MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 03322mam a2200361 a 4500
001 1896496
005 20220609022021.0
008 960823s1996 mdua 001 0 eng d
010 $a 96067492
020 $a1557503389
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm35293915
035 $9ALY7939CU
035 $a(NNC)1896496
035 $a1896496
040 $aUNA$cUNA$dOrLoB-B
043 $anweu---$an-us---
100 1 $aHurst, Ronald.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83141512
245 14 $aThe golden rock :$ban episode of the American War of Independence, 1775-1783 /$cby Ronald Hurst.
260 $aAnnapolis, Md. :$bNaval Institute Press,$c1996.
300 $axviii, 254 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustrations ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
500 $aFirst published in Great Britain in 1996 by Leo Cooper.
500 $aIncludes index.
520 $aThe story of the tiny Dutch island of St Eustatius - the Golden Rock - in the Lesser Antilles, once the richest trading centre in the Caribbean and a major source of supply for arms and necessaries for the American rebels in the War of Independence, will be known to few, other than students of that war or British naval history.
520 8 $aThe events which followed Britain's declaration of war on the Dutch in December 1870, to pre-empt a threatened alliance with Britain's enemies, France and Spain, and the consequent seizure of the island in February 1781, by Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney and Major-General Sir John Vaughan, reflect little credit upon those joint-Commanders-in Chief or, indeed, upon the government of King George III.
520 8 $aAfter some years of extensive and penetrating research, Ronald Hurst has pieced together the whole story and given us a fascinating and wholly authentic account of the rape of St Eustatius and its aftermath.
520 8 $aHe has laid bare the shameful conduct of those who busied themselves with the stripping of the assets of the island and its people: not least we are given an intriguing view of the activities of Lieutenant-Colonel James Cockburn of the 35th Regiment of Foot, Vaughan's Quartermaster-General and, later Governor of the island. For the highly controversial surrender to the French over which he presided, he would ultimately be court-martialled and cashiered.
520 8 $a. With what can only be described as poetic justice, the British spoils of the operation were brilliantly snatched by the French Admiral La Motte Picquet even as the Prize Convoy approached home waters, leaving Rodney and Vaughan with nothing but a public tongue-lashing from Burke in the Commons and a mountain of law suits to combat.
520 8 $aIt is one of the quirks of history that both should survive this episode to have honours conferred upon them for later deeds - Rodney, who became a peer in 1782, for his crushing victory over the French in the Battle of the Saints in April of that year and Vaughan to be promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands, where he died in 1795.
651 0 $aSint Eustatius$xHistory, Military.
651 0 $aUnited States$xHistory$yRevolution, 1775-1783$xNaval operations.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140167
852 00 $boff,glx$hF2097$i.H87 1996g