Peter T Young

December 21, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Millionaires Cruise

Matson Navigation Company’s long association with Hawaiʻi began in 1882, when Captain William Matson sailed his three-masted schooner Emma Claudina from San Francisco to Hilo, Hawaii, carrying 300 tons of food, plantation supplies and general merchandise.

That voyage launched a company that has been involved in such diversified interests as oil exploration, hotels and tourism, military service during two world wars and even briefly, the airline business. Matson’s primary interest throughout, however, has been carrying freight between the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. (Matson)

They started carrying people, too; via ship was the only way to get to/from the Islands. With increasing passenger traffic to Hawaii, Matson built a world-class luxury liner, the S.S. Malolo, in 1927.

At the time, the Malolo was the fastest ship in the Pacific, cruising at 22 knots. Its success led to the construction of the luxury liners Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline between 1930 and 1932. Matson’s famed “white ships” were instrumental in the development of tourism in Hawaii. (Matson)

Then, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce had an idea for a goodwill mission. “This good-will mission Around the Pacific is one of the most ambitious enterprises ever fostered by the Chamber of Commerce and has become of national, if not international, import.”

“It will be a good will mission in a literal sense because in its wide scope it embodies many purposes which will make it a tangible expression of good will from San Francisco and the nation, of which it is an important part, toward the other nations which fringe the wide stretches of the Pacific”. (Neale; San Francisco Business, April 10, 1929)

“The goodwill mission making the three months voyage on the Malolo will comprise component groups of business and professional men representing every line of constructive, commercial, industrial, social, professional and civic activity in San Francisco.”

“Briefly, the voyage will take three months. It will be made on the Malolo, known as the “Queen of the Matson fleet.” The itinerary includes stops at Yokohama, Tokyo, Nikko, Kobe, Kyoto, Peking, Shanghai, Hongkong, Manila, Saigon, Bangkok, Singapore, Batavia (Jakarta,) Soerabaya (Indonesia,) Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Suva, Pago Pago, Hilo and Honolulu.” (Neale; San Francisco Business, April 10, 1929)

“All of this was focused under the leadership of Mr. Charles C Moore. … He is a man, in San Francisco, of international mind and contact; he is a man of wide experience and vision; he is a man of dynamic energy; he is a man of tremendous idealism, practical idealism …”

“… he is a man who felt that he could discharge a duty here around the Pacific, having met the peoples of the world at the time of the great exposition, having had contacts with them all during these years.”

“We started out with the idea that we would get all of these people from San Francisco. We failed, fortunately. We thought we would get them all from California. We failed. The trip was on too grand a scale. The scope and character and cost of that trip was almost a million dollars – $900,000 to be exact – and so we appealed to the United States Chamber of Commerce.”

“We wanted it to be strictly a business trip. We secured representatives from twenty-six states and two territories. Practically every man aboard that boat was a business man, or interested in business problems.”

“The ladies on board the boat were either of the families, or they were business women, or women that sympathized most deeply and furnished a splendid background to the idealism of this particular trip.” (Neale; San Francisco Business, January 8, 1930)

On September 21, 1929, the SS Malolo sailed from San Francisco on the first leg of its Pacific cruise. Some 325 passengers were all acknowledged millionaires, specially selected by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and Matson Navigation Company, owners of the SS Malolo. (McPhail)

This was to be the most luxurious cruise ever offered, aboard the world’s newest luxury liner. Because of the affluent passengers, the ‘Around Pacific Cruise’ was also dubbed the ‘Millionaires Cruise.’

They all started that way, but economic conditions changed into the cruise. The Great War had been won, stocks were soaring, speedy new cars and fancy electric products were all the rage, prohibition was ignored, and clothing and hairstyles were wild and loose and sexy.

Just 38 days later, on Black Tuesday – October 29, 1929 – the American stock market crashed and their lives were forever changed. (McPhail)

On Wall Street investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. Many went from fat cats to paupers. (Grace)

In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression (1929-39,) the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.

The cruise continued across the Pacific, then to Hilo, Honolulu and home. “The Around The Pacific Good-Will Cruise was completed upon the return of the SS Malolo on December 21st (1929). This cruise is one of the outstanding achievements of the Chamber, and has established San Francisco’s leadership in Pacific trade.” (San Francisco Business)

“To sum up our trip briefly, I would like to say that in this trip we had a great vision of America’s place in the Pacific. The problems of all of these countries are our problems. If they are not solved it is going to wreck us as well as them.”

“The interests of the United States are bound up inextricably in this entire Pacific area. Our economic future is bound up there. The United States will realize more and more that the great future of this country is in the Pacific …”

“… and to properly meet the problems of the Pacific area, and of these Pacific countries, is a matter of vital interest to us and we must apply, in every possible way, all of the resources which we have to this end.” (Neale; San Francisco Business, January 8, 1930)

There was another outcome of the cruise. Typically ships were used as transportation to a destination, where passengers would disembark and stay at luxury hotels at their destination.

The Malolo was so luxurious that it was a destination in and of itself. It established a trend of cruising, where passengers could see far off places, and remain on board in luxury (in many cases those destinations did not have adequate land-based accommodations and would otherwise be bypassed.)

In the last 10-years, demand for cruising has increased 68%. Today (2016 estimates,) over 24-million passengers cruised the seven seas on nearly 450-ships, generating nearly $120-billion in total economic impact. (Cruise Lines International Association)

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Malolo-Honolulu Harbor

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Malolo with Original Paint

Malolo in Sydney-Nov 1929

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Malolo-Ship Layout-Cabin Plan

December 20, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Convoy Nurses

The SS President Coolidge was completed in 1931 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co, Newport News, Va. She was 615 feet 6 inches in length, had a beam of 81 feet 3 inches, and a draft of 28 feet 2 inches.

In 1941, as war time activities increased, the US War Department began to use the President Coolidge for occasional voyages to Honolulu and Manila. She also helped evacuate Americans from Hong Kong when Japanese-British relations became strained in 1940.

She was later called upon to assist in the evacuations of many people from Asia as the Japanese aggression increased. In June 1941, the Coolidge went into service with the American Army as a transport ship for reinforcing garrisons in the Pacific. A few months later the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. (Henry Nelson, Master of the Coolidge)

At the time of attack, the Coolidge was halfway between the Orient and Hawai‘i. She was the last American vessel to leave the Philippine Islands; she arrived at Honolulu after a perilous trip with hundreds of evacuees, including women, children, missionaries, government officials, businessmen, Army and Navy officers, and many Chinese aviation cadets.

Upon reaching Honolulu, this world cruise ship was placed immediately at the disposal of military officials. Her already overcrowded deck spaces were jammed with hundreds more, waiting to leave the Islands. (Margaret Logan; HNA)

Nineteen US Navy ships, including 8 battleships were destroyed or damaged; the attack killed 2,403 US personnel, including 68 civilians, and the wounded numbered 1,178.

The first casualties arrived at the Pearl Harbor hospital within ten minutes after the first attack, and by 0900 they were coming into the hospital in a steady stream. Casualties were distributed to the main operating suite or to any one of the twelve wards where empty beds were available.

A receiving ward would have caused a ‘hopeless bottleneck,’ and was not used. Although an effort was made to send acute surgical cases to the surgical wards and fracture cases to the orthopedic wards every ward received a variety of cases. (navy-mil)

The leading causes of casualties were burns, compound fractures, flesh wounds (gunshots, shell, and shrapnel) and penetrating abdominal wounds. Sixty percent of all casualties at Pearl Harbor were burn cases caused by burning fuel oil and/or flash burns. Most burns were extensive (up to 80 percent,) and mainly first and second degree. (National WWII Museum)

“The command decided that patients who would need more than 3 months treatment should be transferred. Some were very bad and probably should not have been moved.” (Lieutenant Ruth Erickson, Nurse Corps, Navy)

“(T)he Hawaii Chapter of the American Red Cross requested the Nursing Service Bureau to obtain the services of seventeen nurses to leave on a ship for a port.”

“This call came at 11:30 am. At 1:00 pm seventeen nurses, in uniform, with bags hurriedly packed, leaving families, Christmas trees and packages, were at the Mabel Smyth building.” (American Journal of Nursing, April, 1942)

“Eleven days after the Japanese Navy’s torpedoes and bombs blasted ships and airfields at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941, the first small convoy was formed at Honolulu to begin the evacuation of the wounded.”

“About 200 of the more critically burned and fractured survivors were placed aboard two ships under the care of Red Cross and US Navy nurses.” (Margaret Logan; HNA)

“This convoy, composed of the American President Lines’ luxury liner, President Coolidge, the US Army transport, General Scott, and two escort destroyers, steamed out of the entrance channel … and headed for San Francisco.” (Margaret Logan; HNA)

Three Navy nurses and a number of corpsmen from the hospital were assigned to the SS Coolidge. “Eight volunteer nurses from the Queens Hospital in Honolulu were attached to the Army transport at the next pier, USAT (US Army transport) Scott, a smaller ship.” (Lieutenant Ruth Erickson, Nurse Corps, Navy)

“(W)e left in the late afternoon of the 19th. There were 8 or 10 ships in the convoy. It was quite chilly the next day; I later learned that we had gone fairly far north instead of directly across.”

“The rumors were rampant that a submarine was seen out this porthole in some other direction. I never get seasick and enjoy a bit of heavy seas, but this was different! Ventilation was limited by reason of sealed ports and only added to gastric misery. I was squared about very soon.”

“The night before we got into port, we lost a patient, an older man, perhaps a chief. He had been badly burned, He was losing intravenous fluids faster than they could be replaced. Our destination became San Francisco with 124 patients and one deceased.”

“We arrived at 8 am on Christmas Day! Two ferries were waiting there for us with cots aboard and ambulances from the naval hospital at Mare Island and nearby civilian hospitals. The Red Cross was a cheerful sight with donuts and coffee.”

“Our arrival was kept very quiet. Heretofore, all ship’s movements were published in the daily paper but since the war had started, this had ceased. I don’t recall that other ships in the convoy came in with us except for the Scott. We and the Scott were the only ships to enter the port. The convoy probably slipped away.”

“The patients were very happy to be home and so were we all. The ambulances went on ahead to Mare Island. By the time we had everyone settled on the two ferries, it was close to noon.”

“We arrived at Mare Island at 4:30 pm and helped get the patients into the respective wards.” (Lieutenant Ruth Erickson, NC, USN) In the following weeks, more wounded were convoyed to the mainland.

The Army Nurse Corps listed fewer than 1,000 nurses on its rolls on the day of the attack; 82 Army nurses were stationed in Hawai‘i serving at three Army medical facilities. (army-mil)

Navy Medicine was represented at Pearl Harbor by a naval hospital, a partially assembled mobile hospital and the USS Solace, the Navy’s newest hospital ship at the time. (DODlive-mil))

The Red Cross called the Nursing Service Bureau in Honolulu for volunteer nurses for the Hospital Ship and the Navy Hospital. Every call received was filled.

“During the three weeks following the attack, our nurses gave two-hundred and fifty-eight days of volunteer service 101-days by members of the Bureau and 157-days by non-members, who were nurses from the local hospitals on their days off, service wives and nurses who have been inactive for years.”

“Their cooperation and readiness to serve in this emergency is commendable. The following week, the Red Cross called us for 33 nurses to accompany the evacuee patients to the mainland. 19 returned and 14 remained on the Coast, they were mostly service wives, who were to be evacuated.”

“39 of our nurses are in the civilian Defense Units; 14 called into active service. (12 Army and 2 Navy) All nurses who accompanied the evacuees to the Mainland were paid by the American Red Cross.” (Margaret R. Rasmussen, RN, Director, Nursing Service Bureau)

Captain Hayden later wrote to Rasmussen noting, “I want to express to you a somewhat belated but sincere appreciation of the fine work done … since the air raid of December 7 by the nurses from your Registry.”

“The way in which they volunteered and their performance of duty showed them to be true followers of Florence Nightingale. I want to assure you and them …”

“… that their work here was deeply appreciated by all and especially by the patients who, without their services, could not have received the attention they did.” (Captain R Hayden to Margaret Rasmussen, Nursing Service Bureau, January 3, 1942)

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Wounded-Nurse on Solace (hospital ship – date-location unknown)

Burned and injured patients aboard USS Solace following the Pearl Harbor attack on 7 December 1941

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December 17, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Wright Brothers

On December 14, 1903, the brothers tossed a coin to decide the flying order. Wilbur won the coin toss, but when he oversteered with the elevator after leaving the launching rail, the flyer climbed too steeply, stalled and dove into the sand. Three days later, they were ready for the second attempt.

At 10:35 am, December 17, 1903, Orville was at the controls. The flyer moved down the rail and with a total airspeed of 34 mph (27-mph headwind, the groundspeed was 6.8 mph,) Orville kept the plane aloft until it hit the sand about 120 feet from the rail – the first controlled and sustained power flight.

The brothers took turns flying three more times that day, getting a feel for the controls and increasing their distance with each flight. Wilbur’s second flight – the fourth and last of the day – was an impressive 852 feet in 59 seconds. (NPS)

Wait … this isn’t about those Wright Brothers. This is about the Wrights and some of the generations of respective brothers who were in the islands at about this same time.

Thomas and Jane (Wilson) Wright were from Durham, England. They had eight children: John Thomas, Mary Jane, William Wilson, Thomas, Isabell, Henry, Elizabeth (Polly,) and George Henry.

While the parents never left England, some of the siblings moved to New Zealand and then to Honolulu. Some siblings stayed in New Zealand. The youngest son, George Henry went to San Francisco.

The elder Wright was a blacksmith, a trade followed for more than 150 years by members of the family. In the early 1880s, at least three of the boys (Thomas, William Wilson and Henry) came to the Islands.

It was a time before the automobile; folks rode horseback or were carried in a horse or mule drawn carriage, trolley or omnibus (the automobile didn’t make it to the Islands until 1890.)

Until the mid-1800s, Hawaiʻi overland travel was predominantly by foot and followed traditional trails. To get around people walked, or rode horses or used personal carts/buggies.

It wasn’t until 1868, that horse-drawn carts became the first public transit service in the Hawaiian Islands, operated by the Pioneer Omnibus Line.

In 1888, the animal-powered tramcar service of Hawaiian Tramways ran track from downtown to Waikīkī. In 1900, the Tramway was taken over by the Honolulu Rapid Transit & Land Co (HRT.)

Before the introduction of automobiles, carriage makers’ shops had the place in the community now held by garages and repair shops.

The brothers set up respective carriage and blacksmithing facilities in Honolulu – Thomas and Henry formed Wright Brothers and William Wilson and his son formed WW Wright and Son (and Honolulu Carriage Manufactory.)

Thomas and his wife Elizabeth built a home in Waikiki in about 1890. Unfortunate and tragic events shortly followed with the death of their 10-year-old son Gladstone (due to a rockfall while on a Sunday school hike in Mānoa) and shortly thereafter, the death of their 7-year-old daughter Cicely (due to unknown disease.)

Thomas and Elizabeth then started making their home available as a bathhouse and called it Wright’s Villa. Just as “sea bathing” was gaining popularity on the American and European continents, private bathhouses, like Wright’s Villa, began to appear in Waikīkī. (White) They added dining and overnight accommodations.

Then, “Wright’s Villa has been rechristened and will henceforth be known as the ‘Waikīkī Inn.’ … It is conducted under the same management. You can have the same bathing on the best beach in the Islands, the same excellent dinner and if you are so inclined enjoy a bottle of claret while dining.” (Evening Bulletin, October 14, 1899)

Thomas and Elizabeth Wright left the Islands in 1899 and returned to Staindrop, England, never to return to the Islands (although they were constantly reminded of the Islands; they named their England home ‘Honolulu House.’)

Brother William Wilson (WW,) after being associated with the Wesson Foundry in England, went to Australia and, before coming to Honolulu, was employed for three years by the government railroad.

In the Islands, WW was first employed by CC Coleman, blacksmith; WW became associated with SM Whitman and JM Rose, carriage builders, later purchasing Mr Rose’s interest in the firm and consolidating it with the Hawaiian Carriage Co., remaining as a member of the firm until he established WW Wright & Son.

King Kalākaua, a personal friend of WW, was one of his patrons. When the Kaimiloa was being fitted for its historic but unsuccessful expedition to gain possession of Samoa for Hawai‘i, Mr. Wright had the contract for all iron work on the vessel.

Another son of WW was George Frederick Wright. George was born in Honolulu, April 23, 1881 and attended the old Fort Street School and graduated from Honolulu High School (McKinley) with the class of 1898.

Rather than follow the family tradition of blacksmithing, George became a professional surveyor, establishing himself as one of the foremost surveyors of the Territory through his direction of important surveys and other engineering works.

He entered the government survey department in June, 1898, and remained in public work until 1909, when he started business for himself. Among the larger commissions undertaken by the firm in recent years were surveys of the Parker Ranch property, on the Island of Hawai‘i and of the Island of Lanai, completed in 1925, as well as Pioneer Mill on Maui.

George later became the fifth person to serve as Mayor of Honolulu (starting in 1931.) He died in office in 1938 while traveling aboard the SS Mariposa. (Krauss) (Mayor Wright Housing in Kalihi was named after him.) (Lots of information here is from Nellist.)

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Wright Bros side-by-side Ads – 1890

William Wilson Wright Carriage-King Street

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Triangle Store-WW Wright-PPWD-8-7-018-1890

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Wright Brothers-First FLight, Dec 17, 1903

December 16, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

George Douglas Freeth, Jr

In 1889, the Redondo pier in California was a wharf at the foot of Emerald Street, designed to handle the enormous lumber trade from the Pacific Northwest. Two additional wharfs were added in 1895 and 1903.

Traffic into the port was so busy that ships had to wait their turn for a spot at one of the piers, as Santa Fe rail cars transported the cargo inland as fast as possible. (RedondoPier)

However, Redondo’s popularity began a slow decline when San Pedro Harbor started to take shape in 1899. By 1912, the Pacific Steamship Company stopped calling at Redondo altogether. (Megowan)

In 1907, real estate entrepreneurs Abott Kinney and Henry Huntington were heavily promoting their respective coastal resorts. Kinney had the lead, having dedicated his “Venice of America” (Venice Beach) on July 4, 1905. Henry Huntington, in June 1907, was putting the final touches on his own elaborate beach resort in Redondo Beach. (Verge)

At about that time, 19-year old, hapa-haole, George Douglas Freeth Jr, met up with Jack London and Alexander Hume Ford riding the waves at Waikiki. “I saw him tearing in on the back of (the wave,) standing upright on his board, carelessly poised”. The “young god bronzed with sunburn” gave London a surf lesson. (London)

“The whole method of surf riding and surf fighting, I learned, is one of non-resistance. Dodge the blow that is struck at you. Dive through the wave that is trying to slap you in the face. … Never be rigid. Relax.”

“The man who wants to learn surf riding must be a strong swimmer, and he must be used to going under the water. After that, fair strength and common sense are all that is required.” (London)

Around 1905, Freeth was the first – or among the first – to reintroduce angling across the wave as opposed to heading straight for shore. (Encyclopedia of Surfing)

“In 1907, (Freeth) left Hawaiʻi for the Golden State with letters in hand from Ford, Jack London and the Hawaiʻi Promotion Committee. His objective was to ‘give exhibitions of Hawaiian water sports to the people of that section.’” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser; Laderman)

The July 3, 1907 Pacific Commercial Advertiser announced Freeth’s departure from his native Hawaiʻi with a page 1 headline that read, “George Freeth Off To Coast – Will Illustrate Hawaiian Surfboarding to People in California.”

“The aquatic skills that had enamored London, Ford and the Hawaiʻi Promotion Committee were the same skills Freeth brought with him to California, where he found work for two of the major developers of the period, Abbot Kinney and Henry Huntington.” (Laderman)

Within six months of his arrival, Freeth was commuting between the two seaside communities aboard Huntington’s Pacific Electric Railway. At Huntington’s Redondo resort, Freeth performed his surfing act twice a day under the billing, “The Hawaiian Wonder.”

Freeth lived in Redondo Beach where he worked as a swim instructor/lifeguard at Huntington’s “Plunge,” which from afar looked more like a royal palace than a public swimming pool. With over 1,000-dressing rooms and three heated pools, the Redondo Plunge could hold as many as 2,000- swimmers at one time. (Verge)

“At Venice Beach, Freeth went to work training Kinney’s Venice Lifesaving Crew. Freeth taught the crew to become one with the water. Rip currents, for example, were not to be fought against, but instead used by the rescue swimmer to speed to the victim in distress – a method that is still employed today.”

“So grateful were members of the Venice Lifesaving crew that on the occasion of his 24th birthday, they surprised him with a gold watch and a card that read in part – ‘Mr. George Freeth, King of the Surf Board, Captain of the Venice Basketball team, First Lieutenant of Venice Volunteer Life Saving Corps, and leader in Aquatic Sports and General Good Fellowship, is reliable, sober, industrious.’”

“’We, his comrades and citizens of Venice, extend our best wishes and a watch, that he may continue to keep abreast of the time to the century mark at least.’” (Verge)

On December 16, 1908, Freeth’s water safety skills were put to a test. That day, a tremendous winter squall suddenly descended upon Santa Monica Bay. Gale force winds and high surf trapped several Japanese fishing boats off the Venice Pier.

For the next 2 ½-hours, Freeth braved gale force winds, pounding surf, and a frigid ocean temperature to save single-handedly the lives of seven men. The Venice Lifesaving Corpsmen launched their boat to assist Freeth. More were saved.

As a result of these collected statements and the first-hand news accounts of the rescue, a special act of Congress dated June 25, 1910, awarded Freeth the nation’s highest civilian honor: the Congressional Gold Medal.

In 1915, lured away by the prospects of a better income and the chance to promote Hawaii and the sport of surfing, he joined the San Diego Yacht Club as a lifeguard/swim coach. Unfortunately, the club suffered from financial problems and Freeth was let go; a sympathetic club member then found Freeth a job at a sporting goods store in downtown San Diego.

On a warm spring day in May 1918, 13 swimmers drowned together in a massive rip current. Ocean Beach officials who hadn’t thought it necessary to have lifeguards saw their beach resort community empty as tourists stayed away.

Twelve days later the legendary lifeguard and surfer was in charge of the beach. There, Freeth performed on his surfboard, trained youngsters to work as lifeguards, and to the delight of everyone, not a single swimmer drowned.

Sadly, the flu pandemic of 1918-19 was sweeping through San Diego. Worldwide, 20 million people died from the flu in four months, as many as were killed in all of World War I. Rather than the young and the old, the victims were mostly healthy and middle aged. Among the stricken was Freeth. (Verge)

Freeth is credited as being the “First great waterman of the modern era” – Swimmer, diver, boatman, fisherman, outrigger canoeist, sailor, first professional lifeguard in California, Congressional Gold Medal for bravery, founded lifesaving service in California and introduced waterpolo to California. (UCSB)

George Douglas Freeth, Jr was born on Oʻahu on November 9, 1883; he died of the flu in San Diego on April 7, 1919 at the age of 35.

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Historic Huntington – surfing – George Freeth – LA Herald Dec 17 1908

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George Freeth Plaque

Bronze Bust of George Freeth

December 15, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Foreigners For Forty Years

On April 19, 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies of British North America.

The first shot (“the shot heard round the world”) was fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. The American militia were outnumbered and fell back; and the British regulars proceeded on to Concord.

Following this, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and it was signed by 56-members of the Congress (1776.) The next eight years (1775-1783) war was waging on the eastern side of the continent.

The war for independence closed the colonial trade routes within the British empire, the merchantmen and whalers of New England swarmed around South America’s Cape Horn, in search of new markets and sources of supply. A market was established in China.

China took nothing that the US produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent 18-months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter skins, highly esteemed by the Chinese.

Years before the westward land movement gathered momentum, the energies of seafaring New Englanders found their natural outlet, along their traditional pathway, in the Pacific Ocean.

What helped started in the dawn hours of January 18, 1778, on his third expedition, when British explorer Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution and Captain Charles Clerke of the HMS Discovery first sighted what Cook named the Sandwich Islands (that were later named the Hawaiian Islands.)

On the afternoon of January 20, 1778, Cook anchored his ships near the mouth of the Waimea River on Kauai’s southwestern shore. After a couple of weeks, there, they headed to the west coast of North America.

The formal end of the Revolutionary War did not occur until the Treaty of Paris and the Treaties of Versailles were signed on September 3, 1783 and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west.

The last British troops left New York City on November 25, 1783, and the US Congress of the Confederation ratified the Paris treaty on January 14, 1784.

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation; then, the opening years of the 19th saw the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.

Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast and Canton, China.

At the same time, the Hawaiian demand for American goods was rapidly increasing, owing to the improved standards of living. The central location of the Hawaiian Islands brought many traders, and then whalers, to the Islands.

“And so for forty years Hawaiians wanted everything on every ship that came. And they could get it; it was pretty easy to get. Two pigs and … a place to live, you could trade for almost anything.” (Puakea Nogelmeier)

In the Islands, as in New France (Canada to Louisiana (1534,)) New Spain (Southwest and Central North America to Mexico and Central America (1521)) and New England (Northeast US,) the trader preceded the missionary.

A new era opened in the Islands in 1820 with the arrival of the first missionaries. It was the missionaries who brought Hawai‘i in touch with a better side of New England civilization and attention to the people than that represented by the trading vessels and their crews. But it was not always calm.

“It is said to have been the motto of the buccaneers that ‘there was no God this side of Cape Horn.’ Here, where there were no laws, no press, and no public opinion to restrain men, the vices of civilized lands were added to those of the heathen, and crime was open and shameless.”

“Accordingly, in no part of the world has there been a more bitter hostility to reform. As soon as laws began to be enacted to restrict drunkenness and prostitution, a series of disgraceful outrages were perpetrated to compel their repeal.” (Alexander)

The chiefs “proceeded to take more active measures for suppressing the vices which were destroying their race, and for promoting education. In the seaports of Honolulu and Lahaina this policy immediately brought them into collision with a lawless and depraved class of foreigners.” (Alexander)

“The missionary effort is more successful in Hawaii than probably anywhere in the world, in the impact that it has on the character and the form of a nation. And so, that history is incredible; but history gets so blurry …”

“The missionary success cover decades and decades becomes sort of this huge force where people feel like the missionaries got off the boat barking orders … where they just kind of came in and took over. They got off the boat and said ‘stop dancing,’ ‘put on clothes,’ don’t sleep around.’”

“And it’s so not the case ….”

“The missionaries arrived here, and they’re a really remarkable bunch of people. They are scholars, they have got a dignity that goes with religious enterprise that the Hawaiians recognized immediately. …”

“The Hawaiians had been playing with the rest of the world for forty-years by the time the missionaries came here. The missionaries are not the first to the buffet and most people had messed up the food already.”

“(T)hey end up staying and the impact is immediate. They are the first outside group that doesn’t want to take advantage of you, one way or the other, get ahold of their goods, their food, or your daughter. … But, they couldn’t get literacy. It was intangible, they wanted to learn to read and write”. (Puakea Nogelmeier)

The Hawaiian frustration with the early foreigners and support for the missionaries is illustrated in comments from a couple chiefs of that time, Kaumuali‘i (King of Kauai) and Kalanimōku (chief councilor and prime minister to Kamehameha I, Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III.)

Missionary Samuel Ruggles notes in in his Journal entry on May 8, 1820, “The inhabitants treated me with all the attention and hospitality which their limited circumstances would afford; and even carried their generosity to excess …”

On May 10, 1820, Ruggles notes, “This afternoon the king (Kaumuali‘i) sent to me and requested that I would come and read to him in his bible. I read the first chapter of Genesis and explained to him what I read as well as I could.”

“He listened with strict attention, frequently asking pertinent questions, and said I can’t understand it all; I want to know it; you must learn my language fast, and then tell me all. No white man before ever read to me and talk like you.”

An 1826 letter written by Kalanimōku to Hiram Bingham (written at a time when missionaries were being criticized) states, “Greetings Mr Bingham. Here is my message to all of you, our missionary teachers.”

“I am telling you that I have not seen your wrong doing. If I had seen you to be wrong, I would tell you all. No, you must all be good. Give us literacy and we will teach it. And, give us the word of God and we will heed it … for we have learned the word of God.”

“Then foreigners come, doing damage to our land. Foreigners of America and Britain. But don’t be angry, for we are to blame for you being faulted. And it is not you foreigners, (it’s) the other foreigners.”

“Here’s my message according to the words of Jehovah, I have given my heart to God and my body and my spirit. I have devoted myself to the church and Jesus Christ.”

“Have a look at this letter of mine, Mr Bingham and company. And if you see it and wish to send my message on to America to (your President,) that is up to you. Greetings to the chief of America. Regards to you all, Kalanimōku.”

Kaumuali‘i and his wife, Kapule, reiterated appreciation of the missionaries in letters transcribed on July 28, 1820 to the ABCFM and mother of a recently-arrived missionary wife.

“I wish to write a few lines to you, to thank you for the good Book you was so kind as to send by my son. I think it is a good book – one that God gave for ns to read. I hope my people will soon read this, and all other good books …”

“When your good people learn me, I worship your God. I feel glad you good people come to help us. We know nothing here. American people very good – kind. I love them.”

“When they come here I take care of them: I give him eat; I give him clothes; I do every thing for him. I thank you for giving my son learning.” (Kaumuali‘i to Samuel Worcester, ABCFM)

“I am glad your daughter come here, I shall be her mother now, and she be my daughter. I be good to her; give her tappa; give her mat; give her plenty eat.”

“By and by your daughter speak Owhyhee; then she learn me how to read, and write, and sew; and talk of that Great Akooah, which the good people in America love. I begin spell little: read come very hard, like stone.”

“You very good, send your daughter great way to teach the heathen. I am very glad I can write you a short letter, and tell you that I be good to your daughter. I send you my aloha, and tell you I am Your Friend.” (Kapule to the mother of Mrs Ruggles)

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