Peter T Young

April 13, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Myrtle Boat Club

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi. Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

The ancient Hawaiians also participated in canoe racing. When they wished to indulge this passion (including betting on the races,) people selected a strong crew of men to pull their racing canoes.

If the canoe was of the kind called the kioloa (a sharp and narrow canoe, made expressly for racing) there might be only one man to paddle it, but if it was a large canoe, there might be two, three or a large number of paddlers, according to the size of the canoe.

“The racing canoes paddled far out to sea – some, however, stayed close to the land (to act as judges, or merely perhaps as spectators), and then they pulled for the land, and if they touched the beach at the same time it was a dead heat; …”

“… but if a canoe reached the shore first it was the victor, and great would be the exultation of the men who won, and the sorrow of those who lost their property.” (Malo)

Then, another form of racing, rowing, debuted in Hawai‘i in the late-1860s. (Honolulu Rowing Club)

An early account of competitive rowing appeared in the December 16, 1871, issue of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser: “There was a race between two-oared boats, of which four were entered, Young America the winner … there was splendid rowing exhibited, and the winners became such by purely hard work.”

King Kalākaua’s birthday on November 16th, 1875 marked Hawai‘i’s first regatta with extensive rowing competition. The King, a rowing buff, viewed the event from his yacht along with other members of his royal family.

There were aquatic sports, including five-oared whaleboat races, canoe races, yacht races, and swimming. Capping the day were spectators who climbed greased poles extending over the water. (Honolulu Rowing Club)

“The Myrtle Rowing Club is the first boat club ever organized in this city, we believe. Last February some of the most energetic young gentlemen in town entered into the project of getting up the club, and it is now in a thriving condition.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 7, 1883)

“At present they number only ten, their ages vary from 16 to 22 years, yet, being very fond of boating they have built a boat house and purchased a four-oared barge, and a pair-oared shell. Unfortunately they have contracted a little debt, which it is at present out of their means to pay.”

“They are not starting their club with too much enthusiasm, and intention of letting their ardor cool down, for they intend to stick to it; but they want a little public encouragement and some pecuniary assistance to enable them to purchase better boats, either here or on the Coast, a good four-oared racing boat and a good shell.”

“They cordially invite people down to their bout-house that they may see for themselves what sort of a start has been made; and, knowing the generous support that is always given in Honolulu to encourage young men in athletic exercises, I hope that my appeal in their behalf may not be in vain. I am Old Oarsman.” (Letter to Editor, Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 7, 1883)

“Every evening the members practice in the harbor, and a laudable spirit of enterprise is manifested in the manly sport of rowing. The club owns two boats, one of which was donated to the organization by Mr. George Ashley. They also have a neat boat house down on the Esplanade, with racks for oars and other necessaries. “

“The club deserves encouragement. There is not enough life and enterprising activity among the young men in sporting matters, as a general thing, in Honolulu, but the members of this club have taken the matter of rowing in hand with the evident intention of making the sport popular, and we are confident they wili succeed.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 7, 1883)

“It would be well if another rowing club could be organized to compete generously with the Myrtle Rowing Club. Competition in sporting matters, as well as in matters of business, always promotes and invigorates, when it is entered into with a friendly desire to excel. But whether another club is organized or not, the Myrtle Rowing Club is bound to succeed, for it is very judiciously managed and has the best wishes of the whole community. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 7, 1883)

Other clubs formed; in 1890 the Healani Boat Club, with president WE Wall, and the Leilani Boat Club, headed by David Kawānanakoa, were formed. Two years later the first regatta at Pearl Harbor was held, all three clubs raced at Pearl Harbor. (Honolulu Rowing Club)

“Rowing is very popular, especially at Honolulu, where the Myrtle and the Healani Boat Clubs have for more than twenty years been rivals in four-oared shell, six-oared and pair-oared sliding seat barge rowing contests.”

“Regatta Day, the third Saturday in September, a legal holiday, is the important rowing carnival day, but races are also held on July 4, and at other times. Occasionally crews from the other islands or from the Pacific Coast participate in these races.” (Aloha Guide, 1915)

In the 1920s, there were five rowing clubs in Hawai‘i. The men’s clubs were Myrtle and Healani from Oahu and Hilo from the Big Island. The Oahu-based Kunalu and Honolulu were the two women’s clubs. Kunalu was coached by Healani, while the Honolulu Girls were affiliated with Myrtle. (Honolulu Rowing Club)

In 1957, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu added rowing to its list of sports. Five schools competed for the inaugural ILH title: ʻIolani, Kaimuki, Mid-Pacific, McKinley and Punahou.

In 1964, ʻIolani became the first high school team in the nation to race in the finals of the Olympic Trials. “To reach the finals, we had to win a trial race (known in rowing as a “repechage.”) To do that, we had to beat the New York Athletic Club and the Penn Athletic Club. Those were all former college oarsmen and several had competed in the Olympics in the past. One of the boats was stroked by a former Olympic gold medalist.” (Rizzuto)

“Needless to say, we made it to the finals after a very hard-fought race.” (Rizzuto) The Red Raiders four-man crew finished a respectable sixth place behind winner Harvard. Despite ʻIolani’s success, the ILH dropped rowing in 1966 due to a lack of teams. ʻIolani continued their program another nine years before the sport was dropped in 1975. (Honolulu Rowing Club)

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Healani Boat Club-formed in 1890 and was the only active rowing club during World War II

April 12, 2016 by Peter T Young 8 Comments

Yick Lung

“Yum, yum. Yick Lung.
Yum, yum. Yick Lung.
I love the flavor of Yick Lung!”

“Hawai‘i’s Favorite”

Reportedly, Yee Sheong and Kam Tai Leong arrived in the Islands in 1898 and founded Yickco in 1900 and operated under the tradename of Yick Lung.

Yick Lung, which means ‘profitable enterprise’ in Cantonese, was primarily a candy company and was subsequently operated by a couple generations of the family.

Yee brought dried preserved plums from mainland China while traveling to the islands, which became the local snack favorite of generations to follow. (Star Pacific Trading)

A featured item was ‘Li Hing Mui – ‘Li Hing’ means ‘traveling’ while Mui’ means ‘plum;’ hence the name Li Hing Mui describes the tasty treat from the Orient. (Star Pacific Trading)

Daughter, Gertrude Yee, is attributed with coming up with the name Li Hing Mui for the sun-dried, salty-sweet plum. (Shimabukuro)

The Yee siblings (11 children of the company founders) took over the company when their father died in 1944. Shortly thereafter, Peter and Frederick Yee bought out the other family members in 1950 and added crack seed to the lineup of Yick Lung snacks. (Yonan)

In addition to Hawai‘i, the brothers sought expansion on the continent. However, two trucks were wrecked by sledgehammers in San Francisco’s Chinatown – reportedly, not the work of jealous gangsters looking for a payoff, rather the result of widespread car wreckage by juvenile delinquents.

“The wrecking of the trucks indicated one type of the obstacles the Yick Lung Co., has encountered in its program of expansion to the West Coast . Dealing mainly in cracked seed and other types of candied seed derived from the Orient, Yick Lung has not encountered serious competition, ‘Yet.’”

“Though he (owner Fred Yee) declined to mention how wide operations on the West Coast are, he admitted New York might be a target for further expansion in the future. Yick Lung has not moved into Chicago, he said.” (Honolulu Record, March 13, 1958) It’s not clear how expansive the operation was outside Hawai‘i.

Back in the Islands, the company soared in the sixties and seventies through promotions with Checkers and Pogo, the Sunday Manoa (the Cracked Seed album) and Captain Honolulu, just to name a few.

Peter and Fred took the company to its legendary heights, becoming a household name in all the islands. During that time, Peter was known as Mr Cracked Seed. (Reuel)

The Yees discovered that people in Hawaii would buy a whole variety of sweet and sour tastes and began making different ‘sauces’ to vary the flavor. They added new items to the list, such as mango and cherry seeds.

One brother ran a store on Lusitana Streets on the slopes of Punchbowl Volcano just north of downtown Honolulu, the other peddled the seed from a horsedrawn carriage, and later trucks. (Laudan)

Although the brothers weren’t the first to bring in preserved fruit, or ‘see mui,’ from China, they are credited with being the first to mass market it.

In one of the preserved plum varieties the pit of the preserved fruit was cracked to expose the kernel inside. From that grew the generic term of crack seed to describe the whole range of preserved fruit treats. (Yonan)

Unfortunately, parent company Yickco Inc filed for bankruptcy in 1996 as it struggled to pay off tax debts and faced increasing competition from other snack distributors. (Yonan) Yickco Inc, which manufactured Yick Lung products, was dissolved in 1998.

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Li Hing Mui

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April 11, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sybil’s Rocking Chair

Some mission children seemed to have a sharper understanding of economics than either their missionary parents or the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM.)

Seventeen-year old James Chamberlain (1835-1911,) who worked in the mission depository for Samuel Castle and Amos Cooke, ridiculed the Board for sending out “a great many rocking chairs sent out all set up, while if they had been packed in boxes ten times the amount of freight would have been saved.” (Schulz)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the ‘Missionary Period,’) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail on the Thaddeus for the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawai‘i.)

There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in this first company. Among them were Hiram and Sybil Bingham (he was the leader of the mission.)

The early missionaries had not brought much furniture (if any) with them, so boxes in which goods had been packed served as tables and chairs. There were no furniture stores and no lumber yards in Honolulu then.

Bingham, like most Yankees at that time, was handy with tools and with a piece of driftwood from the northwest, a stick of sandalwood given him, some Koa and seal skin for the seat, he managed to make a rocking chair. (Restarick; Forward in Sybil Bingham’s Diary)

“On our arrival at the Sandwich Islands … most of the missionaries, & Mrs B & myself in particular were destitute of chairs, as the Islands were so universally.”

“There were none in the market. Though tools and timber were scarce, & I had never made a chair, & enough else demanded my time & labor I undertook and constructed for Mrs B a rocking chair”. (Bingham letter to H Hill, March 12, 1850)

“To-day I have been presented with what I may call an elegant chair, the labor of the same kind hands. A rocking-chair too. You smile. But with all my fondness for one, how do you think I have done without, with all my hard work?”

“A box or trunk has been our only seat. My husband, I believe, was never a chair-maker before, but happy for me and the Mission family, that he is every thing.”

“I think no workman would have made a seat more firm and comfortable, while the sandal-wood and young seal skin, with neat workmanship, render it elegant.”

“Our friend, Mr Green, is now looking at it – rates it at twelve dollars, comparing it with one for which he gave ten. I suspect you would not be purchasers if I should put my price upon it.” (Sybil Bingham, June 22, 1820)

On Sundays the rocker was taken to the old grass Kawaiahaʻo church as a seat for the pastor’s wife. (Restarick; Forward in Sybil Bingham’s Diary)

The rocking chair had its admirers, including Queen Kaʻahumanu.

“On seeing and trying Mrs B’s chair, the first, probably, ever made at those islands, Ka‘ahumanu, then in her haughty heathen state, wished me to make her one in every respect like it, for she said it exactly fit her.”

“Feeling no ambition to become chair maker to her Majesty, & having little or no time to devote to such purposes except as matters of necessity, I gave her little or no encouragement.”

“For a period of nine or ten years, she occasionally named the subject to me, but my time was demanded by what I thought more important work for the nation though I felt desirous to oblige her.” (Bingham letter to H Hill, March 12, 1850)

Later, “I thought I might as healthful exercise & recreation, perform a good service for our cause by making the queen a rocking chair, in accordance with her continued wishes. But the difficulty which I felt originally, the want of tools & timber &c, I felt here in the wilderness.” (The Binghams were stationed in Waimea on the Island of Hawa‘ii at the time.)

“I easily constructed a rude lathe, the iron work of which consisted of a broken auger which I employed a native to cut in two with a small file, & with the parts inserted in head blocks, made the center points, on which I turned the parts of the chair which required turning, & that without a wheel.”

“They were made to revolve by a thong some yards in length from the hide of a wild bullock (taken in that region,) presented me by the friendly Mauae”.

“The dimensions, fashion and balance of the chair were made to correspond well with the one made for Mrs B in 1820. The hind posts are Koaia a Cloth Mallet wood which was hard to work. The ivory ferrules on the front posts are from the wild herds of those mountains.”

“The cloth was furnished by the queen; the brass nails and varnish were sent me by Mr Goodrich from Hilo about 100 miles distant. The side pieces arms and front posts are Koa a valuable wood, commonly selected for canoes, formerly, now used for various other purposes, as well as canoes.”

“When I closed my missionary sojourn at Waimea at the end of the year 1830, I traversed the wilderness with my family about 60 miles, having the chair carried with us, to the head of Kealakekua Bay, where I presented it to our Christian Queen near the spot where Cook fell 50 years before.”

“She highly prized it, and had it conveyed to her residence on O‘ahu, where she often used it with pleasure in her subsequent life.” (Bingham letter to H Hill, March 12, 1850)

The Ka‘ahumanu rocking chair, modeled after Sybil’s, is one of the earliest known pieces of koa furniture in Hawai‘i. At Kaahumanu’s death, the heirs returned it to Bingham and he gave it to the mission. (A reproduction of Ka‘ahumanu’s rocking chair is on display at the Hawaiian Mission Houses.)

Sybil’s rocking chair, “which a thousand times rested her weary frame & gave her much comfort … proved to be remarkably easy as to its form & balance, light, strong and durable having now been in use about 30 years”. (Bingham letter to H Hill, March 12, 1850)

In 1840, the Binghams left Honolulu for the United States, Sybil’s rocking chair was taken with them, and when they reached Boston Sybil refused to part with it for a fine piece of upholstered furniture.

Sybil’s wish was that when the last summons came she might be found in that chair … and her wish was granted when she died in her rocking chair on February 27, 1848 in New Haven Connecticut. (Restarick; Forward in Sybil Bingham’s Diary)

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Sybil Bingham (L) Kaahumanu (R) Rocking_Chairs

Sybil_Bingham_Rocking_Chair

Hiram_(I)_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

Kaahumanu Rocking Chair

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Sybil Bingham (L) Kaahumanu (R) Rocking_Chairs-1821_House_in_background

April 10, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palea and the Pinnace

Captain Cook spent the month of December beating around the eastern and southern sides of Hawaiʻi, and finally anchored in Kealakekua Bay January 17, 1779 – having returned to make repairs to a broken mast. (Alexander)

Cook’s reception this time presented a striking contrast to his last. An ominous quiet everywhere prevailed. No one greeted them. A boat being sent ashore to inquire the cause, returned with the information that the king was away, and had left the bay under a strict taboo. (Jarves)

During the king’s absence the chiefs Palea and Kanaʻina kept order among the people. After Cook’s ships had anchored, the chiefs came on board and informed Cook that Kalaniopuʻu would be back in a few days.

Another prominent man, Koa, was apparently the highest officiating priest of the place (in the absence of the high-priest who accompanied Kalaiopuʻu.) (Alexander)

“Being led into the cabin, he approached Captain Cook with great veneration, and threw over his shoulders a piece of red cloth, which he had brought along with him. Then stepping a few paces back, he made an offering of a small pig which he held in his hand, while he pronounced a discourse that lasted for a considerable time.”

“This ceremony was frequently repeated during our stay at Owhyhee, and appeared to us, from many circumstances, to be a sort of religious adoration. Their idols we found always arrayed ill red cloth in the same manner as was done to Captain Cook, and a small pig was their usual offering to the Eatooas.” (King; Cook’s Journal)

“That same afternoon Captain Cook landed and was received by Koa, Palea, and a number of priests, who conducted him to the Heiau (Hikiʻau,) just north of the Nāpoʻopoʻo village and at the foot of the Pali. Here the grand ceremony of acknowledging Cook as an incarnation of Lono, to be worshiped as such, and his installation, so to say, in the Hawaiian Pantheon took place.” (Fornander)

The next day (Friday) the damaged masts and sails and the astronomical instruments were landed at the former camp, and the friendly priests tabued the place as before.

On Saturday afternoon, matters rapidly went from bad to worse.

Some of Palea’s retainers stole a pair of tongs and a chisel from the armorer of the ‘Discovery,’ leaped into their canoe, and paddled with all haste to the shore. Several muskets were fired after them in vain, and a boat was sent in chase.

Palea, who was on board, offered to recover the stolen articles, and followed in another canoe. The thieves reached the shore first, beached their canoe, and fled inland.

Mr Edgar, the officer of the boat, undertook to seize this canoe, which belonged to Palea, who refused to give it up, protesting his innocence of the theft. A scuffle ensued between them, in which Edgar was worsted, when a sailor knocked Palea down by a heavy blow on the head with an oar.

Upon this the whole crowd of natives looking on immediately attacked the unarmed seamen with stones, and forced them to swim off to a rock at some distance.

Palea, however, soon recovered from the blow, dispersed the mob, called back the sailors, and restored the missing articles as far as he could.

The following night the large cutter of the ‘Discovery’ was stolen by Palea’s people, taken two miles north, and broken up for the sake of the iron in it. (Alexander)

“This was the same Palea who from the first had been the constant, kind, and obliging friend of Captain Cook and all the foreigners, and who, only the day before Cook’s death, had saved the crew of the pinnace of the ‘Resolution’ from being stoned to death by the natives, exasperated Palea himself.”

“The boat had been at the brutal and insolent manner in which Palea had been treated by an officer of the ‘Discovery.’”

“It was during the night after the above fracas, the night of the 13th February, that the cutter of the ‘Discovery’ was stolen from her mooring, as King himself admits…”

“… ‘by Palea’s people, very probably in revenge for the blow that had been given him,’ and not by Palea himself. The boat had been taken to Onouli, a couple of miles higher up the coast, and there broken to pieces.” (Fornander)

Captain Cook commanded Kalaniopuʻu, the king of the island, to make search for the boat, and restore it. The king could not restore it, for the natives had already broken it in pieces to obtain the nails, which were to them the articles of the greatest value.

Captain Cook came on shore with armed men to take the king on board, and to keep him there as security till the boat should be restored. (Dibble)

On February 14, 1779, Cook was killed. (The image shows a drawing of Palea by William Ellis.)

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April 9, 2016 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

First Settlement

‘Āina as the term for homeland identified the Hawaiian as a food producer. The word is compounded from the verb ‘ai, to eat, referring specifically to vegetable foods, with the substantive suffix na, which makes it a noun. The word ‘āina, then, means ‘that which feeds.’

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, studies suggest it was about 900-1000 AD that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.” (Kirch)

When the first colonists reached Hawai‘i they found along the shores a flora with which they were familiar in tropical Polynesia: beach morning glory or pohuehue, naupaka, hau, milo and kamani.

The rich valley bottoms which later they would clear, terrace, and irrigate for wet-taro cultivation were, in their pristine state, dense jungle, probably covered mostly with the hau shrub which, where it runs wild, produces a dense, tight jungle. For this jungle the first settlers had no use.

What taro tops they had, they planted along the banks of the streams, as taro is still planted along the banks of irrigation and drainage ditches. If they had sweet-potato shoots, these were planted in sandy soil near their huts.

It is more likely, however, that the first settlers had little or nothing to plant. The plants and more colonists were probably brought by canoes sent back to the homeland.

For generations the small, slowly growing population clustered around shore sites near streams that supplied them with water. Such sites are best for inshore fishing.

In the course of native settlement, as the early kanaka colonizers spread from fishing sites on the shore to inland areas and fanned out over the plains and hills from original centers of settlement, households with ties of relationship became scattered.

Some located on upland slopes (ko kula uka,) some on the plains toward the sea (ko kula kai) and some along the shore (ko kaha kai.) Neighborly interdependence, the sharing of goods and services, naturally resulted in the settling of contiguous lands by a given ‘ohana rather than in a scattering over an entire district.

When they had acquired taro, they no doubt rapidly cleared away the jungle along the streams to make room for taro patches, and there was a beginning of terraced flats that could be irrigated directly from the stream.

Fishermen and their families living around the bays and the beaches, or at isolated localities along the coast where fishing was practicable, led a life that was materially simpler than that of planters who dwelt on the plains.

Once they had discovered the great koa trees in the uplands, they were in a position to build large voyaging canoes, and it would take only a few men to sail these back in the direction of the Society Islands, or to the Marquesas, Samoa or Tonga.

Later, Polynesians brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs. “Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by these early Polynesians.

“The people had ample cultivable land in the moist upland from two to four miles inland at altitudes of one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet. … The soil is most fertile, being formed from the decay of recent lava flows.”

“There the natives found their chief means of subsistence, and, in good seasons, were sufficiently fed. In bad seasons there were droughts, and more or less of ‘wī,’ or famine.” (Bishop)

The food plants of Hawaiʻi can be divided into three groups: those known as staple foods (the principal starchy foods – kalo (taro,) ʻuala (sweet potato,) ʻulu (breadfruit,) etc;) those of less importance (to add nutrients and variety to the diet;) and those known as famine foods. (Krauss)

Eventually, most of the makaʻāinana (‘common people’) were farmers, a few were fishermen. Tenants cultivated smaller crops for family consumption, to supply the needs of chiefs and provide tributes.

There was a high degree of stability or permanence of tenure despite the general turnover of authority and titles to the land whenever a new aliʻi came into power, owing to the fact that particular ‘ohana enjoyed the rights of occupancy and use and faithfully fulfilled their obligations.

In many cases their ancestors had pioneered the area and cultivated it since the earliest era of Hawaiian settlement. (Lots of information here is from Handy, Handy & Pukui.)

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