Whaling | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 27, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Titusville

Candles and whale oil provided most of the artificial light in the decades before the Civil War. Whale oil was also used for heating and lubrication in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips. Demand for whale oil intensified – and prices skyrocketed – with the development of mechanized transportation and industrialization. The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void.

Then, Edwin L. Drake demonstrated practical oil recovery. On August 27, 1859, Drake struck oil 69-feet down in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The well yielded an average of 1,000-gallons daily for three years. The first export was in 1866, relieving the first glut in the market. Within a few years of the successful 1859 oil well in Titusville, this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry. By 1862, the whaling industry was in a definite and permanent decline. The effect in the Islands was striking. Prosperity ended, prices fell, cattle and crops were a drag on the market, and ship chandleries and retail stores began to wither. Sugar soon took its place.

July 1, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Joe Bal & Jack Ena

As early as 1811, the fur trading Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains. The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Hudson’s Bay Company steadily grew. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village at Fort Vancouver led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s. The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade.

Captain of the initial whaler into the Islands noted, “Left Oahu 10th of 10 Mo 1819 for Coast of California. I shipped two Kanakas from Maui and had them the remainder of the Voyage and took them to New Bedford. Their names were Joe Bal and Jack Ena, the two names comprising that of my ship Balaena. Much notice was taken of them, singing their national songs and airs. They were the first brought to this place.” Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian.

June 23, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

New Guinea

In the mid-18th century Nantucket emerged as the world’s most vigorous whaling port in the colonies, with a substantial fleet dedicated exclusively to pelagic sperm and right whaling on distant grounds. The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void. The first New England Whalers came in 1819.

Thousands of Hawaiians shipped out as seamen aboard the whaling ships, so many that the crews were often half Hawaiian. As ‘black men,’ Pacific Islanders ashore on Nantucket lived in ‘New Guinea,’ a segregated section of Nantucket where blacks lived in the 18th and 19th centuries. (The label “New Guinea” was used in numerous cities and towns to designate the section in which people of color resided.) At least six sailor boarding houses operated during the 1820 to 1860 period when Native Hawaiian seamen frequented Nantucket. Together William and Maria ran a boarding house for Pacific Islanders on-shore from Nantucket whaling vessels.

January 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1840s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1840s – first Hawaiian Constitution, the ‘Paulet Affair,’ Whaling and Great Mānele. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

November 22, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1810s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1810s – Kamehameha and Kaumualiʻi negotiations, death of Kamehameha and the fall of the Kapu. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.