St Eustatius yields an immense commercial prize

Ordered to capture St Eustatius during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, Rodney arrived with nearly two dozen ships of the line and about 3,000 troops. Governor Johannes de Graaff surrendered rather than oppose that force with ten guns and sixty troops, and British forces also took St Martin and Saba that day. An unauthorized exchange of fire with the Dutch frigate Mars led Rodney to reprimand his captains and threaten to send them home without prize rewards. The thirty-vessel merchant convoy was captured and brought back, while the harbour held roughly 130 more merchant ships, another Dutch frigate, five smaller privateers, and goods said to be worth £3 million. Rodney stayed to supervise the seizures himself and detached ships to escort treasure cargoes home. Those decisions weakened the fleet available for more urgent operations.