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Envelope from the US Consulate at Honolulu, 1865

Datec 1865

Object number00028296

NameEnvelope

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 80 x 133 mm, 1 mm, 0.001 kg

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

DescriptionThis envelope from the Consulate of the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii was posted in about 1865, containing details relating to the barque JIREH SWIFT. The JIREH SWIFT was a Union whaler who sailed during the American Civil War.HistoryAfrican American shipwright and former slave John Mashow built the whaler Jireh Swift in 1853 at Dartmouth, Mass. near New Bedford. The vessel measured 122 feet in length and 454 tons. Its first voyage was to the northern Pacific and lasted nearly four years. The ship collected 45 barrels of sperm oil, 2,719 barrels of whale oil and 14,900 lbs of whalebone. Swift’s second voyage, to the same grounds, lasted more than four years and netted much more oil and bone for her owners. Nearly three years into her third voyage, on 22 June 1865 she was captured in the Arctic by the Confederate raider Shenandoah and burned, for a loss of more than $40,000 The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History hold a builder's half model of the Jireh Swift in its collection under ID Number TR*076323.SignificanceThe JIREH SWIFT was one of the last American vessels captured and burned by the CSS SHENANDOAH. Research suggests that the last shots fired by SHENANDOAH were directed at the SWIFT.