Guano Wars - Postal History Sunday
Postal History Sunday #152
Welcome to this week's edition of Postal History Sunday!
It's been several weeks since I did a full introduction. So, if you're new here or if you need a refresh, Postal History Sunday is written weekly - and hopefully not weakly - by Rob Faux (yep, that's me). The first Postal History Sunday was offered in August of 2020, as part of my own effort to reach out to others who might be feeling the negative effects of the pandemic. My intent then is the same as it is now. I hope that I can share something I enjoy with you in such a way that you might be entertained whether you know a lot about postal history or you just happen to be passing through. Perhaps you will be able to set your troubles aside for a few moments and maybe, just maybe, you'll learn something new!
Fertile Ground for a Postal History Sunday
And now, without further todo, let's look at a piece of postal history from the year 1868. This item was mailed from Richmond, Maine, in the United States to Callao, Peru.
Richmond is located south of Augusta, Maine, on the Kennebec River. For those of you who are vegetable growers, you might recognize the name "Kennebec" for the popular potato. That potato variety was developed in Maine at the Presque Island USDA facilities and introduced in 1941. This document from that time period discusses those facilities and their program (page 415).
I bring potatoes up because they, and other food plants, are grown on land where additional fertility is often needed to maintain crop production year after year. The cover above actually has a connection to the issue of fertility in the soil and it might be interesting to see how I get to making that connection!
This envelope has two postage stamps, one represents 24 cents of postage and the other 10 cents. The 34-cent rate per 1/2 ounce from the United States to Peru was in place from October of 1867 until February of 1870. And unlike many postage rates of the time, was actually an increase from the prior postage rate (22 cents). Â
If a letter to Peru originated from a location east of the Rocky Mountains in the US, it typically traveled by steamship to Panama, crossing the isthmus to the Pacific Ocean. Once on the west coast of Panama, a steamship under British contract would carry mail destined for the west coast of South America.
At this time, ten cents of the total postage was kept by the United States to cover their costs, which included the steamship voyage from New York to Panama. But they had to pass 24 cents to the British to cover their voyage down the west coast - hence the red "24" at the bottom right.
The letter itself was intended for Zacheus Allen, who was apparently on board the ship America under the command of Captain Morse.  The directional docket instructs the postal service to put the letter into the hands of the US Consul in Callao so they could arrange to get the letter to Allen. Â
This docket reads " Ship America, Capt Morse, care American Consul (ship loading at Chinci Islands)"
Zacheus Allen was on one of a large number of ships likely awaiting a load of guano from the Chincha Islands, a process that could be quite lengthy. So, it is likely that the various consuls for different countries had a process for taking mail to bored sailors waiting for their ship's hull to be filled...
with poo.
Yes, you heard me correctly, these ships were waiting to be filled with old bird droppings that were going to be sold as fertility amendments elsewhere in the world (primarily North America and Europe). And now you see the link between Kennebec potatoes and the topic at hand. This is all about soil fertility.
Guano became big business
Guano had long been used, in a careful and guarded fashion, for fertility supplements by the Incan empire for generations. The Incans were fully aware that this resource was renewable as long as the seabird population was encouraged AND the limited existing resources was not over-exploited. Of course, European and North American agricultural systems tended to extract more from the soils, requiring various sources to replace fertility (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium). As a result, these ag systems had an almost insatiable need for products that could deliver that fertility.
Alexander von Humboldt, during his travels in South America, became aware of the use of guano and took samples back to Europe with him in 1804. Scientific analysis of the day confirmed its value. And thus began a process of extraction and export that would last for decades on the Chincha Islands - where the supply would run out in the late 1860s and early 1870s.
If this topic interests you, you could get a nice summary here at the Atlas Obscura by Cara Giaimo. Or, if you want an in depth work on the topic, Gregory T Cushman's book titled Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World seems like a good place to go.
Oh, and one more thing. If you would like to read more about Humboldt, there’s a Postal History Sunday for that!
The largest of the Chincha Islands had guano that reached depths of 200 feet, which can be seen by looking at the first photo of the "Great Heap." Workers, some free laborers and others indentured, would use pick-axes, shovels and carts to mine the substance. A fine article by W.M. Mathew titled "A Primitive Export Sector: Guano Production in Mid-nineteenth Century Peru," describes the effort of extraction, movement and loading as dirty, slow, difficult, and inefficient work. Significant amounts of guano was lost into the ocean during the loading process and in dust that filled the air.
"When the loading started, all inside doors and windows [of the ship] were closed and tightly covered with canvas to prevent the toxic dust from filling a ship’s crew spaces. Loading crews were limited to twenty-minute shifts in the cargo holds, and the rest of the crew climbed to the tops of the masts to breathe fresh air." - from this Smithsonian source titled the Guano Trade.
According to the work by W.M. Mathew, there was one report that stated as many as 160 ships were awaiting loading at one point in 1869, and this was at a point when the supply of guano on the Chincha Islands was dwindling. The same source suggested that this meant there were 4000 people on board those ships - all waiting for a load of bird manure.
I think you can now get an idea as to how valuable a letter from home - and an American Consul office that would arrange to deliver that letter - would have been.
Enough to fight for?
The value of seabird excrement was such that the Spanish actually attempted to use the Chincha Islands as a bargaining chip, since guano production produced a significant amount of the Peruvian government's revenue. Spain occupied the islands with 400 marines on April 14, 1864 and proceeded with a blockade of major ports in Peru (including Callao).
Peruvian and Chilean forces (and later some help from Ecuador and Bolivia) eventually forced Spain's withdrawal (by 1866). This would not be the end of hostilities that had to do with the extraction of materials for fertilizer.  The War of the Pacific (1879) between Chile, Bolivia and Peru was at least partly due to a desire to control both guano and saltpeter deposits.
Saltpeter - staying in the fertilizer game
Let's go back to an envelope I featured in an earlier Postal History Sunday for a couple of interesting tidbits that you might enjoy!
This envelope was sent from New London, Connecticut to Valparaiso, Chile, in 1867. The recipient was a Captain Hinckley and his ship must have been the barque "Fannie." His mail was sent to Messrs Alsop & Co, which was a common location for United States ship captains or US citizens to have their mail sent if they were visiting Chile.
Foreign mail to Chile could only be pre-paid to the point of entry into the country. Chile charged an incoming foreign mail fee equivalent to 5 centavos (July 1853 to December 29, 1874). In addition to the incoming mail fee, incoming mail required two times the domestic internal rate (10 centavos) for a total charge of 25 centavos collected from the recipient at the point of delivery.
This letter was initially sent to Alsop & Co in Valparaiso, but they sent that letter on to W.E. Billinghurst in Iquique, which was in Peru at the time this letter was sent (1867). We can assume this letter caught up to Capt Hinckley there since there doesn't appear to any more travels recorded on this envelope. Â
Mr. Billinghurst was listed as a shipping agent for Lloyd's in Iquique during the 1860s and was, like many who worked as a shipping agent, also the representative for many other concerns. Anyone involved in trade, especially of Chilean saltpeter or guano, had likely heard of him. So, it might not be surprising to hear that his demise in the 1868 earthquake was specifically noted in newspapers throughout the world.
Iquique, despite being located in a desert region, was a port of prominence because that desert had strong deposits of sodium nitrate (Chilean saltpeter) - used for fertilizers. With the guano deposits rapidly being depleted, attention was shifting southward to the Atacama desert - and to Iquique - as the primary port of departure for ships laden with Chilean saltpeter as a fertilizer product. In 1867, nearly 116,000 tons of saltpeter were exported by Peru. This amount declined the following year, likely due, in part, to the 1868 earthquakes.
And then, there was always bone meal
This envelope was first featured in a Postal History Sunday titled Poo d'Etat
The postage stamp is a 2 cent denomination from the 1869 US issue and it pays the rate for items that were classified as a "circular." The rate for this class of mail was effective from 1863 to 1872 and allowed the sender to put up to three copies of the circular into one cover (envelope or wrapper of some sort). To qualify, the contents could only be printed matter (with no written personal messages placed in addition to the printed matter). The envelope also needed to be left unsealed so the postal clerks could inspect the item to be sure it met regulations.
I recognize that some people are a little squeamish with the idea of using ground up animal bones as a soil supplement, but you need to consider the relative resource efficiency of using bone meal versus other sources of phosphorous. Most farms included animals in their operations, some of which were raised for meat. Rather than simply discarding the bones, they could be used by being ground up and placed back into the soil so the cycle of life could continue. The goal of companies like this was to make the bone meal "soluble" so it be more readily available for uptake by plant roots.
This company directly compares their product to the Peruvian guano and, of course, makes a case that their product would be better. In particular, they cite a much more favorable price than the expensive guano being shipped from South America. Â
And now you know, manure was, and is, big business. And I just got you to read all about it in today's Postal History Sunday! No wonder I enjoy writing these posts.
A short bonus material section
Zacheus Allen, the recipient of our first letter and sailor, at the time, on the ship America, actually turned up with a little searching in a strange place. He ran into a spot of trouble as the First Officer on the Matterhorn during a trip from Cardiff (Wales) to Callao a year or two after his time waiting for a load of Guano in 1868.
This document Criminal Case Files : 1863-1917 includes charges against Allen that were of a serious nature. Â The case is summarized there as follows:
"Indictment for beating, wounding, assaulting and for cruel and unusual punishment and for the murder of Moses Blake, mariner, using a four foot capstan and a pistol and then beat him up"
There was apparently a case for self-defense that even led to a letter to then President U.S. Grant.
You might notice that the US Consul for Peru was involved in this situation as well. Williamson had taken the post earlier in 1870, so was not the same person who was in charge of the consulate at the time Allen received the letter we show at the beginning of the article.
The case results are also from the Criminal Case File document:
Detailed description of the assault and the testimony; Consolidated with cases 504 & 505; 31 Nov 1870 Verdict not guilty for case 503; nolle prosequi for case 504; guilty of beating Moses Blake for case 505, fined $10 and discharged; Case 506 murder - separate, 3 Nov 1870 ordered nolle prosequi
For those who do not know (and that included me until a few minutes ago) nolle prosequi is a formal notice of abandonment by a plaintiff or prosecutor of all or part of a suit or action. So, Zacheus Allen was only found guilty of beating Moses Blake and had to pay $10 for the crime. Was it because Mr. Allen truly was defending himself? Was it because he had friends who could get the ear of the President of the United States?
It sounds like an interesting story. Maybe we'll hunt that one down some day.
Thank you for joining me today. Have a fine remainder of your day and an excellent week to come.
Postal History Sunday is featured weekly on this Substack publication. If you take this link, you can view every edition of Postal History Sunday, starting with the most recent publication. If you think you might enjoy my writing on other topics, I can also be found at the Genuine Faux Farm substack. And, some publications may also be found under my profile at Medium, if you have interest.
I never knew there was that much history in fertilizer. I am curious as to whether South American guano was better than American or European guano or why travel so far for fertilizer. Thanks.