Capt. Richard Blackmer Holbrook (1821-1894): at sea, and at Penn Cove

Research of 13 Oct 2026, written up for Richard Blackmer Holbrook. It replaces what the Holbrook master tree and Mollie_Typescript_Review.md (H7) say about his years at sea and his first years on Whidbey Island. The records are in sources/ (ids below); the passages checked against the scans are marked so.

1. What the family remembered

Mollie (Holbrook) Pfeiffer's typescript, p. I (scan 7):

At thirteen he left home to follow the sea, and made two long voyages where he met many adventures; he visited China almost before white foreigners were allowed to enter that country; He rounded Cape of Good Hope, and for three months in great storms rounded Cape Horn; in a barnacle-laden ship off Kamchata he and the crew were reduced to starvation, some perishing. They made Honolulu and were hospitably received and cared for. My father and the Captain were entertained by the King and Queen. I recall that he spoke highly of Queen Emma.

In the South Sea Islands his ship was boarded by cannibles, and being first mate, he stood at the wheel while the crew went below to arm. ... He resigned the captaincy of a ship at the first call of the California Gold Fields.

And p. 7 (scan 13): he "followed the sea for fifteen years, and gave up the captaincy of a large ship to go to California in the gold rush of '49, reaching there in '50," with "other Plymouth and Plympton boys" who "had bought an interest in a sailing vessel in which they came around 'The' Horn in a rough and perilous voyage of months."

2. The records: two New Bedford whalers [D]

The Hydaspe, 1841-1845 (Crew list of the ship Hydaspe of New Bedford, 1841, with the abstract of her voyage of 1841-1845). Crew list of 20 Apr 1841, "Richard B. Holbrook," rank Ordinary, lay 1/155; no age or residence. Francis M. Post master. Dennis Wood's abstract (read from the image): sailed 23 Apr 1841 for the Pacific; Fayal, August; the Swan River, Western Australia, in December, chasing a boat's crew that deserted "four hundred miles from land"; Maui and Lahaina, November 1842; Tahiti, June-July 1843; off New Zealand, February 1844; the Northwest Coast, summer 1844; Lahaina, 24 Oct 1844; home 14 Apr 1845, "in 47 Months 21 days." The Maury abstract log (NARA M1160, vol. 37) has her whole route in its index, read from the image: Geographe Bay, Western Australia (Nov 1841), Ascension, now Pohnpei (May 1842 and Nov 1843), Maui (Oct 1842), Tahiti (June 1843), Upolu, Samoa (Mar 1844), Lahaina (Oct 1844) and home round Cape Horn, "Whole No. 1088 days"; its daily pages (not yet checked here) add the Cape of Good Hope early in October 1841, Nauru and Kosrae, and Cape Horn at the end of January 1845. The Swan River puts her outward passage round Good Hope in any case, and a ship from Lahaina to New Bedford came home round the Horn. She sailed round the world.

Identification, probable (about 85%). The list gives no residence, but "Richard B. Holbrook" is a rare name with its middle initial; an ordinary seaman's rating (not a greenhand's) fits a man who had been at sea since thirteen; the Globe, five months after the Hydaspe came home, has "Richard B. Holbrooks" of Plymouth; and the two voyages are Mollie's "two long voyages", with the Cape of Good Hope she names, which the Globe's voyage did not need.

The Globe, 1845-1850 (Crew list of the ship Globe of New Bedford, 1845, with her voyage of 1845-1850, Journal kept on board the ship Globe of New Bedford, on her passage from the Sandwich Islands to the United States, 1850). Crew list of 12 Sept 1845, "Richard B. Holbrooks," of Plymouth, 24, light complexion, brown hair; no rank. John C. Daggett master. Ground "N. W. Coast": the right-whale grounds of the North Pacific, which by the later 1840s ran from the Gulf of Alaska to Kamchatka and the Okhotsk Sea (Starbuck 1878, p. 98: the first bowheads in the North Pacific were taken off Kamchatka in 1843). At Lahaina in October 1846 and February 1847 (Polynesian, as found, not checked); at Guam and Hong Kong in 1849 (a crewman's account in the journal, checked). Home 22 Aug 1850.

The journal of the homeward passage (ODHS 892; checked against the scans for every passage quoted on the person page): at Lahaina, 18 Jan 1850, the crew refused to loose the topsails until they had seen the consul, "we having but 8 men before the mast," and "the Cooper, Antonio, and R. Holbrooks" were tied up in the rigging; 6 Feb, "the ship is so deep and her bottom so bad that we get along very slow," and "Mr Johnson [the cooper] and Holbrooks were standing by the pumps talking"; 7 Apr, "All hands got the California fever"; the Horn passed in gales about 27 April; 6-9 May, short of wood and meat, "starvation again stares us in the face," and a sick man called a shirker "untill he dies ... which has been the case more than once this voyage."

Identification, near certain. Name, town and age fit, and the census taken at Plymouth on 27 Aug 1850, five days after the Globe came in, has "Richard Holbrook, 27, Seaman" in his mother's house.

1834-1841 are not accounted for. Plymouth sent whalers to the Pacific in those years (the Fortune, 1833-36; the Mary and Martha, 1835-37 and 1837-40; the Triton II, 1839-42), but no Plymouth crew lists are in the database; any that survive would be in the Plymouth customs district records at NARA Boston. He may as well have been in the town's fishing and coasting fleet.

3. How the stories line up

Mollie	The records	Reading
Two long voyages	The Hydaspe (47 months) and the Globe (59 months)	Confirmed
Rounded the Cape of Good Hope	The Hydaspe, outward, 1841	Confirmed
Three months of storms off Cape Horn	The Hydaspe home (Jan 1845), the Globe home (April 1850, gales), and the passage to California (1850-51)	Rounded it at least twice, probably three times; the three months is family memory
China, "almost before white foreigners were allowed"	The Globe at Hong Kong, 1849	Probably this; Hong Kong was British from 1842
A barnacle-laden ship off Kamchatka, starvation, men dying; then Honolulu	The Globe: North Pacific grounds 1846-49; foul bottom, short rations and deaths on the 1850 passage home from Lahaina	The same ship, it seems, with the episodes run together in the telling
Entertained by the King and Queen	Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama kept their court at Lahaina until 1845; the Hydaspe was there in Nov 1842 and Oct 1844	Possible; no record of the visit
Spoke highly of Queen Emma	Emma (b. 1836) was a schoolgirl in Honolulu in his Pacific years, queen 1856-1863, famous on the coast (her visit to England and the U.S., 1865-66; the 1874 election)	He admired her; Mollie doesn't say she entertained him
Boarded by cannibals in the South Seas	The Hydaspe cruised the Pacific islands 1842-44 (Maury: Pohnpei, Nauru, Kosrae, Samoa); islanders boarding whalers to trade, and attacks, were common (the Awashonks, 1835; the Charles Doggett at Kadavu, Fiji, 1833)	Possible; probably the Hydaspe
He was first mate	Ordinary seaman (1841); in Jan 1850 tied up with the crew	Not on these voyages, as far as the records show
Gave up the captaincy of a large ship for the gold rush, '49-'50	Home from the Globe 22 Aug 1850; at Manomet 27 Aug; landed at San Francisco 4 Mar 1851	Possible (the ruling of 13 Oct 2026: "Captain" was the title of any man who commanded a vessel, and he commanded his own in the West); he came home a whaleman with "the California fever", and the date was 1851

The title "Capt." probably came later: he bought a sloop of his own in California (Mollie), and the Park Service study counts him among the sea captains who loaded spars at Penn Cove from 1852 (Cahail, Sea Captains of Whidby Island, as cited there).

4. The route: did he sail round the world?

Yes. The Hydaspe went out by the Cape of Good Hope and home by Cape Horn (1841-45), a full circumnavigation by way of Western Australia, the islands and the Northwest Coast. The Globe (1845-50) worked the North Pacific and came home round the Horn; whether she went out round the Horn or Good Hope isn't known (most North Pacific whalers went by the Horn). His third long passage, to California in 1850-51, was by the family's account round the Horn: about six months between the census at Plymouth and his landing fits a Cape Horn passage (Boston ships arriving in March-April 1851 took 146 to 176 days). Candidates on 4 Mar 1851: the ship Western Star, Knowles, from Boston 25 Sept 1850 by Valparaiso, 160 days (New-York Daily Tribune, 25 Oct 1850, 11 Mar and 11 Apr 1851), and, against the family's account, the steamer Tennessee, 17 days from Panama, whose passengers included an "S. F. Holbrook" (maritimeheritage.org). Neither is proven to have carried him; no vessel from Plymouth that autumn has been found.

5. Penn Cove, 1852-1894

• The Ebeys' diary ("Diary of Colonel and Mrs. I. N. Ebey," ed. Victor J. Farrar, Washington Historical Quarterly 7-8, checked): "Mr Howe and Holbrooks called in" (3 June 1852); "Mr. Howe and Mr. Holbrook were all here in the forenoon. All very anxious to hear the news from Mr. Ebey" (12 Aug 1852); Howe and Hollbrook come for the island mail (5 Feb 1853). He was a neighbour and caller, always with Samuel D. Howe; nothing shows him living or working with Ebey. Farrar's footnote (WHQ 7:245 n. 8) has errors: arrival 1849, death 1893, Harriet born 1839, "two terms."
• His brother's letter, 26 Jan 1854 (Told by the Pioneers: Reminiscences of Pioneer Life in Washington, vol. 2 (WPA, 1938), read in full): the Park Service study's quotations ("log cabin," "31 vessels") are loose; the letter has "log house," 31 sawmills and "about 30 vessels." Which brother "E." was is still open (see Eliphalet Holbrook); the Huntington Library's letters and journal (mssHM 24543-44,
  2280. may settle it.
• The legislature (Territorial Assembly 1854-1887: members of the Washington territorial legislature (Washington State Library, 1989)): one term, House, ninth session (Dec 1861 - Jan 1862), Island and Snohomish. Thomas Coupe was the island's member in the session of Dec 1860, when Mollie has Richard at Olympia as a legislator and meeting Harriet: it was Coupe who was the member that winter, and Richard was elected the next year. Mollie's "several terms" and Farrar's "two terms" are not borne out by the roster. In that session the House voted down a second set of loyal resolutions, "Holbrook" among the nays (Bancroft 1890, p. 218 n. 2). The House Journal (Journal of the House of Representatives of Washington Territory, ninth session, 1861-62, with the session laws) gives the detail: Judiciary committee; chairman of Roads and Highways; H.B. 59 on the Island County commissioners' court; the memorial for a steamer to carry the mail to Coveland; excused over the holidays when the first Union resolutions passed (2 Jan 1862); the vote of 16-8 against the second set, whose last article pledged "support of Mr. Lincoln's administration" ("The Union Resolutions Rejected by the Legislative Assembly of Washington Territory," Washington Standard (Olympia), 22 Mar 1862). He gave $5 to the Sanitary Commission subscription of Nov 1862 (Whidby Island's subscription for the wounded soldiers, Puget Sound Herald (Steilacoom), 6 Nov 1862). Read as a Democrat's vote against a partisan clause, not against the Union. [D] for the vote, [I] for the reason.
• Lummi Island, 1854 (Indian depredation claim of Richard B. Holbrook, Lummi Island, Washington Territory, 1854, H. Ex. Doc. 197, 48th Cong., 2d Sess.): trading and curing salmon with Eli Hathaway; both houses robbed 27-29 May 1854 while they were storm-bound on a fishing cruise; claim $1,378.20, never paid. Affidavits of Hathaway, Roeder, Howe (1881-84) on his character. This is the family's "trading post burned in an Indian war" ([T] for the burning; the claim says robbed). Back at Penn Cove afterwards: Howe was "a near neighbor to him for a number of years after he was robbed."
• The wedding: Puget Sound Herald, 27 Dec 1860, "Monday evening, Dec. 24th," at G. Ford's, Steilacoom ("Married," Puget Sound Herald (Steilacoom), 27 Dec 1860). Mollie's "Sunday evening" is a slip.
• County treasurer: not found. Treasurers named in directories: Charles C. Phillips (1867), John Gould (c. 1876-78), J. E. Monroe (1887); Samuel Libbey was auditor in 1860-61. His term, if the family is right, would be in the 1850s or early 1860s. The Island County commissioners' records are the place to look.
• Not in the 1855-56 volunteer rosters (Ebey's and Howe's Company I; Official History of the Washington National Guard, vol. 2).
• The 1858 survey shows his improvements inside the Penn's Cove Military Reservation of 1854 (given up in 1866), which may bear on when his claim was patented.
• The farm sold for the townsite: "The farm of R. B. Holbrook ... was purchased for a townsite" (Revisiting Washington, unsourced); San de Fuca was named in 1889 by H. C. Power, L. H. Griffiths and J. W. Gillespie. Polk's directory of 1887 has "Holbrook R B, f[armer], $1616," Coupeville post office. He and Harriet were "residing at Coupeville" by 29 Jan 1890.
• The land: the Lower Skagit village Ʒáʒop, "head of a bay," stood at San de Fuca (Douglas Deur, Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve: An Ethnohistory of Traditionally Associated Contemporary Populations (National Park Service, 2009)).

6. Moved here from the person page

The FamilySearch tree adds daughters Nancy (c. 1871) and Mary (c. 1872), with no sources. They are probably not his: the 1880 census lists only Horace, Mollie and Richard, and there is no room for two births between Mollie (Dec 1870) and Richard Jr. (Sept 1872). It also omits Josephine (1865-1870), buried at Sunnyside.

7. Next

• The Hydaspe's Maury abstract log (NARA M1160, catalog 454786670, objectPages 772-809): check the Cape of Good Hope, Pohnpei and Cape Horn dates against the images.
• A logbook of the Hydaspe, 1841-45, or of the Globe's earlier years (New Bedford Whaling Museum, Providence Public Library, Mystic): any encounter with islanders, and his rank as the voyage went on.
• Plymouth customs district crew lists, 1834-41 (NARA Boston).
• The Daily Alta California, 4-5 Mar 1851 (CDNC), for the arrivals' passengers.
• The Island County commissioners' records, for the treasurer's years.
• The Huntington Library's E. Holbrook letters and journal.