Which Caribbean island hosted the 1776 “First Salute” to the American flag?

Sint Eustatius hosted the 1776 “First Salute” to the American flag.

On November 16, 1776, the American brig Andrew Doria entered the harbor of Sint Eustatius, then a Dutch Caribbean island. After the ship fired a thirteen-gun salute, Governor Johannes de Graaff ordered guns at Fort Orange to return the salute.

The exchange was treated by the Americans as the first formal recognition of the United States by a foreign power. The ship was flying the Continental Union Flag, an early national flag used before the Stars and Stripes design was established in 1777.

The event is sometimes confused with Morocco’s recognition in 1777. Sint Eustatius provided the first foreign salute in 1776, while Morocco became the first country to recognize American independence in 1777. The island also supplied the revolutionary cause with arms and ammunition.