Economy | Page 135 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

September 24, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

The “Parker”

Mokupāpapa literally means flat island, and the name was given to Kure Atoll by officials of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 19th century.

At the time, Kure was known in the kingdom as Ocean Island, but Hawaiian Kingdom officials indicated that Kure was “known to ancient Hawaiians, named by them Moku Pāpapa and recognized as part of the Hawaiian Domain.”

Unlike all other islands and atolls in the NWHI chain (Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument,) Kure Atoll is the only land area owned by the state of Hawaiʻi – all of the other Northwestern Islands are owned by the US government.

Before the mid-19th century, Kure Atoll was visited by several ships and given new names each time. Many crews were stranded on Kure Atoll after being shipwrecked on the surrounding reefs and had to survive on the local seals, turtles and birds. Because of these incidents King Kalākaua sent Colonel JH Boyd as his Special Commissioner to Kure.

On September 20, 1886, Boyd took possession of the island, then-called Moku Pāpapa, for the Hawaiian government. The King ordered that a crude house be built on the island, with tanks for holding water and provisions for any other unfortunates who might be cast away there.

On September 24th 1842, the New Bedford whaler “Parker” was one of those earlier shipwrecks lost at Kure Atoll, during a fierce storm.

The seas crashed through the cabin windows at 2:00 am, and immediately the vessel went onto the reef. The ship had struck on the north side of the atoll and became a complete wreck in under an hour, very few provisions (1 peck of beans, 15 pounds of salted meat) being hastily salvaged by the unlucky survivors.

Cutaway masts and some of the floating spars were fashioned into a crude raft. It took the exhausted crew eight days to drift and guide the raft to the island on the southeastern side of the atoll.

There, some of the ship remains of the wrecked British whaler Gledstanes (lost in 1837) provided firewood and building materials. The Gledstanes’ dog, having gone wild during his years of isolation, provided some variety in the crew’s diet of seabirds and seals.

The castaways spent a hard eight months fighting for survival on the low island at the atoll. 120 Laysan albatross took flight with inscribed wooden tallies fixed to their legs in an attempt to alert rescuers.

More than 7,000 seabirds were killed for food and some 60 seals. Finally, the Captain and a few others were finally picked up from Ocean (Green) Island on April 16, 1843 by the ship James Stewart.

The rest of the crew remained on the island until May 2, when they were rescued by the New Bedford whaler Nassau and taken to Honolulu.

The physical remains of the ship fill in more details of the story. A team of maritime archaeologists first visited the site in 2002.

In 2006, a team of maritime archaeologists completed a mapping survey of the shipwreck site. Anchors, anchor chain, hull sheathing, copper fasteners, hawse pipes, windlass, rigging hardware, wire rope, bricks and other material are distributed in a line over 100 meters in length.

The team also discovered a trail of bricks and broken try pot shards (cauldrons used to render the whale oil from the blubber) in a small pass through the reef crest.

The survey outside the reef crest found almost no artifacts at all. It’s possible that the extremely violent storm and seas brought the vessel entirely into the shallow back reef area, hundreds of yards from the reef pass, where she grounded at a heading of 135 degrees magnetic. Deck features were washed over the side as the ship first entered the lagoon.

The lagoon site is relatively shallow, 8-18 feet of water. The bottom type is patch coral reef, coralline substrate and rubble and sand areas.

But is this wreck site really the whaler Parker?

The types of artifacts correspond to a mid-19th century whaler, and the site location is consistent with the historical report, but there is no conclusive piece of evidence as yet, so the identification as the Parker remains preliminary.

Site survey work in 2005 involved the removal of a few diagnostic artifacts (with oversight by the appropriate management agencies). These were conserved at the Heritage Resources Conservation Lab, California State University, Chico.

In 2008, a team returned to the site to document the site with high definition video, and also to recover a ship’s bell for conservation, education and outreach. The ship’s bell became part of an exhibit at the Monument’s Mokupāpapa Discovery Center, “Lost on a Reef”.

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American whaling ship Parker site plan completed in 2006 (NOAA)

Kure Chart

September 22, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Pu‘u O Kaimukī – Telegraph Hill

When King Kamehameha stationed his troops on the beaches of Waikīkī in preparation for the battle to take O‘ahu, he stationed lookouts at Pu‘u O Kaimukī (aka “Kaimukī Hill”) to spot enemies arriving by sea.

When Honolulu became a major port, “Kaimukī Hill” was used as a signal station (using semaphore technology,) giving it the name “telegraph hill.” It had broad view over the Pacific and line-of-sight to downtown Honolulu. Back then, they used this vantage point to spot ships coming in, and then conveyed the news to Honolulu.

Optical “telegraphs” or signaling devices have been traced back to ancient times (initially using torches) and were the fastest systems to convey messages over long distances; these “telegraphs” eventually moved toward semaphore towers.

If Internet and its communications channels are at the forefront of the signaling opportunities of the 21st century, the semaphore was the signals intelligence breakthrough at the time of Napoleon (and Washington and Kamehameha.)

Semaphore towers used arms and blades/paddles to convey messages; messages were conveyed/decoded based on the fixed positions of these arms.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the French revolutionized land-based communications with the construction of semaphore towers bearing rotating arms to fashion coded signals. The British quickly followed suit in that new era of signals intelligence.

The semaphore tower/semaphore line design was first thought up by Robert Hooke in 1684 and submitted to the Royal Society. The system was not implemented, though, due to military concerns.

However, this did lead to Claude Chappe developing the first visual telegraph in 1792 – eventually covering much of France via 556 stations. In France, this was the primary source of communication for military and national applications, until it became more widely used in the 1850s.

In Hawaiʻi, Kaimukī Hill had been used as a semaphore signal station ever since Fair Haven (Honolulu Harbor) became prominent in Hawaiian commerce. This semaphore station reported all incoming ships from Koko Head to Barber’s Point.

“Before the telephone was invented, and long before the system was in use in Honolulu, we had the lookout station on Telegraph Hill, which by means of a semaphore arrangement communicated with a station on the building (downtown.) Every merchant was supplied with the code, and whenever a schooner, a steamer, a mail packet, or a man of war, was sighted, the heart of the town knew it immediately.” (Hawaiian Star, February 10, 1899)

“From Telegraph Hill and the slopes toward Waiʻalae may be seen Koko Head, the beautiful expanse of ocean and on clear days the distant islands of Molokai, Lanai, and Maui. On the town side, the residents look over the town, across the cane fields to the Waianae range.” (Evening Bulletin, September 26, 1898)

“Mauka of Diamond Head, for a distance of three or four miles is a high ridge that vernacular geologists call a “hog back.” At the most elevated point on this ridge is the debris of Telegraph Hill (Kaimuki). In the olden days vessels coming from the north were signalled to the city from Kaimuki by a semaphore system, clear and effective. The town end of the line was a building on Kaahumanu street, then occupied as a sail loft.” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 13, 1899)

Reportedly, in 1857, a semaphore mechanism on Puʻu O Kaimukī, with large moveable arms, was attached to the top of a sixty-foot pole and used to signal to Honolulu.

The official receiving station from Kaimukī was on Merchant Street, but some have suggested other receiving stations at Kaʻahumanu Street and the foot of Nuʻuanu.

Upon receiving the message, a signal was broadcast to the town noting the names and ports of origin of each ship coming into view. This information was announced in Honolulu by loud proclamation and bell ringing, and preparation made to tow the vessel in by hand or bullock power.

In 1866, the roof of Honolulu Hale on Merchant Street was fitted with a new marine lookout with a taller semaphore, making its signals accessible to a larger segment of the population.

This optical telegraph system was an important tool for residents of Honolulu. The signals were unique and people became familiar with them, so most could decode the signal and know which ships were coming.

Likewise, besides alerting the postmaster to the imminent arrival of the mail, it was helpful to merchants expecting new goods and people awaiting friends and relatives.

Semaphore was then called “marine telegraph”, and it seems logical that the early map-makers of Hawaiʻi would name the hill “Telegraph Hill.”

“When the telephone system got into working order the lookout station was moved to a position on Diamond Head which gave a view further along the channel, because it was no longer necessary for the station to be in full view of the city.” (Hawaiian Star, February 10, 1899)

Puʻu O Kaimukī had several colloquial names; one was Christmas Tree Park. There’s a bare metal Christmas-Tree-looking pole. It’s not a remnant of the prior semaphore communications, it’s just a Christmas tree, built by the City and County soon after the park’s christening in 1991. Every year since then the big metal tree gets hung with Christmas lights.

It’s also referred to as Reservoir Park, a reminder of the days in the early 1900s when the top of the hill housed a water storage tank for the Honolulu Water Works. Another name is Bunker Hill, from the World War II era when the spot became a handy surveillance bunker for the military.

It’s known today as Puʻu o Kaimukī Park and is just behind (makai) the Kaimukī Fire Station.

On November 13, 1900, the first Marconi wireless telegraph system was set up and messages were sent and received between Oʻahu and Molokaʻi across a twenty-eight mile channel. Military semaphore flag signals are still used, today

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South_Shore-Barbers_Pt-Diamond_Head-Hawaii_Kai-Kailua-Heeia-Reg1834 (1892)-(portion_noting_Puu_O_Kaimuki)

Honolulu_USGS_Quadrangle-Honolulu-1927-(portion_noting_Puu_O_Kaimuki)

Kaimuki Hill once housed the University of Hawaii 's Observatory. It was the idea place to watch Haley's Comet in 1910.

Puu O Kaimuki Park behind Kaimuki Fire Station-Koko Head Avenue

Near (R) Snow Bldg-2-story bldg is PCA-Honolulu Hale and Kamehameha V Post Office-PP-38-4-013-1870s

September 20, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Odd Fellows

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a fraternity of citizens who had its origin in the 18th century. The first Odd Fellow groups were formed in England and thought to have grown out of guilds, forerunner of today’s unions.

It is believed that the first Odd Fellows were motivated by a concern for the members of their own groups, notably those in trouble and families who needed assistance, and the widow and the orphan.

It is believed that because these workers were helping other workers, rather than depending on patriarchal royal protection, and they were organized to do this charitable work, they were looked on as “Odd Fellows” and the name has remained with the Order.

Symbolically, the order uses three links of interlocking chain to represent a worldwide chain that binds men and women together in fraternal devotion to God and fellow men and women.

Each link has a letter, F, L & T, respectively, representing Friendship, Love and Truth, the corner stone upon which all Odd Fellows of the world built the Order – seek to improve and elevate the character of man.

Another IOOF symbol is the “Encampment” that symbolizes the virtues of extending aid and friendship to traveling strangers in need.

The first lodge in North America was the institution of Washington Lodge No. 1 of Baltimore, Maryland on April 26, 1819.

Odd Fellows began in the Hawaiian Islands on December 10, 1846.

Dr. Gilbert Watson, a physician, Past Grand of Massachusetts, in planning a trip to Oregon, learned there were five Odd Fellows in good standing in his party. He petitioned for a charter to be located in Oregon City.

On board the ship “Henry”, leaving Newburyport, Massachusetts for the Columbia River and Oregon City, were other Odd Fellows, Captain Kilburn and the second officer.

The “Henry” never reached Oregon. The ship drifted about, buffeted by head winds and delayed by storms and high rough seas on the Atlantic Coast, around the tempestuous Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean, all of which consumed months of time.

Then, the Henry drifted westward rather than northward, and in October 1846, the Henry arrived in Honolulu. They elected to remain in the Hawaiian Islands.

Shortly after his arrival, Watson found some more Odd Fellows that had made Honolulu their home – Watson called a meeting of Odd Fellows in Hawaiʻi on December 8, 1846.

Two days later, Excelsior Lodge Number 1, IOOF was instituted – King Kamehameha IV signed a charter in April 1859 making Excelsior Lodge No. 1 a fraternal corporation in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

The first Lodge Hall was in an adobe building with a grass roof in a yard on Hotel Street. During the lodge sessions, the Outside Guardian was required to keep walking around the building to prevent people from peeping into the lodge hall.

On January 16, 2001, Excelsior Lodge, for the first time in its history, three women were initiated into the lodge (in its long history, women were denied membership in an Odd Fellow Lodge until the laws on membership in the Code of General Laws were amended in 2000.)

After several subsequent Lodge Halls, the Hawaiʻi Trustees decided to purchase the VFW Building on 1135 Kapahulu Avenue; on May 24, 2001, Excelsior Lodge moved to its new home and the first meeting there was held on June 5, 2001.

The Hawaiʻi lodge has continued to meet on Tuesday nights since the first meeting. It is still going strong today; Excelsior Lodge #1, IOOF meetings are held the first and third Tuesdays of every month at the Lodge Hall. (The seal designed in 1846 is the same seal being used today by Excelsior Lodge.)

Among other activities, the IOOF supports and participates in activities benefitting the Hawaiʻi Food Bank, Hawaiʻi Public Radio, Bus Stop Painting, Adopt A Highway, Special Olympics, Make a Wish Foundation and the Arthritis Foundation.

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Odd Fellows-corner of Alapai and Lunalilo Streets circa 1924

_Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows-Hawaii

Excelsior_Lodge_No_1_Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows-Hawaii-Plaque_at_National_Memorial_Cemetery_of_the_Pacific-08-06-05

Independent_Order_of_Odd_Fellows_Encampment_Symbol

September 19, 2019 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Lua Na Moku ʻIliahi

Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism. Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.

Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick of the Lady Washington, when he instructed sailors to collect cargo of sandalwood. From that point on, it became a source of wealth in the islands, until its supply was ultimately exhausted.

Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item. As the value of sandalwood increased, the Hawaiian Islands emerged as a major source of heartwood sandalwood. Hawai‘i soon became known as “Tahn Heung Sahn” (the sandalwood mountains.)

Sandalwood trade was a turning point in Hawai‘i, especially related to its economic structure. It moved Hawai‘i from a self-sufficient economy to a commercial economy. This started a series of other economic and export activities across the islands.

In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits. As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition.

Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood. Kamehameha I rigidly maintained control of the trade until his death in 1819, at which time his son, Liholiho, took over control.

In order to measure how much sandalwood to harvest and move down the mountain, they dug “Lua Na Moku ‘Iliahi” (sandalwood measuring pits) in the forest.

The pits were used to measure an amount of sandalwood that would fit in a ship’s hold. The wood was cut and placed in the pit. When the pit was filled, the logs were carried down the mountain to a waiting ship.

Because of the lack of roads and vehicles the wood was carried down in the form of logs, 3 to 6 feet long, and from 2 to 18 inches in diameter, after the bark and sapwood had been chipped off with adzes.

Large numbers of people were involved in the harvesting and handling of the sandalwood. As noted by Eillis in 1823, “Before daylight on the 22d we were roused by vast multitudes of people passing through the district from Waimea with sandal wood …”

“… which had been cut in the adjacent mountains for Karaimoku (Kalanimoku,) by the people of Waimea, and which the people of Kohala, as far as the north point, had been ordered to bring down to his storehouse on the beach, for the purpose of its being shipped to Oahu.”

“There were between two and three thousand men, carrying each from one to six pieces of sandal wood, according to their size and weight. It was generally tied on their backs by bands made of ti leaves, passed over the shoulders and under the arms, and fastened across their breast. When they had deposited the wood at the storehouse, they departed to their respective homes.” (William Ellis 1823)

The standard unit of measure was a picul, approximately 133 pounds (a shoulder-load,) the maximum weight a man could easily carry on his back. The price fluctuated from $3.00 to $18.00 a picul.

While, reportedly, Lua Na Moku ʻIliahi were dug in forests throughout the islands, only a couple are reported to remain.

One such site was dug in the early 1800s and is located at Kamiloloa, adjacent to the Maunahui Forest Reserve on Moloka‘i, Hawai‘i. The Maunahui Road (Molokaʻi Forest Reserve Road) leads into and through the Molokaʻi Forest Reserve.

Reportedly, another is at about the 800-foot elevation on the Kapālama-Nu‘uanu ridge near the Kapālama campus of Kamehameha Schools on Oʻahu.

During Kamehameha I’s reign, all lands, and with this all ʻiliahi, in Hawaiʻi were under his control. This meant he held a monopoly, or complete control, on the ‘iliahi supply. He placed a kapu on the trees and forbid the cutting of young trees. This assured a steady supply of ‘iliahi for years to come.

Between 1810 and 1820, sandalwood sold for about $125/ton, generating more than $3 million. By 1821, sandalwood exports totaled about 1,400 tons annually. The peak years of the sandalwood trade were from 1810 to 1840, a time that also saw a steadily increasing desire for Western goods in the Islands.

The death of Kamehameha I, in May 1819, ended the peace, prosperity and monopoly of the sandalwood trade … and the kapu. Under Liholiho, the controls on harvesting were ended. In their rush to collect wood, the chiefs ordered even young trees to be cut down.

To obtain sandalwood for the China trade, American merchants were willing to extend enormous amounts of credit to Liholiho and the chiefs.

While King Kamehameha I had always paid cash for purchases, the succeeding chiefs and Ali‘i purchased western goods on credit payable in sandalwood, a resource that was dwindling while the national debt was escalating. In 1821, JC Jones, the American Trade Consul, reported that the native debt had risen to $300,000.

Soon there was little ‘iliahi worth gathering in Hawaii. As the supply dwindled the trading of ‘iliahi came to an end.

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lua-na-moku-‘iliahi

lua na moku ‘iliahi

lua-na-moku-‘iliahi

hauling sandalwood-KamehamehaSchoolsPress

Sandalwood_export_(representation_this_is_not_in_Hawaii)

September 18, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lēʻahi Hospital

In the early-1900s, tuberculosis was called “consumption” or “black lung disease;” at that time, a tuberculosis outbreak hit Honolulu.

The “destitute and incurables” were transported to Kakaʻako for a while until a new place could be found. A temporary hospital, Victoria Hospital (also known as “home for incurables” and the “old kerosene warehouse,”) was set up on Queen and South streets.

Victoria Hospital (named in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897) had the responsibility to receive as in-patients “persons suffering from consumption or other so-called incurable diseases excepting leprosy.”

Shortly thereafter, Victoria Hospital was renamed the ‘Honolulu Home for Incurables’ (with the establishment of the Territorial Government and new burst of Americanism, there was criticism over the “British-sounding” name of the hospital.)

However, a better and bigger hospital was needed to take care of the overflowing masses of people coming in, and people wanted it in a dry location.

Subscribers were solicited for a new hospital; Kaimuki was selected. At about that time, Kaimuki was destined for growing development.

Gear, Lansing & Co. was proposing a 400-acre development with the intention “to divide the property into over 1,000 building lots, reserving suitable lands for parks, beer-gardens, hotels, churches, school-houses and saloons. The suburb will at some future day become an important ward in Honolulu.” (“A New Suburb,” an article from The Independent (Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii) July 18, 1898))

Originally charted in 1901 as the Honolulu Home for Incurables, its name was changed to the “Lēʻahi Home” in 1906. In 1942 the word “Hospital” was substituted for the word “Home.”

From 1900 to 1909 Dr. Archibald Neil Sinclair was city physician of Honolulu and from 1900 to 1919 was also associated with the United States Public Health Service as acting assistant surgeon.

Sinclair was made a director of Lēʻahi Home in 1900, and from 1911 to 1916 was physician in charge of the tuberculosis bureau and bacteriological department of the Territorial Board of Health.

By September 1902, the buildings that became Lēʻahi Hospital contained an administration building and four wards on a six acre site.

In the 1940s, Lēʻahi Hospital grew from a four ward building into a modern hospital. It served as the safeguard of the tuberculosis control in the Territory of Hawai‘i.

It initially took patients with all types of chronic and incurable diseases, then in the early 1950s began accepting only diagnosed and suspected cases of tuberculosis.

The hospital has been expanded and modernized over the years with skilled nursing, rehabilitative services and outpatient services, including an adult day health program, geriatric clinic and elder-law counseling for elderly residents in the community.

Lēʻahi Hospital transitioned to providing nursing home and adult day health services, in addition to continuing the provision of institutional tuberculosis care.

The facility is located on Kilauea Avenue, across from the Kapiʻolani Community College.

Lēʻahi is one of 12 public health facilities managed by the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, a semi-autonomous state agency that administers twelve State hospitals.

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Leahi Nurses Quarters and Staff Dining Building-under construction in 1950

Nursing and Clinical building for Leahi Hospital-PP-40-8-037