Action of 4 February 1781

The Action of 4 February 1781 was a minor naval action that took place off the island of Sombero in the Caribbean during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War soon after the British Capture of Sint Eustatius by Admiral George Rodney a day earlier.

St. Eustatius, a Dutch-controlled island in the West Indies, was an entrepot that operated as a major trading centre despite its relatively small size. The island was seized by a British force under Admiral George Rodney along with all the merchants ships in the harbour. Rodney received information that a fleet of about thirty large ships richly laden with sugar and other West India commodities had just before his arrival sailed from the island for the Netherlands under convoy of a flag ship of sixty guns. He immediately dispatched two ships of the line the Monarch and Panther with the frigate HMS Sybil in pursuit of them.

The lone Dutch man-of-war Mars was no match for the three British ships and, after a fierce thirty minute pounding, the mortally wounded commander, Rear-Admiral Willem Krul, whilst dying, ordered his Captain Count Van Bijland to lower the flag. Eight of the Dutch crew were killed with another seven wounded which included Krul who was taken back to St. Eustatius where he was buried with full honours.

All thirty ships of the convoy were taken whilst the Mars was taken in under the Royal Navy as ''HMS Mars".