HQ following his capture of the island in 1783 (his successor promptly lost it to a French invasion in November of that year, resulting in his court martial). 
The island was extremely prosperous in the seventeenth century as a free port (no customs duties at all), then faded badly in the nineteenth. The population peaked at 20000 and is now 3400 - English speaking for some reason that i don't understand. As the second photo shows it is enjoying a renaissance of sorts as a transfer point for oil tankers from around the world due to its safe deep and large anchorage and large oil storage facility. to the right of the photo Saba (pronounced Sayba) is visible. 
Tomorrow we're off up the small dormant volcano on a rarity in the Caribbean - waymarked self-guided trails.  

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