Peter T Young

August 12, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Koʻieʻie Loko Iʻa

At one time, Hawai‘i had more than 400 fishponds throughout the islands; chiefs were considered wealthy if they had fishponds within their ahupua‘a (land divisions.) The greater the number of fishponds, the wealthier the chief was considered to be.

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania. Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters to raise fish for their communities and families. It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth century.

Only in Hawaiʻi was there such an intensive effort to utilize practically every body of water, from seashore to upland forests, as a source of food, for either agriculture or aquaculture.

The ancient Hawaiian fishpond is a sophisticated land and ocean resource management technique. Utilizing raw materials such as rocks, corals, vines and woods, the Hawaiians created great walls (kuapā) and gates (mākāhā) for these fishponds.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond). Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

Samuel M. Kamakau points out that “one can see that they were built as government projects by chiefs, for it was a very big task to build one, (and) commoners could not have done it (singly, or without co-ordination.)” Chiefs had the power to command a labor force large enough to transport the tons of rock required and to construct such great walls. (Kelly)

The ahupua‘a of Ka‘ono‘ulu is one of six major Kula land divisions which extend from the ocean to the upper reaches of Haleakala. Ka‘ono‘ulu is situated near the center of the Kula District, with Pulehunui and Waiakoa to the north, and Waiohuli, Keokea and Kama‘ole to the south.

The presence of fringing reefs along the shoreline of the Kihei area was one factor which permitted the construction of three, and possibly four, fishponds along the shoreline of the Kula District (Kula Kai,) Maui.

In building the sea walls men were stationed in long lines, passing stones by hand from the rocky sidehills miles away to the workmen laying the courses for the walls in the sea.

The trampings of so many people raised much dust, and workmen throwing dust at one another prompted the Konohiki to call them derisively, ‘Kanaka o Kalepolepo eku i ka lepo’ or ‘Men of Kalepolepo root in the dirt.’ (Wilcox)

The name Kalepolepo was used to refer to the general coastal area where three ponds were located. (Kalepolepo Park is on South Kihei Road between the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and the Menehune Shores condominium.)

Ko‘ie‘ie Loko I‘a (fishpond) (also called Kalepolepo Fishpond) is the smallest and northernmost of three documented ponds that were present in Kula Kai. Immediately south of Ko‘ie‘ie is Waiohuli Kai Pond, and Keokea Kai is south of that.

The presence of these fishponds would have significantly increased the economic potential of the coastal Kula area, which received relatively little rainfall (average of 12 inches annually.) In general, the Kihei area was not particularly well suited for intensive traditional agricultural.

It was, however, well suited for aquaculture, and with proper maintenance, the fishponds would have provided quantities of fish species such as ‘ama‘ama (mullet) and awa (milkfish;)

Like many other Hawaiian fishponds first use of Ko‘ie‘ie is associated in oral tradition with the menehune, a mythical race of people who were the first occupants of the Hawaiian Islands.

Restoration work on the pond was conducted under the direction of three prominent chiefs who were overlords of either all Maui lands or all Hawai’i Island lands (ʻUmialīloa, Kekaulike, Kamehameha and Hoapili.)

Another important historic figure, who saw first-hand the contrasts between tradition and westernization, is associated with Kalepolepo. David Malo, who was among the first generation of Christian ministers, lived there as overseer of the pond and as the religious guardian of the place and its people.

Malo expended considerable energy in improving the local community. He was an industrious individual who quickly learned western technology and put it to practical applications.

He planted cotton and had it spun and woven, and used to make his own clothing. He planted sugar cane and manufactured an excellent quality of Molasses

Malo was either living at Kalepolepo, or frequently visiting from Keokea during a ten year period (1843-1853.) He built Kilolani Church, completed in 1852. Malo died in 1853 and his body was returned to Lahainaluna for burial.

Associated sites adjacent to the pond included western trading interests at Kalepolepo between c. 1850 and 1860 of John Halstead and other American traders that settled there.

These focused on the whaling and maritime trading industries, and co-existed with the continued traditional activities that focused on fishing and maintaining the ponds.

Halstead built a large Pennsylvania Dutch style house entirely of koa next to the south wall of the pond, and opened a trading station on the lower floor. Whalers came ashore to buy fresh produce that was brought in by the farmers via the Kalepolepo Road.

Kula produce was also shipped out by Halstead to California during the gold rush era. During this period, Hobron’s interisland schooner, Maria, made regular stops (c. every 10 days) at Kalepolepo, on its route between Honolulu, Lahaina, Makee’s Landing (Makena) and Kawaihae.

This area was visited by Kamehameha III, IV and V between 1850 and 1870. Halstead’s house served as the social center during these visits. He moved upcountry to ʻUlupalakua in 1876 and died there in 1887. The koa house remained standing until it was burned down in 1946 by the Kihei Yacht Club.

The beach area at the northern end of the pond wall is now owned by the County of Maui, along with a small parcel fronting the central portion of the pond.

The County Park is the principal access area to the pond, although people may easily walk in along the shoreline from either side. The site is a popular fishing area, particularly for net throwing and catching small fry bait fish. The shallow, calm waters of the pond are used for swimming.

While I was at DLNR I was fortunate to have visited the Ko‘ie‘ie Loko I‘a during restoration efforts – Kimokeo Kapahulehua gave me an ‘Ao‘ao O Nā Loko I‘a O Maui t-shirt that I regularly wear. (It has a notation: Revitalizing a Wall, Revitalizing a Culture)

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August 11, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ford Tough

“When this earth was created, Nature, it seems, was more concerned with things other than road making, as witness the (attached) illustration.”

“The pictures shown herewith were taken during one of Professor T. A. Jaggar’s daily trips along one of the stretches which Nature forgot to pave with crushed stone and asphalt.”

“Professor Jaggar, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a noted volcano specialist, and most of his work is done around the craters of the smouldering mountains he studies.”

“As director of the Hawaii Volcano Observatory, he has devoted nearly all of his attention to the famous Mauna Loa and Kilauea craters, living right at the scene of his activities and experiments for the past twelve years.”

“Although hazardous, Professor Jaggar makes it his business to get as close as possible to the scenes of eruption and volcanic action in order to obtain first-hand photographs, lava samples, temperature readings, and other valuable scientific data.”

“In this field of work one needs a ‘business car’ just as much as in any other calling, and so the scientist got himself a car that would be not only easy of operation but would stand the terrible strain of volcano climbing as well.”

“The professor bought a Ford and made a few alterations to suit his particular needs, with the result that the machine became more efficient than beautiful.”

“If you will refer to the picture, you will note that the fenders and doors are stripped, and that dual wheels are installed on the rear axle, which enable the car to travel over boulders 10 and 12 inches high with little difficulty, and also to go through deep sand and “aa,” which is the Hawaiian for clinker lava.”

“After having seen about half a dozen years of the most strenuous service imaginable, the car is still ‘going strong.’”

“Mauna Loa is the largest, although not the highest, volcano in the world, being 13,760 feet above sea level ; Kilauea crater is an immense cavity three miles long by two miles wide on the east slope of Mauna Loa.”

“These immense caldrons are reached by means of a very steep, rough trail, which more than proves the marvelous durability of the only car that has ascended it.”

“At the present time nothing but a pack trail leads to the summit of Mauna Loa, and so the Ford cannot be driven to the top, but it has plenty to do in the vicinity of Kilauea and also on the vast flanks of Mauna Loa, where various eruptions have taken place.”

“About a mile distant from Kilauea is a smaller, extinct crater known as ‘Little Kilauea.’ While it is no longer a sea of molten lava, like its near-by active brothers, nevertheless its surface is hot enough in places to be detrimental to the rubber tires on Professor Jaggar’s Ford, and uncomfortable for the feet of his dog.”

“The machine is often ‘cruised’ over freshly flowed lava that is not yet cool in order to make scientific investigations.”

“Professor Jaggar has set up a drilling rig here for the purpose of getting down into the hot lava bed directly beneath the surface to determine the subterranean temperatures and to take samples of gases.”

“The Ford car has been of indispensable assistance in transporting the equipment to and across the terribly rough crater floor; also in carrying the large quantity of water needed when drilling into the hot lava.”

“Heavy photographic equipment is easily taken care of by the car, and specimens are often gathered which have to be taken back to the observatory for study.”

“Because of these and numerous other services rendered by the car, no limit can be placed upon its value to the expedition.”

“At times, the lava in the crater rises rapidly and overflows, spreading destruction on its path. Occurrences like this have been the occasion for several intensive and hazardous expeditions by Professor Jaggar and his party.”

“Professor Jaggar has discovered many facts of scientific importance, and is working on plans for utilizing the heat of the volcano for commercial purposes. He believes that ways can be found to generate a large amount of electricity.”

“First, he hopes that a near-by hotel can be supplied with all the current needed; and eventually, if practical ways are found for harnessing the energy, the entire island will get its power from the volcano.” (This entire post is from Ford News, July 22, 1923.)

Jaggar-Ford Tough-FordNews-July 22, 1923

August 10, 2017 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Malia

The Malia is a 6-man Hawaiian racing canoe hewn from a single koa log in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii in 1933. Malia is also part of the National Historic Register of Historic Places.

Her builder, James Takeo Yamasaki, designed her expressly for racing, one of the favorite sports of Hawaiian Royalty, dating back to King Kamehameha V (1863-1872).

She was purchased in 1936 by Dad Center of the Outrigger Canoe Club on O’ahu, but by 1948 became the property of the newly formed Waikiki Surf Club and has remained in their care ever since.

When launched she measured 39′-2″, but over time was modified twice. In 1950 she was lengthened to 39′-6″, and in 1973 she was lengthened to her present racing measure of 40′-1″.

Between 1952 and 1954 the Malia won fourteen straight Senior Men’s Races, and she has proven a dominant factor in canoe racing since. Her greatest accomplishments were performed in the very popular, highly prestigious, and very difficult 40 mile race from Molokai to O’ahu across the Molokai channel.

From the beginning of the annual Molokai-O‘ahu race in 1952, the Waikiki Surf Club, paddling the Malia, won first place a total of twelve times, six of which were consecutive, (’53, ’55, ‘58-’63, ’66, ’69, ’72 and ‘73). No other single canoe has ever won as often or for such a long continuous stretch.

In the 1960 race, Malia set a record time of 5 hours 29 minutes that was not surpassed by either a koa or a fiberglass canoe until 1981 when a California club, in the koa canoe Mālama, beat Malia’s record by a scant 4 minutes.

In 1959, two Koa outriggers were shipped to North America for the first Catalina Channel Crossing: one hull named, “Malia” (calm waters) and the other named, “Niuhe” (shark).

There were only two official entries in that first Catalina race, and “Malia,” manned by an all-star Hawaiian crew, won the crossing in a time of 5 hours, just eleven minutes ahead of a relatively in-experienced Californian team in the “Niuhe.”

The Malia’s contribution to canoe racing goes well beyond her own accomplishments. In 1959, the first fiberglass mold was made – actually pirated. (NPS)

“This shell, reportedly taken without authorization while she awaited shipment back to Hawaii was later made into a mold. From this mold, and hulls of canoes that came from it, other molds were made. … thus the Malia inadvertently sired a noble fleet of fiberglass-and-resin canoes.” (Holmes; Mancell)

The 1960 Catalina Channel Crossing Race hosted five, fiberglass Malia’s and the following year there were 8. By 1981, Malia mold canoes had achieved a remarkably wide distribution, including: Samoa, Australia, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, Illinois, Louisiana, Florida, New York, Hawaii and California.

The first mold, since it had been taken from a hand-crafted Koa hull, had some inconsistencies on its surface so better molds were manufactured as the number of Californian clubs grew and built their fleets of malias. Today, the majority of fiberglass canoes in both Hawai‘i and California are progeny of the Malia mold.

One boat from Hawai‘i inadvertently gave birth to outrigger canoe racing in North America. The malia mold is an integral part of Canadian and North American paddling history. Without the malia mold, outrigger racing in Canada may never have taken hold as early as it did.

From a single hull, there are now enough outrigger canoes to support more than 50 outrigger racing clubs throughout North America. There is still a “Malia Class Race” in Southern California. (Mancell) (Lots of information here is from Holmes, Mancell and NPS.)

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Malia NPS

Abel Gomes shaking hands with another man alongside the Waikiki Surf Club’s canoe, Malia-IanLind

August 9, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Maritime Massachusetts Meets a Man from the Islands

“Massachusetts has a history of many moods, every one of which may be traced in the national character of America. By chance, rather than design, this short strip of uninviting coast-line became the seat of a great experiment in colonization, self-government, and religion.”

“For a generation, Massachusetts shared with her elder sister, Virginia, leadership in the American Revolution. For another generation, with her off spring Connecticut, she opposed a static social system to the ferment of revolutionary France.”

“With the world peace of 1815 she quickened into new life, harnessed her waterfalls to machine industry, bred statesmen, seers, and poets, generated radical and revolutionary thought.”

“For two hundred years the Bible was the spiritual, the sea the material sustenance of Massachusetts. The pulse of her life-story, like the surf on her coast-line, beat once with the nervous crash of storm-driven waves on granite rock; but now with the soothing pour of ground-swell on golden sands.”

Captain John Smith, in 1614, was the first Englishman to examine the Massachusetts coast, and to give it that name. (Morison)

“After Jamestown, Smith pushed the English to settle the northeast, identifying Plymouth as a suitable harbor four years before the Pilgrims landed there. He coined the region ‘New England’ in 1616.” (Smithsonian)

Shortly thereafter (1620,) the Plymouth Colony arrived. “The Pilgrim fathers sailed with high hopes and a burning faith, but with few preparations and no clear idea of how to make a living on the Atlantic coast.” (Morison)

“In 1630, ten years after its settlement, the Plymouth Colony contained but three hundred white people. At that time the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, founded only at the end of 1628, had over two thousand in habitants.”

“Within thirteen years the numbers had reached sixteen thousand, more than the rest of the English colonies combined; and the characteristic maritime activities of Massachusetts – fishing, shipping, and West India trading – were already commenced.”

“God performed no miracle on the New England soil. He gave the sea. … The gravelly, boulder-strewn soil was back-breaking to clear, and afforded small increase to unscientific farmers. No staple of ready sale in England, like Virginia tobacco or Canadian beaver, could be produced or readily obtained.”

“Massachusetts went to sea, then, not of choice, but of necessity.”

“These colonial merchants lived well, with a spacious brick mansion in Boston and a country seat at Milton Hill, Cambridge, or as far afield as Harvard and Hopkinton, where great house parties were given. They were fond of feasts and pageants”.

“The backbone of maritime Massachusetts, however, was its middle class; the captains and mates of vessels, the master builders and shipwrights, the ropemakers, sailmakers, and skilled mechanics of many different trades, without whom the merchants were nothing.”

“Boston became the headquarters of the American Revolution largely because the policy of George III threatened her maritime interests.”

“Then came the worst economic depression Massachusetts has ever known. The double readjustment from a war to a peace basis, and from a colonial to an independent basis, caused hardship throughout the colonies.”

“It worked havoc with the delicate adjustment of fishing, seafaring, and shipbuilding by which Massachusetts was accustomed to gain her living. By 1786, the exports of Virginia had more than regained their pre-Revolutionary figures.”

“At the same date the exports of Massachusetts were only one-fourth of what they had been twelve years earlier. … (However,) By 1787 the West-India trade was in a measure restored.”

“Some subtle instinct, or maybe thwarted desire of Elizabethan ancestors who, seeking in vain the Northwest Passage, founded an empire on the barrier, was pulling the ships of Massachusetts east by west, into seas where no Yankee had ever ventured.”

“Off the roaring breakers of Cape Horn, in the vast spaces of the Pacific, on savage coasts and islands, and in the teeming marts of the Far East, the intrepid shipmasters and adventurous youth of New England were reclaiming their salt sea heritage.”

“One bright summer afternoon in 1790 saw the close of a great adventure. On August 9, Boston town heard a salute of thirteen guns down-harbor. The ship Columbia, Captain Robert Gray, with the first American ensign to girdle the globe snapping at her peak, was greeting the Castle after an absence of three years.”

“Coming to anchor in the inner harbor, she fired another federal salute of thirteen guns, which a ‘great concourse of citizens assembled on the various wharfs returned with three huzzas and a hearty welcome.’”

“A rumor ran through the narrow streets that a native of ‘Owyhee’ – a Sandwich-Islander – was on board; and before the day was out, curious Boston was gratified with a sight of him, marching after Captain Gray to call on Governor Hancock.”

“Clad in a feather cloak of golden suns set in flaming scarlet, that came halfway down his brown legs; crested with a gorgeous feather helmet shaped like a Greek warrior’s, this young Hawaiian moved up State Street like a living flame.”

“The Columbia had logged 41,899 miles since her departure from Boston on September 30, 1787. Her voyage was not remarkable as a feat of navigation; Magellan and Drake had done the trick centuries before, under far more hazardous conditions.”

“It was the practical results that counted. The Columbia’s first voyage began the Northwest fur trade, which enabled the merchant adventurers of Boston to tap the vast reservoir of wealth in China.”

“The most successful vessels in the Northwest fur trade were small, well-built brigs and ships of one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burthen (say sixty- five to ninety feet long), constructed in the ship yards from the Kennebec to Scituate. Larger vessels were too difficult to work through the intricacies of the Northwest Coast.”

To obtain fresh provisions and prevent scurvy, the Nor’west traders broke their voyage at least twice; at the Cape Verde Islands, the Falklands, sometimes Galapagos for a giant tortoise, and invariably Hawaii.”

“The Sandwich Islands proved an ideal spot to refresh a scorbutic crew, and even to complete the cargo. Captain Kendrick (who plied between Canton and the Coast in the Lady Washington until his death in 1794) discovered sandalwood, an article much in demand at Canton, growing wild on the Island of Kauai.”

“A vigorous trade with the native chiefs in this fragrant commodity was started by Boston fur-traders in ‘the Islands’; leading to more Hawaiian visits to New England”. (Most here is from Morison)