Johannes de Graaff (1729–1813), also referred to as ''Johannis de Graeff'' in some documents, was a Dutch Governor of

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 ...

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, ...

and

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean region of North America. With a population of 58,477 as of June 2023 on an area of , it encompasses ...

in the

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

representing 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 ...

during the difficult time of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

Biography

De Graaff was born in

, the son of Simon de Graaff', a member of the island council. De Graaff received his education in the Netherlands. After he returned to Sint Eustatius, he married Maria Heyliger, a daughter of the ruling Commander (Governor) Abraham Heyliger. De Graaff started his career as a military commander of Sint Maarten. In July 1751 he was appointed as secretary on Eustatius, which became a

free port A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subject to ...

in 1756 and used more intensively by the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie for slave trade on

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

and the Caribbean islands. The export of sugar rose enormously, the number of ships in the harbor doubled; the island was known as the "golden rock". For some years Thomas Hope and his brother were involved in the trade on the island. De Graaff became St. Eustatius' richest man. He reportedly owned ten plantations, three hundred slaves, sixteen trading ships and a quarter of the island's real estate. He lived in an imposing villa on the bay. In July 1775, after Jan de Windt died, he promised Adrian Hope to do everything to represent

Hope & Co Hope & Co. was a Dutch bank that existed for two and a half centuries. The bank was located in Amsterdam until 1795; originally it concentrated on Great Britain. From 1750 it played a major part in the finances of the Dutch East India Company ( ...

on Eustatius. On 5 September 1776 he was made

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

(or Governor in every day parlance) of the island.

"First Salute" to the American Flag

Sint Eustatius was the most important place for dealing or smuggling with Americans. On 16 November 1776, at the beginning of the

, the American navy ship USS ''Andrew Doria'', with the ''

American Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

'' on board, arrived in St. Eustatius. Its captain fired a salute to the Dutch flag on Fort Oranje and Johannes de Graaff decided to answer the salute with eleven gunshots. And so the United States of America were for the first time recognized as a nation by this ''salute of eleven guns''. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

were furious and De Graaff was recalled to the Netherlands following British protests to the Dutch government. In an accompanying letter,

Henry Hope Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business, the Dutch bank Hope & Co., at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the man ...

wrote that the governor would have to answer to the homeland. In 1777 the island was blockaded by the English, because of the trade in gunpowder and arms by the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie. In 1778 he explained his motivations and was sent back to Sint Eustatius in the next year.

Loss of island

De Graaff held his position until

admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...

Rodney, leading a large naval force, captured the island in February 1781.

Commentaries regarding the 'First Salute'

"White puffs of gun smoke over a turquoise sea followed by the boom of cannon rose from the unassuming port on the diminutive Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

on 16 November 1776. The guns of ''Fort Orange'' on St. Eustatius were returning the ritual salute on entering a foreign port of an American vessel, the Andrew Doria, as she came up the roadstead, flying at her mast the red-and-white-striped flag of the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...

. In its responding salute, the small voice of St. Eustatius was the first to officially greet the largest event of the century – the entry into the society of nations of a new Atlantic state destined to change the direction of history". In 1939, President Roosevelt presented a plaque to St. Eustatius. Mounted on the flagpole inside the impressively restored Fort Oranje, it reads, "In commemoration of the salute to the flag of the United States fired in this fort on 16 November 1776 by order of Johannes de Graaff, Governor of St. Eustatius in reply to a national gun salute fired by the U.S. Brig-of-war Andrew Doria.(...) Here the sovereignty of the United States was first formally acknowledged to a national vessel by a foreign official".Hank Rice, Footnotes in History, "The First Salute." Sons of the American Revolution, June, 2000

Notes

External links

(eng) ''First Foreign Salute to the American flag'', Article about Johannes de Graaff in the ''New York Times''

* (eng) De Graaff in ''The story of New Netherland''
(eng) Information about portrait of Johannes de Graaff in the New Hampshire Statehouse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graaff, Johannes De 1729 births 1813 deaths 18th-century Dutch colonial governors Dutch West India Company people Lieutenant governors of Sint Eustatius