British Columbia Historical Quarterly

THE BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY JANUARY-APRIL, 1956 4 — BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Published by the Archives of British Columbia :, in co-operation with the British Columbia Historical Association. • ••, EDITOR Wiu.itn E. IRELAND, Provincial Archives, Victoria. Editorial communications should be addressed to the Editor. Subscriptions should be sent to the Provincial Archives, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C. Price, 5O the copy, or $2 the year. Members of the British Columbia Historical Association in good standing receive the Quarterly without further charge. Neither the Provincial Archives nor the British Columbia Historical Association assumes any responsibility for statements made by contributors to the magazine. BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY “Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past.” VOL. XX VIcToRIA, B.C., JANuARY-APRiL, 1956 Nos. 1 AND 2 CONTENTS PAGE The “All-Red Route,” 1893—1953: A History of the Trans-Pacific Mail Service between British Columbia, Australia, and New Zealand. ByJ.H.Hami1ton__ — — — 1 NOTES AND CoMMEuss: British Columbia Historical Association — — 127 Kamloops Museum Association 136 New Westminster Historic Centre — — 137 IndustryatTrailMonument _ — 137 Contributors to This Issue 140 Tue NORThwEsT BOOKSHELF: Rich: Moose Factory Journals 1783—85. Rich: Black’s Rocky Mountain Journal 1824. Rich: Eden Colvile’s Letters 1849—52. By Willard E. Ireland — 141 .4. J\. j,_ —, (Courtesy Leonard Frank Photos, Vancouver.) Aorangi U loading cargo at Vancouver. 1949. THE “ALL-RED ROUTE,” 1893—1953 A History of the Trans-Pacific Mail Service between British Columbia, Australia, and New Zealand “History is the chart and compass for national endeavour.”—Sir Arthur Helps, Friends in Council, 1870. Although the term “red” to-day has different connotation, “All- Red” formerly signified “All-British.” World maps in the last century, at least those of British origin, always denoted British Empire countries in red. Thus the term “All-Red Route” was applied to any service between Britain and the British colonies or donilnions overseas to imply that the mails travelled exclusively in British ships or via British territory. While not used in any official sense, the term was applied quite freely as a sub-title of shipping lines carrying Her Majesty’s mails between two or more British countries. The term thus came to be used in connection with the Canadian Australian Line when it was established in 1893’ and for a consider able period thereafter. The “All-Red Route” served to distinguish the new service from the trans-Pacific services previously available, which had been partly by British and partly by United States ships. Moreover the direct Canadian-Australasian mail service, established in 1893 by James Huddart, of Australia, was the successor or replacement of the San Francisco service to Australasia, which in turn superseded the ser vices operated via the Isthmus of Panama. It is desirable, in order to secure a clear picture, to examine briefly the origins and history of the earlier trans-Pacific mail services, the more so since British steamship lines were largely, but by no means exclusively, engaged therein. Of special note is the fact that the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand in 1885 operated, jointly with an American line out of San Francisco, a trans-Pacific service to Australia and New Zealand. The Union Steam Ship Company was thus predisposed to take advantage of the opportunity, if such should arise, to engage in a Canadian Australasian service. When, after only a few years in operation, the service between Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became financially (1) The term “All-Red Route” was used in the line’s travel folders and adver tising as late as 1926. British Columbia Historical Quarterly, Vol. XX, Nos. I and 2. 2 3. H. HAMILTON Jan.-Apr. embarrassed, it was rescued from abandonment and the operation taken over by the experienced Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand, who brought it to a high degree of efficiency and success. To British ship-owners and ship—builders, credit must go for being the pioneers in exploitation of the possibilities of the Panama route. The decade between 1835 and 1845 had witnessed the successful ap plication of steam to the operation of ocean-going vessels. It had been finally demonstrated that a steamship was practicable for a long sea voyage, and that it was possible for steam-propelled vessels to make such a voyage with greater speed and regularity than sailing-vessels. Supremacy of the sailing-ships for transportation of heavy cargoes was not at first challenged, but mail and passengers, carried under a relative ly high tariff, travelled increasingly by steamers. These ten years saw the foundation of the great network of British “mail lines “: the Penin sular and Oriental (P. & 0.) from England to Egypt, India, and the Far East in 1837; the Cunard Line between Britain and North America in 1839; the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company from England to the West Indies and the east coast of South America in 1839; and the Pacific Steam Navigation Company (P.S.N.) operating on the west coast of South America between Panama, Chile, and Peru in 1840. The Royal Navy took a lively interest in the establishment of these and similar passenger and mail lines, as they visualized that the speedy steam-propelled ships, which could readily be converted to naval use in time of war, would be a valuable asset. This theory formed the basis of argument in favour of subsidizing construction and operation of these new commercial lines. This action speeded the construction, under naval supervision, of fast ships, advanced in design from the formerly employed sailing-ships. The British lines were not slow to take advantage of the new opportunity, and passenger and mail lines were established as quickly as possible between Great Britain and the West Indies, continuing on to the Atlantic coast of the Isthmus of Panama, connecting overland with another British line of steamers operating from the Pacific side of the Isthmus to Peru and Chile. Two Pacific Steam Navigation Company steamers, the Peru and Chile, were the pioneers in this service, which received a comparatively small subsidy for carrying the mails.2 During the initial years the operation (2) Pacific Steam Navigation Company Limited is now a subsidiary of the Royal Mail Lines Limited. In 1846 a mule and canoe “line” was organized across the isthmus, connecting with the steamers of the P.S.N. Company. 1956 THE “ALL-RED ROUTE,” 1893—1953 3 was financially unprofitable, the limited business offering, coupled with the heavy expense of coal in so distant a field, proving a formidable obstacle.3 An agreement was made with the British Government for the carriage of mails through from England to the west coast of South America as far south as Valparaiso.4 The British Pacific squadron was at that time based on Valparaiso, which is one reason why the Admiralty was especially interested.5 It should be noted that but for an apparently unrelated cause these two well-established British lines would have been first in the field of regular trans-Pacific mail service between Great Britain and Australia. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company had realized the practicability of such a service in connection with its established services to Central America. Having participated in financing the Panama railroad, the Royal Mail Company, in conjunction with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, formed in London a new company, the Australasian-Pacific Mail Steam Packet Company, and obtained a Royal charter for its incorporation. Orders were placed with British yards for five iron screw steamers, to be named Kangaroo, Emeu, Black Swan, Dinoris, and Menura. All plans were laid for commencement of the service, when in 1853 the Crimean War broke out.6 As is usual in time of war, the overseas price of coal rose quickly to a height making impossible any hope of operating the proposed service without severe losses. The steamships of those days were heavy coal-consumers and demanded the provision of adequate supplies, much of which would have to be stored at coaling-stations supplied from distant sources, requiring long sea transportation. Reluctantly the entire undertaking was abandoned, the ships were sold, and the company wound up before even one single sailing had been made. It is logical to assume that had this project been brought to fruition, it would have succeeded in establishing a stable and regular service, which doubtless would have weathered the difficulties which confronted the small companies who unsuccessfully essayed the task, as will be related herein. This illustrates the unforeseen and disruptive effects which can ensue from a war, even so relatively localized (3) A. C. Wardle, Steam Conquers the Pacific, London, 1940, pp. 47—66, passim. (4) J. H. Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848—1869, Berkeley, 1943, p. 3. (5) F. V. Longstaff and W. Kaye Lamb, “The Royal Navy on the Northwest Coast, 1813—1850,” British Columbia Historical Quarterly, IX (1945), p. 8. (6) “A Link of Commonwealth,” Sea Breezes, XVI (July, 1953), p. 10. 4 J. H. HAMILTON Jan.-Apr. a conflict as the Crimean War, insignificant in comparison with the great conflagrations of 1914 and 1939. The United States was not slow to recognize the potential value of the Isthmus of Panama as a point of transit from the Atlantic to the Pacific and was stirred into prompt action by the establishment of British steamship lines. Quickly following the

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