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Plans began in 1845 to create a steamship route connecting the Eastern United States to Astoria in the Oregon Territory. The plan called for steamers to run between New York and Chagres, on the Caribbean Coast of Panama. There passengers would disembark and transfer to river boats to carry them up the Chagres River to a landing at Gorgona. From there, the route would utilize mules to cross the cordillera and drop down to the city of Panama on the Pacific Coast. Other steamers would run between Panama and Astoria to complete the route. By early 1848, these plans were well underway with the first scheduled departure from New York to sail later that year.

Gold was discovered in the mountains east of Sacramento in early 1848. Word of this discovery reached New York after the first steamship for California, the steamer California, departed in late 1848. When she reached Panama City after rounding Cape Horn a throng of Argonauts clamored for a berth. When the California reached San Francisco, the crew deserted and headed for the diggings. Plans to make Astoria the Pacific terminus were abandoned and San Francisco became the end of the line. After initial problems in getting things organized, a post office was open by March 15, 1849. Within a few weeks, the next steamship, the Oregon, arrived and unloaded beneath the guns of a U.S. naval ship to prevent desertion. The first steamer mail was dispatched by the Oregon on April 12. and the Panama Route began to function. Postage for the new route was high – 40 cents per half ounce, to which a 2 cents ship fee was added for letters deposited at the post office from ships arriving from a foreign port.

News of the new route was published in Honolulu, even before confirmation arrived to know it was in operation. Despite the high postage, the Panama Route quickly became the preferred way to send mail because of the speed plus the security of knowing it would be carried in the U.S. mail once it was deposited at the San Francisco Post Office. From this point until the overland stages became well established in 1859, almost all mail between Hawaii and the Eastern United States or Europe was carried via San Francisco and Panama.

The first two covers from Hawaii to go by the new steamship route via San Francisco:

Capt. Luce of the whale ship Margaret Scott arrived at Honolulu from Newport R.I. on January 29, 1849, and dated this letter to his principal at Holmes Hole, Mass. on February 9. Luce began his letter with: “I arrived here a few days since. There is nothing by gold talked of here.”

Capt. Luce handed his letter to the captain of the brig Eliza bound for San Francisco. Luce expected the new steamship route would be operating. Eliza departed Honolulu February 13 and arrived at San Francisco March 15, 1849. Luce’s letter was delivered to the new United States Post Office there, postmarked on April 9 with the manuscript San Francisco postmark and rated “40” for the postage due on delivery. The 2¢ ship fee was not charged. Perhaps the San Francisco clerks were still unfamiliar with that fee. Luce’s letter was put aboard the steamship Oregon on April 12 to begin the trip to New York City via Panama. This mail was the first steamship mail taken from San Francisco on the new route.

M. Cook, a traveler from Valparaiso en route to China began this letter on March 1, 1849, at sea, and finished it on March 11 when "we are now running into Honolulu". While at Valparaiso, he saw two steamships bound for San Francisco and learned they were to commence operating a new mail route from San Francisco to New York via Panama; Cook brought this news to Honolulu. Information about sending letters for the new steamship line was published in The Polynesian edition of March 17, 1849.

At Honolulu, Cook's letter was put aboard the Hawaiian schooner S. S., departing March 14 via Lahaina for San Francisco, arriving in the heart of the Gold Rush on April 16, 1849. The new San Francisco post office was still without any postmarking device so the letter was postmarked on April 17 by writing the name of the town and the rating marks "Ship" and "42" to indicate an incoming ship letter rated at 42¢ to be collected from the addressee. Postage included the ship fee of 2¢ and the 40¢ overland rate by the newly established steamship route. The letter was sent east on the first voyage of the steamer California from San Francisco, departing May 1.

Contents of this letter reveal how voyagers took opportunities to send mail home while en route from the Atlantic States to the Pacific. Cook's letter mentions he sent correspondence home on two occasions between Boston and Honolulu. In the Atlantic off South America he sent letters by an "English Brig bound into Rio Janeiro." Later in the voyage, on the Pacific off South America, he sent letters by a Chilean Brig bound into Valparaiso "there to be forwarded by steamer to Panama."

This cover enclosed a May 17, 1849 letter from Joel Turrill, the United States Consul at Honolulu, to his brother-in-law, Stephen Lathrop. The cover is the only known cover bearing the San Francisco straightline, the first handstamp postmark adopted by the San Francisco post office and used for a few weeks in 1849. This cover also represents the first recorded envelope (as opposed to a folded letter) from Hawaii. The "40" rate rather than "42", shown on this cover indicates it was sent to San Francisco and deposited in the Post Office there without being treated as a ship letter – probably enclosed in a letter packet addressed to a friend or agent in San Francisco who posted the letters as ordinary domestic letters at the San Francisco Post Office.

This folded letter dated October 18, 1850, addressed to Charles Brewer, a San Francisco commission merchant is the last recorded cover to leave Honolulu before The Polynesian letter bag service was inaugurated on November 2, 1850. Letters addressed for delivery to someone in San Francisco were charged the United States ship fee of six cents, here shown by the well-known San Francisco "clamshell" SHIP/6 rate mark.

The Polynesian Letter Bag

Hawaii's first official attempt to service letters was a simple letter bag kept open at the office of The Polynesian, the Honolulu newspaper owned by the kingdom of Hawaii. The public was promised the employees of the Government Printing Office (the “GPO”) would place letters left in the bag aboard a suitable vessel bound for San Francisco or Hong Kong. The letter bag was announced in a notice published November 2, 1850. Henry M. Whitney, the GPO employee taking responsibility for the letter bag, devised a simple postmarking device from printer's type and a printer's stick to mark letters left in the letter bag. The postmark, struck in blue ink, was Hawaii's first postmark. Nine covers are recorded with the blue straightline postmark, but the whereabouts of two of those covers has been unknown to the philatelic community for the past seventy years.

The unique "first-day cover" of The Polynesian letter bag - Hawaii's government mail service - postmarked November 2, 1850. This folded letter was dated by the writer at Honolulu on October 19, 1850. This cover is one of nine recorded blue strikes of the Honolulu straightline postmark.

An envelope postmarked November 16, 1850, at the office of The Polynesian indicating it was handled in The Polynesian letter bag, Hawaii's first postal service. This letter was a double weight letter sent to San Francisco in a packet of letters addressed to an agent or friend in San Francisco who posted the enclosed letters as ordinary domestic letters so it was rated "80" to collect from the addressee. If it had been delivered as a separate incoming ship letter, the addressee would have been charged 82¢.

Pre-Postal Covers Sent Via San Francisco and Panama

1 “HFM” is a reference to Hawaii Foreign Mail to 1870, Gregory, Fred F., Philatelic Foundation, New York, 2012.

2 U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, 2000.

3 R. A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Sale No. 769.

4 R. A. Siegel Auction Galleries, Sale No. 1009.

5 Harmer, Rooke & Co., Sale No. 776, April 27, 1954.

6 Coburn, Jesse L., U. S. Classics Philatelic Society and The Philatelic Foundation, 1984.

7 Go to Honolulu Foreign Mail Postmarks to 1886 for Honolulu postmark numbers.

8 The Postal History of Hawaii, Henry A. Meyer and Rear Admiral Frederic R. Harris, The Philatelic Foundation, 1948.

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