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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.)

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January 9, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ward Airport

‘Bud’ Mars brought the first airplane to Hawaiʻi and on December 31, 1910 staged an exhibition flight at Moanalua Park. Some 3,000 persons paid a dollar each to watch the flight which cost the promoter, EH Lewis, some $5,000. (Mitchell)

When Mars brought the biplane ‘Skylark’ to Honolulu and managed to get it into the air long enough to make several short exhibition flights from Moanalua Polo Field, the die was cast for Hawaii’s interest in and use of aircraft.

“Spectacular as these flights were, at the same time island men were going ahead in a quiet manner, laying the foundation for commercial aviation here.”

“The first airdrome (airport) was the Ward airport near the shore, not far from the steamship piers”. (1920s) (Noel; Flying Magazine, March 1930) It was just behind Kewalo Basin across Ala Moana on the Waikiki side of Ward Avenue. (Krauss)

“Announcing his desire to have permanent airplanes in our islands within sixty days of him stepping once again on Hawaii nei, EH Lewis landed in Honolulu nei on the morning of Friday of this past week with two pilots who will fly the two planes he purchased in America.”

“These men brought by Lewis are experts. The planes did not arrive with Lewis, but according to him, should there be no complications, the planes will arrive in Honolulu within 60 days.”

“The crafts can carry ten passengers at a time, and these will be the planes that fly regularly between Honolulu and Hilo and from Hilo back to Honolulu nei.” (Alakai o Hawai‘i, November 5, 1928)

“Ed Lewis, operating automobile tours on Oahu, early saw the possibilities of airplanes for sightseeing. For several years he operated ‘Lewis Air Tours’ with a number of small open cockpit planes flying from Ward airport on Ala Moana.” (Kennedy; Thrum, 1936)

“The company lasted only three years, but other tour services proved more successful. Interisland travel really picked up in the 1950s with the introduction of package tours, all-inclusive vacations that often included trips to Oahu’s neighbor islands.” (Smithsonian)

From this same airport two former army fliers named Anderson and Griffin started a flying school and a limited air service (Western Pacific Air Transport) between the islands.

Using two small craft, these pilots trained a number of fliers and at one time expanded their activities to the point where they carried newspapers from O‘ahu to Maui. After continuing their school for a year the pilots returned to the mainland and Ward airport was discontinued.

While these flights were taking place in the latter part of the 20s, the early part of the decade saw alert, progressive business men looking forward to the day when inter-island commercial flying would be feasible. Even at that time they recognized the coming need for island airports. (Kennedy; Thrum, 1936)

In 1929, Newton Campbell, 18, a student pilot at Ward Airport, received the first civilian private pilot license issued by the Department of Commerce in Hawai‘i.

However, some were concerned about the location of Ward Airport – repeated entries in minutes of meetings of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission complain of flights from there. Such as:

The “field so centrally located there would be considerable tourist trade … (However,) the type of flying done by Lewis Tours (mostly sightseeing flights) is very risky …”

“… not only because of the condition of the field but also because many more landings would be made daily than a transport plane operating for John Rogers Airport.” (Territorial Aeronautical Commission, February 18, 1929)

“(L)ast Sunday Mr Lewis’s plane was flying over the Aloha tower and the city at a very low altitude. Other complaints have also come to us about Mr Lewis’s activities. It was decided that a letter be addressed to Mr Lewis prohibiting the use of Ward Airport for any but emergency landings.” (Territorial Aeronautical Commission, April 29, 1930)

On July 1, 1929, a steamship line moved decisively to provide interisland flying. The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company, Ltd., of Honolulu, announced possibilities of commercial flying between the major islands.

Two visiting airline representatives soon returned to the mainland and it looked like “competition” would be local, Ed Lewis and the steamship company.

Lewis gave way to his powerful competitor, saying, “There’s no room for two such companies.” Under the leadership of World War I Navy pilot, Stanley C Kennedy, president and manager of the steamship company, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd, was formed. (hawaii-gov)

Attention to aviation activity moved to John Rodgers Airport (dedicated March 21, 1927 and placed under the jurisdiction of the Territorial Aeronautical Commission – then, construction began.)

In 1929, a runway 250-300 feet wide and 2,050-feet long was completed as well as considerable clearing on the balance of the area.

Over the next few years, the facility faced various stages of expansion, on land and in the water – the layout included a combined airport and Seadrome, with seaplane runways in Keʻehi Lagoon adjacent to John Rodgers Airport.

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Kewalo-Ala_Wai_aerial-(UH_Manoa)-1927-noting site of Ward Airport

January 8, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Triton

“In the month of July, 1846, the American whaleship Triton, of three hundred tons burthen (under the command of Thomas Spencer,) sailed from the port of New Bedford under my command on a sperm whale cruise, in the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere.”

“Rounding the Cape of Good Hope and successfully encountering the dangers and difficulties which threatens the adventurous keel that ploughs the seas, smoothly and safely avoiding the low reefs which fill that portion of the Pacific through our course lay.”

“In the month of November 1847, we arrived at Maui, and after a stay of two or three weeks at Lahaina, the principal port of the Island, we again made sail, touching at the port of Honolulu, and the island of Kauai for a day or two to procure additional supplies of refreshments.” (Spencer)

“On the 8th of January 1848; about 6 o’clock in the morning, the weather being pleasant, the wind moderate and all hands in good health and spirits, and employed in trying out a whale caught the day previous, raised Sydenham Island (Nonuti, Kiribati,) distant about fifteen miles, bearing NE.”

“Shortly after making the Islands two canoes under sail were discovered steering for the ship and 9 o’clock they came alongside, bringing for sale cocoanuts and various articles which the natives informed us formerly belonged to the American whaleship Columbia, wrecked upon this Island about two years since.”

“After making such purchases from the natives (who were about twenty in number) as I required I took the two canoes in tow, braced forward the yards and stood along on my course. … more canoes would come alongside … “

“In one of these canoes I found a Portugese by the name of Manuel, whom I allowed to come on board, who spoke very good English. In conversation with him he stated that he had been discharged at the Islands about 10 or 11 months since, from a French whaler, and that he had also sailed in the American ship Nantucket of Nantucket.” (Spencer)

Having made landfall off Sydenham Island in the Kingsmill Group, Captain Spencer and some of the crew were lured ashore by a renegade castaway who, with the assistance of the natives, detained them on shore, seized the ship.

“Then it was they informed us that the ship was taken, and that all on board had been killed – Manuel and some of the natives being among the number – and that now they were going to kill us.”

“As soon as this intelligence was made known to us, four of the stoutest natives picked me up, and others seizing upon the crew, we were forced apart, as we supposed, never to meet again. I was carried to an island, distant about 900 feet from the main island, and placed in a large house.” (Spencer)

Held prisoner on shore, Captain Spencer was about to be executed by the natives when “In an instant, an old chief woman sprang towards me and tabooed me, patting me first rapidly on the breast and then on the back, repeating at the same time some words, as fast as possible.”

“The natives attempted to take her from me, roaring with rage for their prey; but her husband immediately interfered, and
gave me his name – that of Cogio – by which I was, during my stay on the island always called.”

“Thus was I saved from a certain and speedy death by the moral heroism of a poor, benighted native woman, who risked her own life and reputation, and all, to save from perishing one of a race she had been taught to regard as an enemy.” (Spencer)

After a number of attempts to escape, during which the hapless captain and crew stole canoes and paddled out to sea in pursuit of passing ships who set sail away as fast as they could, believing them to be hostile islanders, the castaways were rescued by the Alabama out of Nantucket. (O’Connor)

“After a pleasant passage of six weeks, I arrived, on the 15th of March, at Honolulu, on the Island of Oahu, where I have found kind friends to sympathize with me; and, while I live, the emotions of my heart will, I trust, testify to it.”

“As soon as I arrived, I wrote to the US Consuls at all the different ports that the Triton would be likely to touch at, and was daily expected here. About the 25th of March I received news or her being at Tahiti, and intending to come to these islands for men, boats, &c., every vessel that hove in sight I anxiously watched, but no Triton arrived.”

“At length, on the 10th of June, I heard she had procured an outfit, and, had left Tahiti bound to the coast of Kamschatka, under the command of the mate. Since that time, I have not heard from her. I am still here, waiting for her arrival at this port.” (Spencer) (The Triton was recovered and continued as a whaler, but was later crushed in ice in Yukon Territory on October 8, 1895.)

Deciding at length to give up the sea, he started a ship’s chandlery on Queen Street, which under his guidance served as the headquarters of the Pacific whaling fleet.

In 1853 he was joined by his brother, Charles Nichols Spencer, and by 1855 William L Lee, the close friend of Charles R Bishop, reported that Captain Spencer was ‘making more money than anyone else in town.’

He was fluent in Hawaiian and was known everywhere by his Hawaiian name, Poonahoahoa. It was later to be said of him, and of his brother Charles, that ‘they were on terms of social and political intimacy with the last six Hawaiian sovereigns.’”

“In 1861, in the full tide of success, Thomas Spencer sold the Queen Street chandlery and moved to Hilo, purchasing the house and sugar plantation at Amauulu (Puueo.)” He also became United States commercial agent and consul at Hilo and was later made a Knight Companion of the Royal Order of Kamehameha I. (O’Connor)

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triton

Triton-Kiribati Stamp

Captain Thomas Spencer

Nonuti-Sydenham Island

January 7, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Palapala

“Perhaps never since the invention of printing was a printing press employed so extensively as that has been at the Sandwich islands, with so little expense, and so great a certainty that every page of its productions would be read with attention and profit.” (Barber, 1833)

The members of the Sandwich Islands Mission sent from Boston by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) had in their collective mind it was absolutely essential to have printed material available as soon as possible to reinforce their efforts in disseminating the gospel across the Islands.

The missionaries began their printing activities even before they had settled on a standard alphabet and spelling for the previously unwritten Hawaiian language.

So they set to work almost immediately and in only two years completed the complicated task of developing a preliminary written language. However, the final decisions in choice between ‘t’ and ‘k,’ ‘b’ and ‘p,’ ‘r’ and ‘l,’ ‘v’ and ‘w’ were made later.

Only after prolonged discussion among the members of the group and their native informants. Agreement was reached in 1826, when the Hawaiian alphabet was established with twelve letters: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p and w.

“The first printing press at the Hawaiian Islands was imported by the American missionaries, and landed from the brig Thaddeus, at Honolulu …. It was not unlike the first used by Benjamin Franklin, and was set up in a thatched house standing a few fathoms from the old mission frame house”. (Hunnewell; Ballou)

On Monday, January 7, 1822, an event took place that would have enormous importance for the Islands. Standing beside a printing press in a grass-roofed hut, and observed by an American printer, shipmasters, missionaries, and traders, Chief Ke‘eaumoku put his hand on the press lever, exerted pressure, and printed wet black syllables in Hawaiian and English. (HHS)

At this inauguration there were present his Excellency Governor (Ke‘eaumoku (Gov. Cox,)) a chief of the first rank, with his retinue; some other chiefs and natives; Rev. Hiram Bingham, missionary; Mr. Loomis, printer, (who had just completed setting it up); James Hunnewell; Captain William Henry and Captain Masters (Americans.) (Ballou)

These were the first printed pages created in Hawai‘i for an eight-page speller to be used in Hawaiian schools sponsored by the Protestant Mission. (None of which now survive.)

“We are happy to announce to you that, on the first Monday of January (1822), we commenced printing, and, with great satisfaction, have put the first eight pages of the Owhyhee spellingbook into the hands of our pupils”.

Native Hawaiians immediately perceived the importance of “palapala” – document, to write or send a message. “Makai” – “good” – exclaimed Chief Ke‘eaumoku, to thus begin the torrent of print communications that we have today. (HHS)

Thereafter, printing on the first press, a second-hand Ramage, went on continuously for six years, until in 1828 an additional press was sent from Boston. The original press was acquired by the missionary school at Lahainaluna on Maui in 1834.

“… until March 20, 1830, scarcely ten years after the mission was commenced, twenty-two distinct books had been printed in the native language, averaging thirty-six small pages, and amounting to three hundred and eighty-seven thousand copies, and ten million two hundred and eighty-seven thousand and eight hundred pages.”

“This printing was executed at Honolulu, where there are two presses. But besides this, three-million three-hundred and forty-five-thousand pages in the Hawaiian language have been printed in the United States (viz. a large edition of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John) …”

“… which swells the whole amount of printing in this time, for the use of the islanders, to thirteen-million six-hundred and thirty-two thousand eight hundred pages.”

“Reckoning the twenty-two distinct works in a continuous series, the number of pages in the series is eight-hundred and thirty-two. Of these, forty are elementary, and the rest are portions of Scripture, or else strictly evangelical and most important matter, the best adapted to the condition and wants of the people that could be selected under existing circumstances.” (Barber, 1833)

In the meantime, a Wells-model press arrived at Lahainaluna in 1832 and it carried the major load of the printing there. Elisha Loomis, a member of the Pioneer Company, was the first printer of Hawaiian material. With the help of native apprentices, he worked at his trade in Honolulu until 1827, when, health failing, he returned to America.

The presses of the Sandwich Islands Mission in Honolulu and Lahainaluna were the major printers of books in Hawaiian in the Islands until 1858, when the work of printing for the Mission was handed over on a business basis to Henry M. Whitney, a missionary son.

He continued to handle the Hawaiian language books for the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, which had superseded the Sandwich Islands Mission in 1854.

The Bible was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew by the combined efforts of Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston of the Pioneer Company, Artemas Bishop and James Ely of the Second Company, William Richards, Lorrin Andrews, Jonathan Green, and Ephraim Clark of the Third Company, and Sheldon Dibble of the Fourth Company.

Although the work was begun in 1822, the first segment of the Bible, the Gospel of Luke, did not come off the press until 1827. The rest of the New Testament was completed by 1832 and the Old Testament in 1839 (although the date given on the title page is 1838).

The mission press printed 10,000-copies of Ka Palapala Hemolele (The Holy Scriptures). It was 2,331-pages long printed front and back.

The mission press also printed newspaper, hymnals, schoolbooks, broadsides, fliers, laws, and proclamations. The mission presses printed over 113,000,000 sheets of paper in 20 years. (Mission Houses) (Lots of information here is from Mission Houses, Barber and Judd.)

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Ramage Press replica at Mission Houses

Honolulu-Mission-Houses-Press-Interior

Honolulu-Mission-Houses-Press-Sign

NORTH ELEVATION – Mission Printing Office-(LOC)

Lahainaluna_seminary_workshop,_mechanical_printing_press_and_movable_type_in_type_case_in_background,_ca._1895

Hale_Pai

Maui-Lahaina-Halepai-entrance

Hale_Pai

January 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pauka‘a Lighthouse

The US Lighthouse Service had the earliest impact on the maritime histories of Alaska and Hawai‘i. In 1716, the first North American lighthouse was established, but it was not until 1852 that the first light towers were built on the West Coast.

When the US bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, a light was already established at Sitka. In 1898, just over 20 years after acquiring Alaska, the US annexed Hawai‘i. The territorial government was first responsible for aids to navigation. (USCG)

Between 1824 and 1848 Hilo became a significant center for foreign activities, primarily as a result of the establishment of religious mission stations by American missionaries.

Passengers and cargo landed at Hilo in the surf along the beach until about 1863, when a wharf was constructed at the base of present day Waiānuenue Street.

By 1874, Hilo ranked as the second largest population center in the islands, and within a few years shortly thereafter Hilo with its fertile uplands, plentiful water supply and good port became a major center for sugarcane production and export.

Hilo Bay is partially protected by a reef located in 10 to 20 feet of water (later named Blonde Reef after Lord Byron’s vessel, HMS Blonde, which successfully anchored there in 1825.) (The Blonde had carried the bodies of Liholiho (who was born in Hilo) and Kamāmalu back from London, where they died from measles during a visit there.)

Several sites were suggested for the first light to mark Hilo Bay, but the one finally selected was on the shore at Paukaʻa, two-and-a-half miles north of Hilo. The light was erected and first lit on August 13, 1869.

The local sheriff was responsible for overseeing Paukaʻa Light, and in 1871 he sent a report to the Hawaiian minister of the Interior. “I visited the lighthouse yesterday and find that the Chinaman in charge is very negligent in his duties, not trimming the light properly. I showed him the proper way and tonight it shows finely from here.” (Lighthouse Friends)

In 1873, the light structure nearly blew over in a strong wind, prompting the sheriff to send another report to the minister. “This is a very valuable light to vessels coming into Hilo and it should not be allowed to go out of repair; $100 will put it in good condition. I have lately bought an excellent safety lamp for it, which throws a light visible at sea from 10 to 12 miles.”

Incoming vessels from abroad were being charged three dollars for lighthouse dues, and the sheriff requested that some of the collected money be used to elevate the light to make it more visible.

To justify his proposal, he included the following account of an exchange he had when requesting payment of the lighthouse fee. “One captain when charged for lights wanted to know where the lighthouse was and said he had not seen anything around that looked like a lighthouse.”

In 1890, a new Pauka‘a Light was built on the bluff above the original site. Adding the height of the bluff, the new Pauka‘a Light had a focal plane of 159 feet. After the Lighthouse Board took control of Hawaii’s lights in 1904, a thirty-eight-foot mast was erected in place of the tower.

The government wharf at Waiākea was constructed at Kalauokukui Point between 1897 and 1899, and was upgraded in 1902. Hilo Bay was still unprotected from high winds and storm surges that caused ships to break loose from their moorings and risk grounding.

Early sailing directions into Hilo bay were: “From Eastward – Give Leleiwi Point a berth of 1 mile in rounding it and steer 280° true (W 1/8 N mag) for 4 ½ miles, heading for Pauka‘a light until ½ to ¾ mile from shore …”

“… then steer 184° true (S ½ E mag,) keeping this distance offshore and taking care to pass westward of Blonde Reef whistling buoy. Anchor southward of the black can buoys, marking the south-westerly edge of Blonde Reef, with the Hilo Sugar Company’s mill bearing 279° true (W mag,) in 7 to 8 fathoms.”

“From Northward.—After rounding Pepe‘ekeo Point steer 184° true (S ½ E mag,) keeping ½ to ¾ mile offshore and taking care to pass westward of Blonde Reef whistling buoy, anchor as directed in the preceding paragraph.”

“Dangers – The lead is generally a good guide on the south side of the bay, but the shoaling is abrupt to Blonde Reef and the reefs around and eastward of Coconut Island.” (Coast Pilot Notes on Hawaiian Islands, USGS, 1912)

The present pyramidal concrete tower, exhibiting a green flash every six seconds at a height of 145 feet, was placed at the point in 1925. (Lighthouse Friends)

In the late 19th century, the growing sugar industry in East Hawai’i demanded a better and more protected port, and a breakwater was constructed on Blonde Reef to shield ships from rough waters as they entered Hilo Harbor.

In 1908, construction began on a breakwater along the shallow reef, beginning at the shoreline east of Kūhīo Bay. The breakwater was completed in 1929 and extended roughly halfway across the bay. In 1912, contracts were awarded to construct Kūhiō Wharf, to dredge the approach to the new wharf, and to lay railroad track into the new harbor facility.

Between 1927 and 1928, the approach to Pier 3 was dredged and the pier was widened. In 1929, the 10,080-foot long rubble mound breakwater was completed.

Contrary to urban legend, the Hilo breakwater was built to dissipate general wave energy and reduce wave action in the protected bay, providing calm water within the bay and protection for mooring and operating in the bay; it was not built as a tsunami protection barrier for Hilo.

In fact, in 1946, Hilo was struck by a tsunami generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands; it was struck again in 1960 by a tsunami generated by the great Chilean earthquake – both tsunami overtopped the breakwater and Hilo sustained significant damage, including to the breakwater.

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