The First Salute

Heather Rocca

“Here the Sovereignty of the Unite States of American was first acknowledged”

The effect of the American Revolution on the nature of government in the society of Europe was felt & recognized from the moment it became a fact

Mutual hostility between Dutch & English was mount to a climax in the five years following the salute to the Andrew Doria with definitive effect on America’s fortunes. In Jan. 1776 the hostility became overt

The West Indies as a whole make up a curved chain connecting North & South America, & here pirates lay in wait in ports of the mainland to raid Spanish treasure ships heading home loaded with the silver of Peru & the goods & riches of the Spanish Colonies of the New World

The pressure of the merchant class represented by the formidable Dutch West India Company, which held a monopoly over trade with America, induced the States General to declare neutrality in the war of the British Crown against its colonies

The mass of the Dutch people openly sympathized with the American rebellion

The American Colonies sent rich cargoes of their products: tobacco, indigo, timber, & horses to exchange for naval and military supplies & for molasses, sugar, slaves, and furnishings from Europe.

The Golden Rock

As a free port, Eustatius had reaped the profits both as marketplace and as storehouse where goods waiting sale or transshipment could be safely housed against predatory foreign fleets in search of loot.

Trade swelled to and from the American Colonies, “Daily arrivals from the West Indies but most from St. Eustatius, every one of which brings more or less of gunpowder.”

Mercantilism was born of the belief that national power depended on the accumulation of hard currency to pay for the era’s increasing costs of government and of maintaining armies and navies for constant conflict

Beggars of the Sea – The Dutch Ascendancy

As the primary ship-builders of Europe, the Dutch had added one more element of mastery in their lifelong contest with water.

After winning independence, the Dutch within one generation of autonomy had transformed themselves into the greatest trading nation in the world.

The amazing growth and expansion of Holland was a phenomenon that causes historians to stutter and even caused wonderment to Dutch scholars

While the expansion was happening, it was no mystery to the Dutch themselves, who clearly explained what drove them in a petition addressed by the States of Holland in 1548 to their sovereign

A tangible element of the expansion overseas was the ships themselves.

The Dutch had better access than their rivals to the timber of the Baltic, giving them a steady supply of the material for making ships

The Dutch had a more efficient design, distinct from that of warships, for cargo ships which could be handled by fewer in crew and which, having no guns, could carry a larger cargo and, through the use of standardized parts, were built more cheaply and quickly in larger numbers than those of other nations

The maddest Idea in the World”- An American Navy

The Andrew Doria was not just a ship but already the possessor of a historic distinction.

Named for a famed figure in the cause of liberty, the valorous Admiral of Genoa, who led the right for the freedom of his city against the French in 1528.

The boat is about 75 feet long and 25 feet in the beam, with a mixed or “hermaphrodite” rigging of square sails on her mainmast

The importance of sea power as a strategic arm was accepted as understood in the 18th century

The American Colonies’ need for resupply of arms and powder, and their need to disrupt the enemy’s supply lines and to defend themselves against British naval attacks on and burning of their coastal towns, was imperative.

Because of the 18th century’s fixed method of fighting by ship against ship and gun against gun, numerical odds were always considered the decisive factor, and for our first navy they were not favorable.

A flag was as necessary as commodore or crew, for a national navy was nothing without it. If a flag for an army unit or a headquarters on land was tradition to express a sense of pride and loyalty, for a ship on the trackless seas it was a necessity as a sign of identity so that it wouldn’t be mistaken for a pirate