Inter-Island Steam Navigation | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

April 2, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hāna Landing

On December 19, 1853 the Privy Council awarded a monopoly to The Hawaiian Steam Navigation Company to operate steamers inter-island. In 1860 a propeller steamer Kilauea made its appearance; however she had a checkered run due to being laid up for repairs or lack of coal on many occasions.

In November, 1868, the SS Kilauea was withdrawn and the islands were without inter-island steamer service for two years. Sailing ships in the coasting trade filled the void created by the withdrawal of the Kilauea in 1868 until she was refit and returned to service in October, 1870. (HHF)

In the mid-1870s interisland transportation consisted of one steamer and around 30 sailing schooners, sloops and other boats. During this era the sugar cane industry utilized these vessels. In 1871 Samuel G. Wilder became the agent for the government-owned SS Kilauea and started Wilder & Company in 1872. (HHF)

Competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different routes, rather than engage in head to head competition.

Inter-Island operated the Kauaʻi and Oʻahu ports plus some on Hawaiʻi. Wilder took Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Maui plus Hawaiʻi ports not served by Inter-Island. Both companies stopped at Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena on Maui’s leeward coast. (HawaiianStamps)

Later, inter-island trade was carried almost exclusively by the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, the successor to the firm of Thomas R Foster & Co (the original founders of the company) and which, in 1905, acquired the Wilder Steamship Co. (Congressional Record)

“The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, established in 1883, own(ed) and operate(d) a fleet of first-class vessels engaged exclusively in the transportation of passengers and freight between ports on the islands of the Hawaiian group.” (Annual Report of the Governor, 1939)

Regular sailings of passenger vessels are maintained from Honolulu four times weekly to ports on the island of Hawaiʻi, four times weekly to Molokaʻi, twice weekly to Kauaʻi, three times weekly to Lānaʻi and daily, except Monday and Saturday, to ports on the island of Maui. Included in the fleet are 12 passenger and freight vessels.” (Report of the Governor, 1930)

During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, Inter-Island Steam Navigation had the SS Haleakalā, Hualālai, Kilauea and Waiʻaleʻale. There were others that carried 12-passengers such as the SS Humuʻula, which was primarily a cattle boat.

On the Maui and Molokai Route, Wilder’s had the main service for most Maui and Molokai ports. Wilder’s steamers ran a “milk run” stopping at Molokai ports before arriving at Lahaina on the run from Honolulu.

From Lahaina, they proceeded around northern West Maui to Kahului and thence to Hāna or Kipahulu and then retraced their route stopping at various ports along northern East Maui, Kahului, Lahaina and Molokai.

The steamer route along the northern East Maui augmented the often unpredictable overland route between Hāna and Haiku. When overland service between West Maui and Wailuku/Kahului was terminated in 1888, the steamers carried all the mail from Lahaina to Kahului or other parts of Maui.

At Hāna, Maui, a series of landings, jetties, and pier had been in use since at least 1882 – the landing was located near the foot of Keawa Place.

In March 1902, the Hāna Landing was “washed away by the great storm of the first of the month.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 31, 1902)

It was replaced in 1903. “The wharf measures about sixty feet by thirty feet and has a shed of corrugated iron over the end toward the water measuring forty-nine by thirty-eight feet.”

“A wall of solid masonry was also constructed near the northeast corner of the landing to protect it against heavy surf, which in times of storm has often lined the platform from its foundations.”

“Hāna people are much pleased with the new structure. The covered wharf will make an excellent dancing pavilion, inasmuch as those who have the festivity in charge intend that the floor shall be covered with smooth tongue and groove lumber.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 29, 1903) (A July 4 luau and dance were held that year.)

But the location of the landing had its challenges. “Unusually stormy weather has been reported from Hāna this week. On Tuesday two of the Claudine’s shore boats were tossed high upon the beach at the Hāna landing by the strong surf running, but no serious damage resulted.” (Maui News, November 5, 1915)

The decision was made to replace the smaller landing with a larger pier. Original drawings were produced by the Board of Harbor Commissioners. They are dated from September 1918 to March 5, 1919, and are signed by Lyman H. Bigelow, Chairman.

The pier at Hāna Bay (also historically known as Kauiki Bay ca. 1920, and as Kapueokahi Bay ca. 1882) was completed in the first half of 1921.

When the 1921 structure was built, it was referred to as “Hāna Wharf”, not as a pier (as it is known today). Because of a manpower shortage due to the military draft for service during World War, about 60 prisoners were used to man its construction.

When the pier was constructed, sugar had been grown commercially in Hāna for about 70 years. The Kaeleku Plantation Company was then the only plantation operating in the Hāna vicinity.

Bagged sugar from the Kaeleku mill was transported to Hāna Pier via the plantation railway system. From the wharf, the bagged sugar would often be lightered to a waiting transport ship anchored a short way offshore. Between 1922 and 1945, all of Kaeleku Plantation Company’s bagged sugar was shipped out of Hāna Pier. (HHF)

It was originally a commercial harbor under the jurisdiction of HDOT. The facility was transferred to the Department of Land & Natural Resources Boating Division in the early 2000s, then conveyed back to HDOT in 2010.

Shortly after the transfer, investigations of the facility determined it was unsafe and the pier was condemned and closed. In 2016, due to safety hazards, the decision to remove the pier was made.

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Hana Landing-HHF

Hana_Landing-HHF

Hana Landing-Howard

Boat at Hana Pier-HHF

Hana_Pier-HHF

Hana Wharf-HHF

Hana Pier-HHF

May 30, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Inter-Island Ferry

All of the following is from a Supplement of the Report of the Minister of Foreign Relations; it is dated as having been given to the Kingdom Legislature in 1856.

“Besides, political reasons, for a mission to foreign parts which may arise, there are others intimately connected with our internal prosperity, for instance …”

“… we may have to contract a foreign loan to carry out the large improvements of the Harbor and Reefs which we have undertaken and we may have to introduce into the King’s waters one or two paddle-wheel Steam-boats or Steam-propellers, on government account.”

“The relative position of our islands to each other and to the prevailing winds, renders inter-island steam navigation an indispensable element of our progress. We cannot otherwise develope our rich internal resources and trade. Upon this subject, the following are the opinions expressed by me, in note No. 58, published in the Friend of 4th September, 1844:”

“As soon as the traffic of the islands in goods and passengers can support the expense, an iron steam-boat — of say 300 tons — with a light draught of water, would be a great improvement. I am not sure, that if well and economically managed, it would not pay, at the present moment.”

“It would do away with two or three small vessels, at present kept for the use of the King and government. The transportation of goods, produce, cattle and passengers, from one island to another, must amount to a very considerable sum in the course of
the year.”

“The certainty and quickness of a steamer would increase the transportation — a visit to the great volcano of Kilauea in Hawaii
— and a tour amongst the islands would become more fashionable than at present …”

“… the prices of produce and labor would become equalized — the knowledge of every local improvement would become extended — and the efficiency of the government would be greatly increased by the more prompt propagation of the laws, and transmission of its orders.”

“Coals could be easily had from New Castle, New South Whales.”

“Vessels from thence, of which we have had five since February, would bring them in ballast, and carry away their value in the salt, sugar, or molasses produced on the islands.”

“In cruising among the islands, a steamer would make many trips as a sailing-vessel, with the trade-wind, which blows here strongly, and the consumption of coal would be further economized by frequent stoppages at the different ports.”

“A steamer, therefore, would not cost so much by the year, as might, at first sight, be apprehended; and I believe the earnings
would exceed the expectations of those who are unaccustomed to the effect of steam-boats and rail-roads in increasing, and even creating traffic.”

“The nearly twelve years that I have resided on the islands, since i emitted these opinions, have only confirmed them in the main. I prefer an iron boat as being proof against the worm, and from its superior cheapness and durability, if the bottom can be kept clean ; and I think that a Propeller would be more handy, and answer better than a Paddle-wheel boat.”

“We might commence with one Propellor of 500 tons, and corresponding horse-power, but it is my belief that the wants of the
islands, windward and leeward, will require two boats of such dimensions and power.”

“The boats ought to be built in perfect adaptation to our seas, harbors, roads and bays. We can only obtain such in the United States or Europe, and by having them built to order, according to clear specifications by some firm of well-established character.”

“Even supposing that we should have to borrow the money to pay for them, the benefit that they will do for the islands, yearly, will far exceed the amount of the interest, and in a few years the boats would pay their own cost.”

“Besides procuring a suitable steamboat, and other things conducive to our prosperity, many other advantages might arise from a foreign mission.”

“It is not my habit to regulate my expenditure, by the amounts appropriated, but to save all that I can. The Legislature may, therefore, rest assured that although they vote the $10,000, it will not be called for unless it can be applied to useful purposes.”

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Akamai_(steamer),_c._1853

Edward_T._Perkins-_Honolulu-_1854

View_of_Honolulu_Harbor_and_Punchbowl_Crater._(c._1854)

January 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Māhukona

Māhukona (lit., leeward steam or vapor,) a seamount on the northwestern flank of the island of Hawai‘i, is the most recently discovered shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands.

A ‘gap’ in the chain of regularly-spaced volcanoes in the sequence of younger shield volcanoes forming on the southernmost portion of the Hawaiian-Emperor chain was first noticed in 1890. Māhukona filled that gap.

Māhukona is one of the smallest Hawaiian volcanoes – it grew to at least about 1,000-feet below sea level, but never formed an Island and went extinct prematurely. (Garcia, et al)

But this is not about a lost volcano; this is about harbor that the volcano was named, Māhukona, the nearby port on the Island of Hawai‘i. Let’s look back …

Māhukona Harbor was developed and expanded as a port for the sugar plantations in Kohala and as a landing for interisland steamers. (Pukui)

Competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different inter-island steam ships routes between the Islands, but decided to not engage in head to head competition, here.

Wilder’s steamers left Honolulu and stopped at the Maui ports of Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena and then proceeded to Māhukona and Kawaihae.

From Kawaihae, the steamers turned north, passing Māhukona and rounding Upolu Point at the north end of Hawaiʻi and running for Hilo along the Kohala and Hāmākua coasts, stopping at Laupāhoehoe. (Visitors for Kīlauea Crater took coaches from Hilo through Olaʻa to the volcano.)

The Treaty of Reciprocity (1875) between the US and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market. Through the treaty and its amendments, the US obtained Pearl Harbor and Hawai‘i’s sugar planters received duty-free entry into US markets for their sugar.

In the late nineteenth century, sugar plantations were prospering on the Big Island. Six plantations in North Kohala, the area that includes the island’s north shore, used a couple of crude landings along that rugged coastline for exporting their products.

Steers would pull heavy wagons full of sugar or molasses to the landings where, braving high surf and swell, men loaded the cargo onto flatboats, which would transport the goods offshore to awaiting steamers.

In winter, the use of the landings was often too risky due to large breakers, so the sugarcane byproducts were transported over the hill to Māhukona, a protected small cove on the leeward side of the island.

Then, Samuel G Wilder secured a charter for a narrow gauge railroad from the port of Māhukona for 20-miles along the north coast of Hawaii in Niuliʻi. Wilder, who was the minister of interior of the Kalākaua government at that time, signed his own charter on July 5, 1880.

An amendment signed by King Kalākaua on August 13 gave the company a subsidy of $2,500 per mile on the completion. Wilder left the government the following day and organized Hawaiian Railway on October 20. Construction started April 1881. (Hilton)

Wilder also started with improving Māhukona port through the addition of numerous wharfs and a storehouse. By March of that year, the first section of ties and tracks had been laid.

In January 1883, the tracks covered almost twenty miles, reaching the northernmost sugar mill at Niuliʻi, and the Hawaiian Railroad was complete.

Raw sugar manufactured in the Kohala mills was bagged, transported by rail to Māhukona, and stored in warehouses until the arrival of a freighter. When a freighter moored offshore, lighters carried out the bags. (Pukui)

In May 1883, the Hawaiian Railroad Company earned a claim to fame hosting a ceremonial train ride for King Kalākaua. The original statue of King Kamehameha I which had been lost at sea, then found and restored, was waiting in Kapa‘au to be unveiled.

Kohala outdid itself in preparation for the King’s stay. The King thrilled Kohala by arriving in a Russian gunboat which fired him a royal salute. King Kalākaua and his entourage rode the first Big Island train. The teak passenger cars in which they were seated earned their new name, the ‘Kalākaua cars.’ (Schweitzer)

The steam locomotives traveled twelve miles per hour; the train was a novelty for locals, and tourists were visiting from Hilo to take a ride. Plantation owners were also pleased with the new railroad as their revenues started to surge. (LighthouseFriends) (Samuel Wilder died in 1888.)

In 1889, Charles L. Wight, president of the Hawaiian Railroad Company, noted “Foreign vessels call here about every three weeks and they often lose much time not knowing where to come in. In thick weather it is also hard for steamers to find the place. In addition it will be of material assistance to the vessels bound up the channel.” (LighthouseFriends)

In 1897 the rail name was changed to the Hawai‘i Railway Company. In 1899, during the first year of existence of the Territory of Hawaii, the Wilder family withdrew from the railroad and shipping business and sold the Hawai‘i Railway to the four principal plantations it served: Union Mill Co, Hālawa Plantation, Kohala Plantation and Niuliʻi Plantation.

In April of 1937, Kohala Sugar Co bought out the other plantations, acquired all of the stock in the Hawai‘i Railway Company and reincorporated (September 30, 1937) as Māhukona Terminals Inc.

Kohala Sugar laid spur tracks to the mills and their corresponding fields. This marked the first physical connection of the railroad to the sugar cane operations. Previously, trucks hauled the raw cane to the mills where the sugar cane was processed and put in sacks which were then loaded onto trains.

The Māhukona harbor was closed when the US declared war against Japan on December 8, 1941. Business gradually declined and in 1945 the Hawai‘i Railway was abandoned. (OAC)

Māhukona Harbor was the major port serving the Kohala Sugar Company and North Kohala people until it closed in 1956. Houses, a store and recreational facilities stood near the harbor.

Until the mid-1960s, the regional highway system left North Kohala as one of the most physically isolated places on the island. The only highway into or out of North Kohala was the 22-mile road over the Kohala Mountain into Waimea.

A 6-mile road from Hawi to the Māhukona harbor was the only penetration into the dry side. On the other side, the highway stopped at the Pololu Valley lookout. North Kohala formed an ‘end at the road community’ in all respects. (Community Resources) Kohala Sugar closed in 1973.

North Kohala legislator (from 1947 to 1965) Akoni Pule advocated strongly for a second access road into his district. The Akoni Pule Highway (named for him) was dedicated in 1973. (South Kohala CDP) (In 1975, the Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway was completed from the Keāhole Airport to Kawaihae Harbor.)

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Railroad tracks and harbor at Mahukona Landing, Kohala, Hawaii-(HSA)-PP-88-3-025-1882

Mahukona_Harbor,_Island_of_Hawaii,_T.H_-_NARA_-_296066-1904

Kinau-nearing Mahukona with a narrow gauge train loaded with sugar – 1882

Number Five is seen climbing the three percent grade out of Mahukona

Hawaii Railway-SugarTrains

Hawaii Railway-SugarTrains-1925

Hawaiian Railroad Company locomotive and train on the James Wood trestle, Mahukona, Hawaii-(HSA)-PP-88-3-024-1882

Mahukona-Hawaii_Railway_Co

Mahukona light house – 1904

Mahukona_Lighthouse

Mahukona-(c) marinas

Hawaii Railway-Mahukona-Niulii-1911

Mahukona- filling in the gap-Garcia-et_al

Mahukona_Volcano-SOEST

February 16, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Thomas R Foster

He was born May 19, 1835 at Fisher’s Grant, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada; he later went to work with for his brother, Daniel Foster, in his shipbuilding business in Warren, Bristol County, Rhode Island in the 1850s.

In 1857, Thomas R Foster and his brother Daniel decided to move to Hawaiʻi to try the shipbuilding business in the Pacific. It appears that Thomas Foster was the main brother involved in the Shipbuilding business in Hawaiʻi.

Foster met and married Mary Elizabeth Mikahala Robinson, the eldest daughter of James Robinson, the prominent local ship builder in 1861 (they did not have any children.)

With financial help from Mary’s father, the Fosters bought property near the intersection of Nuʻuanu Avenue and School Street. There, they built a modest residence and settled down. (Wallworth)

(Later (1880,) the Fosters purchased the neighboring property owned by Dr William Hillebrand, a German physician and botanist who built his home here and planted trees and a variety of other plants. Upon Mary’s death (December 19, 1930,) the property was bequeathed to the City of Honolulu, to be known as Foster Park (now known as Foster Botanical Garden.))

On March 4, 1866, the German barque Libelle, on voyage from San Francisco to Hong Kong, grounded on the east reef off Wake Island. Several vessels went to Wake Island to salvage the cargo, which included several hundred flasks of quicksilver.

The sloop Hokulele, with a party headed by Foster, left Honolulu May 9, 1867, reached Wake on May 31st, left there June 22, and returned to Honolulu July 29, 1867 with 247 flasks of quicksilver. (Quicksilver is otherwise known as mercury, the only metallic element that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure.)

Steamship companies played an important role in the Kingdom of Hawai`i, even though steam navigation actually got off to a slow start; the first steamer was the American twin-screw steamer Constitution that arrived at Honolulu on January 24, 1852. (NOAA)

Then, the legislature passed ‘an Act to Promote Inter-Island Steam Communication,’ approved by the king on September 18, 1876. This law authorized the minister of the interior to contract with responsible parties “to maintain a suitable steamer of not less than 500 tons register … in the inner-island service … for a period not to exceed ten years.” (Kuykendall)

Foster began his company in 1878, two years after the signing of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States by the Kingdom of Hawai‘i. Incorporated as the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company in 1883, Foster’s firm followed that of Samuel Gardner Wilder, Sr., who began the similar Wilder Steamship Company in 1877. (Chinatown)

In response to increased needs, three local steamship companies soon emerged as corporations: Wilder Steamship Company (Wilder,) Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company (Foster) and Pacific Navigation Company (Amos F Cooke.) (Pacific Navigation experienced costly setbacks due to a number of shipwrecks and folded in 1888.) (NOAA)

Inter-Island operated the Kauai and Oʻahu ports plus the Kona, Kaʻū, Kukuihaele, Honokaʻa and Kūkaʻiau ports on Hawaiʻi. Wilder took Molokai, Lānaʻi and Maui plus all ports on Hawaii, including Hilo, not served by Inter-Island.

Both companies stopped at Lahaina plus Maalaea Bay and Makena on Maui’s leeward coast once. Inter-Island’s service to Lahaina started in 1886. Both fleets were enlarged over time. (Hawaiian Stamps)

In 1905, the two companies, under the leadership of John Ena (1843-1906), a former clerk of Chinese-Hawaiian parentage, merged under the Inter-Island name. (Chinatown)

When airplanes came to the Hawaiian Islands, the Inter-Island Navigation Company founded a subsidiary, Inter-Island Airways. Hawaiʻi’s first interisland passenger service was launched on November 11, 1929.

In the late-1940s, Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co became the target of a federal anti-trust suit. The government won its case and broke the company into four companies: Inter-Island Steam, Overseas Terminals, Hawaiian Airlines and Inter-Island Resorts. (GardenIsland)

Foster died in 1889; the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company built their headquarters on Merchant Street in 1891 and inscribed their building with Foster’s name in his memory.

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Thomas R Foster-C&CHnl

SS Waialeale-(HallBrothers)

Menu-SS_Hualalai-(gdm-hi)-Jan_6,_1949

Routes of the Steamship companies Wilder’s_routes-(green lines) and Inter-Island-(blue lines) -1890

Inter-Island Airways planes on the runway at John Rodgers Field, Honolulu, c1936-1939

TR Foster Building-corner of Nuuanu and Marin-(NPS)

Perspective_view_of_southeast_elevation,_including_the_Irwin_Block_(The_Nippu_Jiji)_(HABS_HI-55-M)_-_Merchant_and_Nuuanu_Streets,_T._R._Foster_Building

TR_Foster_Bldg-Plaque-600

Foster_Botanical_Garden-sign

Foster_Botanical_Garden-Map

October 10, 2014 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Haleakalā, Hualālai and Kīlauea

Volcanoes … yes. But that is not what this story is about.

These are some of the names of inter-island steam ships that operated between the Islands; and in the day, they were the only way to get from here to there, when you travelled inter-island.

Competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different routes, rather than engage in head to head competition.

Mahukona, Kawaihae and Hilo were the Big Island’s major ports; Inter-Island served Kona ports, Kaʻū ports and the Hāmākua ports of Kukuihaele, Honokaʻa and Kūkaʻiau. Wilder served Hilo and the Hāmākua stops at Paʻauhau, Paʻauilo and Laupāhoehoe.

For Inter-Island’s routes, vessels left Honolulu stopping at Lāhainā and Māʻalaea Bay on Maui and then proceeding directly to Kailua-Kona.

From Kailua, the steamer went south stopping at the Kona ports of Nāpoʻopoʻo on Kealakekua Bay, Hoʻokena, Hoʻopuloa, rounding South Point, touching at the Kaʻū port of Honuʻapo and finally arriving at Punaluʻu, Kaʻū, the terminus of the route. (From Punaluʻu, five mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.)

Wilder’s steamers left Honolulu and stopped at the Maui ports of Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena and then proceeded to Mahukona and Kawaihae. From Kawaihae, the steamers turned north, passing Mahukona and rounding Upolu Point at the north end of Hawaiʻi and running for Hilo along the Kohala and Hāmākua coasts, stopping at Laupāhoehoe. (Visitors for Kilauea Crater took coaches from Hilo through Olaʻa to the volcano.)

Haleakalā, a steel screw steamer, was built by Sun Ship, Chester, PA in 1923 for the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. She first arrived at Honolulu March 15, 1923 and put on the Hilo route with accommodations for 261 cabin and 90 deck passengers.

She was later laid up as a reserve vessel when the Hualālai was put into service; resold and renamed several times, Haleakala was sold for scrap and demolished February 2, 1955.

Hualālai, a twin-screw steel steamer, was built at Bethlehem Shipbuilding, San Francisco, CA in 1929. After inter-island use, she was later, sold, resold and renamed a couple of times, and later scrapped in May 1960.

Waiʻaleʻale, another passenger ship, was a twin-screw steel steamer put into service by the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company in June 1928. After the war, she was put under the Philippine flag, later returned to Honolulu in 1948 and scrapped in September 1954.

Others included Kilauea, put into passenger and freight service in 1911, Hawaiʻi in October 1924 and Humuʻula in 1929.

Once aboard, the purser collected the $5 fare. Of course, cabins were available, but more expensive at $10. Most passengers selected steerage, which was the lowest fare. (Rodenhurst)

The steerage area was a large open area aft, on the second deck. Wooden slats covered the steel deck. People would stake out their space with mats and luggage, then settle down to eat their food. (Rodenhurst)

“Twice a week the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company dispatches its palatial steamers, “Waiʻaleʻale” and “Hualālai,” to Hilo, leaving Honolulu at 4 pm on Tuesdays and Fridays, arriving at Hilo at 8 am the next morning. From Honolulu, the Inter-Island Company dispatches almost daily excellent passenger vessels to the island of Maui and twice a week to the island of Kauaʻi.” (The Mid-Pacific, December 1933)

“There is no finer cruise in all the world than a visit to all of the Hawaiian Islands on the steamers of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. The head offices in Honolulu are on Fort at Merchant Street, where every information is available, or books on the different islands are sent on request.”

“Tours of all the islands are arranged. Connected with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company is the world-famous Volcano House overlooking the everlasting house of fire, as the crater of Halemaʻumaʻu is justly named. A night’s ride from Honolulu and an hour by automobile and you are at the Volcano House in the Hawaii National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi, the only truly historic caravansary of the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Mid-Pacific, December 1933)

“Many steamers each week call at ports of Hawaiʻi from Honolulu. The Inter-Island company has a fine steamer on this run for tourists, and (added) a steamer with a capacity of 350 passengers, large and commodious as any ocean liner, to carry passengers on the ‘Volcano run,’ making two trips a week.” (Taylor)

When James A Kennedy joined Inter-Island in 1900 it was in an early stage of its development, and it had become a corporation when he retired from the presidency and general managership in 1924. He remained a member of the board of directors.

In 1928, his son, Stanley C Kennedy, a Silver Star Navy pilot, convinced the board of directors of Inter-Island Steam Navigation of the importance of air service to the Territory and formed Inter-Island Airways.

Young Kennedy had visions of flying for many years. But it was not until the Great War that Stanley Kennedy was to pilot an airplane. Dissatisfied with a Washington desk job, the naval officer talked his way into flight training in Pensacola, Florida. In short order, Ensign Kennedy sported wings as Naval Aviator No. 302. (hawaii-gov)

On November 11, 1929, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd introduced the first scheduled air service in Hawaiʻi with a fleet of two 8-passenger Sikorsky S-38 amphibian airplanes. The first flight from Honolulu to Hilo with stops on Molokaʻi and Maui took three hours, 15 minutes. (It was later renamed Hawaiian Airline.) (hawaii-gov)

Eventually, in 1950, the inter-island ships were sold and the business closed down as air travel took over. “It was sad to have another part of Hawaiʻi’s past fade into history. Nevertheless, these once-in-a-lifetime experiences will remain in my memory forever.” (Rodenhurst)

The image shows Interisland Steam Navigation’s SS Hualālai in Nāwiliwili Harbor. In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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