General | Page 153 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 14, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Out Of This World

Man landed on the Moon, remote rovers traversed portions of the Martian surface and now some folks are dreaming of, preparing for and testing opportunities of having humans landing on Mars.

Of course, the best way to study the Martian surface and its climate is to go there, and as a part of a necessary activity before humans travel to Mars, planetary scientists study places on the Earth that are like the Martian surface.

Before getting there, scientists need to test and experiment with terrestrial soils to best prepare for human occupation on Mars.

Soils are used in testing rover vehicles, food production and equipment maintenance.

Since voyagers will not be able to transport sufficient amounts of food on their flight, they will need to grow their own food – kind of like ET Agriculture (the ultimate in subsistence, self-sufficient farming.)

Based on soil evaluation and testing, scientists believe it is possible to grow plants on Mars in technologically advanced, controlled environments that could keep the plants warm and give the plants enough atmosphere, light and water to live.

It turns out Mauna Kea Volcano is one of the few places on the Earth that is similar to what scientists currently know about the surface and soil make-up of Mars.

Scientists have made extensive worldwide searches for naturally-occurring equivalents for Martian surface materials and have concluded that weathered volcanic ash from the Island of Hawai‘i are uniquely suitable for Martian simulants.

Mauna Kea has color (a reddish-brown,) mineralogy, chemical composition, particle size, density and magnetic properties similar to the oxidized soil of Mars.

Samples of volcanic ash from Iceland, Alaska, Antarctica, Mexico, New Mexico and Hawai‘i were collected and investigated by NASA since the 1970s.

While Mauna Kea summit has the best examples of volcanic ash similar to the Martian soils, due to sensitivity of extracting from the summit, a cinder cone (Pu‘u Nene) adjacent to the old section of Saddle Road was selected (now bypassed, due to the recent realignment between Mauna Kea Access Road and Mauna Kea State Park.)

It was found that material from Pu‘u Nene on the lower part of Mauka Kea matched Martian characteristics better than any other site tested. The material found on Pu‘u Nene has a particular composition of “palagonite” and may be unique in the world.

The ash is used by various agencies, including NASA, and also schools and private firms conducting experiments (primarily for rover studies and to determine if the palagonite ash could support plant growth) or teaching about Mars.

While I was at DLNR, after a Contested Case Hearing on the matter, we issued a Conservation Use Permit to hand quarry (using shovels) volcanic ash from Pu‘u Nene cinder cone for these scientific studies.

The Property is located in the Resource subzone of the Conservation District. Mining is an expressly identified use in the Resource subzone of the Conservation District.

Pu‘u Nene has been extensively quarried for cinders that were used, among other things, to pave Saddle Road in the 1940s; it is dominated by alien vegetation, has no archaeological or cultural sites, and there is very little native vegetation at the site.
Although the Humu‘ula saddle area itself has a storied past, there is no known Hawaiian name for Pu‘u Nene. It was, therefore, concluded that it was a modern term, perhaps given by L. “Bill” Bryan who served as manager of the Civilian Conservation Corps and as Territorial Forester on the Island of Hawai‘i between the 1930s to the 1960s.

Native Hawaiian testimonies, survey records and cartographic resources reveal that this general area of pu‘u, or cinder cone hills, are known as ‘Oma‘okoili (literally, “resting in the saddle.”)

In the hand quarrying operation, rather than extract directly from the surface, researchers extract the ash about 2-3 feet below the soil layer.

After it is quarried, it is processed by passing it through a series of stainless steel sieves to separate it by granule size into fine-grade and medium-grade ash. It is then distributed to research and educational projects and facilities.

This isn’t the first time NASA looked to Hawai‘i, and Mauna Kea in particular, for extra-terrestrial travel preparations.

During the Apollo lunar landing series, astronauts were trained on Mauna Kea and regarded the area as the most lunarlike that they had observed. (Apollo 11 was the spaceflight in which American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first to land on the Moon, on July 20, 1969.)

NASA teams have operated tools, instruments and systems on Mauna Kea; each one aimed to better understand potential space resources, limit the amount of resources humans would have to carry with them beyond low Earth orbit and also protect hardware once is gets there.

Different rovers were tested on Mauna Kea. In 2011, ‘Curiosity’ was launched and eventually landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, carrying laboratory instruments to analyze samples of rocks, soil and atmosphere, and investigate whether Mars has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

“When NASA’s Curiosity rover began using its on-board instrument to analyze the chemical composition of the rocks and soil on Mars, the results bore a striking resemblance to those obtained during previous tests of the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano.” (SpaceNews)

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NASA and its international partners are using Mauna Kea for equipment testing to advance future space exploration (NASA-Amber Philman)

Testing of equipment on Mauna Kea, a remote and cold dormant volcano on Hawaii-(NASA-Amber Philman)

Astronauts-James-A.-Lovell-Jr.-left-commander-and-Fred-W.-Haise-Jr.-lunar-module-pilot-carry-out-a-simulation-of-a-lunar-traverse-WC

Astrogeologist Dr. Jim Rice studying Mars-like features on Earth-(Courtesy NASA-JPL-Caltech)

Apollo_Astronaut_Alan_Shepard-Training_on_the_Big_Island-(pisces-hilo-hawaii-edu)

Apollo 13 Astronauts Fred Haise and Jim Lovell observe features of a lava flow during a geology field training trip-(NASA)

Curiosity – The Next Mars Rover-(Courtesy NASA-JPL-Caltech)

Self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018)

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May 9, 2019 by Peter T Young 4 Comments

“Russian Fort”

It’s time to set the record straight. I join the long list of folks who have misunderstood and unknowingly have repeated the wrong information about a fort at Waimea, Kauai.

When I was DLNR Chair, and to today, the State Park is called “Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park”. The State has it wrong.

The National Park Service notes, “Russian Fort, located in Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park, in Waimea on the Island of Kauai, was built by the Russian American Company (RAC) in 1817.”

“The purpose of the fort was to establish a foothold for Russia in Hawaii by creating a fueling station in the Pacific Ocean and establishing a stable trading location for the shipping company.”

“The fort is a reminder of the short Russian venture into Hawaii between 1815 and 1817.” The feds have it wrong.

Yes, there was a Russian Fort on Kauai, but it was Fort Alexander at what is now known as Princeville on Kauai’s north shore.

Thanks to Peter Mills (Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo who has studied the fort extensively) we learn the true story of the “Russian Fort”.

Mills notes that what we call “Russian Fort” was actually built by Hawaiians for Hawaiians … not the Russians; “it was just a part of Kaumualiʻi’s own residential compound.”

“The construction was largely under Kaumualiʻi’s direction, and the labor force involved in constructing it was overwhelmingly Native Hawaiian (there is no record that Russians lifted a single stone to build it), with some designs supplied by Schaffer.”

“The Hawaiian name for the fort (pāpū) was Pāʻulaʻula and can be seen in Native Testimony provided by one of the Hawaiian commandants who was stationed there (Paele 6589 NT).”

“It was not completed while the Russians were there, and there is no evidence that Russians ever garrisoned it, while Hawaiians kept a garrison there for over 40 years.”

“If Hawaiians built it, and Hawaiians garrisoned it, then why on earth do people continue to say it is a ‘Russian Fort’ built by Russians? It was a Hawaiian Fort.” (Peter Mills)

The fort, originally with walls 20 feet high and built in an irregular octagon shape (in the shape of a star,) was fortified with several cannons.

“When Russian Fort Elisabeth became a state park in 1970, it was in a state of disrepair. The state outfit the site with some minimal signage, but the historical interpretation reflected on those signs was based on false history perpetuated by a troublesome 1885 map.” (Brittany Lyte)

“Drawn up by a Hawaiian government surveyor, the fort on the map includes dubious features, such as redwood buildings, glass-paned windows and a trading house. These labels amount to little more than fanciful guesswork, according to Mills.” (Brittany Lyte)

“The surveyor drew the fort as he imagined it looked at the time the Russians were there, which, of course, is an event that never happened,” said Mills, whose book “Hawaii’s Russian Adventure: A New Look at Old History” is an editor’s note to history misinterpreted. (Lyte)

The story about Russians on Kauai begins when the Russian ship ‘Bering’ became stranded on the shores of Kauai’s Waimea Bay on January 31, 1815. The ship’s cargo and the sailors’ possessions were confiscated by Kauai’s ruler, Kaumuali‘i.

The Russian-American Company (the owner of the ship and its cargo) sent Bavarian Georg Anton Schäffer to the Hawaiian Islands to retrieve the cargo or seek appropriate payment.

Later that year, Schäffer arrived in Honolulu. There, Kamehameha granted him permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor.

But, instead, Schäffer began building a fort and raised the Russian flag – that was in Honolulu. When Kamehameha discovered this, he sent several of his men to remove the Russians from O‘ahu, by force, if necessary. The Russians judiciously chose to sail for Kauai, instead of risking bloodshed.

Once on Kauai, Schäffer gained the confidence of King Kaumuali‘i, when he promised the king that the Russian Tsar would help him to break free of Kamehameha’s rule.

Although Kaumuali‘i had ceded Kauai to Kamehameha in 1810, he generally maintained de facto independence and control of the island, following his agreement with Kamehameha.

It is believed that Kaumuali‘i considered it possible for him to claim rule over Kauai, Ni‘ihau, O`ahu, Maui, Molokai and Lāna‘i, if he had Russian support. The Russians meanwhile were searching compensation for lost trade goods, as well as expanded trading opportunities.

Kaumuali‘i and Schäffer had several agreements to bring Kauai under the protection of Russia, as well as weapons and ammunition from Schäffer, in exchange for trade in sandalwood.

On May 21, 1816, and without the knowledge or approval of Czar Alexander Pavlovich, Kaumuali‘i signed a document that put Kauai under the protection of the Russian Empire.

In return, Schäffer promised Kaumuali‘i protection and an armed Russian warship to lead an attack on Kamehameha’s forces. (Baranoff later informed Schäffer that he was not authorized to make such agreements.)

On July 1, 1816, Schäffer and Kaumuali‘i entered into a secret agreement to use Schäffer’s purported Russian authority to reclaim Kauai from King Kamehameha I, and also to launch expeditions against other islands that Kaumuali‘i felt he had a hereditary right to rule.

Kaumuali‘i had thoughts of conquering Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokai and O‘ahu, which he felt to be his right based on lineage.

Subsequently, Kaumuali‘i gave Schäffer Hanalei valley and two or three other valuable pieces of land. Schaffer went to Hanalei on September 30 and renamed the valley Schäffertal (Schäffer’s Valley.)

In 1817, however, it was discovered that Schäffer did not have the support of the Russian Tsar. He was forced to leave Hawaii, and Captain Alexander Adams, a Scotsman who served in the navy of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, raised the Kingdom of Hawai‘i flag over the fort in October 1817.

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May 5, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Million Pounds Of Sandalwood

The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,
Burn’d on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes.
(Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, Scene II, William Shakespeare)

Built at Salem, Massachusetts in 1816 for George Crowninshield Jr., the brig ‘Cleopatra’s Barge’ was America’s ﬁrst oceangoing private yacht.

At the time, the concept of a ship built for pleasure was unknown on the western side of the Atlantic, where ships were built only for trade or war.

“Without any other model than his own mind supplied, he produced the celebrated ‘Cleopatra’s Barge,’ which has been admired in both hemispheres, and accomplished in her all he wished”. (Salem Gazette)

The yacht was built of solid oak as a schooner and had all the qualities of a good sea-going vessel. She was armed simply and well, and beautifully ﬁtted out on the exterior, with ﬁne carving on bow and stern. She had fourteen gun ports.

Her lavish furnishings included custom silver, glass and china services, and her interior decor rivaled that of the wealthiest homes.

Her exterior was distinguished by a herringbone paint scheme on the port side and multicolored horizontal stripes to starboard, a life-sized painted wooden Indian on deck, velvet-served quarter-deck lines, considerable gilding, and the latest patent windlass, pump and rudder technology.

At her stern were a salon ﬁnished with pink and deep blue mountings and gilt, a bedroom, a buﬀet, and a stairway leading up to her deck.

Mid-ship was a captain’s cabin and, forward, quarters for a crew, a storage area for tackle and so forth, a galley above and, ﬁnally, a spacious lounge containing tables of the ﬁnest workmanship, inlaid with palm and lacquered redwood.

She had five staterooms off the cabin, while the forecastle had accommodations for ten men and three boys.

Her registered tonnage was 191½-tons; she was 83-feet long on the water line, 23-feet beam and 11½- feet deep.

The owner, Captain George Crowninshield died suddenly on November 26, 1817. In settling the estate, the yacht was sold at auction.

She made one voyage to Rio Janeiro, after which she was sold again, and run as a packet between Boston and Charleston, SC.
In 1820, in fulfillment of a previous agreement with Kamehameha, she sailed from Salem or Boston on June 18, 1820.

“Although she bore a general cargo of “Axes, Brandy, Cottons, Gin, Hats, Hard Ware, Lead, Looking Glasses, Molasses, Muskets, Swords, Rum, Dry Goods, Sugar, Tea, Wine, Boots,” copper, umbrellas and a wagon, she left New England with a far different purpose in mind than general trade.”

“In their letter of instruction to their partner Captain Suter dated two days before he departed, Bryant & Sturgis wrote: ‘The Cleopatra’s Barge of which you have the immediate command is intended to be Sold Vessel & Cargo at the Sandwich Islands …’”

“‘… in this case you must endeavor to make your agreement with the King in the clearest manner — Stating how many Pikels of wood you are to Receive what the quality is to be & when it is to be delivered to your agent.’”

“The partners intended from the outset to sell the famous yacht to Hawaiian King Kamehameha II, son of Kamehameha the Great, who had united the Sandwich Islands and only recently died, leaving his son in power.” (Johnson)

The Logbook for the Barge’s outbound voyage from Boston to the Sandwich Islands tell the tale of an uneventful voyage whose monotony was broken only by frequent sail changes and an occasional squall.

After 138-days at sea, Cleopatra’s Barge arrived at Lāhainā, Maui, on November 6, 1820; the very next day Liholiho (Kamehameha II) was welcomed aboard along with some family members and attendants.

Liholiho’s father Kamehameha had loved foreign ships; over time he had collected a sizable ﬂeet of Western vessels, which, with guns and training by the foreigners, were a major asset in unifying and maintaining his kingdom across the islands.

Liholiho inherited his father’s love of ships; one of his childhood companions remembered seeing Liholiho frequently sailing a boat model “like a real man-of-war” on a pond and also recalled that their favorite boyhood pastime was drawing ships in the sand at the beach.

Just ten days after his ﬁrst visit to the ship, Liholiho purchased Cleopatra’s Barge and her cargo for 1.07-million pounds of sandalwood, worth $80,000 at the time.

On January 4, 1821, King Liholiho took formal possession of Cleopatra’s Barge, appointing his personal secretary, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Rives, as temporary captain.

Liholiho then renamed the yacht ‘Ha‘aheo O Hawai‘i’ (Pride of Hawaiʻi.)

Kamehameha II was quite proud of his ship; in the words of Charles Bullard, the agent for the ship-owner: “If you want to know how Religion stands at the Islands I can tell you; all sects are tolerated but the King worships the Barge.”

During the next three years she made frequent voyages between the islands.

On one of those trips in July 1821, Liholiho sailed to Kaua‘i, intent on confirming allegiance from Kaumuali‘i (whom his father had negotiated peace and, ultimately, united the islands under Kamehameha’s rule.)

When Kaumuali‘i unwittingly boarded and was seated in the cabin, orders were secretly given to make sail for Honolulu – Kaumuali‘i was taken prisoner.

In November 1823, Liholiho traveled to England, he died of measles in London on July 14, 1824.

According to a passage from Hiram Bingham, in April 1824, “Cleopatra’s Barge was wrecked in the bay of Hanalei, Kaua‘i, and lay not far from the beach dismantled and ruined … and was given up as unrecoverable.”

“(S)he ended her career as she had commenced it – a yacht.” (Salem Gazette; Crowninshield))

Whaling soon replaced the sandalwood trade of ʻiliahi wood in economic importance. It lasted about fifty years, from 1820 to 1870. During this time Hawaiʻi provided support services to the whaling ships; people grew crops and sold fresh fruits, vegetables and salted-meat to the ships. (Lots here from Johnson and Alexander.)

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The only image of Cleopatra’s Barge in Hawaii – here at Lahaina, Maui

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Cleopatra’s Barge-Hanalei-MSN

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May 4, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Birth-Beach of the Boogie Board

Many may not realize that today’s Boogie Board was created in Kailua-Kona, at Wai‘aha, a place commonly referred to as “Honl’s” (after the name of the family that used to live there.)

Wai‘aha (“Gathering Water,”) a little strip of white sand beach, just on the outskirts of Kailua Village, is now a County Beach Park. It is a popular surf spot, especially with bodyboarders.

Tom Morey was staying in the house that once stood on the beach at Wai‘aha in July 1971 when he made the first “boogie board” prototype.

He first called the board “S.N.A.K.E.” (Side, Navel, Arm, Knee, Elbow – because all the body parts were involved in its use) – he trademarked the name Morey Boogie in 1973 and founded Morey Boogie in 1974. (He later called it a Boogie Board after his love of music.)

According to Tom Morey’s son, Sol Morey, “the first boogie board was created in 1971 in order to surf shallower breaks that couldn’t otherwise be enjoyed.”

“The surf at our Hawaii rental on the Kailua coast was where it began with the shaping and sealing of the foam to form the first boogie.”

Tom Morey was a traditional surfboard builder/shaper, but looked for inventions and innovation. In 1964, he created the first TRAF polypropylene fin (his term TRAF being FART spelled backward), innovating the first commercial interchangeable fin system. In 1965, the Skeg Works became Morey Surfboards.

In 1965, Karl Pope became his business partner and the name changed again — Morey-Pope Surfboards. They built, tested and marketed Pope’s Trisect, a three-piece surfboard that folded into a suitcase.

But he had different ideas in Kona; he used an electric carving knife and a household iron, whittled some scrap polyethylene foam into a small rectangular mat and covered it with newspaper and hit the swells in front of his home on the Big Island of Hawaii.

With it, the sport of bodyboarding started in 1971 in Hawaii. (Prior to 1971, bodyboards were made from wood or fiberglass and called paipo boards.)

According to Tom Morey, he took his last nine-foot piece of polyethylene foam (that he had planned for a conventional board) and “grabbed a knife and cut it in half.”

“There was no turning back at that point. I looked at the foam and then at the surf and began fooling around with a hot iron and an electric knife.”

“I found that I could shape the foam using the iron if I put a sheet of newspaper down on the foam first. Later that night, I drew a few curves on the foam with a red marking pen and went to bed.”

Morey rose early on July 9, 1971, and cut and ironed out his planned shape. He left his board as wide as possible and left the nose square so that it would have more structural strength and so he could hold on to it.

“I decided I’d shape the rails like those on a Hot Curl surfboard,” says Morey. “Those were the boards from the 20s and 30s; built before boards had skegs. I cut 45-degree Hot Curl rails into my board.”

“They looked great, but I still wasn’t sure how it would ride.” Morey grabbed his board, ran down to Honl’s and the sport of bodyboarding was born.

Wai‘aha is home to the annual Malama Wai‘aha (Honl’s) Roots Bodyboard contest. The contest (started in 2002) was formed to honor the birth-beach and the birthplace of modern bodyboarding (they held their 10th anniversary event on June 30.)

In 2006, the Hawai‘i County acquired the property fronting the beach and it is now part of the County beach park system. Parking for users is also mauka of Ali‘i Drive and was provided by a developer as a condition of a rezoning.

Morey Bodyboards became a division of Mattel Toys and then Wham-O. In 2005, Tom Morey earned a star on the Huntington Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame.

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May 3, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Royal Centers

Generally thought to have originated from the Marquesas Islands, evidence of early existence in the Hawaiian Islands indicates initial contact and settlement in about 1000 AD.

Early on, with the family unit being the socio-political structure, there was no need for a hierarchical or complex society. However, as the population increased and wants and needs increased in variety and complexity, the need for chiefly rule became apparent.

Eventually, a highly stratified society evolved consisting of the ali‘i (ruling class,) Kahuna (priestly and expert class of craftsmen, fishers and professionals) and Makaʻāinana (commoner class.)

At the time of European contact in 1778, Hawaiian society comprised four levels. People were born into specific social classes; social mobility was not unknown, but it was extremely rare. The Kapu System separated Hawaiian society into four groups of people:

Aliʻi, the ruling class of chiefs and nobles considered to be of divine origin who ruled specific territories and who held their positions on the basis of family ties and leadership abilities;
Kahuna, the priests (who conducted religious ceremonies at the heiau and elsewhere) and master craftsmen (experts in medicine, religion, technology, natural resource management and similar areas) who ranked near the top of the social scale
Makaʻāinana, Commoners (by far, the largest group) those who lived on the land – primarily laborers, farmers, fishermen, and the like; they labored not only for themselves and their families, but to support the chiefs; and
Kauwa (or Kauā), outcasts forced to lead lives generally segregated from the rest of Hawaiian society

The aliʻi attained high social rank in several ways: by heredity, by appointment to political office, by marriage or by right of conquest. The first was determined at birth, the others by the outcomes of war and political process.

Power and prestige, and thus class divisions, were defined in terms of mana. Although the gods were the full embodiment of this sacredness, the royalty possessed it to a high degree because of their close genealogical ties to those deities.

The kahuna ratified this relationship by conducting ceremonies of appeasement and dedication on behalf of the chiefs, which also provided ideological security for the commoners who believed the gods were the power behind natural forces.

Commoners possessed little mana and were therefore prohibited from entering any of the sacred places where nobles and gods communicated, such as the heiau in which the aristocrats honored their gods. Outcasts, with no mana, could interact with commoners but not approach the upper class.

With the stratified social system, it was important to retain the division between aliʻi and makaʻāinana. This was done through a physical separation, such as the Royal Centers that were restricted to only the aliʻi and kahuna.

Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The Hawaiian court was mobile within the districts or kingdom the aliʻi controlled. A paramount’s attendants might consist of as many as 700 to 1000-followers made of kahuna and political advisors (including geologists, architects, seers, messengers, executioner, etc.); servants which included craftsmen, guards, stewards; relatives and numerous hangers-on (friends, lovers, etc.).

There was no regular schedule for movement between Royal Centers. In part, periodic moves served to ensure that district chiefs did not remain isolated, or unsupervised long enough to gather support for a revolt.

In addition to personal economic support, the king also required tribute and taxes by which to maintain and display his political power.

Structures associated with the Royal Centers include heiau (religious structures) and sacred areas, house sites for the aliʻi and the entourage of family and kahuna (priests), and activity areas for burial, bathing, games, recreation, and crafts.

Religion and politics were closely interwoven in Hawaiian culture. The Royal Centers reflect this interrelationship with residential sites, heiau and sacred sites present within a defined royal compound.

Puʻuhonua (places of refuge) were often associated with these Royal Centers, reflecting the strong association between puʻuhonua and sites occupied by the high-ranking aliʻi.

A ruling chief moved his court as desired, travelling along the coasts by canoe with his attendants and setting up temporary establishments at certain sites for purposes of business or pleasure.

On a voyage the aliʻi rode in the raised and sheltered platform in the middle of the canoe which was called the pola, while the paddle-men sat in the spaces fore and aft, their number showing the strength of the king’s following. (Lots of information here from several NPS documents.)

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