A Tiny Nest of Pirates

The Dutch had settled the small Caribbean Island of St. Eustatius by the early 1600s in a “see-saw” contest, that finally saw the WIC build a fort in 1638 to protect the harbor at Oranjestad. Embroiled in the Second Anglo-Dutch War by the mid 17th century, English authorities were seething from a whirl wind raid by legendary Dutch Captain De Ruyter. The Dutch Admiral had wreaked havoc among the Slave factories on the West African Coast and then attacked

English shipping at Barbados, before sailing all the way north up past Newfoundland and around the north of Scotland. He returned home to the Netherlands a hero and the British Crown needed an answer to this bold expedition. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Morgan (Uncle of Henry Morgan) was placed in charge of a British naval expedition to seize St. Eustatius and the smaller island of Saba. He left Kingston in Spring of 1665 And planned to rendezvous with more than six hundred Privateers off the coast of Cuba.

These hardened men expected to be paid when the Dutch island was captured. The small Dutch islands had tiny plantation plots and not many settlers, but they sat astride the trade routes of the Great Imperial powers. These islands became entrepôts of middle men who would resell slaves and help others avoid imperial taxation schemes by reexport methods. Morgan had several hundred men and 71 guns in nine ships, when he attacked in July.

The depleted and drunken Dutch force surrendered without much of a fight, but the elderly Morgan suffered a mortal wound in his attempt to scale the heights to the fort with his men. Renaming the island “New Dunkirk,” almost 300 Dutch settlers were deported to Sint Maarten.

The tiny Dutch Island of Saba was targeted next and it was here that Morgan was buried. Once again the Dutch were deported, but French and Irish residents took the English oath. Hundreds of slaves were brought back to Jamaica along with military goods and sugar. The privateers hired by the English were disappointed by the withheld booty and the lacking quality of it. They could not be convinced to attack Curaçao and the English would lose St. Eustatius a year later to a combined Dutch/French partnership. The English presence on Saba continued until 1680 and the tiny island was a hotbed of piracy until its recapture.