Peter T Young

September 23, 2016 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Riverside School

The Wailuku is the longest river in Hilo (twenty-six miles.) Its course runs from the mountains to the ocean along the divide between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

Waiānuenue Avenue (rainbow (seen in) water) is named for the most famous waterfall, Ka Wailele ʻO Waiānuenue, Rainbow Falls on the Wailuku River.

For a while, other than church-related schools, if a Big Island youngster wanted to pursue his education beyond the eighth grade, he had to travel to O‘ahu. There he would board and go to school. (HHS)

Then, “One of the largest gatherings that ever attended a mass meeting in Hilo was present at Fireman’s Hall Thursday night to express to Superintendent of Public Instruction WH Babbitt their views regarding a high school site and other school matters.”

“The atmosphere of the hall was fairly charged with incipient trouble, which later broke into a storm of words and bitterness.”

“Chairman Mason called for expressions of opinion upon the subject under discussion. There was a dead silence for an interval, when LA Andrews started the ball rolling, by stating there were two things upon which there was a unanimity of sentiment in Hilo.”

“The first was the necessity for a high school in Hilo and the second the selection of the Riverside lot as the high school site. TJ Ryan offered a resolution, which passed without opposition …”

“… stating that it was the sense of the meeting that the high school should be erected on the Riverside lot.” (Hilo Tribune, December 12, 1905)

“After considering the various sites suggested, the committee practically determined on the lot on which now stands the Riverside School.”

“The present lot is not quite large enough to accommodate both the Riverside and the High Schools, which latter will be a nine-room building, and if a portion of the hospital grounds can be secured, the mauka portion of the Riverside lot will be used for High School purposes. (Hilo Tribune, June 29, 1905)

School authorities hesitated but finally agreed to start a high school at Hilo Union School in September, 1905; 25 ninth-grade students attended high school at Hilo Union School.

In 1907, the school moved to the Riverside School. It was then called Hilo Junior High School. By the time the first class graduated in 1909, only 7 of the original 25 were left.

Hilo High’s first graduating class consisted of seven students in 1909: Richard Kekoa, Amy Williams, Eliza Desha, Frank Arakawa, John Kennedy, Annie Napier and Herbert Westerbelt. (Mangiboyat)

With limitations for space, in 1911, “(t)he bandstand at Moʻoheau Park has been converted into a schoolroom by the county fathers, on account of the fact that the accommodations at the Riverside School are inadequate and the County has no funds at present with which to build an addition.” (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1911)

“This class formerly occupied the basement of the Riverside building and it was so damp in the present weather that it was thought best to make the change.” (Hawaiian Star, February 27, 1911)

Finally in 1922, Hilo Junior High School moved up Waianuenue Avenue and renamed to the permanent and present Hilo High Campus. As years passed, the campus flourished with more buildings, students and educational experience. (Mangiboyat)

Hilo High Auditorium was built in 1928. It was donated to the school by the Alumni Association. It was designed by a former student (and part of the first graduates) of Hilo High School, Frank Arakawa.

Riverside got its school site. In the early 1920s, American-born parents called for the development of separate education for their children.

Consequently, the development of “English Standard” schools, sometimes called “Select Schools” since a level of proficiency in English language was required.

While most of the people who attended the schools were of American-born parents, anyone with the ability to speak proper English was allowed to attend. 1925 marked the beginning of segregating students by ability to speak and write English.

In 1927, a Parent-Teacher group in Hilo petitioned the legislature for funds to construct a new English Standard school which had an attendance of 169 children sharing facilities with Hilo Union School.

Just before its opening in 1929, the Hilo Tribune Herald reported: “It is a one-story frame building with Spanish type arched porches and when complete will be one of the most attractive school buildings on the island.”

By 1948, English Standard sections in various schools were replacing separate schools as the next generation of immigrant children became proficient in English. In 1955, two rooms were added to the original E-shaped structure.

In 1956, the porte cochère, or covered drive-through/passenger drop-off, was constructed. A garage driveway was also added in 1956. Riverside became the Hilo District Office for the Department of Education in 1959. (HHF)

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Riverside School-NPS

Riverside School-DOE District Annex

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1st grade Riverside School-Hagar

Riverside School (future Hilo High class of 1960) – Hagar

September 22, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Surfing in Britain

“Surf riding after the Hawaiian fashion is extremely simple when performed with pen and ink, but the swimmer who tries it at Waikiki when there is any sort of sea tumbling in from the south is either overwhelmed in the roller …”

“… or parts company with his board to learn the adamantine solidity of beach sand when a would-be rider essays to plow it up with any portion of his anatomy.” (Paducah Daily Sun, AK, August 18, 1898)

Edward, Prince of Wales (Later King Edward VIII) visited Hawai‘i in April 1920 and enjoyed a three-day surf trip with Earl Mountbatten (future Admiral of the Fleet.) He was so thrilled with the experience that he ordered his ship, the HMS Renown, to return for three days so he could surf again.

But it’s not the surfing of British royals in Hawai‘i that is the focus of this summary, this is about Hawaiian royals in Britain, surfing off the British coast.

While Duke Kahanamoku introduced and promoted surfing to the rest of the world (making him the ‘Father of International Surfing,’) the year he was born (1890,) a couple Hawaiian Princes were riding the waves at Bridlington, Yorkshire in Britain.

Brothers David Kawānanakoa (Koa) and Kūhiō, orphaned after their father died in 1880 and mother in 1884, were adopted by King David Kalākaua’s wife, Queen Kapiʻolani, who was their maternal aunt.

Both were sent on Kalākaua’s ‘studies abroad program.’ They travelled with a guardian arriving in London on November 27, 1889. At first, it was thought that David might work for Hawaii Consul Armstrong in London.

There were 13 Hawaiian Consuls throughout England, indicative of the two countries important trade relations. As for Kuhio, “(he) is not sure if he wants to stay or leave. He thinks he’ll leave, (because) it is very cold here.” (Hall)

On September 22, 1890 Prince Kūhiō could not restrain his enthusiasm in his letter to the Hawaiian Consul Armstrong about their experience of surfing at Bridlington:

“We enjoy the seaside very much and are out swimming every day. The weather has been very windy these few days and we like it very much for we like the sea to be rough so that we are able to have surf riding. We enjoy surf riding very much and surprise the people to see us riding on the surf.”

“Even (John) Wrightson (their tutor) is learning surf riding and will be able to ride as well as we can in a few days more. He likes this very much for it is a very good sport.” (Museum of British Surfing)

Their Bridlington surfboards would most likely have been planks purchased from a boat‐builder. There were extensive regional forests plus readily available foreign timber. A local wood expert’s best guess is that the wood was ash, sycamore or lime. (Hall)

This wasn’t the first international surfing experience for the princely brothers. In 1885, the Koa and Kūhiō (and their other brother Edward, who later died in 1887) were schooled at St Matthew’s Hall in San Mateo, California; they were placed under the care of Antoinette Swan, one of the ‘Pioneers’ of Santa Cruz and daughter of Don Francisco de Paula Marin.

When the Swan home became too crowded, the princes boarded at the nearby Wilkins House, located half a block away, on Pacific and Cathcart streets. (Dunn & Stoner)

The three princes are noted in the first account of surfing anywhere in the Americas: “The young Hawaiian princes were in the water, enjoying it hugely and giving interesting exhibitions of surf-board swimming as practiced in their native islands.” (Santa Cruz Daily Surf, July 20, 1885; Divine)

Another Hawaiian royal may also have added to the international surfing experience. It is suggested that when Princess Kaʻiulani, a cousin of Koa and Kūhiō, also surfed in England (in 1892.)

“She may have been the first female surfer in Britain, … a letter in which she wrote that she enjoyed ‘being on the water again’ at Brighton.”

“Kaʻiulani liked swimming and surfing. She was a high-spirited girl, who when she returned to Hawaii, liked to sneak out past midnight to go swimming in the moonlight with girlfriends.” (Hall)

Reportedly, “The tall foreign dignitary stood erect on a thin board with her hair blowing in the wind and rode the chilly waters.” (British Surfing Museum; Boal)

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David Kawananakoa (1868-1908) Edward Keliiahonui (1869-1887) and Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole (1871-1922)-PP-97-17-008

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September 21, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Jesse Owens

“People said it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals.”

Whoa, let’s look back …

James Cleveland Owens, the seventh child of Henry and Emma Alexander Owens, was born in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12, 1913 – the son of a sharecropper (a farmer who rents land) and grandson of slaves. He was a sickly child, often too frail to help his father and brothers in the fields.

‘JC,’ as he was called, was nine when the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio where he attended public school. When his teacher asked his name to enter in her roll book, she was told “JC,’ but she thought he said ‘Jesse.’ The name stuck and he would be known as Jesse Owens for the rest of his life.

When Owens was in the fifth grade, the athletic supervisor asked him to join the track team. From a skinny boy he developed into a strong runner, and he started to set track records in junior high school.

“Owens singled out one man, his junior-high track coach, Charles Riley, as his most admired. ‘He had the most influence on my life – everyone loved him and he loved everyone, he said. ‘He made a lot of things possible for a lot of kids.’” (Gentry)

During his high school days, he won all of the major track events, including the Ohio state championship three consecutive years. At the National Interscholastic meet in Chicago, during his senior year, he set a high school world record by running the 100 yard dash in 9.4 seconds, created a new high school world record in the 220 yard dash in 20.7 seconds and a week earlier set a new world record in the broad jump by jumping 24 feet 11 3/4 inches.

Owens’ sensational high school track career resulted in him being recruited by dozens of colleges. Owens chose the Ohio State University, even though OSU could not offer a track scholarship at the time.

He worked a number of jobs to support himself and his young wife, Ruth. He worked as a night elevator operator, a waiter, he pumped gas, worked in the library stacks, and served a stint as a page in the Ohio Statehouse, all of this in between practice and record setting on the field in intercollegiate competition. Jesse entered the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

These were the Games that Hitler planned to show the world that the Aryan people were the dominant race; Jesse Owens proved him wrong and became the first American to win four track and field gold medals at a single Olympics (100m, 200m, 4x100m relay and long jump.) (Olympics) (This was not equaled until Carl Lewis did it in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.)

Owens’ story is one of a high-profile sports star making a statement that transcended athletics, spilling over into the world of global politics. Berlin, on the verge of World War II, was bristling with Nazism, red-and-black swastikas flying everywhere.

Brown-shirted Storm Troopers goose-stepped while Adolf Hitler postured, harangued, threatened. A montage of evil was played over the chillingly familiar Nazi anthem: ‘Deutschland Uber Alles.’ (ESPN)

In Germany, the Nazis portrayed African-Americans as inferior and ridiculed the United States for relying on ‘black auxiliaries.’ One German official even complained that the Americans were letting ‘non-humans, like Owens and other Negro athletes,’ compete.

But the German people felt otherwise. Crowds of 110,000 cheered him in Berlin’s glittering Olympic Stadium and his autograph or picture was sought as he walked the streets.

“‘When I came back to my native country, after all the stories about Hitler, I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus,’ Owens said. ‘I had to go to the back door. I couldn’t live where I wanted. I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, but I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the President, either.’” (ESPN)

Owens said, ‘Hitler didn’t snub me – it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn’t even send me a telegram.’ On the other hand, Hitler sent Owens a commemorative inscribed cabinet photograph of himself.

Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House nor were honors bestowed upon him by president Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) or his successor Harry S. Truman during their terms. (Black History)

After the games had finished, the Olympic team and Owens were all invited to compete in Sweden. He decided to capitalize on his success by returning to the United States to take up some of the more lucrative commercial offers. In spite of his fame, on his return from Berlin, Owens struggled for money.

He began to participate in stunt races against dogs, motorcycles and even horses during halftime of soccer matches and between doubleheaders of baseball games.

“People said it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse,” Owens said, “but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals.”

“(S)hortly after the end of World War II, Abe Saperstein (who formed and owned the Harlem Globetrotters) decided the times were right for a Black league on the West Coast. In a March, 1946 meeting at the High Marine Social Club in Oakland, they organized the West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCBA.)”

“The league had six franchises: the San Diego Tigers, Los Angeles White Sox, San Francisco Sea Lions, Oakland Larks, Seattle Steelheads and the Portland Roses. Owens contributed his prestige as a league vice president and took ownership of the Portland franchise.” (Oregon Stadium)

A frequent attraction at a number of the Negro baseball games during the 1946 season was a running exhibition by Jesse Owens – sometimes Owens raced the fastest ball players, but more often he was matched against a horse in a staged event before the game. (Plott) The WCBA disbanded after only two months.

In 1946, the Harlem Globetrotter basketball team came to Hawai‘i. Saperstein also brought a Negro League baseball all-star team. (Ogden Standard-Examiner, April 14, 1946) Jesse Owens came too. They performed in Honolulu and Hilo. (Vitti)

“This city (Honolulu) was recently called the one place that represents real democracy by Jesse Owens, world’s fastest track star, who was interviewed in the Honolulu stadium where he is currently giving free instructions to youth of all nationalities.”

“Owens, on tour in the Pacific, has appeared before many civic groups and talked at the University of Hawaii, where he emphasized the importance of developing intellect with athletic prowess.”

“The track star believes that the field of sports offers a good opportunity to better race relations. ‘But all too few shirk the responsibility,’ he stated.”

“Owens, who is a capable speaker, as well as a star athlete, recently won an 80-yard dash with a horse here before a crowd of 8,000.” (Afro-American, October 19, 1946)

Later, ‘the world’s fastest human,’ Jesse Owens, raced the Big Island’s fastest horse at Hilo’s Hoʻolulu Park – the horse won by a neck. (Lang)

In 1955, President Dwight D Eisenhower honored Owens by naming him an ‘Ambassador of Sports.’ In 1976, Jesse was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award bestowed upon a civilian, by Gerald R Ford.

Jesse Owens died from complications due to lung cancer on March 31, 1980 in Tucson, Arizona. Owens was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1990 by President George HW Bush. (JesseOwens)

Jesse Owens racing a horse:

“The purpose of the Olympics … was to do your best. As I’d learned long ago from Charles Riley, the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.” (Jesse Owens)

Track star Jesse Owens is shown on the starting line just before he raced a horse at Tropical Park on December 26, 1936. Owens ran 100 yards in 9.9 finishing 20 yards ahead of the horse who was handicapped 40 yards at the start. (AP Photo)

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Jesse Owens races a horse on a track in Cuba, 1936.

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Jesse Owens college sophomore at Ohio State University-May 25, 1935

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Jesse Owens Statue – Cleveland

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September 20, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lauhala

A traditional hale (thatched house) would seem sparsely furnished. The best thatch used by the Hawaiians was pili grass; next came the leaf of the pandanus, lauhala; then the leaf of the sugar-cane, and lastly the ti leaf, and a number of inferior grasses. (Malo)

Over the floor of smooth pebbles lay many layers of mats, both coarse floor mats and fine sleeping mats; their number was dependent upon the rank of the residents.

There were kapa bedding and pillows of several kinds but no chairs, tables, cabinets, or other furniture per se. Nor would many personal items be in evidence. Makaʻāinana had few belongings, and aliʻi had storehouses for those that they accumulated. (Abbott)

In the living quarters, small articles customarily were stored in baskets, calabashes, and gourds, and many of these were suspended from the rafters by cord or netting, leaving the floor space open.

Many household furnishings were made from leaves of the hala tree (Pandanus species). Most hala species grow in groves (pū hala). The trees appear to be propped up on their thick roots, and their trunks put forth branches at sharp angles in the upper half of the plant. (Abbott)

Hala is a choice tree for the essential native Hawaiian landscape. Female trees, with the characteristic pineapple-shaped fruit, appear to be more in demand than the males.

But the uncommon male hala produce highly fragrant and attractive floral displays and should be grown more as well. (hawaii-edu) “Old stories tell of lost fishermen in canoes adrift at sea finding their way home via the fragrances of hala.” (Bornhorst)

Hala is a small tree growing 20 to 30 feet in height and from 15 to 35 feet in diameter. Lauhala, the leaves of the hala, are distinctive long blade-like, about 2 inches wide and over 2 feet long. The leaves are spirally arranged towards the ends of the branches and leave a spiral pattern on the trunk when they fall.

Plaited (or braided) lauhala are made into mats, hats, sails, and other useful items. Plaiting entails interlacing the strips at right angles to each other with the aim of obtaining a tight and regular fit. (Since no loom is used, it is incorrect to call this method ‘weaving.’) (Abbott)

“These things were articles of the greatest utility, being used to cover the floor, as clothing, and as robes. This work was done by the women. (Malo)

For use, lauhala was washed, soaked for several days, then softened by being passed through the smoke of a fire. The thorns on the midrib and margins of leaves were stripped out by pulling each leaf through a slit cut for this purpose in a leaf butt. (Abbott)

“The women beat down the leaves with sticks, wilted them over the fire, and then dried them in the sun. After the young leaves (muo) had been separated from the old ones (laele) the leaves were made up into rolls.”

“This done (and the leaves having been split up into strips of the requisite width) they were plaited into mats. The young leaves (mu-o) made the best mats, and from them were made the sails for the canoes.” (Malo)

All Hawaiian floor mats were made either of lauhala or of sedges. In a chief’s hale, over the coarsest floor mats were layered lauhala mats whose plaiting was in widths ranging from 0.5 to 1 inch. (Abbott)

Over the coarse floor mats, finely plaited mats were placed to serve as moena, sleeping mats. At least a few mats (and often many) were piled one atop the next, forming a mattress.

A well-cushioned bed was five to eight centimeters (two to three inches) thick, and the mats were often stitched together along one edge to prevent them from slipping. Beds of the ali’i were composed of numerous layers of mats, the topmost being moena makali‘i or fine sleeping mats, plaited from strips of material as narrow as 0.2 inch. (Abbott)

(It is said that when Kaʻahumanu visited the missionaries and spent the night in the visitors’ room in the frame house at Mission Houses she preferred 30-mats to sleep on.)

For bed coverings, the Hawaiians had kapa moe – single sheets of kapa, often used several at a time – or kapa ku‘ina, which consisted of several layers of kapa stitched along one edge with wauke cordage.

In either case, the covers were about the size of a modern double-bed sheet, and layers could be thrown off or added as the temperature changed during the night. Uluna, plaited lauhala pillows, traditionally were cubical or brick-shaped and stuffed with lauhala. (Abbott)

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Pila`a Kilani weaving a lauhala mat, Pukoo, Molokai-PP-33-6-023-1913

Lauhala weavers, Napoopoo, Hawaii-PP-33-6-003-1935

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Group of girls lauhala weaving-PP-33-7-001-1900

Hawaiian family and their houses thatched with lauhala-PP-32-2-035-1880s

Lauhala

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Auntie Elizabeth Lee-lauhala weaver

September 19, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Whalers in Hawai‘i

Edmund Gardner was born in Nantucket, MA in 1784. In 1800, at the age of 16, he began his career as a mariner, sailing on a whaling voyage in the sloop Dove. He married Susanna Hussey of Nantucket in 1807. Six of their twelve children survived childhood.

His first command came in 1807 when he was asked to be the master of the Nantucket ship Union. Captain Gardner achieved some notoriety on this voyage by having his vessel sunk by a whale while on route to the Azores. This event was noted in Melville’s Moby Dick which was first published in 1851.

Edmond Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator, made history in 1819 when they became the first American whalers to visit the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i.)

“I had one man complaining with scurvy and fearing I might have more had made up my mind to go to the Sandwich Islands. I had prepared my ship with all light sails when I met the Equator.”

“I informed him of my intention. He thought it was too late to go off there and get in time on the West Coast of Mexico. I informed Folger what my determination was.”

“So little did I expect him to accompany me that I wrote my letters for him to forward to the United States if an opportunity presented. He took my letters and then said ‘if I conclude to go in company with you, I will stand on, if not, shall tack in for the land.’”

“I gave orders in the morning to put the ship on a WSW course putting on all sail. In a short time after the morning, I discovered he was following. We made the best of our way to the Sandwich Islands where we arrived in six-teen days, had a pleasant passage to the Islands and arrived at Hawaii 19th 9 Mo 1819.“ (Gardner Journal)

“I left California 3d of 9 Mo 1819. I came to anchor in Kealakekua Bay, Hawai‘i in seventeen fathoms water. While at this place heeled my ship to paint the bends and kept all the natives on one side of the ship, having previously installed one of the Natives as shipkeeper with a rattan for his badge of office.”

“He had in his possession several recommendations from shipmasters of his efficiency of clearing the ship of natives when troublesome. One day I think there must have been more than two hundred on board, when they became much excited, making a great noise.”

“I was somewhat alarmed, stamped on the deck and called on the shipkeeper to clear the ship of Kanakas. He accordingly drove them from the deck in five minutes into the sea. I then suffered but few to come at a time.”

“The next day a native who had been in Boston came on board and he spoke good English. I desired him to make inquiry what was the difficulty with the natives the previous day.”

“He soon came and informed me that the natives of the district where the ship lay wanted to have all our trade and would not suffer others from other districts to interfere. Their intention was to monopolize all the trade with us. I then found that the Sandwich Islanders possessed the same feelings as ourselves and ready to contend for their supposed rights.”

“After being there a week I was on deck early in the morning when one of the Kanakas called in an animated manner ‘mokee, mokee.’”

“In looking to the westward, I saw a large sperm Whale spouting. I immediately called to Captain Folger of the Equator and told him there was a large sperm whale, that I would send two boats if he would send two, and we would divide what we obtained.”

“He agreed to the same and our boats left at 7 am in pursuit and were soon out of sight north of the harbor. I did not like to send all my boats, not having full confidence in the natives of that place.”

“We saw nothing nor heard anything until 4 pm, when two canoes arrived in the bay paddling very fast and came to my ship. The Kanakas wiped the perspiration and talked very fast, being much excited. I could understand nothing. One of them shut his eyes and laid his head on one side in his hand.”

“I then called to Capt Folger and told him our boats had killed the whale (for we had remained on board our ships in the absence of our boats.)”

“He asked me how I knew. I answered him the natives had told me so. I immediately sent another boat to help tow the whale to the ship. In two hours they made their appearance, with fifty canoes helping tow. Our boats were absent the whole day, reaching the ship after sunset.”

“The next day we commenced cutting in our fish, and I have no doubt there were as many natives around our ship as Capt Cook had around his ship when first he visited those Islands. All the canoes were called into requisition far and near, and hundreds came swimming, not having any conveyance.”

“While cutting in, we had to be careful to prevent cutting the Kanakas for as soon as we had taken off the blubber they commenced (with our leave) to tear off the lean from the carcass and fill their canoes as fast as they could tear it off. They had a great festival from what they got from the whale.”

“There was a little incident which occurred while at Kealakekua when we were boiling through the night which I will relate. Both ships were making much light from the tryworks, so at times to light the whole bay; it was a natural conclusion with the natives that we must want fuel.”

“In the morning canoes came to my ship bringing wood for sale. They were somewhat surprised to find we were not in want of wood. The oil obtained from the whale was one hundred and two barrels.”

“After laying till 1st of 10 Mo left for Rahina (Lahaina) Mowee (Maui) for water, where we found Butler a resident, formerly from Martha’s Vineyard.”

“Also a Chief called Governor and sometimes John Adams (Kuakini.) He seemed to be principal man at Maui. After taking in our water went to Woahoo (Oahu) to leave letters to be sent Via Canton. The ship Paragon, Wilds and Ship Eagle, Meek were nearly ready to sail for China.”

“Left Oahu 10th of 10 Mo 1819 for Coast of California. I shipped two Kanakas from Maui and had them the remainder of the Voyage and took them to New Bedford. Their names were Joe Bal and Jack Ena, the two names comprising that of my ship Balaena.” (Gardner Journal)

A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. His find was widely publicized in New England, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area.

These ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. So when Captain Allen befriended the missionaries at Honolulu and Lahaina, he helped establish these areas as the major ports of call for whalers. (NPS)

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