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July 17, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hale Pili o Nā Mikanele

The Second Company of American Protestant missionaries to Hawai‘i left on the Thames from New Haven Connecticut and arrived at Honolulu on April 27, 1823. (The Hawaiians called the missionaries mikanele.)

The members of the first reinforcement were critical in the expansion of the Mission, important relationships with the royal family and, through the efforts of missionary William Richards, the development of a Hawaiian constitutional government.

William & Clarissa Richards and Charles & Harriet Stewart (and their dear friend Betsey Stockton) were assigned a hale pili (thatched homes) on Missionary Row.

“While in America my imagination had often portrayed scenes of the future – the humble cot on missionary ground, and all its appurtenances fancy had dressed in fairy colours …”

“… She had twined around her happy dwelling many romantic sweets, and scattered with a lavish hand the beauties of natural scenery. You will ask if the picture exists in real life. I answer no. I find nothing (of) this kind; but I do find what is infinitely more valuable.” (Charissa Richards Journal, May 1, 1823; Leineweber, Mission Houses)

Despite her initial disillusionment, Clarissa looked with pleasure on her new accommodations. “If our cottage has not all that elegant simplicity about it that I had fancied, it is far more comfortable within.”

“Her husband, William Richards was a little more direct, ‘We are living in houses built by the heathen and presented to us.” Within a grouping of six grass houses were “two … put up for our accommodation before our arrival.” (Leineweber, Mission Houses)

Levi Chamberlain (another member of the 2nd Company, noted, “Monday July 28 (1823.) The wind has been excessively strong today, rendering it very uncomfortable to go abroad, and indeed uncomfortable to be at home from the necessity of having the windows & doors of our houses shut to keep out the dust.”

“Mrs. Loomis, & Mrs. Bishop, & Mr. & Mrs. Ely were obliged to leave their thatched houses & come into the wood house to avoid the dust. which came into their houses in such abundance thay they could not remain with comfort.” (Levi Chamberlain Journal)

“The Hawaiian mode of building habitations was, in a measure, ingenious, and when their work was carefully executed, it was adapted to the taste of a dark, rude tribe, subsisting on roots, fish, and fruits, but by no means sufficient to meet their necessities, even in their mild climate.” (Hiram Bingham)

“(The frame of) the building assumes the appearance of a huge, rude bird cage. It is then covered with the leaf of the ki, pandanus, sugarcane, or more commonly (as in the case of the habitations for us) with grass bound on in small bundles, side by side, one tier overlapping another, like shingles.”

“A house thus thatched assumes the appearance of a long hay stack without, and a cage in a hay mow within. The area or ground within, is raised a little with earth, to prevent the influx of water, and spread with grass and mats, answering usually instead of floors, tables, chairs, sofas, and beds.”

“Such was the habitation of the Hawaiian, – the monarch, chief, and landlord, the farmer, fisherman, and cloth-beating widow, – a tent of poles and thatch-a rude attic, of one apartment on the ground-a shelter for the father, mother, larger and smaller children, friends and servants.” (Hiram Bingham)

Most Hawaiian family hale compounds had several special-purpose hale. This collection was called a kauhale. The household complex was the center of the Native Hawaiian family and household production of the necessities of life. Men and women’s activities took place in different areas. (Leineweber)

Missionary Row was Diamond Head side of the present wood frame building at Mission Houses – it fronted along what is now King Street.

The proposed Richard’s hale pili will be reproduction of a hale that Boki ordered built for the new missionaries arriving as the Second Company in 1823. The hale represents a bridge between cultures and represents support given to the missionaries by the host culture, and the cooperative relationship that existed between the chiefs and the missionaries.

Clarissa Richards dimensioned her house with “one room – 22 feet long and 12 feet wide” with a height of “12 feet from the ground to the ridge pole. … (It) had three windows, or rather holes cut through the thatching with close wooden shutters.” The door was “too small to admit a person walking in without stooping.” (Betsey Stockton)

The interior of each of the houses was one large room with no floors, but the “ground spread with mats.” Most of the furniture in each of the houses had arrived with the individual family in the reinforcement.

Clarissa Richards described the sleeping accommodation in her house, “Mats are fastened over and at the sides of our bed, except the front, which has a tappa curtain.” The rest of the furniture in the Richards’ House consisted of “a bed, two chairs, (one without a back,) a dozen trunks and boxes, and a couple of barrels.” Four large square trunks made a table. (Leineweber)

“Mr. R’s writing desk and the beautiful workbox presented by my beloved Cordelia. Over this table hangs a small looking glass – and on the other table (at) the other side of the window are arranged a few choice books, most of them testimonials of affection from absent friends.” (Clarissa Richards; Leineweber)

When William Richards and Charles Stewart left for Lahaina with Keōpūolani, Maria Loomis moved into one of the vacated houses. “Employed today in assisting Mrs Loomis to remove the furniture of her room into the thatched house recently occupied by Mr. Richards.”

In 1831 with Lorrin Andrews, Richards helped to build the high school at Lahainaluna on the slopes above Lahaina. In 1838 the king asked him to become a political adviser; he resigned his position with the mission and spent his time urging the improvement of the political system.

Richards was instrumental in helping to transform Hawai‘i into a modern constitutional state with a bill of rights (1839) and a constitution (1840). In 1842, he went abroad with Timoteo Haʻalilio as a diplomat seeking British, French and US acknowledgment of Hawaiian independence.

William Richards later became the Minister of Public Instruction in 1846 and worked with the legislature to make education a legal mandate.

Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives is in the process of reconstructing the Richards hale pili. The Hale Pili o na Mikanele is a non-traditional hale, as many activities took place here and missionaries did not separate gender activities into different buildings.

The reconstructed hale pili will not use pili grass for the covering; instead a fire-retardant thatch panel will be used (it is situated next to the oldest wood frame house in the Islands.)

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L2R Ellis, Richards & Stewart-Stockton; Frame House-Kawaiahao

Missionary Row-Chamberlain-Oct 11, 1820-TheFriend Oct 1925

Hale Pili o na Mikanele-Richards Hale-Section

Hale Pili o na Mikanele-Richards Hale-Location

Hale Pili o na Mikanele-Richards Hale-Floor Plan

July 16, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

When Was Hawai‘i Settled?

Various European explorers, traders, missionaries, and others – from Captain James Cook onwards – speculated about where the ancestors of the Hawaiians and other Polynesians came from, and about when they had made their migrations into and across the Pacific.

But the first to systematically compile a large body of empirical data relevant to these questions, and to lay out a formal argument and theory, was Abraham Fornander, primarily in his classic An Account of the Polynesian Race (1878–1885), but also in a posthumously published summary.

Fornander was not an archaeologist; he did not draw upon the material record of ancient sites or artifacts. Fornander, who became fluent in Hawaiian, regarded the Hawaiian traditions as historical accounts of real individuals.

He also realized that these accounts could be placed into a relative chronology using the genealogies of the chiefly lines which he also collected and analyzed. Fornander estimated Hawaiian settlement at around AD 450. Later, Emory, analyzing linguistics, proposed a date of around AD 1150.

Professional anthropology incorporating archaeology took hold in Polynesia in the early 20th century. Early on, archaeology lacked any direct methods for dating Polynesian sites or artifacts, and was largely relegated to the mapping of surface architecture. Oral traditions, along with detailed ethnographic comparisons, were the main sources for historical reconstruction.

Evidence for human settlement of an island or archipelago can come from two different sources: (1) direct artifactual evidence from human settlements such as sand dune occupations or rockshelters; and …

(2) indirect evidence in the form of proxy signals of anthropogenic disturbance, such as increases in charcoal fluxes in lake or swamp sediments, rapid changes in pollen frequencies in these sediments, or the appearance plants and animals that live near or benefit from association with humans (such as weeds, insects or rats.)

The invention of radiocarbon dating helped to spark a boom in Polynesian and Pacific archaeology. In the 1940s, Professor Willard F Libby and his associates developed radiocarbon dating – a method to measure the age of organic materials.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960 was awarded to Libby “for his method to use carbon-14 for age determination in archaeology, geology, geophysics, and other branches of science”.

For radiocarbon dating to be possible, the material must once have been part of a living organism. This means that things like stone, metal and pottery cannot usually be directly dated by this means unless there is some organic material embedded or left as a residue.

Radiocarbon dating depended upon the discovery cosmic rays, which constantly bombard Earth and turn some carbon atoms in living tissue into radioactive isotope carbon-14. (University of Chicago)

The radiocarbon date tells us when the organism was alive (not when the material was used.) The dating process is always designed to try to extract the carbon from a sample which is most representative of the original organism.

The radiocarbon formed in the upper atmosphere is mostly in the form of carbon dioxide. This is taken up by plants through photosynthesis. Plant eating animals (herbivores and omnivores) get their carbon by eating plants. All animals in the food chain, including carnivores, get their carbon indirectly from plant material, even if it is by eating animals which themselves eat plants.

Once an organism dies the carbon is no longer replaced. Because the radiocarbon is radioactive, it will slowly decay away. There will usually be a loss of stable carbon too but the proportion of radiocarbon to stable carbon will reduce. (University of Chicago and University of Oxford)

Over the following decades, radiocarbon dating technology and techniques improved. While significant improvements were made, but the greatest advance came in 1977 with Richard A Muller’s use of accelerator mass spectrometry (atoms are converted into a beam of fast moving ions. The mass of these ions is then measured by the application of magnetic and electric fields.)

Equally important to the refinements in laboratory methods was the realization by archaeologists that they needed to pay close attention to the kinds of samples they submitted for dating.

This was especially the case for wood charcoal, perhaps the most commonly dated material from Polynesian sites. In the early years of radiocarbon dating, when the crude laboratory methods required large sample sizes, there was a tendency to select the largest pieces of charcoal.

The entire contents of hearths or earth ovens (often including tens or even hundreds of individual charcoal fragments) were often submitted in bulk to the dating laboratory.

The problem was that such samples in many cases included old growth timber, which had an ‘in built’ age that was potentially much older than the time at which the wood was actually burnt in the hearth or oven.

The date returned by the radiocarbon lab may have been an accurate indication of the age of the timber, but not of the ‘target date’ of human use of the site.

The most important step in developing new protocols for radiocarbon sample selection was the taxonomic identification of wood charcoal based on anatomical characteristics by comparison to a reference collection of known woody plant species for the particular region or island.

So, what does the updated technology and techniques show as the time of Hawaiian settlement in the Islands?

Dating of a number of key Eastern Polynesian sites, using AMS radiocarbon methods on better controlled (identified) samples has lent considerable support that the central archipelagoes of Eastern Polynesia did not begin to be settled until after AD 800 or later.

The ‘proxy’ paleo-environmental evidence for human presence in Hawai‘i, which for now comes almost exclusively from O‘ahu and Kauai Islands, leaves no doubt that human activities were creating significant disturbances on both of these islands by AD 1200. This then sets an upper bound on Polynesian settlement. The earliest dates on human introduced rat bones on O‘ahu are consistent with Polynesian arrival around AD 1000.

Re-dating of the site at Bellows, Waimānalo, O‘ahu puts the occupation of that small area at between AD 1040–1219. Obviously, this range falls closely between the lower and upper bounds indicated by the Eastern Polynesian chronologies and the paleo-environmental evidence.

Based on what we know now, it is suggested here that initial Polynesian discovery and settlement of the Hawaiian Islands occurred between approximately AD 1000 and 1200. (The bulk of the information here is from Kirch.)

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July 15, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

He wanted to be Lindbergh of the Pacific

Just days after Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic triumph, the Honolulu Star Bulletin announced a new challenge. Hawaii’s “Pineapple King” James Dole was offering cash prizes to the first and second person or crew to fly nonstop from North America to Honolulu.

But before the race even got off the ground, the Army’s Lieutenant Lester J Maitland (pilot) and Lieutenant Albert F Hegenberger (navigator) became the first to reach Hawaii by air flying the ‘Bird of Paradise.’ (So with that glory claimed, the Dole Derby, as it became known, evolved into a one-time race for cash.) (Smithsonian)

Ernest L Smith dreamt of becoming the ‘Lindbergh of the Pacific.’ But after the Army’s Maitland and Hegenberger reached Hawai‘i before him, he settled on becoming the first civilian to do so. Emory Bronte was his navigator.

Smith, born in Reno, Nevada, had moved with his family to San Francisco in time to experience the great earthquake of 1906. Later the Smiths moved to Oakland, where ‘Ernie’ graduated from high school and spent two years at the University of California at Berkeley.

He then went on to dental training, which was interrupted by the US entry into World War I. After serving briefly in the medical corps, Smith transferred to the new US Army Air Service and learned to fly at Rockwell Field in San Diego.

He spent the rest of the war as an instructor at March Field in Riverside, then joined the Army’s aviation reserve while flying for the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest. In 1926 he worked for Pacific Air Transport as a pilot.

Bronte, a native of New York, had gone to sea at age 15 before entering the Navy in World War I. After the war he joined Isthmian Steamship Company, working his way up from third mate to master.

In 1923 he relocated to San Francisco to work for McCormick Steamship Company, after which he became the Pacific Coast representative of the Inland Waterways Corporation.

Along the way he had authored a book on navigation, but government service had also whetted his interest in the law, a field he planned to study after the 1927 flight was over. He had taken flying lessons and had soloed in a Curtiss JN-4 ‘Jenny’ but had no actual pilot’s license.

“The crowd of 10,000 that had assembled at Bay Farm Island across the bay from San Francisco watched intently on July 14, 1927, as (Smith and Bronte’s) Travel Air 5000 high-winged monoplane dubbed City of Oakland warmed up on the runway at Oakland Airport, preparing for a transpacific flight attempt.” (Grover)

“Smith and navigator Emory Bronte took off from Oakland, California, in a single-engine Travelair on July 14, 1927. Aside from radio earphone problems, their 25-hour trip went well ….” (Smithsonian)

At 3:45 pm they transmitted an “all’s-well” message. The SS Maunaloa received a message from the City Of Oakland at about 6:00 pm, by which time the flyers were about 500 miles out and doing well.

At 3:00 am one of Bronte’s transmissions was picked up by the SS Wilhelmina and the Army transport Kenowis. The signals were quite weak. However, the SS Waniwa later heard from Bronte’s transmitter with a stronger signal.

Now quite close to the Hawaiian Islands and a place to land, the flyers’ spirits soared only to be momentarily dampened by the sounds of their only engine sputtering and coughing.

They were running out of fuel …

Smith switched to another tank and hand-pumped fuel to it. Within seconds, the engine roared back to life. Smith checked his supply and calculated that only about one hour’s fuel remained … but, they had four hours of flying time to the Islands.

Bronte sent SOS messages to all listeners, marking the plane’s latitude and longitude where they expected to ditch.

Methodical Bronte made a close check of the navigational problem about 500 miles from Hawai‘i and learned that Maui, much closer than their O‘ahu destination, could be reached if their fuel wasn’t depleted beforehand.

Smith took measures to conserve what fuel remained by retarding his throttle, showing down to 100 miles per hour. On they flew, straining for a sight of land.

Reaching Molokai’s southern coast, the engine continued to turn. Smith flew on, parallel to the east coast, then they could see the southwestern side of the island to be heavily wooded and uneven.

Smith headed for the softest looking clump of trees he could find, as the engine quit running entirely. (Horvat; Hawaii Aviation)

“Kiawenui, a desolate, rocky stretch along the southeast coast of Molokai, aptly taking its name from the deep covering of kiawe trees that bristles on beach and hills, has been added to Hawaii’s famous spots—and the kiawe tree has become a famous species in the minds of Ernest Smith, pilot, and Emory Bronte Jr., navigation.”

“It was on this lonely stretch, about two miles east of Kamalo landing that Smith, running out of gasoline, in a last desperate effort to bring his silver monoplane City of Oakland to Oahu from the Pacific coast, was forced to land.”

“And it was the thick, thorn-encrusted limbs of a kiawe that extended Hawaii’s initial welcome to the daring birdmen.”

“Cheering thousands watched the Travelair monoplane take off from the Oakland airport at 10:40 a.m. Pacific time, Thursday. Startled mynah birds and a terrified flock of quail constituted the reception committee for Hawaii 24 hours later.” (Buckley, Star Bulletin, July 16, 1927; Hawaii Aviation)

Pilot and navigator were shaken but unhurt except for scratches from the tree thorns. It was 8:47 am, Hawaiian Standard Time, July 15, 1927.

There was no prize money to be collected, the plane was unusable. But the pair was later honored, along with Lindbergh, Maitland and Hegenberger and other famous flyers, by the President of the United States for their feat and contribution to the development of aviation. The airplane was returned to the US and repaired.

Smith became an executive of Trans World Airways. Bronte was given a Navy reserve lieutenant’s commission. Ten years later, he returned with Mrs. Bronte to the Islands aboard Pan America‘s China Clipper.

During World War II, Bronte went through the Navy’s flight training program as a commander. The pioneer flyer went on to command three naval air stations and an island in the Admiralty group off New Guinea. (Horvat; Hawaii Aviation)

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Smith – Bronte Memorial-Molokai

Smith-Bronte crash

1927-7-15 Smith – Bronte 02

Several field hands from Norman Magurie’s Kamalo, Molokai, came up to the wreck of the City of Oakland. July 15, 1927

1927-7-15 Smith – Bronte 03

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1927 July Smith – Bronte 10

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1927-7-15 Smith – Bronte 05

Molokai-Smith-Bronte Crash Site-UH_Manoa-USGS-4222-1949-portion-site noted

Molokai-Smith-Bronte Crash Site-UH_Manoa-USGS-4221-1949-portion-site noted

July 14, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Dole Street

The beginning of the original Dole Street was just below the Punahou School campus and was part of a small subdivision of lots the school developed to raise money for the school’s endowment.

“In 1880 the ‘lower pasture,’ containing 31.3 acres, was divided into building lots, and streets laid out in it. The sale of these lots has added twenty-one thousand four hundred ($21,400.00) to the endowment.” (Alexander, 1907)

The Punahou Lots development was surveyed in 1880 by SE Bishop (Reg 848) – streets within the subdivision were named for prior leaders of the school.

Dole, Beckwith, Alexander and Bingham Streets, were named for prominent men associated with Punahou School.

Rev. Daniel Dole (1841-1854), Rev. Edward Griffin Beckwith (1854-1859) and William DeWitt Alexander (1864-1871), were initial and early leaders of the school.

Another street within the Punahou Lots development, Bingham, was named for Rev. Hiram Bingham, the initial recipient of the land grant, on behalf of the American Protestant mission, that eventually became Punahou School.

Apparently, some at the University of Hawaiʻi are trying “to restore Dole Street to its Hawaiian name” – suggesting Dole Street was originally named Kapaʻakea Street. (HNN)

“University of Hawaiʻi graduate student Kepoo Keliipaakaua found it on an 1882 survey map of the Mānoa area. Kapaʻakea means coral bedrock or limestone.” (HNN) The students also suggest the street was named for Sanford Dole.

That is not true. The history is clear; Dole Street was formed in 1880 by Punahou School and was named for Rev. Daniel Dole, the first teacher/administrator of Punahou (it was not named for Dole’s son, Sanford).

Regional maps from 1887, 1893, 1912 and 1923 (and others) show Dole Street and its subsequent extensions in the direction of where the University of Hawaiʻi is presently situated.

None of those early maps show any roads around or below where the UH is today (keep in mind the University didn’t make it to Mānoa until 1912); and none of these maps show a Kapaʻakea Street at all.

There is a 1934 map noting a short street as part of the St Louis Heights that Dole Street was proposed to extend to – however, that street in St Louis Heights was not named Kapaʻakea Street.

The ‘1882’ map noted by the UH students shows a notation for a road segment noted as Kapaʻakea Street – suggesting the road was there in 1882 (although all other mapping clearly note otherwise).

In addition, that ‘1882’ map also includes references on it dated in 1927, 1928 and 1930, suggesting edits made to the map over time.

Those edits relate to executive orders and other actions for the University – again, the UH campus wasn’t built until 1912 (well after the ‘date’ of the map).

Even an untrained, casual observer will see that the delineation of the ‘Kapaʻakea Street’, the printing of its name and the surrounding notations are in a different style than most of the other writing on the map.

So that map, over time, was obviously updated, although some suggest it carries only the 1882 time-reference.

And, it’s not clear when that text and portion of the map were put on the map; it is also not clear if Kapaʻakea Street was ever built.

In the broader area, there is a short road segment below King Street, generally running mauka-makai, called Kapaʻakea Lane; it is well removed from the University campus area and is (was) not possibly interconnected with Dole Street.

Some of the old maps note wetland area identified as Kapaʻakea. Kapaʻakea Spring was originally known as Kumulae Spring (later Hausten Spring/Pond). In 1944, the Willows Restaurant opened there.

As noted, starting in 1880, Dole Street in Mānoa was named for Rev. Daniel Dole, the initial teacher/administrator at Punahou School – other nearby streets in the Punahou Lots subdivision (below the existing Punahou campus) are named for other early school leaders.

Suggestions that the ‘original’ name of Dole Street was Kapaʻakea Street are simply wrong and not consistent with the clear history of the road and its subsequent extensions.

The image is a portion of an 1892 map of the area. It notes Dole Street and the Punahou Lots subdivision (on the left); note that there are no roads on the right, and definitely nothing labeled Kapaʻakea, other than the wetland. Check out the full story and multiple maps that show the same – Dole Street, but no Kapaʻakea Street below UH.

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1887-Downtown and Vicinity-Map-portion

1892-Downtown_Honolulu-Map-portion

1912-HonoluluDoveRandMcNally-map-portion

1923-Honolulu-and-Vicinity-Map

1934-Honolulu and Vicinity Map-portion

1949-Honolulu and Vicinity-Transit-Map-portion

1950-Honolulu and Vicinity – Pearl Harbor to Hawaii Kai – DAGS-portion

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1882-Manoa_Valley-Baldwin-(DAGS)-Reg1068-portion-zoom to 1920s Exec Orders

1880-Punahou Lots-(Reg0848)-portion

Daniel_Dole-1874

July 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sailor’s Home and Seamen’s Institute

“Resolved, That the Petition for a lot of land for a Sailor’s Home be granted, provided it shall be a rule established in such home, and strictly enforced …”

“… That no intoxicating liquors shall be drunk on the promises; no women of lewd character admitted; no gambling allowed, nor any other disorder tolerated.” (By order of Privy Council, this 20th day of November, 1854.)

“One old sailor mentioned that he had been at sea for forty-two years and that this is the best sailor’s home he has ever known … we have now a Home and Institute that is much better fitted for our work, and is said by sailors to be the most homelike place of its kind that they have been in ’round the world.”

“Sailors from twenty nationalities were received from every class of vessel visiting the port: liners, army transports, America; and foreign cargo vessels, timber ships etc., and from these many interesting and encouraging details of successful work accomplished by Seamen’s Institutes in different parts of the world have been received …”

“… showing that the great chain of Seamen’s Missions of different Societies, by co-operation with one another, are having a steady and firm spiritual and moral influence upon the lives of those who go down to the sea in ships. (Superintendent’s Annual Report, 1921)

It opened September 11, 1856, “That little affair at the Sailor’s Home came off on Thursday, and if the house is ever again so full of merry laughter and innocent enthusiasts, it may congratulate itself upon being the scene of a second triumph.”

“We have not yet heard what the receipts were. If ever an institution was introduced to public notice under happy patronage it is the Sailor’s Home. Long may it flourish. (Polynesian, September 13, 1856)

The nearby Seamen’s Bethel Chapel was built by the American Seamen’s Friend Society of New York, in 1833, the materials having been shipped from New London, Ct, for Honolulu via Cape Horn. It was the first edifice for the public worship of English-speaking people, erected in Polynesia. It was open to both seamen and foreign residents. (Damon Memorial)

The Honolulu Sailor’s Home provided mariners with room and board at a reasonable price. In this building were the offices of “Hawaiian Board and Bible Society;” office of the Friend; the “Bible and Tract Depository,” and YMCA Reading Room. (Damon Memorial)

“One of the most important effects of such a well conducted boarding house for seamen was the speedy improvement of other lodgings in town for sailors, which ceased to be the disreputable dens which they had been.”

“The institution was fairly prosperous financially, under the administrations of a succession of stewards. The building was a three story one, of wood.”

“It came near being destroyed by the fire of 1886, and indeed was seriously damaged by explosives in an effort to destroy it, so that it remained unused until pulled down. It is of interest to know that its materials were used in constructing the house above Punchbowl street, now occupied by the Portuguese Mission.”

“In exchange for the land the Government gave some money and a spacious lot on the made ground between Richards and Alakea streets, just above the new Fish Market. On this lot, surrounded by a beautiful lawn, stands the new Sailors’ Home, finished a year ago, but only of late fairly in use for seamen.”

“In the front part of the lower story is a Library and Reading Room, also a Billiard room. In the rear of the west side are three living rooms for the Superintendent and his family. On the east side is dining room accommodating forty at table, and in its rear the pantry and kitchen with every facility to cook for a hundred men.”

“As just the person for this department has not yet been secured, seamen stopping at the Home for the present receive meal tickets on some good restaurant.”

“In the main seamen’s ward up-stairs are sixteen excellent iron beds with spring mattresses. A number of so-called ‘mate’s rooms’ also furnish private lodgings at low rates. Opening on the upper front veranda are a few more stylishly furnished apartments for captains and their friends.”

“This upper floor is supplied with every convenience, bath rooms, etc. All the rooms have incandescent lights. Grading of the adjacent streets will soon be completed, and that part of the town will become an attractive one.” (The Friend, April 1895)

It soon took on a partner, “When Bishop Nichols came here in April, 1902, to receive the transfer of the Anglican Church in Hawaii to the American Episcopal Church he consulted T. Clive Davies and others about starting a branch of the Seamen’s Church Institute in Honolulu.”

“The Sailors’ Home was lodging sailors and Captain Bray was managing it but it was not doing the work for seamen which the Seamen’s Institute does in its branches all over the world where British ships call.”

“Committees from each organization met and an agreement was reached to the effect that the Sailors’ Home would lease their land and building to the Seamen’s Institute for a nominal sum and that the Institute should carry on its work and that of the Home. This agreement was made in 1907.”

“Those who are not familiar with the many-sided work of the Seamen’s Institute have little idea of what is done in the building, and outside on ships … The sailor on shore, the world over, knows that he will find friends and brotherly treatment at a Seamen’s Institute.” (The Friend, June 1, 1933)

A summary in the Seaman’s Handbook for Shore Leave, 1920, gives a sense of the cost: “Seamen’s Homes. Sailors’ Home and Seamen’s Institute, Alakea St. Accommodations for about 25 officers and men. …”

“Rates per night, 25c and 50c; per week, $1.00 to $2.50, not including subsistence. Check-room, reading-room, writing-room, library, pool tables and indoor games; concerts and entertainments every week.” (Seaman’s Handbook for Shore Leave, 1920)

The Honolulu Sailor’s Home remains on Alakea (now a ground floor space in a Honolulu high-rise at 707 Alakea, near Nimitz) as a non-profit lodge for merchant seamen (rates start at $25 per night for a single room.) Their website notes they are accepting retired seamen to lodge for a duration of up to 3 months at any one time (with certain limitations).

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