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October 2, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Binghams and Mid-Pacific Institute

“It was a little acorn, planted in missionary soil, watered by some trials and tears, nourished by the prayers and gifts of many friends, protected and blest, we trust, by one who is our Master, even Christ.”

“A vigorous oak, it is soon to be transplanted to the hills, to spread its branches under the sunshine, the showers and the rainbows of beautiful Manoa Valley.”

“May the blessing of the Lord ever rest upon it, and upon her through whose munificence it is to find its new home.” (Lydia Bingham, 1907)

“Honolulu Female Academy (is) another of the schools provided by Christian benevolence for the benefit of the children of this highly favored land. This institution will, it is hoped, supply a felt need for a home for girls, in the town of Honolulu, yet not too near its center of business.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 13, 1867)

“The inception of this school emanated from Mrs Halsey Gulick. In 1863, when living in the old mission premises on the mauka side of King street, she took several Hawaiian girls into her family to be brought up with her own children … The mother love was strong in that little group as some of us remember.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

The usefulness of such a school became evident; as the enrollment grew, the need for a more permanent organization was required. It became known as Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary.

In 1867, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – an organization consisting of the children of the missionaries and adopted supporters) decided to support a girls’ boarding school.

HMCS invited Miss Lydia Bingham (daughter of Reverend Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi) to return to Honolulu to be a teacher in this family school; she was then principal of the Ohio Female College, at College Hill, Ohio.

In January 1869, her sister, Miss Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (Lizzie) Bingham, arrived from the continent to be an assistant to her sister. Lizzie was a graduate of Mount Holyoke and, when she was recruited, was a teacher at Rockford Female Seminary. (Beyer)

What is not generally known is that Lydia and Lizzie’s niece, Clara Moseley, came to Hawai‘i to help at the school.

“(B)efore I was fifteen, a wonderful thing happened to me which probably changed the whole course of my life. Two of my mother’s sisters, Aunt Lydia and Aunt Lizzie, returned to Honolulu, the home of their birth and engaged in teaching in a school for Hawaiian girls which was called Kawaiahaʻo Seminary.”

“It was located at that time on King St. just opposite the Old Mission house where the Mission Memorial Building now stands.”

“My Aunt Lydia was Principal of this school and she wrote to my mother asking if she couldn’t spare me and let me come out and teach music to her girls, knowing that I was musically inclined.”

“When my aunt wrote asking for me, she said she wanted me to have a teacher for a few months intervening before I should leave home, and she would pay for my lessons, so I took lessons … for about three months.”

“Of course my parents were willing to let me go, knowing it was too fine an opportunity for me to miss. A friend of my aunt’s, Miss Julia Gulick, was coming to the states that year so it was planned that I should go back with her.”

“I had planned to stay five years when I first went out to the Islands (however) ‘Old Captain Gelett) felt he must do something to change the course of my life. So he persuaded my aunts to let him send me away to school as soon as I had finished my third year at the Seminary.”

“Accordingly, in August, 1875, I sailed from Honolulu on the ‘DC Murray’ with a group of other young people who were going over to school. This sailing vessel was twenty one days in getting to San Francisco”. (Clara Lydia (Moseley) Sutherland)

Those weren’t the only Binghams involved with the school. Lydia and Lizzie’s brother, Hiram Bingham II, and his wife Minerva (Minnie) Brewster Bingham (she was also called Clara) lived and helped at Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary.

Their son, Hiram III was born at Kawaiaha‘o Female Seminary. (On July 24, 1911, Hiram III rediscovered the “Lost City” of Machu Picchu (which had been largely forgotten by everybody except the small number of people living in the immediate valley). Hiram III has been noted as a source of inspiration for the ‘Indiana Jones’ character.)

In 1905, a merger with Mills Institute, a boys’ school, was discussed; the Hawaiian Board of Foreign Missions purchased the Kidwell estate, about 35-acres of land in Mānoa valley.

By 1908, the first building was completed, and the school was officially operated as Mid-Pacific Institute, consisting of Kawaiahaʻo School for Girls and Damon School for Boys.

Finally, in the fall of 1922, a new coeducational plan went into effect – likewise, ‘Mills’ and ‘Kawaiahaʻo’ were dropped and by June 1923, Mid-Pacific became the common, shared name.

The Bingham children involved at Kawaiaha‘o, Lydia, Lizzie and Hiram, are my GG Aunts &Uncle. Young Clara Moseley is my great grandmother. I was fortunate to have served as the president of the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society for 3 ½ years.

October 1, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pearl Harbor Yacht Club

In 1888, the legislature gave Benjamin Franklin (Frank) Dillingham an exclusive franchise “for construction and operation on the Island of O‘ahu a steam railroad … for the carriage of passengers and freight.”

Ultimately OR&L sublet land, partnered on several sugar operations and/or hauled cane from Ewa Plantation Company, Honolulu Sugar Company in ‘Aiea, O‘ahu Sugar in Waipahu, Waianae Sugar Company, Waialua Agriculture Company and Kahuku Plantation Company, as well as pineapples for Dole.

Passenger travel was an add-on opportunity that not only included train rides; they also operated a bus system. However, the hauling for the agricultural ventures was the most lucrative.

In addition, OR&L (using another of its “land” components,) got into land development. It developed Hawai‘i’s first planned suburban development and held a contest, through the newspaper, to name this new city. The winner selected was “Pearl City” (the public also named the main street, Lehua.)

The railway owned 2,200-acres in fee simple in the peninsula. First, they laid-out and constructed the improvements, then invited the public on a free ride to see the new residential community. The marketing went so well; ultimately, lots were auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Excursion trains filled with passengers traveled to Pearl City on weekends and the area became a favorite place for pleasure seekers and picnic parties.

“Boarding a train at the O‘ahu Railway and Land Company depot at King and Iwilei streets I we rode to Pearl City and transferred to a small section-train known as The Dummy for the short peninsula ride to within a few steps from our destination.”

“Usually the section-locomotive trailed one passenger car but when it trailed a flat car instead we were elated. We could sit on its edge and dangle our legs.” (Henrietta Mann, Watumull Oral History)

Wealthy families visited the peninsula on weekends or during the summers, maintaining mansions on the peninsula and enjoying parties and yacht races in Pearl Harbor. Dillingham promoted sail boat races, a large dancing pavilion, and many forms of entertainment and recreation. (Aiea Pearl City Livable Communities Plan)

The local paper reported, “A new sporting club is being organized by a number of Honolulu men. It will be called “The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club” and will have a handsome club house on the lochs”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 4, 1899) There was even talk of building an ‘ark’ (a barge with a house on it), noting , “In San Francisco Bay … there are many ‘arks’. (Honolulu Republican, September 3, 1900)

“In 1901 the Hawaii Yacht Club was chartered and built a boat house near the west end of Aloha Avenue, about where the ferry landing was later built. The club later reorganized at the Ala Wai. Many of the wealthy families had yachts or other vessels for recreation, which joined the utilitarian fishing and ferry boats on the waters around the peninsula.”

The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club “became known for the many sail boat races it held. The Yacht Club had a wooden L-shaped pier at the end of Lanakila Avenue and a marine railway to pull boats out of the water. (Historic Context Study)

The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club (PHYC) had two earlier locations on Pearl City Peninsula before it was established north of Lanakila Avenue in the late 1920s.

The first club house, called the “old Parker Place,” faced on Middle Loch and was loaned to the club by R.W. Atkinson, one of the club’s charter members and owner of that property.

The club purchased the “Jones Place” in November 1925, remodeling the house, and building a pier and “runway for hauling boats”.

In March 1928 the two-story residence of Albert F. Afong was purchased and “turned into a clubhouse for the Yacht Club”. The clubhouse was situated on the lot abutting the pier and some of its foundation is still visible. (HAER HI-55)

“[Pearl Harbor] Yacht Club [property] was owned by this Chinese guy, Afong. And then, when Afong, in 1929, stock crash, he went bankrupt (I heard), and he had to get rid of all his land. That’s when the yacht club bought his home. It was a big yard, big home.”

“The Pearl Harbor Yacht Club originally bought the Ted Cooke home, but that was a smaller place. The building was big, big, two-story building. Originally that was built by the Jones Family. And then they sold it to the yacht club, and the yacht club first started in the peninsula over there. Then it was too small, so they took the Afong place.” (Asada Oral History)

“Pearl Harbor was a great thing, for instance. In the late twenties and early thirties the Pearl Harbor Yacht Club was very active. A whole bunch of us young people had what we called eighteen-footers; they were center-board boats.”

“We’d go down virtually every weekend in the summer months and usually stay at Ben Dillingham’s grandmother’s house, we boys. And the girls would stay with the Theodore [Atherton] Cookes, both of whom had lovely homes right on the peninsula there.”

“We would go into these races and have just a glorious time. Of course all of that’s gone now, except over at Kaneohe; they’ve more or less continued the tradition. Honolulu, in our youth, was a small, simple, quiet, slow-moving town, which is no longer.” (James Judd Jr, Watumull Oral History)

“[M]y dad liked sailing very much. He must have started sailing competitively when I was, oh I guess, around twelve or fifteen years old. Pearl Harbor Yacht Club was inside Pearl Harbor. There was a wonderful yacht club there and there were no limits. You could sail around Ford Island and all the way down West Loch, et cetera because the U. S. Navy hadn’t set up any restricted areas.”

“Every once in a while there’d be a naval exercise. Wonderful races with several classes of sailboats were what I participated in. My dad raced a star class boat and I had a little moon boat.”

“I can remember seeing all the great ships of the Navy there, and I’d just be sailing my own little twelve-foot sail boat and be looking at the Lexington and the Saratoga … and George Patton.”

“The great General Patton was a sailor, he was at Schofield, and he was a sailor. He was a very wealthy person. He had a schooner, about a seventy-foot black-hulled gorgeous schooner and he’d sail around Pearl before he’d go out the entrance and here we were just kids taking it all in.” (Stanley Kennedy Jr, Watumull Oral History)

“The pre-war club was a place for Hawaii’s leading families and members of the Big 5 commercial and plantation companies. They included the Dillinghams, Frears, Castles, Cookes, Dowsetts, Spauldings, McInernys, Mott-Smiths, Wilders, Atkinsons, Damons, James Dole and Princess Kawananakoa.”

“Pearl Harbor Yacht Club was also a magnet for local and national celebrities in those heady days of the late 1920s and through the 1930s.” (Dean Smith; Sigall)

“Through the years, membership in the Pearl Harbor Yacht has included Shirley Temple, Duke Kahanamoku and Harold Dillingham, who sailed the 1934 Pearl Harbor Yacht Club’s entry into the biannual Trans-Pacific Yacht Race aboard ‘Manuiwa’ and won.” (Ho’okele)

“Duke was quite an avid yachtsman and he belonged to the Pearl Harbor Yacht Club, which was at Pearl City at that time. We had raced up on Saturday to Waikiki and the following Sunday, which was December 7, we were supposed to race back again to Pearl City. Well, naturally, we couldn’t because the war started that morning.” (Nadine Kahanamoku, Watumull Oral History)

Today, Pearl Harbor Yacht Club provides recreational and competitive boating opportunities for Active Duty, Reserve, Retiree, DoD personnel and their families, as well as the community at large. It is situated at 57 Arizona Memorial Drive in Pearl Harbor.

September 30, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arrival of the Young Brothers

In 1899, Herbert, William, Jack and Edgar Young were at Catalina Island; the year, before they started taking fishing parties out daily and conducting excursions to the coral gardens.

Some suggest this was the beginning of charter fishing; likewise, this marked the beginning of the famous glass-bottom boat rides which were to prove of such great interest and profit at Catalina.

Then the Hawaiian Islands attracted their attention, and, as William put it, they “went with high hopes and the spirit of a pioneer toward strange lands and all the beauty of sky and sea in the blue Pacific.” (Herb and William were headed to Hawai‘i.)

On January 9, 1900, we sailed out of Golden Gate toward the Great adventure …”

“The Surprise, a two-masted schooner-equipped with one of the first gas engines of considerable horsepower – under the command of Captain Bray, was headed for the Hawaiian Group to engage in inter-island trade, serving the Kona Sugar Co., of Kailua – a most promising business.”

“Although there was then no actual tourist trade, which has of late years assumed such importance in Hawaii, all ships on their way to or from the Orient and Australia made Honolulu a port of call, and the harbor in 1900 was always a veritable forest of masts so that mooring was at a premium.”

“In fact, from twenty to thirty additional ships were always anchored in ‘Rotten Row,’ from where the chanteys of the windlass crews sounded out, floating across the smooth water to shore.”

“Herb was chief engineer aboard the Surprise while J served before the mast. It was a pleasant trip. Harry Wharton, later captain, was first mate; an Englishman, Harry, was the other sailor, but the real character was Tom, the cook, who fed us so much salt beef that the salt came through our pores and stuck to our shirts in the sun.”

“On the trip to Honolulu Herb would sit by me in the evening as I stood my trick at the wheel. The deepening glory of the Pacific sunset, as the ship rose and fell on a lazy ocean, tinted every spar and line and sail with colors that surpassed any we had ever seen back home in coastal waters.”

“Night after night we talked, in the dusk as the stars came out and the Southern Cross hung in the sky, of Hawaii, the Paradise of the Pacific. Captain Bray, a bluff, good-hearted skipper if I ever met one, told us yams of the Islands and described them as the most marvelous place a man could imagine.”

“For years we had heard tales of Hawaii; now at last we were to see it for ourselves. Every passing hour, every wave curling under our bows brought us so much nearer, and the eyes of youth, straining ahead of the ship, seemed almost to glimpse a palm-fringed shore where life was gay and living carefree.”

“Singularly enough, for the first time since I had become fired with the ambition to hunt sharks. I found myself giving little thought to the possibilities of shark fishing among the Islands.”

“The prospect of seeing and living in these elysian isles had unceremoniously overshadowed my original purpose in going there. I was, to put it mildly, all anticipation.”

“Yet no sooner had we set foot on Hawaiian soil than the old urge flared up again. Wherever I went I found the subject one of absorbing interest to all hands …”

“… but I soon discovered that, as usual, no one knew anything about sharks except rumors, legends and the apocryphal yarns of sailors who needed no encouragement to tell how they had outswum, tricked, caught or killed one or more sharks in desperate hand-to-fin encounters.”

“In fact, so avid was my quest for authentic information that I soon became known as ‘Sharky Bill,’ which name identifies me still in many ports and among many seafaring people.”

“At last, on January 19, after a fine voyage, we Sighted Honolulu. The green shores. the white beach and coral formations, the boats of the Kanakas, the town rising at the harbor edge to be lost in the verdure of the tropical plants …”

“… the great forest of masts and spars in the harbor, the clear water and brilliant coloring of everything within eyeshot made a picture that the years could not dim. Here at last was the land of my dreams, the real El Dorado, the place which one may leave, but to which he will always return, the enchanting isles where there is no good-bye, but only Aloha.”

“We dropped anchor at quarantine and stood on deck, silently, in wonder at the natural beauty of the island. Would our dreams come true here?”

“At the very outset it seemed that our plans were to lead only to disappointment. We could not even go ashore. Honolulu was under quarantine for bubonic plague. People had been dying off like flies and supervision was strict.”

“The night before our arrival one of the dilapidated thatched hovels in Chinatown had been burned by order of the authorities to rid the neighborhood of contagion, and the fire had been permitted to spread unchecked.”

“Chinatown was a smoldering mass of ruins where only a short time before dirty streets had been peopled with touts, women of easy virtue, hop-heads, smoke eaters, thieves, and beggars.”

“Honolulu had rid herself of a festering sore, and the populace was living in detention camps already built on the outskirts of the town. It was the end of an era.”

“We conferred on the situation. Obviously, if we landed we would be quarantined along with everybody else, and there was no telling when we might be free to make our start in trade among the islands.”

“Herb and I had just seventy-five dollars between us, which wasn’t very much. It had to last until we were able to find some new occupation. The decision was easy as we were in no danger of starvation aboard the Surprise, and we could still have our jobs there.”

“So, for the next three months we plied between Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, and Kailua, on Hawai‘i, a total distance of perhaps 150 miles.”

“If there happened to be a lumber shipment in Honolulu harbor for another port quarantine restrictions forced us to pick up floating lumber. Any cargo such as machinery was transferred from a lighter alongside our ship, but not before it was thoroughly sprayed with strong disinfectant.”

“But away from the danger zone we could land on any island, enjoying to the full the thrill of exploring a new land which was beautiful far beyond anything we had ever imagined.”

“Once we came very near losing not only our liberty but our ship and cargo. Harry, the mate, complained one evening of a swelling in the groin, high fever and all the symptoms of the dreaded plague.”

“It was sailing night, and any minute we expected the quarantine doctor to come aboard in order to give us our ‘pratique,’ or medical clearance. Visions of the authorities burning ship, cargo and all our effects rose before us. Yet there was nothing we could do except wait and see what happened.”

“Finally he climbed over the side. The crew, cook, captain, all lined up for critical inspection. Harry was last in line, feeling pretty low. But the swift tropical twilight came on in time to hide the feverish flush of his cheeks.”

“The doctor, impatient, scarcely gave him a glance, and signed clearance. What a relief! At nightfall we set sail and luck was with us again, for the mate’s ailment was not bubonic, but a localized infection which passed off after a few days.”

Younger brother Jack (my grandfather) arrived in October 1900. I am the youngest brother of the youngest brother of the youngest brother of Young Brothers.

Jack Edgar and Will Young 1903

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Kenny Young

September 29, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Penal Colonies

Before 1778, crime and punishment were closely related to the social and political structure of society. Crimes were judged by their relationship to religion and class. Crimes against the kapu system were severely punished, often by death. For these crimes involved offenses against the gods or the great chiefs. Such offenses threatened the basis upon which society was organized. (King)

John B Whitman who was in the Islands from 1813 to 1815 noted, “The word tarboo (kapu) is used to signify certain rites and ceremonies established by ancient custom, the origin of which is forbidden, either to touch, eat, drink, use, or wear ….”

“I have often witnessed with surprise, the strict attention paid to the observance of the tarboos of individuals, the variety of which, obliges them to be extremely careful, and to become well acquainted with those of the Chiefs, and their connections.”

Following the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) declared an end to the kapu system. “An extraordinary event marked the period of Liholiho’s rule, in the breaking down of the ancient tabus, the doing away with the power of the kahunas to declare tabus and to offer sacrifices” (Kamakau)

In part needing to fill the void left by the abolition of the kapu, on March 8, 1822, two “Notices” (essentially the first printed laws) were published at Honolulu.

The first related to disturbances caused by seamen having liberty on shore and provided that any of them “found riotous or disturbing the peace” should be imprisoned in the fort and detained there until thirty dollars was paid for the release of each offender.” (Kuykendall)

The second “Notice” read: “His Majesty the King, desirous of preserving the peace and tranquility of his dominions, has ordered that any foreigner residing on his Islands, who shall be guilty of molesting strangers, or in any way disturbing the peace, shall on complaint be confined in the Fort, and thence sent from the Islands by the first conveyance.” (Kuykendall)

The King, Kuhina Nui and Chiefs decided that exile and banishment from the Kingdom was a way to handle troublesome foreigners. It was not long before they realized that the same principles could be used to control their own people. They began to define new laws and new crimes. (King)

Missionary William Richards wrote, “The common penalty threatened to those who should break the laws, was banishment to the island of Tahoorawe (Kahoʻolawe) ….”

Describing the imprisonment of the first prisoners sent to the Island, Richards noted, “The chiefs then unanimously expressed their approbation of the sentence that had been passed upon them by the chiefs at Oʻahu, and declared their determination to punish all who should be guilty of like crimes.”

“They then called the governor of Kahurawe (Kahoʻolawe,) to whom they committed the criminals, charging him to keep them safely; at the same time telling him, that if they escaped from the island, he would be called to account for it.”

“Many of the older residents recall the common rumor in their early days here of that barren island having been a convict station, but, like the writer, are at a loss to define either the time of its designation as such, or its date of termination.” (Thrum)

“In its origin, doubtless the fact that not a few escaped convicts from Botany Bay, who had made their presence felt on these shores in early days had familiarized the king and chiefs with the subject of banishment, was an influence toward its recognition and adoption here as a penalty for crime.”

“While the time and circumstance of its origin is clouded with uncertainty, it appears to have been a working factor at the time of the visit at these islands of Wilkes’ Exploring Expedition, in 1840-41.” (Thrum)

The account therein given is the only one published by an early writer: “Kahoʻolawe – is fourteen miles long by five miles wide. It is uninhabited except by a few fishermen, and is used as a place of exile; at this time there was one state prisoner confined on it. Lieut. Budd – set out in search of the town.”

“After wandering over the rugged face of this barren island for many miles he discovered, to his great joy, from the top of a ridge, a cluster of huts near the water, which they soon reached.”

“They proved to be inhabited by Kenemoneha, the exile above spoken of, who for the crime of forgery had been condemned to spend five years in exile upon this island. This was effected in a singular manner, and the punishment of the offender will serve to show the mode in which the laws are carried into execution.”

“The village is a collection of eight huts and an unfurnished adobe church. The chief has three large canoes for his use. The only article produced on the island is the sweet potato, and but a small quantity of these.”

“All the inhabitants of the island are convicts, and receive their food from Maui; their present number is about fifteen. Besides this cluster of convicts’ huts there are one or two houses on the north end inhabited by old women. Some of the convicts are allowed to visit the other islands, but not to remain.” (March, 1841)

“It used to be a penal settlement, and no doubt the convicts enjoyed there as much ease and freedom from both surveillance and labor as their hearts could wish. I have heard that the late Kinimaka had a fine time of it. He was a native of some little rank and had his own dependants who used to swim from the shores of Maui and take him what he wanted to make his banishment entirely agreeable.”

But Kahoʻolawe was not the only penal colony.

Kekāuluohi (Kuhina Nui as Kaʻahumanu III) (1839-1845) “made Kahoʻolawe and Lānaʻi penal settlements for law breakers to punish them for such crimes as rebellion, theft, divorce, breaking marriage vows, murder, and prostitution.” (Kamakau)

Others substantiate it: “Enquiring among Hawaiians upon this subject we have an account from a venerable native writer of this city, formerly of Honuaʻula, Maui who testifies of his own knowledge not only of the existence of the penal settlement of Kahoolawe about the year 1840, but one also at Lae-o-Kaʻena, Lānaʻi; the former island being designated for the men, and the women being banished to the latter place.”

“The women were conveyed across to Lae-o-Kaʻena by the schooner Hoʻoikaika, afterwards the men were sent to Kahoʻolawe, among whom was the Maui chief Kinimaka, who was designated as superintendent of the exiles.”

“The work he assigned to them was the erection of houses of stone and dirt (adobe) at a place called Kaulana, a small bay, where with some residents they numbered 80 or more. After its designation as a convict station the former settlers left and returned to Honuaʻula, whence most of them had come.”

However, some of the men stole some canoes and “went over to Lae-o-Kaʻena, Lanai, and brought all the women to Kahoʻolawe to share their solitude .. (where) they lived peaceably together until in 1843 … (when they put an end to the law) and sent the exiles to their respective localities to work upon the roads.”

“It is possible, however, that in the “Act of Grace” of Kamehameha III, in commemoration of the restoration of the flag by Admiral Thomas July 31st of that year, whereby “all prisoners of every description” committed for offenses during the period of cession “from Hawaiʻi to Niʻihau …”

“… be immediately discharged,” royal clemency was extended to include prisoners of earlier conviction, since which time the laws on banishment appear to have been a dead letter long before, dropped from the statutes, apparently without special repeal.” (Thrum)

September 28, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. The family name was Melvill, and he added the “e” to the name. His father was a merchant from New England. His mother came from an old, socially prominent New York Dutch family.

Melville lived his first 11 years in New York City. After the collapse of the family’s import business in 1830 and Allan Melvill’s death in 1832, Herman’s oldest brother, Gansevoort, assumed responsibility for the family and took over his father’s business.

After two years as a bank clerk and some months working on the farm of his uncle, Thomas Melvill, Herman joined his brother in the business. About this time, Herman’s branch of the family altered the spelling of its name.

Inexperienced and now poor, Melville tried a variety of jobs between 1832 and 1841. He was a clerk in his brother’s hat store in Albany, worked in his uncle’s bank, taught school near Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

In 1839, at the age of 20, Melville took his first voyage across the Atlantic sea as a cabin boy on the merchant ship the St. Lawrence. After this expedition and a year exploring the West, Melville joined the crew of the whaling ship Acushnet in January of 1841.

He later sailed for a year and a half aboard the Acushnet; Melville and a fellow seaman deserted the ship, only to be captured by cannibals in the Marquesas Islands, the Typee. But the natives turned out to be gentle hosts.

More than five months after deserting the Acushnet, Melville’s adventures were not over. He later joined the crew of whaler Charles and Henry, where he worked as harpooner.

When the Charles and Henry anchored in Maui Island five months later in April of 1843, Melville took up work as a clerk and bookkeeper in a general store in Honolulu.

On August 17, 1843, he enlisted as a seaman on the frigate “United States,” flagship of the Navy’s Pacific Squadron.

His four years during his twenties (1841-1845) working on whaling ships provided him with material for his first three novels. Melville was also able to communicate the fear and terror of a whale hunt, a feat that would make his greatest work, Moby Dick, a literary tribute to the whaling industry.

Melville returned to his mother’s house determined to write about his adventures. His subsequent writings borrowed from his own experiences as well as other peoples’ fantastic stories that he heard during his travels.

The books that recounted his experiences and made his reputation were Typee (1846); Omoo (1847); Mardi (1849), a complex symbolic romance set in the South Seas; Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850).

Melville then began Moby-Dick, another “whaling voyage,” as he called it, similar to his successful travel books. He had almost completed the book when he met Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, etc.) Hawthorne inspired him to radically revise the whaling documentary into a novel of both universal significance and literary complexity.

Melville had a brief stay in Hawaiʻi.

In 1843, he spent four months in Hawaiʻi; at some point early in his stay he worked in a Honolulu bowling alley as a pinsetter. He also spent time beachcombing in Lāhainā.

He describes surfing in passages of Mardi and a Voyage Thither (his first pure fiction work – reportedly based on his travels linked to his brief stay in the Islands:)
“Past the break in the reef, wide banks of coral shelve off, creating the bar where the waves muster for the onset, thundering in water bolts that shake the whole reef till its very spray trembles. And then is it that the swimmers of Ohonoo most delight to gambol in the surf.”

“For this sport a surfboard is indispensable, some five feet in length, the width of a man’s body, convex on both sides, highly polished, and rounded at the ends. It is held in high estimation, invariably oiled after use, and hung up conspicuously in the dwelling of the owner.”

“Ranged on the beach, the bathers by hundreds dash in and, diving under the swells, make straight for the outer sea, pausing not till the comparatively smooth expanse beyond has been gained. Here, throwing themselves upon their boards, tranquilly they wait for a billow that suits.”

“Snatching them up, it hurries them landward, volume and speed both increasing till it races along a watery wall like the smooth, awful verge of Niagara. Hanging over this scroll, looking down from it as from a precipice, the bathers halloo, every limb in motion to preserve their place on the very crest of the wave.”

“Should they fall behind, the squadrons that follow would whelm them; dismounted and thrown forward, as certainly would they be run over the steed they ride. ’Tis like charging at the head of cavalry; you must on.”

“An expert swimmer shifts his position on his plank, now half striding it and anon, like a rider in the ring, poising himself upright in the scud, coming on like a man in the air.”

“At last all is lost in scud and vapor, as the overgrown billow bursts like a bomb. Adroitly emerging, the swimmers thread their way out and, like seals at the Orkneys, stand dripping upon the shore.” (Herman Melville)

Melville died September 28, 1891. (The inspiration and information, here, is primarily from pbs-org)