Fort Oranje is a historic fortress located in

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially "Public body (Netherlands), public body") of the Netherlands. The island is in the northern Leeward Islands ...

in the

Dutch Caribbean The Dutch Caribbean (historically known as the Dutch West Indies) are the New World territories, colonies, and countries (former and current) of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea, mainly the norther ...

. It is located in Oranjestad, the island's capital, on a cliff overlooking Oranje Bay. It was named after the House of Oranje, the royal family of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The fort was built by the Dutch in 1636, at the location of a previous fort built by the French in 1629. Its construction was commissioned by the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...

. Like the island, the fort changed‌ ‌hands‌ several times ‌between‌ ‌the‌ ‌

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

,‌ ‌ English‌ ‌and‌ ‌ French‌. It was rebuilt and renovated several times during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, the fort is one of many protected buildings in Sint Eustatius.

History

The first European settlers on St. Eustatius were the French, who arrived from 1625 and 1629. They came from nearby

St. Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

. In 1629, the French built a wooden fortress at the present-day location of Fort Oranje. The French abandoned the fort and the island due to lack of clean drinking water. In 1636, Dutch settlers from

Zeeland Zeeland (; ), historically known in English by the Endonym and exonym, exonym Zealand, is the westernmost and least populous province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the southwest of the country, borders North Brabant to the east ...

took possession of the then unoccupied St. Eustatius. With a commission from the Dutch West India Company, they constructed a new fort at the location where they found remains of the French fort. They named the new fortress Fort Oranje after the House of Oranje, the Dutch royal family. The original Fort Oranje for square-shaped, with four

bastions A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

, a courtyard, and 16 mounted cannons. Historians presume it was wooden, as it was burned by the Dutch in 1673 and rebuilt by the English later in the year. In 1689, the French took over the island and fort, and carried out additional renovations of the fort. They reinforced the walls with doubled palisades and built a dry moat around the fort. Beginning in 1737, the fort underwent a series of renovations by the Dutch via the work of enslaved Africans. Until 1846, Fort Oranje served as a

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

for army infantry and

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

. After being empty for many years, the fortress was refurbished and furnished as an administrative center to house the lieutenant governor's office, government services, and the prison. After partial fire destruction in 1990, the fort was restored in the late 1990s. Since then, the offices of the public prosecutor's office, the planning department, and the tourist office have been kept here.

The "First Salute"

It was from Fort Oranje that the famous

First Salute First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

was fired on November 16, 1776. Dutch governor

Johannes de Graaff Johannes de Graaff (1729–1813), also referred to as ''Johannis de Graeff'' in some documents, was a Dutch Governor of Sint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles representing the Dutch West India Company during the diff ...

had the fort's cannons return‌ ‌a‌ ‌salute‌‌ of 11 shots ‌to‌ ‌the ''USS Andrew Doria'''','' which had entered the island's harbor. The ship was flying the new

Continental Union Flag The Continental Union Flag (often referred to as the first American flag, Cambridge Flag, and Grand Union Flag) was the flag of the United Colonies from 1775 to 1776, and the ''de facto'' flag of the United States until 1777, when the Betsy Ros ...

, as the American

thirteen colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

had just declared their independence from the British. Many interpreted the salute as the first recognition by a foreign power of America's independence. It was one of the reasons for the

Fourth Anglo-Dutch War The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (; 1780–1784) was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on t ...

(1780-1784). In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt offered a plaque in recognition of the First Salute. The plaque was placed against the flagpole in the fort square.

Preservation

Between February 2019 to May 2020, the cliff supporting Fort Oranje underwent a stabilization project to help increase the cliff's stability and stop erosion. The project involved the placement of 2,800 anchors, 7,400 square meters of canvas, and more than 15,000 square meters of mesh. {{Commons category, Fort Oranje, Oranjestad

Gallery

File:Fort Oranje.jpg, The walls of Fort Oranje with the island of

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...

in the background File:Collectie Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen TM-20029491 Fort Oranje, gebouwd in 1636 Sint Eustatius Boy Lawson (Fotograaf).jpg, Inside the walls of Fort Oranje File:Statia Fort Oranje View 2012.jpg, View of the island from Fort Oranje File:Roosevelt Plaque Fort Oranje.jpg, Plaque presented by Franklin D. Roosevelt in recognition of the "First Salute" File:First Salute from Fort Oranje Sint Eustatius.JPG, Canons at Fort Oranje File:Statia Fort Oranje Timeline 2012.jpg, Fort Oranje timeline, located at the fort

References

Forts in Sint Eustatius Netherlands Antilles Dutch forts