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In November, 1868, the SS Kilauea was withdrawn and the islands were without inter-island steamer service for two years.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)

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

January 17, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kolo Wharf

In 1907, McNeill & Libby started its first fruit cannery in Sunnyvale, California. It quickly became the largest employer with a predominantly female workforce.

In the early 1900s, it established a pineapple canning subsidiary in Hawaiʻi and began to advertise its canned produce using the ‘Libby’s’ brand name. Unlike the other bigger pineapple producers, Libby did not start in Central Oʻahu, it started in Windward O‘ahu.

Libby’s pineapple covered the southern portion of Kāne’ohe, what is now the Pali Golf Course, Hawaiian Memorial Park and the surrounding area. By 1923, it was evident that pineapple cultivation on the Windward area could not keep up with that in other O‘ahu areas.

Then, Libby began to grow pineapple on land leased from Molokaʻi Ranch; their activities were focused primarily in the Kaluakoʻi section of the island. Lacking facilities and housing, the plantation began building clusters of dwellings (“camps”) around Maunaloa.

By 1927, it started to grow into a small town – as pineapple production grew, so did the town. By the 1930s, more that 12 million cases of pineapple were being produced in Hawaiʻi every year; Libby accounted for 23 percent.

There were two main pineapple growers on Molokai, Libby, situated on the west side at Maunaloa and California Packing Corporation (later known as Del Monte) in Kualapuʻu in the central part of Molokaʻi.

Then steps in a fledgling Hawaiʻi company, also seeing expansion opportunities, and it was through shipment of Libby’s pineapple from Molokaʻi to Libby’s processing plant in Honolulu that Young Brothers expanded into the freight business.

In 1900, three brothers, William, Herbert and Jack, got into business along Honolulu’s waterfront. What started out working small, odd jobs running lines, delivering supplies and providing harbor tours ended up to be a company that has played an important role in the maritime community of the State.

In those days, there might be from five to twenty sailing ships off Sand Island. When a ship came in, the anchor line had to be run out to secure the ship; if the ship was coming to the dock, a line had to be carried to the pier.

In the early years of the company, the brothers carried supplies and sailors to ships at anchor outside the harbor, as well as run lines for anchoring or docking vessels. They also gave harbor tours and took paying passengers to participate in shark hunts.

Libby’s need to ship fruit from the growing area on Molokaʻi, to pineapple processing on Oʻahu created an opportunity for the brothers. The brothers, using their first wooden barges, YB1 and YB2, hauled pineapples from Libby’s wharf to Honolulu. “That’s how (Young Brothers) started the freight.” (Jack Young Jr)

Libby constructed paved roads, a warehouse and worker housing in Maunaloa. In addition, they dredged a harbor and built a wharf at Kolo on the south-west side of the Island (between what is now Hale O Lono and Kaunakakai.)

“A natural channel thru the coral reef was blown and dredged to give a minimal depth of nine feet with two hundred feet width. Spar buoys mark the outer and inner ends of this channel.”

“The wharf is a heavily built wooden structure, having a road constructed for heavy truck traffic between it and the plantation on the summit of Mauna Loa. The only buildings at Kolo are those of the construction camp.” (Dept of Commerce, 1925)

Back then, there was competition in hauling freight. “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)

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. “(Inter-Island) would run their passenger ships and heave to off Kaunakakai. And it would be passengers and mail which just went (ashore) by boat.” (Jack Young Jr)

But those vessels had deeper drafts than the shallow barges and couldn’t service Kolo; “Kolo was a very shallow draft channel, and it was a privately owned port, owned entirely by Libby McNeil & Libby. They had bigger acreage on the west end. That was a shorter haul for them. But the bulk of Libby’s pineapples came from Maunaloa which was shipped out of Kolo.” (Jack Young Jr)

To handle the conditions there, Young Brothers had a special tender built, the ‘Kolo.’ “My father had the Kolo built for that. He had the propellers swung into the hull of the launch because of the shallow depth. … The tug had to remain off port.” (Jack Young Jr)

With expanded freight service to Molokaʻi (Kolo and Kaunakakai,) around 1929, Young Brothers initiated a practice of towing two barges with one tug and became known as tandem towing.

The system was pioneered because two barges were needed to serve Molokaʻi – they would drop one barge off at Kolo and then carry on to Kaunakakai; they’d pick up the Kolo barge on the way back to Honolulu.

Then, the 1946 tidal wave struck. “Libby would have to spend $1-million to restore it, and redredge it. And so instead of that they bought a fleet of trucks and hauled their fruit from Maunaloa to Kaunakakai. Everything went out of Kaunakakai, Libbys and (California Packing Corporation (later known as Del Monte.)) So Kolo was abandoned.” (Jack Young Jr)

The end of the pineapple era began in 1972 when Libby sold to Dole Corp and was finalized three years later when Dole closed its Maunaloa facility. The very last pineapple harvest took place in 1986. (West Molokai Association)

Young Brothers continues today. In 1999, Saltchuk Resources, Inc of Seattle, Washington, the parent company of Foss Maritime, acquired Young Brothers and selected assets of Hawaiian Tug & Barge. In 2013, Hawaiian Tug & Barge was rebranded and incorporated into the Foss Maritime fleet, while Young Brothers remains a wholly own subsidiary of Foss.

The youngest of the Young Brothers, “Captain Jack,” is my grandfather; several quotes in this piece include statements from my uncle, also known as Captain Jack.

The image shows remnants of the Kolo Wharf (Google Earth.) In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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