Meanwhile events of no very honourable character had occurred in the West Indies. Rodney had returned to his station, the Leeward Islands, from North America on the 12th of December 1780. He was soon joined by Samuel Hood with reinforcements from Europe. Hood, when the war began, had been commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth. The acceptance of this post was by custom held to mark an officer’s final retirement from active sea service. But the Admiralty wished to supply Rodney with a second in command who would work more harmoniously with him than Parker. Hood had served under Rodney’s eye at the beginning of his career. He had been captain of the =Vestal=, from which Rodney directed an attack on a French flotilla in 1759. The refusal of many flag officers to take commands while Sandwich remained First Lord supplied another reason for departing from usage. Hood, who was no political partisan, or who at least was no Whig, was included in a promotion of flag officers, and was sent with reinforcements and a large trade convoy to the West Indies. Soon after he joined, the =Childers= sloop brought news of the outbreak of the war with Holland.
No more welcome message could have reached the ear of Sir George, for it brought to a very embarrassed man the hope of infinite prize money. The Dutch Island of St. Eustatius, lying high up in the Lesser Antilles, had been used for the purpose to which the British port of Nassau in the Bahamas was put in the American Civil War. It had become a great dépôt of contraband, by which the French profited largely. It was also the seat of an unwonted trade of more legitimate character. The West Indian planters were under the necessity of buying all the food for their slaves in the North American colonies. As the supply could not be stopped without producing ruin to the British Islands, Government was compelled to relax the rigour of its navigation laws, and permit the planters to obtain supplies through neutral ports. This authorised trade concentrated at St. Eustatius. Maize and pork were brought from America, and British goods were brought to pay for them. Long rows of warehouses sprang up on the usually empty shore of the one landing place of the Dutch island.