The Golden Rock

Blog overview

The colonists in America started the war for independence from Great Britain in 1775 with an army that lacked everything. It was only thanks to the smuggle of arms and gunpowder through the Dutch free port of St. Eustatius that George Washington managed to keep up the fight in those important first years of the revolution. The decisive role played by this Dutch island in the birth of the United States is the subject of a new book by the Dutch journalist Willem de Bruin, published by Uitgeverij Balans. The title ‘De Gouden Rots’ – The Golden Rock – refers to the name by which St. Eustatius was known in the eighteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic.

How America was lost

by Willem de Bruin

June 18, 2019

  The merchants of St. Eustatius were used to the presence of British warships around the island, on the lookout for ships with supplies for the rebellious settlers in North America. It therefore took some time before they realized that the fleet approaching the island on the morning of February 3, 1781, came for a …...

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‘You find here everything’

by Willem de Bruin

June 11, 2019

  When in the spring of 1775 the first shots sounded in the American War of Independence – as it would later be known -, neither party was prepared for a prolonged struggle. Washington’s Continental Army faced many problems. His army was not only smaller, but in need of everything, especially weapons and gunpowder. So …...

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The First Salute

by Willem de Bruin

June 4, 2019

  St. Eustatius – or Statia as the English-speaking islanders say – is hardly a tourist destination. Unlike neighboring St. Maarten, visited by thousands of Dutch and American holiday-makers, St. Eustatius has no golden beaches. Yet this small Dutch island on the northern end of the Lesser Antilles is popular with divers, who are attracted …...

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