Palmyra
“(T)ake possession in our name of Palmyra Island, the said Island being situated in longtitude 161° 53′ west and in latitude 6° 4′ north not having been taken possession of by any other government or any other people …”
“… by erecting thereon a short pole with the Hawaiian flag wrapped round it and interring at the foot thereof a bottle well corked containing a paper signed by (Zenas Bent) in the following form viz: …”
“… Visited and taken possession of by order of His Majesty King Kamehameha IV, for him and his successors on the Hawaiian throne by the undersigned in the Schooner Louisa this day of . . . . . . . . . . . . 186. . . . . . .” (Kamehameha IV and Kuhina Nui, March 1, 1862) (Bent did so on April 15, 1862.)
Lot Kamehameha, the Minister of the Interior, duly issued a proclamation on June 18, 1862 as follows: “Whereas, On the 15th day of April, 1862, Palmyra Island, in latitude 5° 50′ North, and longitude 161° 53′ West, was taken possession of, with the usual formalities …”
“… by Captain Zenas Bent, he being duly authorized to do so, in the name of Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Therefore, This is to give notice, that the said island, so taken possession of, is henceforth to be considered and respected as part of the Domain of the King of the Hawaiian Islands.” (Lot Kamehameha, Minister of Interior)
Later legal decisions note that ownership of Palmyra was held privately, initially in the name of Bent and Johnson B Wilkinson. Palmyra Atoll was a part of the Territory of Hawaii prior to Hawaii’s entering the Union on August 21, 1959. Congress expressly excluded Palmyra from the State of Hawaii by section 2 of the Hawaii Statehood Act. (DOI)
Palmyra Atoll is situated nine hundred sixty miles south by west of Honolulu and three hundred fifty-two miles north of the Equator. The atoll has an area of about one and one-half square miles with numerous islets in the shape of a horse shoe surrounding two lagoons.
The climate is wet and humid, as the dense vegetation evidences. Palmyra lies near the zone where the northeast and southeast trade winds meet. The contact between these bodies of air forces the warmer air to rise, to become cooled and to drop its moisture in the form of tropical rain.
“‘Don’t wait to get fresh milk from Honolulu. Use the cow of the Pacific.’ The coconut is known as the cow of the Pacific. Its milk is very nourishing. I said, ‘Get me two nuts and I’ll show you how to make both cream and milk.’” (Fullard-Leo)
Palmyra Atoll is the northernmost atoll in the Line Islands Archipelago halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa. The atoll received its name from the American vessel Palmyra under the command of Captain Sawle, who sought shelter there on November 7, 1802.
The Palmyra group is a coral covered atoll of about fifty islets, some with trees, and extends – reefs, intervening water and land – 5 2/3 sea miles in an easterly and westerly direction and 1 1/3 sea miles northwardly and southwardly. (US Supreme Court)
One prior owner, Judge Henry Cooper Sr made short visits to Palmyra in 1913 and 1914 for two to three weeks and built a house there in 1913. The judge’s house collapsed by 1938.
In 1920 and 1921 the Palmyra Copra Company was actively engaged on the island under a lease from Cooper. On August 19, 1922, the Leslie and Ellen Fullard-Leo bought all but two of the Palmyra islands.
As a militaristic Japan made inroads into China in the 1930s, concern heightened for the security of Wake, Midway, Johnston, and Palmyra Islands, the outposts protecting Hawaii, a vital staging area for a war in the Pacific.
In 1934, Palmyra Atoll was placed under the Department of the Navy. According to the November 3 issue of The Coast Defense Journal (courtesy of John Voss), “Rear Admiral Claude Bloch announced the establishment of Naval Air Station Palmyra Island on 8/15/41, officially opening the air station.”
“They used (the atoll) during the war as a base; constructed two hospitals there to bring the wounded from the west and southwest Pacific”. (Fullard-Leo)
On December 23, 1941, a little more than two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, a Japanese submarine surfaced offshore at Palmyra Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawai‘i, and opened fire.
The enemy’s target that day: a new U.S. Naval Air Station that was still under construction. Specifically, enemy guns focused on the “Sacramento,” a US Corps of Engineers dredge anchored in the atoll’s central lagoon.
The Sacramento was hit, but only lightly, and when U.S. forces promptly returned fire, the Japanese vessel submerged, never to be seen again. That incident marked the only war-time attack on Palmyra. From then on, until the fighting ended in 1945, the atoll served as a strategic Pacific outpost for the U.S. military. (TNC)
Around the atoll’s periphery, pill boxes were built for defense while further inland a line of small coastal gun emplacements and command posts were installed. Roads, waterlines, warehouses, barracks, a mess hall, radio station, cold storage plant, ammunitions depot, hospital and other elements of a modern infrastructure were also constructed.
The primary mission of the Palmyra Naval Air Station was to serve as a troop transport and re-servicing and staging point for U.S. aircraft and small ships en-route to the south and southwest Pacific.
Palmyra’s growth in personnel, from 112 men on December 7, 1941, to the maximum of 2,410 men in August of 1943, and its subsequent reduction to 428 men in July of 1945, traces its importance in the early years of the war and its later decline. (TNC)
After several private transfers, title is now held by The Nature Conservancy. It is an incorporated Territory of the US. On January 18, 2001, the Secretary of the Interior signed Secretary’s Order No. 3224, which transferred all executive, legislative and judicial authority from the Office of Insular Affairs to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Palmyra is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument in the Central Pacific Ocean that ranges from Wake Atoll in the northwest to Jarvis Island in the southeast. The seven atolls and islands included within the monument are farther from human population centers than any other US area. (Lots of information here is from TNC, DOI &US Supreme Court.)
Follow Peter T Young on Facebook
Follow Peter T Young on Google+
Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn
Follow Peter T Young on Blogger
Pu‘umaile Home
“The tubercle bacillus, the germ that causes tuberculosis, is responsible for the loss each year of millions of lives. The spitting, coughing and sneezing of people who have tuberculosis are the chief means of the spread of this disease to individuals, families and even to entire communities.”
“The Territory of Hawaii has a high death rate from this disease as compared with most mainland cities. … The County of Hawaii has the highest rate of the disease of any of the counties in the Territory. During the last five years an average of 67 people died each year on this Island.”
“(T)here are hundreds of people on this Island who have been exposed to tuberculosis and who are potential cases of the disease. There are many people on this Island who have the disease but who do not know that they have it.”
“If the problem is considered not as “cases,” but as individuals who are our neighbors, it becomes a more interesting problem. Who is my neighbor? Last year there were maids, bus drivers, dressmakers, plantation laborers, waiters, students and teachers who had tuberculosis.”
“More than half of the people who have tuberculosis are between the ages of 15 and 45. Think of these young people starting out in new jobs, establishing homes – struck down in the prime of life!”
“Too many people do not know about, nor heed, the warning signals that should send them to a doctor for a physical check-up. Ignorance as to the ways in which tuberculosis is spread oftentimes causes neglect of the early case. Ignorance of the seriousness of the situation keeps the public from taking sufficient action on this problem.” (Chandler, Director, Tuberculosis Society of Hawai‘i; The Friend, July 1, 1939)
“The control or prevention of the spread of the disease is chiefly dependent upon the various district nurses, who not only furnish the Bureau with correct data for reliable statistics, but who supervise cases requiring it, directing them how to avoid infecting others, and observing that all due precautions are maintained in each case.”
“These nurses devote their time to hunting up cases which have not been reported, supervising certain cases, and giving instructions to patients as to how to care for themselves so as not to infect others.”
“The treatment of those afflicted is carried out by seven institutions—three in Honolulu, namely, Pa Ola Day Camp, Free Dispensary, and Leahi Home; one on Hawaii—Pu‘umaile Home; two on Kauai—Lihue and Waimea Hospitals; and one on Maui—the Kula Sanitarium. (Board of Health, 1921)
“The benefits of hospital treatment may be shown by the figures from two of the institutions in the Territory. Out of 103 persons discharged 84 were able to return to work.”
“Pu‘umaile Home, in Hilo, was in charge of Miss Wilhelm and Miss Kate W. Sadler, district nurses for Hawaii, with Dr. L. L. Sexton as medical officer. … A total of 37 cases were handled at Pu‘umaile, some of the patients being Filipinos en route to Honolulu to take steamer for the Philippines. There were 7 deaths, 15 discharged at their own request, 6 for other reasons, and 2 as apparent cures. (Board of Health, 1915)
“Pu‘umaile Home is the only institution for the care of tuberculosis in the Territory that is maintained solely from Territorial funds. One hundred and twenty-two were admitted during the year, with 68 Patients remaining at the end of the period, just double the number as compared with the previous year.” (Report of Governor, 1924)
The original Pu‘umaile Home was built in about 1912 at a site that is now in the vicinity of the old terminal building at Hilo Airport. It took its name from a nearby cinder cone (approximately 50-feet high.) The Home served the entire island.
The Hilo Airport was dedicated in February 1928 and in April 1938 a new facility was constructed at the end of Kalanianaʻole Avenue (at what is now Lehia Park.) (Clark)
“A son of a former pastor of the Finnish National Lutheran church here has been appointed superintendent of a new hospital known as the Pu‘umaile home at Hilo, Hawaii.”
“Well known to most everyone to Hilo is Dr. Carl J. Wilen, superintendent of Pu‘umaile home, who has held that position since July, 1935, when he came to Hilo as the first full-time physician at the sanatorium.” (Ironwood Daily Globe, November 24, 1939)
Some incorrectly suggest that the hospital washed away by the 1946 tsunami; however, it was spared. “The (sea)wall itself was undamaged, and buildings sheltered by it were undisturbed except for minor damage by flooding.” (Wiegel)
“Observers said waves drove 40-feet high over the Hilo breakwater … Water reached 1,000-yards inland, flooded the first floor of the Pumaile Hospital, and wrecked outlying homes of hospital personnel.” (Albuquerque Journal, January 5, 1947)
The Army installed standby generators until power could be restored. Engineers laid 2-miles of emergency pipeline to restore water. Patients were temporarily evacuated by Navy personnel and cared for at the nearby naval air station (Hilo Airport.) (Muffler)
The hospital remained on the shoreline until 1951 when it was relocated into new facilities on the grounds of the Hilo Memorial Hospital, above Rainbow Falls. Shortly after (1955,) Pu‘umaile was combined with the Hilo Memorial Hospital to establish Hilo Hospital (now Hilo Medical Center.)
In 1955, new and more effective drugs were introduced in the treatment of tuberculosis and, as a result, by 1958 the average daily patient census significantly dropped. (Legislative Auditor, 1968) (Pu‘umaile was referred by several names, including Pumaile and Puumaile.)
Follow Peter T Young on Facebook
Follow Peter T Young on Google+
Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn
Follow Peter T Young on Blogger
Timeline Tuesday … 1940s
Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1940s – bombing of Pearl Harbor, Honolulu Marathon starts and Tripler Hospital is dedicated. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.
A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)
Follow Peter T Young on Facebook
Follow Peter T Young on Google+
Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn
Follow Peter T Young on Blogger
Churchill
“(I) learnt early to swim well, and to manage boats; and when in a boat or canoe with other boys, I was commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of difficulty”.
“When I was a boy I made two oval palettes, each about ten inches long and six broad, with a hole for the thumb, in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resembled a painter’s palettes.”
“In swimming I pushed the edges of these forward, and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I drew them back. I remember I swam faster by means of these palettes, but they fatigued my wrists. I also fitted to the soles of my feet a kind of sandals”. (Benjamin Franklin)
But this is not about Franklin, it is about another boater, but not-so-good swimmer – Owen Porter Churchill (March 8, 1896 – November 22, 1985.)
The son of a successful gold prospector who founded a real-estate and investment company in Los Angeles, he had decided to take up flying as a hobby after leaving the Army at the end of World War I. But on his return to Los Angeles, his mother presented him with a boat in exchange for his promise never to fly while she was alive. (People)
Churchill was among the 22 businessmen who commissioned the eight-meter yacht Angelita to compete in a race called the King of Spain Trophy in 1930. The Angelita lost, and Churchill bought her. Then 34, Churchill was an accomplished sailor and a veteran of the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. (People)
Churchill was the first person to win an Olympic yachting gold medal for the US. He and Duke Kahanamoku were US Olympic teammates on the 1932 Los Angeles squad.
Though Churchill lost his bid for a second gold medal at the 1936 Olympics, he skippered the Angelita to victory over three others in the 1937 Lipton Cup in Newport Beach, California. Churchill, while a great yachtsman, swam very poorly.
In 1939, Churchill went to Tahiti, where he observed the natives swimming with braided banana leaves attached to their feet. He was inspired by Tahitian boys who would weave mats and attach metal straps to them.
These then would be dipped in tar, cooled and hardened and the boys simply placed them on their feet and went in the water. Mr. Churchill decided to make his design out of vulcanized rubber which is a cured rubber which makes it harder and less sticky than the natural rubber.
This process also makes the rubber more durable. Vulcanized rubber products are still used today in the form of car tires, hoses and soles of shoes to name a few. He patented his design in 1940. (snorkeling)
“The feet and legs of a human being were not designed by nature for swimming and other water activities and the use of my invention converts the feet into swimming members of correct hydrodynamic structure and design.”
“By increasing the speed of the swimmer the devices employing my invention likewise act to elevate the feet of the swimmer and thereby tend to overcome a problem which always confronts persons who are learning to swim, as it is difficult for a beginner to keep the feet elevated.”
“In addition to increased speed, the use of my invention enables a person to tread water much more efficiently and safely and in that respect is a distinct advantage to persons employed as life guards, for it enables them to perform rescue work in a manner which is otherwise thought to be impractical if not impossible.”
“My invention so materially increases the speed of a swimmer that ordinarily a person using same can swim as fast without his hands as he could by employing his feet and legs without the devices.”
“The devices also enable life guards and others who desire to wear life belts and jackets to progress with material speed through the water, which is ordinarily very difficult, if not impossible, without the use of my invention.” (Churchill, US Patent 2321009)
Churchill Fins saw action in World War II with the British Frogmen and US Navy. After the war, Churchill’s team developed a process that made the fins buoyant and allowed for the addition of color. Green, floating Churchills then hit the market. (SwellLines)
Churchill approached fellow Olympian Kahanamoku, to help sell his new “Swim-Fins” in the fall of 1940 and Kahanamoku immediately tried them.
Kahanamoku reported to Churchill that “you have found something that the swimming public will take to it like ducks.” Commenting that his wife watched him and told him he “went like a streak.”
Kahanamoku elaborated: “with these swim fins it would work out swell . . . spear fishing, kids down at the harbor diving for coins, etc.” (Nendel)
The deal to have Kahanamoku promote the swim-fins didn’t work out. Churchill did use Kahanamoku’s name on brochures for his fins as one “of the many Coaches and Champions who use Swim-Fins,” including Fred Cady, Paul Wolf and Johnny Weissmuller. However, no monetary compensation accrued from that endorsement.
Churchill went on to a long and productive career marketing his invention. While selling only 946 pairs of the fins in 1940, his first year of production, Churchill sold tens of thousands to Allied forces during World War II.
Many of the fins went to Hawai‘i. The Churchill fins became very popular, especially among body surfers and boogie boarders, and remain so today. (Nendel)
Follow Peter T Young on Facebook
Follow Peter T Young on Google+
Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn
Follow Peter T Young on Blogger
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 173
- 174
- 175
- 176
- 177
- …
- 252
- Next Page »