Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.)

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Recognition of Importance of Hawai‘i to US Trade

“The importance of the Sandwich Islands to the commerce of the United States, which visits these seas, is, perhaps, more than has been estimated by individuals, or our government been made acquainted with. … The annual, if not semi-annual, visit of one of our ships of war to these islands, is conceived to be necessary; and would, no doubt, be attended with the best advantages, affording to our commerce, in these seas, protection, assistance, and security.”

“For this station, a sloop of war would be sufficient for every purpose required; and, if so arranged as to visit these islands in the months of March, April, and May, and again in October and November … The very knowledge that a ship of war would semi-annually be at the Sandwich Islands, would be of infinite service to our commerce in general, which enters the waters of the North Pacific ocean.”