The role of the british south atlantic islands in sea-borne commerce in the Nineteenth Century

              THE ROLE OF THE BRITISH SOUTH ATLANTIC ISLANDS
IN SEA-BORNE COMMERCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
WALTER MINCHINTON
In the nineteenth century, Britain had four island possessions in the
South Atlantic: St. Helena, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha and the Falkland
Islands. St. Helena, a fragment of an old volcano, discovered by the Portu-guese
in 1502, had been a port of cal1 for the ships of the English East India
Company which administered the island with two interruptions between
1659 and 1834 when the Colonial Office took over. Napoleon was impri-soned
there from 18 15 until his death in 182 1. Ascension Island, which lies
750 miles north-west of St. Helena, is also of volcanic origin. It remained
uninhabited until 1815 when, because of fears that attempts would be
made to rescue Napoleon, it was occupied by the British. Until 1922 the is-lands
was administered by the Bristih Admiralty. Likened by Charles Dar-win
to «a huge ship kept in first-rate order*, it was officially a vessel, a ten-der
attached to a succession of naval vessels. After 1905 when the island
came under the command of the Roya1 Marine Office, the islands was carri-ed
on the books of HMS Comnorant, stationed at Gibraltar. Until the Co-lonial
Office took over in 1922, persons born on Ascension were deemed to
have been born at sea and were registered in the London parish of Wapp-ing.
Tristan da Cunha, the largest of a group of volcanic islands -the
others are Inaccesible Island and Nightingale Island (one large and two
smaller rocks)- was discovered by the Portuguese admiral, TristZo da
Cunha, in 1506 but was not permanently settled until 1810 when an Ame-rican,
Jonathan Lambert, established himself there. It lies 1300 miles
south-west of St. Helena. Like Ascension, Tristan da Cunha was formally
annexed by Britain in 1816 in connection with Napoleon's detention on St.
Helena. When the British garrison was withdrawn in 1817, Corporal Wil-liam
Glass and his family and two stone masons stayed behind to found the
present settlement. The fourth possession was a group of islands, the Falk-
! a d Is!aiids, Erst sightec! by ari ErigIish sca-capairi, J o h ~D ni s , iíi !5 92. !a
the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the French, the Spanish (and
later the Argentinians), the British and the Americans were al1 involved in
attempts to settle the status of the islands. But the situation remained un-settled
until a British naval squadron took formal possession of Port
Egmont on 20 December 1832 and obtained the surrender of the Argenti-nian
garrison on 3 January 1833. The contributors to the Cambdge His-tory
of the Bn'tish Empire offer different views on the reasons for these
steps. In the context of Anglo-French colonial rivalry, W.F. Reddaway has
written that «Commercially the islands had little value save as a centre for
vessels engaged in whaling and sealing, but as a strategic point in the South
Atlantic and on the Horn route to Australia and to the Pacific coast of Ame-rica,
it was important that they should be prevented from falling into the
hands of France or of the United States. It was an "Admiralty" rather than
a Colonial Ofice moved. But Paul Knapland opined that the Falkland Is-lands
awere apparently seized because of their irnportance for whaling
-the oil from the whale was superior to that from the palm as lubricant for
the machines of Manchesterd. In rrsponse to Argentine appeals, Poiident
Jackson refused to invoke the Monroe doctrine against claims which seemed
to antedate the American Revolution and Argentine protests in London
carried the matter no further. Initially the islands were administered by the
Admiralty but in a Report in 1840 the Colonial Land and Emigration Com-missioners
enumerated four grounds to support its recommendation that
the Falklands should be transferred to the Colonial Office. These were:
1.- the usefulness of having a pon of refuge for merchant ships plying
round Cape Horn .
2.- the expediency of having a base for the South American Squadron
3.- the advantage of the islands as a penal station, and
4.- their fitness for agricultura1 and commercial purposes.
The third recommendation was rejected but the others were accepted
and a Lieutenant-Governor was appointed, who reached the islands in
1842. This closed the matter as far as Great Britain was concerned. The pas-
&no Qf t...h- A-~r t- i.n A-a 1-8-4 1 -J whirh ..-----A pr&&c! fGr &e f2!! cn!Qnia! phPrn-ment of
the Falkland Islands, A.P. Newton stated in 1940, ameant the beginning of
1. W.F. REDDAWAY, aAnglo-French colonial rivalry, 1815-1848~i,n Cambn'dge Hirtory
of the Bn'tish Empire, II The growth of the new empire 1783-1870, Carnbridge University
Press. 1940, p. 259.
2. Paul KNAPLAND, «Colonial problerns and colonial policy, 1815-1837x in Cambridge
Hirtory of the Bntish Empire, 11, 280.
the modern colony whose uneventful further history need not concern us»3,
a statement which would have to be worded rather differently in 1982.
The first three islands had much in common. They al1 lacked harbours
and merely provided sheltered anchorages. At St. Helena, for example, the
only practicable landing place is on the leeward side at St. James Bay, an
open roadstead. They had a limited demand for goods and had little to ex-pon
and they al1 lacked hinterlands. As a product of geography in the age of
oceanic sail and of the early steamship in the nineteenth century, they were
quintessentially ports of call where vessels could obtain information, vic-tuals
and water and stores and could lie for repairs. St. Helena and Ascen-sion
also served as coaling stations. As we now know al1 too well, the Falk-land
Islands are different. They had a number of secure harbours. While
they acted, like the other three, as a port of call suppiying food, water and
stores and the opportunity to make repairs and later served as a coaling stat-ion,
they also had a larger population, a demand for goods and products for
export.
The role of the British South Atlantic islands will be discussed in the
pages which follow under the following heads: a) navigation, b) informa-tion,
c) provisions and water, d) whaling bases, e) coaling stations, f ) for re-pair,
g) as calls for the sick, h) as naval stations and i) as refuges*. Finally,
the part played by the Falklands as a market for imports and as a source of
exports will be discussed.
a) NA VIGA 7TON
As in previous centuriess, so in the nineteenth, the British South At-lantic
islands continued to have a role in navigation. Even if the vessels did
3. A.P. NEWTON, aInternationa1 colonial rivalry: the new world, 1815-1870, in Cam-bridge
Hirtoty oftbe British Empire, 11,545-6.
4. It should be noted that none of these islands served the cornrnetcial function identified
by Christian Koninckx (see above p. a*) and no dealings in foreing currency took place on thern.
5. Of the seventeenth century T. Bentley Duncan noted (Atlantic idands: Madeira, the
Azores and tbe Cape Verdes ia seventeeth centuty commerce and navigation, Univetsity of
Chiczg~?: ess. 1372, p. 3) :haz ::zi,sa:!ai,:K mniincis hzd a!w^a'ys :D it!.j !aigc!~o n Ucad :cc-koning
and for thern the glirnpse of an island, after weeks out of sight of land, was cause for
rejoicing. Ships northward bound in the South Atlantic took the route which led past the is-lands
of St. Helena and Ascension. both visible for great distances at sea.
example, a Parliamentary grant of £ 500 and in 1882 and 1883 of£ 1000 wis
made in aid of the mail servicelo. This service was operated by the German
Kosmos Line of Hamburg whose vessels called at the Falklands once a
month. From 1895 more frequent callas were made every three weeks for
mails and merchandise and in July 1900 the contract was taken over by the
Pacific Stream Navigation Company, which used larger ships. The vessels
called at Port Stanley on voyages between London and Callao and return.
The voyage from Stanley to London rook 28 days. On the eve of the first
world war the frequency of the service was increased to once a fortnight as
the result of the opening of the Panama Canal wihich led to analterationin
the result of the opening of the Panama Canal which led to an alteration in
the Pacific Steam Navigation @ampany'svessels'schedule. There was also a
regular mail service between South Georgia and Buenos Aires".
A further improvement in comrnunications came in 1899 with the arri-
..-i -- - A XT .... ..L- .r r--& -..L---- :-- --LI- -.L:-L --- re-- va VII L L ~I YVVCIIIVCIV I tnc UISL SUUIIIYIIIIC CauIc WIIICII I ~ I IL L U ~ ~ LL ~ L
Town to St. Helena, on to Ascension on 15 December and then to St. Vin-cent
in the Cape Verdes Islands where it joined the main lines to Porth-curno
in Cornwall. Ascension was also for strategic purposes connected di-rect
to West Africa by a cable laid to Sierra Leone12. Thus Ascension be-came
the hub of a communications network, a role which has developed
considerably in importance since that date. From 1899 vessels could pass
Ascension or St. Helena in order that their whereabouts could be reported
to their ownersl3. Again Tristan was missed out. On the Falklands a radio
station was set up in Stanley and cornmunications were established with Ce-rrito
(Uruguay) and the Straits of Magellan from September 191214.
10. BPP 1899 LXI 631-2. The mail subsidy for the years 1895-8 was 1350 a year (BPP
1899 LXI 642).
11. Falkland Islands: Kergzcelen, Foreign Office Historical Handbook, no. 138, HMSO,
1920, p. 25.
12. Kenneth C. BAGLEHOLE, A centzlry of seniice. Welwyn: Bournehall Press, 1969,
cited by Duff HART-DAVIS, Ascension: tbe story of a sozcib Atlantic islánd, Constable, 1972.
p. 153. Later Ascension was linked by cable with Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Ayres. A new
cable was laid to St. Helena in 1904 (BPP 1905 XXX 211).
13. In 1920 the BellanL, on a voyagefrom Melbourne to Falmouth for orden with a cargo
of wheat, touched at St. Helena, 10 weeks out of Melbourne, in order to contact the signalling
station so that her position would be reported (Alan VILLIERS, Tbe set of tbe sails: tbe story of
a Cape Horn seaman, Hodder & Stoughton, 1949, pp. 86-7).
14. Falklandlslands: Kergzcelen, p. 26.
6) PRO VISIONS A ND Y A irER
A third role played by the British South Atlantic islands was as source
of water and provisions. Tristan da Cunha was a pon of call for outward-bound
merchantrnen, which caught the Westerlies by sailing close to the
coast of South America and so had a fair run before the wind to the Capell.
In 1815 Tristan da Cunha was described as being «in the direct route from
Europe and the United States to India, China, and New Holland («Austra-lia>>)
a, situation which «together with its relative distance from those places
render it a very convenient place for vessels which are only in want of water
and such other articles as the Islands supply, to touch at&. A few years ear-lier,
Jonathan Lambert had announced that he had «this 4th day of Februa-ry,
in the year of our Lord eighteen hundted and eleven, taken absolute
possession of the Islands of Tristan da Cunha, so called.. . solely for myself
aria my forever», 'w.m . :i r-i g. 1l.1 :1.s c-1i-.m :r- r- i «oii the mtiüíia: aiid Yüic piiiicipk
of absolute occupancy». He invited «al1 vessels of whatever description, and
belonging to whatever nation» to call at the islands, henceforth to be
narned «the Islands of Refreshment», and «by fair and open traffic, supply
themselves with those articles of which they may be in need». He also de-clared
«that 1 hold rnyself and my people, in the course of our traffk and in-tercouse
with any other people, to be bound by the principles of hospitality
and good fellowship and the law of nations (if any there are) as established
by the best writers on that subject». This document was published in news-papers
in Cape Town and Bostonl7.
Larnbert's enterprise came to an early and tragic end. Little more than
a year after he issued his declaration, he is supposed to have drowned while
out fishing in an open boat. This was the only systematic atternpt ever
made to establish Tristan da Cunha as a refreshment station for sailing ves-sels.
But the sail trae continued and the ships that rode the Westerlies
were often in need of supplies after sorne 90-1.2 0 d.a ys out from European or A ---- c- -L-A- - ~ - : L - L -----.-L.-- .- 10, L -.A +I.- * c + - ~ ~ : ~ ~
n r r i c l i L a i l ~ U I L S J. U, alLcl LIIC UIILIXI a u u c n a L l w u 111 101" auu CUL LaLaUu x i -
rnent of a permanent settlement in 1817, Tristan da Cunha quite naturally
fe11 into the role of serving the needs of sailing vessels. Barter with passing
ships became an irnportant cornponent of the island's economy.
15. For Tristan da Cunha, see Peter A. MUNCH, Sailtraffic on Trirtan da Cunha du&g
tNe mid-nineteenth centuty, Ei Paso, iexas: society oíPoiar Phiiateiists, 1079.
16. Letter from Captain Peter Gordon, master of the BengJMerchant. to Henry Alexan-der
Esq, Table Bay, 24 May 1815 (Rzcordsofthe Cape Colony, X (1902) 304 f ) .
17. Boston Gazette, 18 July 1811.
The exact number of ships that called at Tristan da Cunha for refresh-ment
during the nineteenth century is unrecorded except for a brief period
in the 1850s when the Rev. William F. Taylor, the first resident clergyman
on the islands, apparently saw it as his duty not only to take care of the spi-ritual
and moral life of his flock but also to introduce some measure of ad-ministration
into the community. So he kept records not only of baptisms,
weddings and funerals but also of more mundane things, thus providing
the first official registers of Tristan da Cunha.
Taylor arrived in Tristan on 9 February 185 1 and remained there until
21 September 1856. Soon after his arrival he started to keep a aLogbooka
which opens with a list of dnhabitants of Tristan d'Acunhaa at 1 January
185 1, then numbering 84. The Logbook also contains a <gournal»w ith brief
and somewhat scattered notes, mostly of Taylor's own activities. Then there
is the «Shipping Intelligence~. listing visiting ships with names of their
captains etc., also including notes about ships sighted but not contacted.
Finally, there is a «Diary of Conducta with very brief, often hightly self-critical,
notes about Taylor's own spiritual life and general state of mind.
Unfortunately he did not keep up his diligent record-keeping for long.
The census was faithfully repeated and brought up-to-date each year and
the Diary of Conduct was continued throughout his stay on the island, al-though
the original daily entries eventually become more scattered. But the
Journal was badly neglected after a year or so, entries becoming rarer, some-times
with big gaps between them -no entry was made, for instance, be-tween
17 January 1853 and 1 January 1854. And the Shipping Intelligence
stops abruptly on 9 November 1852 although scattered references to shipp-ing
occur in the Journal thereafterls.
During the 5 112 years of his stay on Tristan, Taylor made a note of al-together
64 calls by 54 vessels, three of which were official visits by British
warships, including the Torch, the first steamer ever to touch at Tristan. Of
the remíiining 61 ca!!r, 24 nrere mrde by 23 merchuntmen, m e ef whlch
was American, two Prussian, 17 British and the other three unidentified
but probably also British. As far as ports of origin and destination are indi-cated,
they al1 came directly from England except two (both British) who
came from ports in South America; and al1 of them were bound for the Far
East or Australia and New Zealand. There was one English barque who ap-
18. These documents are now in the archives of the United Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel at its headquarters in London.
parently had Tristan da Cunha for her destination as she was going for gua-no
and stayed around for three days. Although some «did nothing~,m ost
of them bartered with the islanders for fresh provisions. From the 1870s,
however, the number of ships calling for provisions and water at Tristan
considerably diminished. To judge, however, from the number of ship-wrecksl?
a number of merchantmen continued to pass. But by the 1890s it
was reported that no ship called regularly20. During the last nine months of
1893 13 vessels of various nationalities were communicated with; between
January and April 1894 14 vessels were seen but only two of these were com-municated
with; 25 vessels passed the island in the whole year while
between January and April 1895 ten vessels passed TristanZ1. Although the
islanders, whenever the weather permitted, endeavoured to reach the ves-sels,
they were not often successful either because the vessels did not notice
them or else intentionally declined to communicate.
There were seasonal variations in the traffk According to Taylor's list,
altogether 42 calls were made during the southern surnmer months October-
March while only six occurred during the winter months April-September.
These figures are the more significant because the list covers only one full
summer (with the end of the preceeding one) while two full winters are in-cluded.
The most important factor here, obviously, was the foul weather in
the waters around Tristan. Not only were there fewer vessels around, as de-monstrated
by the relatively small number of sightings during the winter
(even taking into account the fact that the list is probably not complete) but
most of those that did sail the waters around Tristan da Cunha at tkat time
of the year could not be reached because of rough sea and high wind, al-althoug
some of the captains appeared to be anxious to communicate. For
more than five months in 1852 (12 April - 29 September) not a single con-tact
was made.
As a victualling station St. Helena enjoyed a fair measure of prosperity
after the death of Napoleon in 182 1 and the cessation of control by the East
India Company in 1834 until about 1870. Because of its position directly in
the midst of the south-east trades, the island was in the track of sailing ves-sels
remrning to Europe round the Cape of Good Hope from India and the
Far East. A considerable number of ships called to take on fresh provisions,
19. See MUNCH, Sudtruff;~p, . 24
20. BPP 1897 LXI 277.
21. BPP1897LXI283.
by which, it was reponed, the inhabitants rapidly made m ~ n e yP~ot~at.o es
of good quality were the principal crop but cattle and sheep were also
raised.
Figures of vessels calling in the early nineteenth century do not appear
to be available but two different returns provide figures for 1850-54 and
1866-69.
VESSELS ENTERED AND CLEARED ST HELENA 1850-1854
United Brithis United Other
Year Kingdom colonies States states foreign Total
no. tons no. tons no. ton§ no. tons no. tons
ENTERED
D
CLEARED c
2
D
1850 13 7,201 19 6,196 1 238 17 2,851 50 16,486 D D
1851 17 10,271 15 4,220 1 141 9 1,830 42 16,462 e!
5
1852 16 7,075 17 4,423 2 555 11 2,073 46 14,126
1853 19 11,826 6 2,303 2 451 18 3,654 45 18,144
1854 11 5,896 5 1,136 4 1,195 20 4,407 40 12,534
Source: BPP 1856 LVII 720
22. Alfred B. ELLIS, West African islands, Chapman & Hall, 1885, p. 5.
For the late 1860s the information is given in a different form. As the
following table shows, the peak year was 1866:
SHIPPING AT ST HELENA 1866-1869*
Merchant
sailing vessels
Year
British Foreign
Ships
of war
and mail Total
steamers
Source: BPP 1890-1 L V 140
*This return includes only ships which «called»
When sailing vessels began to be replaced by steam ships and particu-lady
from 1869 when the Suez Canal was opened and much of the traffic to
the Far East, including the troop ships from India, no longer returned via
the Cape, fewer ships passed the island while of those which did, the grea-ter
number were so well-found that it was no longer necessary for them to
cail. New methods of preserving meat and vegetables made it unnecessary
for vessels to take on fresh provisions from St. Helena and better methods
of water supply rendered calling for water also superfluous. In 1869, the
year in which the Suez Canal was opened, 853 vessels called; by 1879, as the
following table, which covers the years 1870-89, shows, the number had
fallen ro 603 and ten years later in 1889 only 288 vessels called, of which 15
were warships (including nine British, three French, one Brazilian and one
Portuguese), 226 merchant sailing vessels, 30 merchant stearners and 17
vessels from the Southern Whale Fishery23. From 1886 the figures were fur-
23. BPP 1890-1 LV 126. The report went on: rthe failing off during the last 20 years has
been proportionately larger in the case of British than of Foreign sailing vessels; which is per-haps
due to the operation of the Plimsoll Acts».
ther affected by the Passing Ships Ordinance. Until that date no ship was
allowed to have any communication with the island, except by signal, un-less
it had been boarded by the harbour master and he had given it prati-que.
Under the Ordinance vessels which only wanted to obtain a few po-tatoes
or fresh vegetables or post letters could «pass» rather than «call». The
«passing ships» which trade with licensed boatmen increased in number
from 109 in 1887 to 166 in 1888 and to 261 in 188y2*.
SHIPPING AT ST HELENA 1870-1889*
Year
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
i888
1889
British
416
380
319
3 70
380
298
306
335
362
310
306
245
233
250
188
225
166
150
i42
134
Merchant
sailing
vessels
Foreign
322
308
285
29 1
247
242
222
266
25 1
228
191
215
203
213
160
160
153
11 1
i 24
110
Source: BPP 1890 - 1 LV 140
Ships
of war
and mail
steamers
69
70
63
56
57
65
54
63
56
65
67
65
61
58
66
65
58
56
64
44
Total
807
758
667
717
684
605
582
664
669
603
564
525
497
52 1
414
450 '
377
317
330
288
*This return incluides only ships which «called»
24. BPP 1890-1 LV 126.
During the Boer war prisioners of war were interned on St. Helena
-their number at one time amounting to 6.000- and the Passing Ships
Ordinance was suspended because it was held that «it gave boatmen and
others, who boarded vessels rnany miles from land, free access to ships that
were not subject to the special restrictions irnposed on al1 calling vessels
during that period. The Ordinance was, however, re-enacted in 1904, with
cenain modifications, thereby giving these licensed traders the privilege of
boarding and trading with vessels not actually touching at the port. By this
means such vessels obtain fresh vegetables and are able to post letters»*s.
After the peak of trafic which arose from the peculiar circumstances of
the Boer war, the number of vessels calling at St. Helena continued to de-cline,
as the following table shows:
Numbea Tons
Source: iipp íYUí X¿V 599, 616; i9O2 ¿XV 545; 1YÜ3 XLIIl 438; 1908
LXIX 538; 1910 LXIV 888; 1912-13 LVIII 354; 1914 LVIII 363
The calling vessels were mostly British26 and consisted in the main of
three categories: the mail ships, warships and whalers. Inevitably there was
still a considerable number of sailing vessels27.
The official view was that one reason for the decline in the number of
vessels calling was the high price of provisions and water. While the autho-rities
could do little about the price of provisions, they did take action
about the price of water which was reduced in 1907 specifically in order to
encourage vessels to ca1128. But this move had little effect for the cause of
the decline in numbers was technological -the fact that most vessels were
now able to go long distances without the necessity to take on fresh water-rather
than economic. ,,
In the early nineteenth century ships returning from the Cape of Good E
Hope -many of them British- sometimes arrived at Ascension in distress, o
n
having missed St. Helena. In such circumstances Ascension could furnish - m
O them with essential supplies. Because, however, the island did not have E
E
enough water on occasion for its own needs, persistent attempts were made S
E
to discourage merchant ships from calling for water. In order to reduce the
traffic, high dues were charged -1s for every cask, case or package shipped 3
from the island, 5s for every ton raised by the steam hoist, 7s 6d for the O-Health
Officer's fee and 2s 6d for the certificate of clearance. Despite these m
E
charges, some 500 vessels called every year in the early 1860s. So, as a fur- o
ther measure, al1 the rates were doubled suddenly in 1868. Inevitably the n
move brought complaints and to counter them the Admiralty produced a E
printed notice which was sent to ship-owners, pointing out that it had be- a
come a common practice for homeward-bound vessels to mn past St. Helena n
n
deliberately, in order to avoid paying the port dues there, and to cal1 at As-cension
«on the plea of being in distress~.~ Ascensionis not a place suited 3
O
for private tradep, the Admiralty added, «being only a rock on which suf-ficient
stores are kept with reference to the requirement of Her Majesty's
ships9.
26. In 1905, of the 99 vessels which called, 69 were British, 14 were Norwegain, 4 were
French, 4 were Arnerican and 3 were Danish; 1 vessel was Dutch, 1 Spanish, 1 Italian, 1 Swe-dish
and 1 Russian (BPP 1906 LXXV 243).
27. In 1905 there were 43 steames, 9 men-of-war and 47 sailing vessels (BPP 1906 LXXV
243).
28. BPP 1908 LXIX 538.
29, In :he !87& thc gío'Uild Ianding t>:ace waj said tu havs been düííed wiíh
coal sheds and store houses (ELLIS, Welt Afn'ca~d anal, p. 31). A return of 1891 showed that
on average in three yeas 1888-90 coal to a value of £ 2362, naval stores worth,£ 2260 and vic-mallingstores
amounting to £ 7766 were issued (BPP 1890-1 LI 593).
Shipping also called at the Falklands for water and provisions. For the
period 10 May 1847 to 16 June 1851 detailed returns are available as follows:
SHIPPING CALLING AT THE FALKLANDS
FOR WATER AND PROVISIONS 1847-185 1
(10 May-) (-16 June)
1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 Total
Water and provisions 6 5 7 8 13 39
Island service and supplies - - - 2 1 3
Supplies and repairs 1 4 - 3 2 10
Total 7 9 7 13 16 5 2
Source: BPP 1852 XVIII 385-90
And this function they continued to perform until the first world war.
On 23 October 1898, for example, the Blachbraes arrived off Port Stanley.
«The captain went ashore in the ship's boat.. . Later in the day the boat re-turned
loaded with carcases of fresh mutton andtresh vegetables. w30
9 AS A BASE FOR WHALERS
Al1 four of the British South Atlantic possessions served as bases for
whalers. Of Ascension, the Commandant, Captain Roger Tinklar, wrote in
1839, «I understand the Americans would give anything for possession of
this island as a rendezvous for their ships engaged in the South Sea fish-erydl.
The New England whalers were active in the neighbourhood of As-cension,
St. Helena and Tristan in the 1840s and 1850s. At Tristan, during
the period covered by Taylor's shipping intelligence between February 185 1
and November 1852, almost two-thirds of al1 the calls for provisions and
water were made by American whalers but their number declined in the
later nineteenth century. More whalers continued to call at St. Helena. Until
1884, it was reponed that St. Helena was a regular port of call for the Ame-rican
whaling fleet in the South Atlantic. Some 30 or 40 vessels (ranging
from 100 to 300 tons) called regularly twice a year, in March and Septem-ber,
in order to give liberty to their crews, to take in green vegetables, po-
30. WOOLLARD, Cape Horners, p. 213.
31. Cited by HART-DAVIS, Ascemion, p. 133
tatoes and water, and replenish with stores from America which were sent
out in schooners. These schooners returned to America with the catch of oil
and bone. The fa11 in the price of oil and the high prices asked at St. Helena
for provisions and water, together with the demands of too big an advance
in cash by the natives of St. Helena to work as deck hands, wete said to have
caused the collapse of the trade3*.
In the early years of twentieth century it was reponed that the Ameri-can
whaling vessels were slowly returning to St. Helena but between 1900
and 1910 Tristan had only ten visits from whalers, including two by the
Charles V. Morgan. The last cal1 by a whaler was made on 22 November
1913 by the barque Morning Star of New Bedford33.
A Retwn of 1852 shows that whalers also used the Falklands as a base,
as the Report of 1840 forecast. Nine called in 1848, one in 1850 and two in
(he first six months of 18, íj4.
e) AS COALING STAZONS
When steam vessels began to be employed on oceanic voyages, Ascen-sion,
St. Helena and the Falklands (but not Tristan) came to serve as coal-ing
stations. From 1842 details of coal expons to these islands, most of
which must have been used for bunkers, are available as follows:
COAL EXPORTS 1842-1913
incluiding coke and patent fue1
Ascension St Helena Falklands
1,261 -
1,737 21
2,875 -
1,669 8!2
2,605 1,237
1,987 235 -
3,218 856 -
1,710 68 1 176
702 783 -
4,059 i ,809 -
32. BPP 1911 LI 748.
33. MUNCH, Sadtraffic, p. 24
34. BPP1852XVIII391.
1894 3,320 2,060
1895 1,320 3,625
1896 3,116 30
1897 1,764 447
1898 2,645 927
1899 2,5 1 1 3,303
1900 1,873 12,530
1901 2,618 6,770
1902 679 1,60 1
1903 2,509 1,997
1904 2,134 4,089
1905 1,45 1
1906 2,026 4,193
1907 695 1,851
í 908 699 1 ,43 i
1909 1,384 1,611
1910 695 4,357
191 1 - 2,303
1912 - 4,082
1913 - 4,737
Source: National Coa1 Board
Some of the coal was exported for the use of merchant vessels, some for
naval. An Admiralty chart of 1874 showed that 500 tons was kept at a num-ber
of places, including Ascension, St. Helena and Port Stanley (Falklands).
In 1886 the Roya1 Commission recommended that provision be made for
the defence of St. Helena as a second-class naval coaling station35. Until
1903 Great Britain maintained a naval squadron on the south-east coast of
South America but Port Stanley was still of sufficient note as a coaling sta-tion
to be the objective of Admira1 von Spee's squadron after his destruc-tion
of Craddock's force at Coronel on 1 Novernber 1914. Von Spra was dc-feated
in the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914. At Ascen-sion
and St. Helena the coal was stored in heaps but in the Falklands, hulks
-of which SS Great Bntain provides the most famous example- were em-ployed.
35. Proceedings of the Cobnid Conference, HMSO, 1887, p. 278. It was stated that
30,000 had already been expended upon the fortifications and it was now proposed to put
up a comparatively light armament at a cost of 7000 on works and about 2000 on addi-tional
armament .
j FOR REPAIR
Tristan and Ascension were not very suitable for repairs though occa-sionall~
a vessel lay off to effect repairs but St. Helena had a role to play in
this respect. However its importante declined in the later nineteenth cen-tury.
As Governor W. Grey ~ i l s o no ted in 1888, St. Helena had suffered
from ahe elimination of defective ships due to recent imperial legislation,
by which excellent measures this colony has been deprived of much of the
harvest cleared from vessels in distressd6. «In the old days of St. Helena's
prosperityw, a Report of 1905 stated, «the greater pan of the revenue was
derived from the shipping, especially in the way of wharfage on the cargoes
of leaking shipsd7. But the Falklands were a different case. Because of the
fierce conditions around Cape Horn, the Falklands had a continuing role as
a place for repairs. In the middle of the nineteenth century the following
calls were made:
VESSELS CALLING FOR REPAIR
AT THE FALKLANDS 1847-1851
(10 May-) (-16 June)
1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 Total
Supplies and repairs 1 4 - 3 2 10
Repairs - 1 3 3 3 10
Total 1 5 3 6 5 20
Source: BPP 1852 XVIII 385-90
A Report of 1875 stated that during the previous two years few vessels
had arrived seeking shelter and repairs which, it was suggested, as in the
case of St. Helena, was due to the stringent orders issued by the Board of
Trade which had reduced the number of unseaworthy vessels being employ-ecijs.
Not a few vesseis, it was reponed iate in the nineteenth century,
known locally as alame duckss, after suffering injury during heavy weather
off Cape Horn, called at the Falklands in distress, though it was said later
that the maintenance of the requisite plant and the high wages current ren-
36. Ciird iri E d y L .J TACKSGN, 5';. i Y&~ ~t:h b U&< i;hdf;,Um it: di~~~?ircnz>ttoc.>?fJ h ~
present date Ward Lock, 1903, p. 93.
37. BPP 1906 IXXV 215.
38. BPP 1876 LI 45.
dered such repairs costly39. The oficial Report on the colony for 1898 noted
that that year was the first during many years past during which no vessels
put into Port Stanley for repairs or in distress40. But for a number of ships
which had been dismasted or otherwise battered, the Falklands became a
final resting place if the surveyors condemned them as «constructive total
losses~w hich meant that the estimated cost of repair exceeded their value.
Once condemned, the vessels were usually sold locally to serve as
beached or floating warehouses. Usually the product stored was wool or ge-neral
supplies but once the steamship began to call some were used to store
coa141.
m
g) CALLS FOR THE SICK
=m
St. Helena and (he Faikiands aiso served as piaces where the sick couki O E
be put on shore for attention. While the navy had an anti-slave trade patrol E
2
off the West African coast from the 1820s to the 1840s St. Helena served as E
a sanatorium and the same purpose was performed by the Falklands for the 3
British South Atlantic squadron. In 1901 the hulk Howden was moored off -
St. Helena for quarantine purposes. 0m
E
h) ASNA VAL STATIONS
St. Helena, Ascension and the Falklands served as ports of cal1 for na- E
val vessels throughout the nineteenth cen&ry. Provisions were obtained
a
n from them and stores and coal held there for naval use. Not only British n
warships called but so did warships of other nations. In 1913 one German, 3
O
39. BPP 1893-4 LIX 249; Encyclopaedlia Bntannica, 11th ed., 1909-10. Montevideo was
the preferred refuge but it was further away and repairs took longer.
40. BPP 1899 LU! 648-9.
41. Amongst the hulks which still survive in the Falklands are the Margaret, which spent
two months trying to get round Cape Horn when she began to leak badly and put about for
the Falklands in 1850; the William Shand, on a voyage from Liverpool to Valparaiso in 1859;
the snow Squall, on a voyage from New York to San Francisco in 1864; the packet Charles
Cooper, bound from Callao to Melbourne in 1866; the Jhelem, out of Callao for Dunkirk in
1870; and the Capricorn, whose cargo of coal caught fire in 1881. Best known of al1 is the
Great Britain which. while carrying coal from Penarth to San Francisco. was damaged off Cape
Horn. Condernned in 1886, she was used to store coal and wool. In 1970 she was refloated and
brought back to the dock where she was built in Bristol and is now on display there. Uohn
SMITH, Condemnedat Stanley, National Maritime Historical Trust, 1973).
one French, one Japanese and one Argentinian warship called at St. Helena
in addition to nine British warships42.
;) FOR REFUGE
Sailing vessels and whalers also called at Ascension, St. Helena, Tristan
and the Falklands for the purposr, as consular Reports put it, of giving rheir
crews liberty. It must have been a relief to be on dry land after days and
weeks at sea, especially in bad weather. Additionally, on Ascension there
was the chance of some sport chasing turtles.
IMPORTSAND EXPORTS
Both Ascension and St. Helena had little in the way of trade. Their im-ports
consisted only of a limited range of commodities for the support of
the inhabitants and neither had anything in the way of exports except the
water and provisions which they supplied to passing vessels. St. Helena was
a slightly different case. Imports were on a larger scale to support the gar-rison
and, during the Boer war, the prisoners of war. Throughout the ni-neteenth
century imports exceeded exports but there were periodic at-tempts
to develop export products. In 1905 the Annzlal'Report noted that
«there is no regular export trade in St. Helena. It is to be hoped, however,
that this evil will be remedied in the near future by success attending the ef-forts
to revive the flax industry and by the hoped for working of the man-ganese
ore deposits.»*3 the disparity of imports and expores is made clear in
the following table for selected years, 185 1-1913. It should be noted that
the value of whale bone and oil transhipped is excluded.
42. BPP 1914-16 XLIII 505.
43. BPPI906 LXXV212.
ST HELENA: IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 1851-1913 (£S)
Imports Exports
Source: BPP 1856 LVII 721; 1888 LXXII 768; 1892 LV 625; 1902 LXV
542; 1914 LVIII 358
0nJy the F&&nd Trlandr had a sizeahle export ttade which they were
able to carry on because they had a larger popuiation and a number of secu-re
and well-protected harbours, particularly San Carlos Bay and Port Stan-ley
on East Falkland44.
A continuous annual run of figures for vessels entering the Falklands is
available for the period 184641 to 1898. This shows that the number of sail-ing
vessels entering fluctuated from year to year with weather conditions
and the state of trade. The largest number of sailing vessels, 74, entered in
1863; the peak year for tonnage was 1866 when a tonnage of 42,547 tons
were recorded. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 had its effect on the
number of vessels which sailed round Cape Horn to Australia and the shift
from sail to steam also had its effect. The first steamships arrived in 1878.
As their numbers grew, so the numbers of sailing vessels tended to decline.
The number of vessels calling at the Falklands in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries was also affected by general shipping develop-ments.
Not only did steam replace sail but vessels of small tonnage gave
way to vesseis oigreater size anci &ese had more commodious storage space
for water. Further, al1 in all, vessels were in every way better found which
tended to reduce the number of vessels calling for repairs. Details of the
vessels entering the Falklands, 1846-98, are given in the following table:
44. For a detailed assessment of the ports and anchorages in the Falklands, see Fa¿kLand
Islands: Kergzselen, pp. 20-3.
45. The table in BPP 1899 LXI 630-2 begins with the year 1842 but there is no informa-tion
about vessels entered until 1846.
VESSELS ENTERING THE FALKLANDS 1846-1898"
Sailing vessels
Year
1846
1847
1848
! 849
1850
185 1
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
number
25
22
28
29
36
50
62
60
5 5
53
33
40
28
53
47
54
62
74
60
55
70
62
50
54
5 5
60
tons
7,262
-
-
9,205
l3,88 1
15,197
22,024
25,186
23,728
19,793
10,501
18,415
8,645
22,140
15,909
21,327
34,306
33,673
23,524
20,452
42,547
32,678
29,730
22,195
20,227
29,959
Y ear
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
IIOOOO*A
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
Sailing vessels
number
48
53
49
5 5
37
3 1
35
44
38
29
30
23
L'Jl ?
2 1
22
35
2 1
31
30
26
32
24
18
21
22
16
13
tons
25,700
26,5 18
17,679
22,403
22,892
11,415
8.386
12,725
20,475
18,942
20,174
14,238
1 L 7 A 7
lV, 1-P l
11,353
15,505
21,535
8,132
l2,24 1
12,336
16,766
17,765
10,398
12,043
14,204
16,429
11,051
5,415
Source: BPP 1899 LXI 630-2, 648-9
Steamers
number
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
-
7
27
20
13
14
15
15
18
15
14
13
17
18
18
21
15
21
25
33
tons
-
-
e
-
-
-
-
e
e
e
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
21,065
26,345
27,986
39,867
42,747
56,716
Total
number
-
-
-
-
-
-
39
44
45
56
50
36
J2 7I
36
37
53
36
45
43
43
50
42
39
36
43
41
46
*As, with but few exceptions, the vessels entered also cleared, a return of
the latter is not given.
In a different form, figures of sailing vessels and steamers entering the
Falklands are available for the period 1899-1913, as the following table
shows, with the number of steamers incieasing sharply from 1980:
VESSELS ENTERING THE FALKEANDS 1899-1913
Sailing vessels Stearneas Total
Year number number number ñonnage
BPP 1902 LXIV 526; 1904 LVI 308; 1909 LVII 329;
Source: Falklands ~slands: Kerguelen, p. 25
For the period May 1847 to June 185 1 a return is available which dis-tinguishes
vessels entering on cisland service~fr om vessels calling for water,
provisions and repairs and from whalers:
VESSELS ENTERING THE FALKLANDS
ON ISLAND SERVICE 1847-185 1
(10 May-) (- 16 June)
1847 1848 1849 1858 1851 Total
Island service 8 9 10 11 8 46
Island service and supplies - - 2 1 3
Total 8 9 10 13 9 49
Source: BPP 1852 XVIII 385-90 m
For the same period a similar return gives information about the na-tionally
of the vessels. As can be seen, British and American vessels were in
the majority.
VESSELS, BY NATIONALITY, ENTERING THE FALKLANDS,
10 MAY 1847-16 JUNE 1851
1847 1848 1849 1850 1851
No. Tons No. Tons No. Tons No. Tons No. Tons
British 4 1,070 12
American 6 1,575 12
Norwegian 1 350 -
Danish 1 350 -
Oriental 2 225 2
Hamburg 1 127 -
Ciiiean - - i
French - 1
Russian - - -
--
Total 15 3,697 28 11,738 25 7,669 36 13,881 31 10,699
Source: BPP 1852 XVIII 391
Half a century later the British vessels predominated amongst the
steam vessels while sailing vessels belonged to several countries. The follow-ing
table for the years 1900-1 and 1905-6 shows the effect of the shift of the
mail contract from the German Kosmos line to the Pacific Steam Naviga-tion
Company in 1900.
VESSELS, BY NATIONALITY, ENTERING THE FALKLANDS
American
De:*: "l.
U 1 ILlJll
Chilean
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Norwegian
Italian
Russian
Totals
Steam
1901 1905 1906 1900
Sailing
Tonnage
Source: BPP 1902 LXIV 506; 1907 LIII 517
5 70
-
The major difference between the Falklands and the other British
South Atlantic island dependencies was that the Falklands carried on an
active trade. The value of imports (which were retained for home consump-tion)
and of exports (which were the produce of the colony) for the years
1849 to 1913 are set out in the following table:
FALKLANDS ISLANDS: IMPORTS AND EXPORTS 1849-19 13 (£S)
Year Imports Exports Year Imports Exports
Source: BPP 1898 LXI 630-2; 1907 LIII 8-9; Falkland Islands:
Kerguelen, p. 35
Exports increased steadily with year to year fluctuations but not ti11
1871 did they, with a few annual exceptions such as 1856 and 1865, consis-tently
exceed imports. As the following table for 1893 to 1913 shows, im-ports
came mainly from the United Kingdom.
SOURCE OF IMPORTS INTO THE FALKLANDS ISLAND
1893-1913 (ES)
United Kingdom 64,571 64,992 8 1,924 152,958
Germany 700 705 - -
Uruguay 1,939 2,119 7,093 1,781
Chile 3,748 5,171 3,949 1,986
Argentina 168 - 192 43,482
Other countries - - 1,136 39,015
Total 7 1,126 72,987 94,294 239,222
Source: BPP 1895 LXIX 199; 1899 LXI 643; Falklands Islands:
Kerguelen, p. 37
-.
1 he Ünited Kingdom was aiso <he main market for the products of fhe
Falklands.
DESTINATION OF EXPORTS FROM THE FALKLANDS ISLANDS
1893-1913 (£S)
United Kingdom 130,3 19 103,700 232,192 730,994
Chile 3,1 03 - 394 37,700
Argentina 1,450 3,284 - 80,552
Norway - - - 414,490
Other countries - - 76,344 196,483
Source: BPP 1895 LXIX 199; 1899 LXI 643; Falkland Islands:
Kerguelen, p. 36 -
Amongst the imports, wearing apparel, groceries, provisions, liquor
and beer loomed large, with coal, ships stores and building material also of
importante, as the information available for 1897 and 1898 bears witness:
W
-4
A IMPORTS INTO THE FALKLANDS 1897-1898 (£S)
Articlés
Coa1
Wearing apparel, clothing material
including boots and haberdashery
Hardware, machinery
Oilmen's stores, groceries and pro-visions
Livestock and fodder
Building material, including timber
Liquor, beer, spirits and wine of al1
kinds
Tobacco and cigars
Specie
Ships stores, cordage & c
Sheep dip
Fruit and vegetables
Cereals
Fencing
Total
Source: BPP 1899 LXI 645-6
From
Jnited Kingdom Geipmany Uruguay
From Chile
The principal occupation in the Falklands was sheep farming and so
wool formed the largest export with tallow, hides and sheepskins also find-ing
a sale abroad, mainly in the United Kingdom. Details of the exports for
the period 1882-1913 are set out in the following table:
EXPORTS FROM THE FALKLANDS 1882-19 13
(2s)
Wool
Seepskins
Sealskins
Hides
Tallow
Live sheep
Whale oil
Guano
Whale bone
Sea1 oil
Others
Total 76,846 107,995 106,984 308,930 1,460,219
Source: BPP 1888 LXXII 96; 1899 LXI 644; Falklands Islands:
Kerguelen, p. 36
Thus in the nineteenth and early twentieh centuries rhe Falklands had
a :de in sea-borne aade hili as a ponof cal: for provisions ano water, for
stores and repairs, and for coa1 but had also developed a sizeable export tra-de
in wool and the by-products of sheep.
46. This total and the figure for total exports from the Falkland Islands in 1882 given in
the table on p. 26 a!>ove come from different sources.
575
CONCLUSION
In the nineteenth century Britain had four island possessions in the
South Atlantic: St. Helena, acquired in 1659, Ascension and Tristan da
Cunha, occupied in 1816, and the Falkland Islands which came under Bri-tish
rule in 1833. During the period of oceanic sail in the nineteenth cen-tury,
al1 four islands served as ports of call, as places to which vessels resort-ed
for fresh food (to prevent scurvy), for water, for stores and for repairs. In
particular, vessels damaged attempting to round Cape Horn crept back to
the Falklands. Some were repaired but others were not worth restoring.
Many of these hu:ks which still survive, having served to store wool or coal,
make the Falklands an important graveyard of nineteenth century sail.
When the steamship developed, St. Helena, Ascension and the Falklands
@U: ncx Tristan Ya Cunha/l -C-P-'~-~- PasJ c oallng stations hoth for merchant-ment
and for warships.
Four developments largely brought the role of these islands as ports of
call to an end:
1 .- The opening of the Suez Canal altered the pattern of trade routes to the
Far East and Australasia;
2.- Canning and later refrigeration and better water treatment plants on
ships rnade calls for food and water no longer necessary;
3.- Steamships followed different tracks in the South Atlantic, no longer,
except in the case of rnail ships, passing close to St. Helena, Ascension
and Tristan da Cunha; and
4.- More stringent regulations relating to the seaworthiness of ships meant
that fewer ships were damaged at sea.
So St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha decline$ while Ascension found a
new role from 1899 as a communications centre and from the 1940s as an
aircraft staging post. The Falklands were different. Before they were caught
up in recent history, they dweloped an export trade in wool and other pro-ducts
of the sheep. This gave them a small and precarious place in world
trade as well as in world shipping.
The role of the British South Atlantic islands in the nineteenth century
was a product of a certain set of political, commercial and technical factors.
When these changed, their significance altered*'.
47. 1 gratefully acknowledge the help of Alistair Couper, A.J. Frances. John Kanefsky and
Alston Kennerley in the compilation of this article.