Pacific Station

This article is about the 19th century British Royal Navy formation. For the United States Navy Pacific Station of 1872-1878, see Pacific Squadron. For the television show, see Pacific Station (TV series).

Pacific Station
HMS Ganges at anchor near Victoria Harbour
Active	South America Station (1826–1837) Pacific Station (1837–1905)
Disbanded	Sunset 1 March 1905
Country	United Kingdom and Canada
Branch	Navy
Type	Naval squadron & fleet
Part of	Royal Navy
Garrison/HQ	Valparaíso, Chile & Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard
Notable ships	HMS President
Engagements	Siege of Petropavlovsk
Commanders
Notable commanders	George Seymour, Fairfax Moresby, Thomas Maitland

The Pacific Station, often referred to as the Pacific Squadron, was one of the geographical divisions into which the Royal Navy divided its worldwide responsibilities. Before 1837 it was called the South America Station.

History

Capture of the USS Essex by HMS Phoebe and HMS Cherub off Valparaíso, 28 March 1814

An 1830 illustration of Valparaíso Bay shows a mix of commercial and military vessels

It was established in the early nineteenth century to support British interests along the eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean at Valparaíso, Chile. In 1834 the Station hosted a visit by the survey ship HMS Beagle on her second voyage. In 1837 the South America Station was renamed the Pacific Station. In 1843 George Paulet, captain of HMS Carysfort, took her out from Valparaíso to Honolulu to demand the islands of the Kingdom of Hawaii for Britain. King Kamehameha III capitulated and signed the islands over to Paulet. In the summer of that year Rear-Admiral Richard Darton Thomas set out from Valparaíso in HMS Dublin to rein Paulet in. On 31 July 1843 Thomas assured the King that the occupation was over and that there was no British claim over the islands.

In 1842 HMS Pandora was sent north to survey the coast of Vancouver Island and what would become the Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard. During the survey trip the crew of the Pandora found that Esquimalt Harbour had a size and depth suited for use as a Royal Navy harbour. As tensions between Britain and America rose during the Oregon boundary dispute a base at the southern end of Vancouver Island would help strengthen the British claim to all of the island. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 ceded control over all of the island to Britain. In 1848 HMS Constance was sent to Esquimalt and was the first vessel to be stationed there. In the summer of 1854 several ships, including HMS President, Pique, Trincomalee, Amphitrite, and Virago set out from Valparaíso and sailed across the Pacific Ocean stopping at the Marquesas Islands then they went on to Honolulu where they met a French fleet of warships. In late August the combined fleets sailed to Russia to engage in the Siege of Petropavlovsk at which Commander-in-Chief David Price died. Captain of the Pique Frederick William Erskine Nicolson was brevetted and took command of the British naval forces from 31 August 1854 until the arrival of the next Commander-in-Chief. In 1855 three Crimean huts were built at Esquimalt to serve as a hospital intended to receive wounded from the Crimean War. The huts were the first shore establishment at Esquimalt.

The presence of forests full of straight grained conifers such as the Coast Douglas fir meant that Vancouver Island could provide shipbuilding material suitable for spar making in the age of sail. The later discovery of coal on the island and at Vancouver's Coal Harbour, meant that the area could also serve as a useful resource in the age of steam as well. Rear-Admiral Robert Lambert Baynes, aware of the political importance of maintaining British sovereignty amidst the San Juan Boundary Dispute and the British Columbia gold rushes recommended to the Admiralty a move of the station headquarters from Valparaíso to Esquimalt in November 1859.

By 1865 Esquimalt was recognized as the base headquarters of the Pacific Station. The move from Valparaíso to Esquimalt helped the Pacific Station avoid involvement in the Chincha Islands War (1864–1866) between Spain, Chile, and Peru. Rear-Admiral de Horsey ordered HMS Shah commanded by Frederick Bedford, against the Nicolás de Piérola-led Huáscar in the Battle of Pacocha on 29 May 1877. In that battle two Whitehead torpedoes were fired from the Shah at the Huáscar but they missed their mark and the Huáscar got away.

A graving dock large enough to accommodate the largest ships in the Pacific fleet was commissioned at Esquimalt in 1887. After a period of relaxing tensions meant that British interests in British Columbia were secured, the Station was maintained to counter Russian ambitions in the Pacific. The Station was also crucial in defending British Columbia from United States aggression during the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the contemporaneous Alaska Boundary Dispute, when the US threatened to forcibly invade and annex British Columbia if its demands over Alaska were not met.

Unknown Monmouth-class cruiser in Esquimalt Harbour, 1906

By the end of the nineteenth century, improved communications, the signing of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the need to concentrate warships in British waters to counter the developing German High Seas Fleet, meant that the station was closed down at sunset on 1 March 1905. The facilities and base of operations at Esquimalt, British Columbia were transferred to the Canadian Department of Marine and Fisheries. The Pacific Station's responsibilities were divided between the China, Australia and the North America and West Indies Stations.

After passage of the Naval Service Bill in 1910 there was a Canadian Naval Service that controlled the base at Esquimalt and that service became the Royal Canadian Navy in 1911. In the 1960s a consolidation of defence forces in Canada led to its re-constitution as the Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt.

Commanders

Most commanders-in-chief of the station held the rank of rear admiral, with the exceptions of Hamond and Hastings who were each promoted to vice admiral before being reassigned to other duties, and Goodrich who was a commodore.

List of Commanders-in-chief
South America Station (1826–1837)
Commander-in-Chief, South America	From	Until	Notes
Rear Admiral Robert Otway	1826	1829	Later promoted to Admiral, flagship was the HMS Ganges
Rear Admiral Thomas Baker	9 January 1829	January 1833	Promoted to Vice Admiral 10 January 1837
Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour	1 January 1833	9 July 1834	Died en route to station
Vice Admiral Graham Hammond	16 September 1834	17 May 1838	Promoted to Vice Admiral 10 January 1837
Pacific Station (1837–1905)
Commander in Chief, Pacific	From	Until	Notes
Rear Admiral Charles Ross	1837	1841
Rear Admiral Richard Thomas	5 May 1841	1844	Promoted to Admiral of the White 19 May 1857
Rear Admiral George Seymour	14 May 1844	25 August 1847	Appointed Admiral of the Fleet 30 November 1866
Rear Admiral Phipps Hornby	25 August 1847	21 August 1850
Rear Admiral Fairfax Moresby	21 August 1850	17 August 1853	Stationed at Valparaíso also visited Vancouver. Appointed Admiral of the Fleet 21 January 1870
Rear Admiral David Price	17 August 1853	30 August 1854	Died at the Siege of Petropavlovsk
Rear Admiral Henry Bruce	25 November 1854	8 July 1857
Rear Admiral Robert Baynes	8 July 1857	5 May 1860
Rear Admiral Thomas Maitland	5 May 1860	31 October 1862	Appointed Admiral of the Fleet 27 December 1877
Rear Admiral John Kingcome	31 October 1862	10 May 1864	After whom Kingcome Inlet is named, flagship was the HMS Sutlej
Rear Admiral Henry Denham	10 May 1864	21 November 1866
Vice Admiral George Hastings	21 November 1866	1 November 1869	Promoted to Vice Admiral 10 September 1869
Rear Admiral Arthur Farquhar	1 November 1869	9 July 1872	An investor in the coal mines of Robert Dunsmuir
Rear Admiral Charles Hillyar	9 July 1872	6 June 1873	Son of James Hillyar
Rear Admiral Arthur Cochrane	6 June 1873	15 April 1876	Son of Thomas Cochrane
Rear Admiral George Hancock	15 April 1876	August 1876
Rear Admiral Algernon de Horsey	20 September 1876	21 July 1879	Promoted to Vice Admiral 27 November 1879. Promoted to Admiral 29 April 1885.
Rear Admiral Frederick Stirling	21 July 1879	10 December 1881
Rear Admiral Algernon Lyons	10 December 1881	13 September 1884
Rear Admiral John Baird	13 September 1884	4 July 1885
Rear Admiral Sir Michael Culme-Seymour	4 July 1885	20 September 1887
Rear Admiral Algernon Heneage	20 September 1887	4 February 1890
Rear Admiral Charles Hotham	4 February 1890	4 May 1893
Rear Admiral Henry Stephenson	4 May 1893	19 June 1896
Rear Admiral Henry Palliser	19 June 1896	22 June 1899
Rear Admiral Lewis Beaumont	22 June 1899	15 October 1900
Rear Admiral Andrew Bickford	1900	1903	Builder of the Bickford tower. Promoted to Vice Admiral 10 February 1904.
Commodore James Goodrich	1903	1 March 1905	Last Royal Navy commander.

Legacy

Arco Británico erected 1910 at Eleuterio Ramirez and Avenue Brasil in Valparaíso commemorates Lord Cochrane, Robert Simpson, and other founders of Chile

The largest remnant of the Pacific Station is the CFB Esquimalt naval base in western Canada. Many geographical features of Vancouver Island and British Columbia are named after captains, commanders, and ships assigned to the Pacific Station. The Arco Británico triumphal arch in Valparaíso was constructed to commemorate the British presence in the city, including several Naval commanders. Thomas Square in Honolulu is named after Admiral Richard Darton Thomas. Although Union Flags were flown over Hawaii as early as 1816 the current state flag of Hawaii design dates from the close of the Paulet Affair and features a British Union Flag in its canton to commemorate the help that Thomas rendered the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Charles Darwin's visits to Valparaíso, Cerro La Campana, and the Galápagos Islands led to publication of The Voyage of the Beagle which, along with later works such as On the Origin of Species, helped to establish the field of evolutionary biology.

See also

• British Pacific Fleet - a World War II era fleet assembled to fight Japan
• CFB Esquimalt - the contemporary Canadian Forces Base
• China Station - a Royal Navy command that patrolled the eastern Pacific Ocean in the 19th and 20th centuries
• Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard - the shore establishment used by the Pacific Station until 1905
• Maritime Forces Pacific - the contemporary Canadian command
• Pacific Squadron - a division of the United States Navy between 1821 and 1907

Further reading

• Gough, Barry M (1974) [1971]. The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America 1820-1914: A Study of Maritime Ascendancy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0-7748-0000-3.