Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

March 23, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

$20,000 as a Guarantee

On July 21, 1838, the French minister of the navy dispatched orders to Captain Cyrille-Pierre-Theodore Laplace, who at the time was already en route to the Pacific on a voyage of circumnavigation. Laplace received these orders, along with supporting documents, at Port Jackson, Australia, in March 1839.

The plight of French Catholics in Hawai‘i being distressingly similar to that of French Catholics in Tahiti, these orders read: “… What the English Methodists are doing in Tahiti, American Calvinist missionaries are doing in the Sandwich Islands.”

“They have incited the king of these islands, or rather those who govern in his name, to actions that apply to all foreigners of the Catholic faith – all designated, intentionally, as ‘Frenchmen.’”

“They found themselves prohibited from practicing their religion, then ignominiously banished from the Island … You will exact, if necessary with all the force that you command, complete reparation for the wrongs that they have committed and you will not leave those shores until you have left an indelible impression.”

In addition to the religious persecution, “Our wines, brandies, fabrics, and luxury goods find ready purchasers in Honolulu as well as in Russian, British, and Mexican settlements; but these articles are imported by American merchants (or replaced by substitutes of American manufacture).”

“French wines and brandies are subject to excessively high duties, on the grounds that bringing them into the Sandwich Islands would be harmful to the morals of the native population. American rum, on the other hand, is brought in – whether legally or illegally, I do not know—and consumed in prodigious quantities.” (Laplace; Birkett)

France, historically a Catholic nation, used its government representatives in Hawaiʻi to protest the mistreatment of Catholic Native Hawaiians. Captain Cyrille-Pierre Théodore Laplace, of the French Navy frigate ‘Artémise’, sailed into Honolulu Harbor in 1839 to convince the Hawaiian leadership to get along with the Catholics – and the French.

Captain Laplace and his fifty-two-gun frigate L’Artemise arrived in the Hawai‘i in July 1839. Laplace was the first Frenchman to visit the Islands with specific instructions from Paris to enter into official diplomatic relations with the Hawaiian government.

“It was my task to end this prohibition so detrimental to our commercial interests. I succeeded in doing so through a convention with the king of the Islands where he agreed that in the future French wines and brandies would be subject to no more than a 6 percent ad valorem duty when imported under the French flag.”

“The American missionaries raged and fumed at me, claiming that I was anti-Christian. They brought down on me all the curses of New and Old World Bible societies, to whom they depicted me as championing drunkenness among their converts …”

“… as if the way in which they were running things allowed these poor people to earn enough to buy Champagne, Bordeaux, or even Cognac brandy. Despite these diatribes, as unjust as they were treacherous, I carried my project to completion.” (Laplace; Birkett)

During the brief conflict, Laplace issued a ‘Manifesto’ “to put an end either by force or by persuasion to the ill-treatment of which the French are the victims at the Sandwich Islands” – Haʻalilio was taken hostage by the French. He was later exchanged for John ʻĪʻi who went on board the L’Artemise.

Item 4 of the Manifesto noted, “That the king of the Sandwich Islands deposit in the hands of the Captain of the l’Artemise the sum of twenty thousand dollars, as a guarantee of his future conduct towards France, which sum the government will restore to him when it shall consider that the accompanying treaty will be faithfully complied with.”

“However harsh the exaction of the $20,000 as a guarantee for the faithful observance by the King and chiefs of the treaty of the 12th July, 1839, the exaction of such pledges, and, even of hostages was a common practice, in remote ages of nations, now the leaders of civilization and the greatest in power.”

“It was the humiliating penalty which strength imposed on doubtful faith, before a higher civilization had rendered it the greatest reproach to a monarch, or the supreme director of a slate, to commit a breach of national faith, or break his word.” (Polynesian, May 12, 1855)

King Kamehameha III feared a French attack on his kingdom and on June 17, 1839 issued the Edict of Toleration (173-years ago today) permitting religious freedom for Catholics in the same way as it had been granted to the Protestants.

The King also donated land where the first permanent Catholic Church would be constructed, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace; the Catholic mission was finally established on May 15, 1840 when the Vicar Apostolic of the Pacific arrived with three other priests – one of whom, Rev. Louis Maigret, had been refused a landing at Honolulu in 1837.

On July 9, 1840, ground was broken for the foundation of the present Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, and schools and churches were erected on other islands to advance the mission.

So, what became of the $20,000? … “The following notice respecting the visit of Rear Admiral Hamelin to these Islands, is taken from the Moniteur of 10th August, 1846:”

“M. le contre Admiral Hamelin, commanding in the Pacific Ocean and on the west coast of America, arrived at the Sandwich Islands in March last, in the frigate Virginie.”

“After being made aware that the treaty of 1839, made by Captain Laplace, had been executed with fidelity, that officer general, by the advice of M. Dudoit, the Consul of Prance, restored, to the Hawaiian Government $20,000, the guarantee of the fulfilment of that treaty.” (Polynesian, May 1, 1847)

“This was effected with all formality, on the 23d of March (1846), the money being delivered in the original cases, No. 1, 2, 3, 4, secured by the seals of the French Royal Navy, and that of the Hawaiian Government, to M. Kekuanaoa, C. Kanaina and Wm. Richards, Esq., as the King’s Commissioners.” (Wyllie; Polynesian, August 22, 1846)

“I saw a couple of handcarts containing several ironbound boxes, and guarded by files of French marines, proceeding up Nuuanu street from the wharf, and on enquiring was told that the boxes contained the twenty thousand dollars …”

“… which was being returned to the Hawaiian Government. The same seals were on the boxes which had been affixed when they were delivered to Captain La Place, seven years before.” (Sheldon)

“The benevolent disposition of the Hawaiian Government towards the Catholics established there, and the protection accorded our missionaries by the authorities of the country, fully justify that measure, which has produced good effect. It has proved the sincerity of the French Government, and we have no doubt, will secure to our compatriots in the Archipelago the protection due to them.”

“Admiral Hamelin and suite visited King Kamehameha, and remitted to him and his Minister a few presents, consisting of firearms, which were received with satisfaction.”

“The King invited Admiral Hamelin and his officers to a dinner, which was followed by a soiree at the Consulate of France. The next morning the King was received on board the frigate where he evidently appreciated the attention shown him by the Admiral.
It is pleasing to know that the transactions in March, 1846, had given satisfaction to the French people in regard to all parties concerned.”

“The protection of the French missionaries has been the award due to their good conduct, and it is their right under the existing laws.”

“The irregularities of 1837 and 1889 have disappeared with the excitements that created them; and the Consul of France may justly boast of having emerged from difficulties unusually great, and gained for himself and compatriots a high measure of popular esteem.” (Polynesian, May 1, 1847)

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March 13, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The Wellington

“Soon after James Cook’s visit to Vancouver Island in 1778, non-Natives began fur trading in the Northwest. Trade ships, after stopping in Hawaii, sailed to Vancouver Island to trade manufactured goods for sea otter pelts. … Besides sea otter there were beaver and other furs.” (Holton)

“It did not take long for the Northwest Coast fur traders to discover at Hawaii a new medium for the Canton market. That market was, of course, the prime object of our Northwest fur trade.”

“China took nothing that the United States produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent eighteen months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter skins, highly esteemed by the mandarins.” (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation.

Edmond Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator, made history in 1819 when they became the first American whalers to visit the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i.)

A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. His find was widely publicized in New England, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area.

These ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. So when Captain Allen befriended the missionaries at Honolulu and Lahaina, he helped establish these areas as the major ports of call for whalers. (NPS)

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour ‘on Japan,’ ‘on the Northwest,’ or into the Arctic.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands. Starting with Cook’s arrival, his crew and later the whalers sought and received other pleasures.

Whales were not hunted for food, but primarily for their blubber; the thick layer of fat under their skins that protected them from the freezing cold waters of the far north seas.

Oil could be extracted from the blubber and used to make candles or for burning in oil lamps in the days before electric lights. Whale oil was very valuable and some whale ship owners made huge fortunes from selling the oil.

When the whale was caught it was towed back to the ship where it was “flensed” (cutting away the blubber.) The blubber was hoisted onto the ship’s deck where it was put into barrels and then stored away in the hold.

In 1826, the Wellington, reportedly a British whaling or trading ship, arrived at Lahaina, Maui from San Blas, Mexico. Seeking fresh water, the crew dumped the water they had in a river and refilled the barrels.

Then, “(missionary William) Richards was returning home to Lahaina one evening about dusk and met a native who informed him that there was a new ‘fly’ in the place.”

“He described it as being a very peculiar ‘fly’ that made its presence known by ‘a singing in the ear.’” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

Later, “(missionary) Dr. Judd was called upon to treat a hitherto unknown kind of itch, inflicted by a new kind of nolo (fly) described as ‘singing in the ear.’”

“The itch had first been reported early in 1827 by Hawaiians who lived near pools of standing water and along streams back of Lahaina [Maui].” (Warner)

“To the Reverend William Richards, their descriptions of the flies suggested a pestiferous insect, from which heretofore the Islands were fortunately free. Inspection confirmed his fears. The mosquito had arrived!”

“Investigation back-tracked the trail to the previous year and the ship Wellington, whose watering party had drained dregs alive with wrigglers into a pure stream, and thereby to blot one more blessing from the Hawai‘i that had been Eden.”

“Apparently no attempt was made to isolate and destroy the hatchery, nor to prevent spread of the pest throughout the archipelago. The pioneer was Culex quinquefasciatus, the night mosquito. (Warner)

“All evidence pointed to the ship ‘Wellington’ as the carrier of the pest. This story was later corroborated by Mr. Henry A. Pierce, late US Minister to Hawaii in the seventies.”

“Furthermore, up to the year 1826 there was no word In the Hawaiian language for mosquito. The native name for mosquito is makika, a corruption of the name mosquito.” (the story as told by Prof. WD Alexander; Hawaiian Gazette, April 17, 1903)

The rest is history – so has it been for Hawaiʻi’s native birds.

Sure, mosquitoes are annoying to us (and they can be vectors for things like dengue and other diseases that affect humans.)

But, they are devastating to Hawaiʻi’s native birds.

Introduced mosquito-transmitted diseases, avian malaria and avian pox, are thought to be one of the main factors driving loss of native forest birds.

Many of Hawaii’s native birds suffered drastic population declines once introduced mosquitoes began transmitting avian malaria between birds.

Look closely at the picture of the ʻApapane bird – there is a mosquito on the upper-right side of its eye (not a good thing.)

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Mosquito-Apapane with mosquito

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March 12, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Entering Honolulu Harbor

There are certain things you should not or cannot do into the wind.

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast, the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment. Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails.

The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs.

Ships don’t sail into the wind.

Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

The first European entry of Honolulu Harbor is credited to Captain Brown of the British schooner Jackal, accompanied by Captain Gordon in the sloop tender Prince Lee Boo.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.)

Following this, boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled, warped or tracked into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.)

This might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow. Otherwise you had to contend with tradewinds blowing out of the harbor.

It was a narrow with reefs, but it was the only deep water harbor in the central Pacific.

In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor.

(Later, downtown’s Richards Street was named for a man who had a store on the street selling luggage to tourists.)

A few years after, in 1825, the first pier in the harbor was improvised by sinking a ship’s hull near the present Pier 12 site.

In 1854 the first steam tug was used to pull sail-powered ships into dock against the prevailing tradewinds.

Between 1857 and 1870, about 22-acres of reef and tideland was filled through a combination of fill and dredging, forming the “Esplanade” between Fort and Merchant Streets.

This created the area where Aloha Tower and Aloha Tower Marketplace are now located (prior to this, the waterfront was near Queen Street.)

In 1889, the Honolulu Harbor was described as “nothing but a channel kept open by the flow of the Nuʻuanu River.” In 1890-92 the channel was widened and deepened by dredging.

A channel 200 feet wide by 30 feet deep was dredged for about 1,000-feet through the sand bar which had limited depth to as shallow as 18 feet, restricting entry of the largest ocean vessels.

A series of new piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 (to accommodate sugar loading) and then at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907.

Today, Honolulu Harbor continues to serve as Hawai‘i’s commercial lifeline to the rest of the world.

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Honolulu Harbor-Ships pulled by canoes-Henry Walker-1843

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View_of_Honolulu_Harbor_and_Punchbowl_Crater._(c._1854)

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Honolulu Harbor Light – Harbor Wink -DAGS Honolulu (1887) GoogleEarth-1869

March 4, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Diamond Head Lighthouse

Diamond Head serves as a landmark as ships approach Honolulu Harbor from the west side of Oʻahu.

With the increase of commerce calling at the port of Honolulu, a lookout was established in 1878 on the seaward slopes of Diamond Head for spotting and reporting incoming vessels.

The first attendant, John Peterson from Sweden and known as “Lighthouse Charlie,” spotted incoming vessels through a telescope.

In 1893, ‘SS Miowera’ ran aground at Diamond Head prompting the Hawaiian legislature to recommend a lighthouse be established at Diamond Head. Then, ‘China’ ran aground, finally causing construction of an iron tower to begin.

A 40’ open frame tower was constructed at Honolulu Iron Works. In 1898, the Hawaiian legislature deemed the lighthouse tower should be masonry, not skeletal iron.

Its light was first lit on July 1, 1899. The light had a red sector to mark dangerous shoals and reefs. (As an aside, the first lighthouse in the Pacific was built on Maui in 1840; the first in Honolulu in 1869.)

In 1904, a floor was added to the tower, 14’ above ground level. Windows were placed in 2 existing openings in the tower walls and telephone lines were installed in the tower.

However, over a decade later, cracks were noted in the structure, compromising the tower’s integrity. In 1917, funds were allocated for constructing a fifty-five-foot tower of reinforced concrete on the original foundation.

The old tower was replaced with the modern concrete structure, which strongly resembles the original tower.

One notable difference is that the old tower had an external staircase that wrapped partway around the tower, whereas the new tower houses an internal, cast-iron, spiral stairway.

In 1921, a light keeper’s home was built nearby. A keeper occupied the dwelling for just three years, as the station was automated in 1924.

In 1939, the light station was turned over to the Coast Guard.

During World War II, a small structure was built on the seaward side of the tower and a Coast Guard radio station was housed in the keeper’s dwelling.

Following the war, in 1946, the radio station was moved to its present site in Wahiawa. The dwelling was remodeled and has since been home to the Commanders of the Fourteenth Coast Guard District.

The Diamond Head light was built 147 feet above sea level and can be seen as far away as 18 miles. It has the intensity of 60,000 candlepower. To warn vessels of the reefs off of Waikiki Beach, a red sector shows.

Fully automatic, its 1,000-watt electric lamp continues to guide ships to O‘ahu and is among the best-known lighthouses in the world.

In 1980, the Diamond Head Lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Besides continuing its nightly vigil noting the land and reefs off Diamond Head, the lighthouse also serves as one end of the finish line for the biennial Transpac Yacht Race, which starts 2,225 nautical miles away from Point Fermin, at the southern edge of Los Angeles, California.

While at DLNR, I had the opportunity to attend a reception hosted by Admiral Sally Brice-O’Hara, then-Commander of the 14th Coast Guard District at the Diamond Head Lighthouse. Yes, the location and view from this site is one of the best in Hawaiʻi.

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Diamond Head Lighthouse

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Diamond Head Light, Oahu Island -1960

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Diamond Head Light guards the south shore of Oahu at that noted landmark east of Waikiki Beach, guarding the approaches to Honolulu Harbor. The old keeper’s house is the official residence of the Commandant of the Coast Guard’s 14th District.

Diamond_Head_Lighthouse-Transpac_Finish

February 12, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whippoorwill Expedition

“When the USS Whippoorwill left Honolulu at 5 o’clock on the afternoon of Thursday, July 24 (1924), carrying scientists who were to make a survey of the Line islands for the Bishop Museum, the vessel headed first to Fanning.”

“Halfway between the Hawaiian group and the atolls of the southern Pacific, the Line islands, coral-bound, are strewn on the bosom of an equatorial sea. Stepping-stones, as it were, up from the lazy latitudes.” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

Line Islands, chain of coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, some of which belong to Kiribati and some of which are claimed as unincorporated territories belonging to the US

“There is Palmyra, the northernmost, where a man may joust with land crabs measuring 14 inches in diameter. There is Washington, the little paradise, which is as beautiful as any island in Polynesia.”

“There is Jarvis, the desolate; where the broken schooner Amaranth, tossed up nearly a dozen years ago, lies bleaching in the sun of endless days.”

“There is Christmas where, in company with native divers, one may wrest the bearing pearl shell from the coral bottom of the lagoon; where the pickled awa float, belly upwards, on the waters of an inland lake, and where the Bay of Wrecks on the reef-set, windward shore, offers convincing evidence, century-old.” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

The Navy Department assigned the minesweeper Whippoorwill, under Captain W. J. Poland, to survey the Line Islands; the first group left Honolulu on July 24, 1924.

The scientific personnel were under the leadership of Charles H. Edmondson, and the members of the group concentrated on zoology, botany, conchology, entomology, and geology.

Edmondson came to Hawaii in 1920 with a joint appointment as professor of zoology and director of the Marine Biology Laboratory of the newly constituted University and as zoologist at the Bishop Museum. (UH)

The second group, with C Montague Cooke, Jr., in charge of the scientific personnel, left Honolulu on September 15, 1924 and visited Baker and Howland Islands.

“‘We had three objectives,’” Dr Edmondson said, in explanation’ and they were Christmas, Jarvis and Washington. The scientific work on Fanning had been well covered by Sr Stanley C Ball and myself in 1922 and Palmyra had been investigated by other parties – Dr CM Cooke Jr, and Professor Joseph E Rock in 1913, and Lorrin A Thurston, ‘Ted’ Dranga and David Thaanum a couple of years ago.”

“Dranga went diving for pearl shell. … ‘I saw a couple of natives diving,’ he said, ‘and I jumped into a skiff and rowed out to them. … ‘Sharks? One must expect that. But we kept close to the boat. … No I didn’t find any pearls.’”

“‘Pearls are scarce and one might get hundreds of shells before finding a single one. Sharks add to the fun of pearl-diving,’ he admitted, ‘but I, for one, would have appreciated the sport a great deal more it there had been none of the beasts around.’” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

A good deal of material in the natural sciences and geology was collected, and the ensuing reports were published by Bishop Museum. Notes on and a location map of some archaeological remains on Howland were made for future study.

“(T)he navy boat docked at Honolulu at 9 o’clock on the evening of the twenty-seventh. Dor Edmondson announced that the expedition had been a conspicuous success.”

“‘The real research work will take a long time, Edmondson concluded, ‘but it is certain that every collection we made will give us a clearer insight into the distribution of plant and marine forms in the Pacific and will aid, ultimately, in the solution of the problem of the origin and migrations of the Polynesians.’” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

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