Red, White, and Blue Hawaii

In considering the British attack on California, we commented that sending HMS Camelion and HMS Mutine off 'hunting American cruisers across the breadth of the North Pacific' seemed like a poor use of resources. In doing so, we talked about the overall pattern of trade and the relative unimportance of the North Pacific to the British. Recently, I found a source which perfectly encapsulates the trade levels- the Hawaiian customs house records, which show the number of ships of each nation which stopped at the islands in 1861 and 1862.

Some reservations about this information should be highlighted. Not all British ships stopped at the islands: HMS Charybdis sailed from Yokohama to Esquimault in March 1862 without doing so, for instance. Similarly, trade passing between South America and British Columbia did not necessarily need to visit Hawaii. Nevertheless, TFSmith is suggesting three things:

• That the trade was a viable target for multiple commerce raiders. These categorically included the converted merchant ships USS California, USS Oregon and USS Panama, which went on 'a cruise across the North Pacific as far as Japan and back' where USS California 'captured half-a-dozen British merchant ships before running into the Columbia' (chapter 15 part 2). We are also informed that 'Saranac, under Lt. Francis Murray, had taken several British prizes almost immediately,' (chapter 7 part 2),
• That this trade was important enough to the British to put two warships on full-time raider-chasing duty
• That the North Pacific was far more important to the British than to the Union, so that disruption to trade patterns in that region would make the British suffer far more than the Union.

With these propositions in mind, let's look at the official statistics of Hawaii's trade and see how well they are borne out:

Merchant vessels at the Ports of the Hawaiian Islands, 1861
American: 66
Hawaiian: 16
Russian: 2
British: 3
Danish: 1
Peruvian: 2
Hanoverian:2
Bolabola: 1
Total: 94

Whaling Vessels at the Ports of the Hawaiian Islands, 1861
American: 172
Hawaiian: 9
French: 3
Oldenburg: 4
Bremen: 1
Russian: 1
Note: 'The figures in this table show the number of entries at the different ports, many of the vessels having called at more than one port during the same season. The actual number of different vessels touching at the Islands during the Spring Season was 57, of which 51 were American, 4 Hawaiian, 1 French, and 1 Oldenburg. The corresponding number in the Fall Season was 72, of which 0 were American, 5 Hawaiian, 2 French, 3 Oldenburg, 1 Russian and 1 Bremen.'
(Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 23 January 1862 p.1)

Merchant vessels at the Ports of the Hawaiian Islands, 1862
American: 80
Hawaiian: 14
British: 7
Oldenburg: 2
Hamburg: 2
Russian: 2
Hanoverian: 1
Danish: 1
New Grenadian: 2
French Protectorate: 1
Dutch: 1
Total: 113

Whaling vessels at the Ports of the Hawaiian Islands, 1862
American: 57
Hawaiian: 8
French: 5
Oldenburg: 3
Note: 'The figures in this table show the number of Entries... The actual number of different vessels touching at the Islands during the Spring Season was 17, of which 10 were American, 5 Hawaiian, 1 Oldenburg, and 1 French. The corresponding number in the Fall Season was 37, of which 30 were American, 3 Hawaiian, 2 Oldenburg and 2 French.'
(Pacific Commercial Advertiser, 22 January 1863 p.2)

If USS California captured six British merchant ships in the North Pacific, it seems she single-handedly wiped out almost the entire British commercial marine in that area. Presumably the reason we were not told how well USS Oregon and USS Panama did is because there were no ships left for them to capture. Remember that these figures show 7 British arrivals in Hawaii over the entire course of 1862.

In 1861, Union ships represented 70% of arrivals in Hawaii, compared to the British 3%; the figures in 1862 were 71% and 6%. Why the British are chasing Union commerce raiders instead of raiding Union commerce themselves is completely unanswerable. Even before we come to whalers, each British vessel has ten to twenty times the number of merchant ships to target that their Union counterparts do. This would be very lucrative for the British, and very frustrating for the Union. 

Based on Wikipedia, we surmised earlier that the British whaling presence in the North Pacific had ceased by the time of the American Civil War. How nice to see that Wikipedia is accurate for a change! As we can see, however, the Union was still heavily involved in whaling. Would they be any more capable of protecting these ships than they were in 1865, when the converted British merchant ship Sea King took 17 prizes in three days? Alas,TFSmith does not share his opinion on these matters: the words 'whaler' or 'whaling' never appear in Burnished Rows of Steel.

TFSmith completely dismisses the use of newspapers for the purposes of historical study. When they prove him to be this wrong - in this case by repeating official government statistics - who can be surprised that he does so?