Hickling's Rock -- A Brief History of the American Consulate in the Azores

Author at Hickling's Rock, Sao Miguel island, 2000

Hickling's Rock 

A Brief History of the American Consulate in the Azores 

by William R. Meara

Written in the Azores during 2003.  Edited and shortened in 2020.

In a world full of complicated relationships and difficult-to-explain interests, our diplomatic presence in the Azores was -- through most of its history -- easy to explain.  The nine islands of the Azores lie about two thirds of the way from America to Europe, making the archipelago a natural re-supply point.  The first American Consuls in the Azores were appointed in 1795 by President George Washington.

It doesn't take very long for a newly arrives American diplomat to start coming across evidence of even the most distant predecessors. Shortly after we arrived, my family and I were visiting the town of Furnas.  It was there that I found Hickling's rock.

Thomas Hickling was a young Bostonian who moved to the Azorean island of Sao Miguel in the late 1760s.  He was a successful businessman, and took great pride in representing our country.  (Today we'd probably call him an Honorary Consul or a Consular Agent.) Hickling was clearly a person who wanted to leave behind graphic evidence of his having passed through.*  Near the bubbling volcanic pools of Furnas, amidst the clouds of sulfuric steam he had ordered workmen to chisel his name, and the year into a large rock:  "T. Hickling 1770." He was the first American Consul on Sao Miguel --- the American Consul at St. Michael's.  And I was the new guy on the job.

Thomas Hickling

The feeling of connection to the past was reinforced when, a few days later,  one of the Consulate's Azorean employees handed me a list of the all the American officers who had ever served in the Consulate:  All the Consuls, Vice Consuls, and Administrative officers who'd been there over the years.  At the top of the list was Hickling; my name was at the bottom. In a reminder that it had always been a small Consulate -- and that we represented a young country -- the entire roster took up only three pages.

The Azores is a very isolated place, and I'm sure that all the people on that list at one time felt a bit disconnected from American foreign policy.   You know you are out of the loop when even the State Department routinely misspells the name of your post, and when many of your Foreign Service friends tell you they've never even heard of your city of assignment (Ponta Delgada).  When I was there, the Azoreans were lobbying for EU largess by pointing to their "ultra-peripheral" status; I definitely found that working in a small, isolated Consulate can make you feel quite ultra-peripheral.  But a visit to the Consulate's history file provided encouragement and inspiration.  Leafing through those files, I found evidence of diligent efforts of previous U.S. diplomats to protect American interests in those distant islands.

The Dabneys were especially admirable. Representing the United States was a family responsibility for them.  In 1807 President Thomas Jefferson appointed John Bass Dabney as American Consul on the Azorean island of Faial. He was probably the first Consul to be involved in what we would today call Politico-Military work.  During the war of 1812, he kept track of British Naval movements through the archipelago, and assisted a U.S. vessel (the "General Armstrong") that fought British forces in Faial's harbor. 

John Bass Dabney died in 1826, and his son Charles took over as Consul.  Charles Dabney protected American interests in the Azores for over 45 years.  During his last years as Consul, he diligently kept track of Confederate naval activity in Azorean waters.  But Charles Dabney's long and dedicated service was very poorly rewarded by Washington.  Consulate records indicated that the Grant administration decided to try to use the Ponta Delgada Consulate as a reward for a political ally.  Dabney, by then elderly, learned of his impending replacement through an article in an out-of-date Boston newspaper.  When friends in Washington tried to help him hold onto the job he loved, false allegations of malfeasance were cooked up in an effort to smear him.  Heartbroken, he died soon afterwards. The appointee sent out to replace him didn't last long, and so Dabney's son Samuel took over as Consul.  Perhaps as a warning to future Consuls, Samuel left in the files a description of the shabby, disgraceful treatment given to his father.

  

The world power status that the U.S. started to take on early in the twentieth century made the Azores even more important as a trans-Atlantic stepping stone.  Shortly after we entered World War I, the American Consul in Ponta Delgada was asked by Washington about the possibility of establishing a coaling station for our warships. The Consul replied that Ponta Delgada would be an ideal location. Soon we set up what became known as the Mid-Atlantic Naval Base.   A young Assistant Secretary of the Navy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to Ponta Delgada to inspect the facility.   The base eventually had a squadron of destroyers supported by submarines, a company of U.S. Marines, and some very early seaplanes. U.S. military headquarters was set up in the building that had been Thomas Hickling's home.  This base surely added tremendous excitement to sleepy Ponta Delgada.  The historical record shows that indeed it did, especially on the Fourth of July.

On the morning of July 4, 1917 a German submarine surfaced outside Ponta Delgada's artificial breakwater and began firing at the city and at our ships.  The American coal carrier Orion returned the fire and the U-boat fled.  The battle must have spiced up conversation at the Consulate's 4th of July reception.  The Captain of the Orion became a local hero -- they even named a brand of cigarettes after him. 

During World War II the need to move massive amounts of men and materiel across the Atlantic once again made the Azores host to U.S. military forces. The U.S. established an air base in the region, first on the island of Santa Maria and later on Terceira island. 

Right after World War I, in an event that illustrates very nicely Ponta Delgada's ultra-peripheral status, the ship that was carrying President Woodrow Wilson to the Versailles peace conference passed just beyond the city's seawall.   The passing President was saluted from a distance by the city's  residents, including, I imagine, the American Consul. Perhaps my predecessor felt forlorn and left-out as he watched the ship of state literally passing him by. But I think it just as likely that he -- like me -- considered himself lucky to be where he was, fortunate to be the defender of all things American in his own clearly defined island domain.

After almost three years on St. Michael's, I'd become fully resigned to our ultra-peripheral status.  I felt certain that the Azores would never be in the limelight, and that we'd never get involved in the big events of the day.  But then suddenly we lost our ultra-peripheral status. 

Shortly after finishing a quiet lunch on March 14, 2003, my cell phone rang, and I received the truly astonishing news that the President of the United States was on his way to the Azores.  There was going to be a summit on the Iraq situation, and our ultra-peripheral islands had been selected as the venue. Within hours I was on a plane, heading to Terceira Island, the site of the meeting. As I flew over, I thought of the Consul who had watched President Wilson's ship sail by.  How would he have felt if that ship had suddenly turned into port? 

The Azores summit came and went quickly -- Air Force One was "wheels-up" about four hours after it arrived. The region quickly recovered from its few hours of fame, and soon we were back to normal, back to the ultra-peripheral north Atlantic, in the Gulf Stream but far from the diplomatic mainstream.  The staff of the American Consulate on St. Michael's went back to its normal routine, back to the work started in the early days of our country by Thomas Hickling and the Dabneys of Faial.

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*But Hickling  also had a sense of humor: In a garden near his home he had the Portuguese words for "Turn me over" carved onto the top of a very large boulder.  Knowing that this would one day attract the attention of treasure hunters,  Hickling had the punch line carved onto the underside of the rock:  "Thanks!  I was getting tired from staying in that position all these years!" 

Letter to George Washington from Thomas Hickling January 1790: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-04-02-0366