John Nelson Young was a chair and cabinetmaker from Canada. He and his brothers James and Alexander later started a furniture business, one of the first commercial enterprises in San Diego. They called it Young Brothers Carpenters and Furniture Builders (they added undertaking as a sideline).
John and his wife Eleanor had a growing family with five children: Annie Edith Young was born December 28, 1868 (in San Francisco), then in San Diego, Herbert Gray Young, on March 21, 1870; William Edward Young, on April 24, 1875; John Alexander ‘Jack’ Young, on January 2 1882; and Edgar Nelson Young, on July 21, 1885.
Eleanor Young died on February 16, 1894 at age forty-five, leaving minor children Jack, 12, and Edgar, 10. John died September 13, 1896. Edith accepted the responsibility of raising and educating the youngest brothers, Jack and Edgar. Herbert and William worked to help support the family.
Avalon, Catalina Island
Herb and Will visited Catalina Island in 1898. Then, “In 1899 all four of us were on hand at the island. In addition to the marine garden excursions we offered the special attraction of exhibition diving … Herb would dress and go down. Picking up objects as souvenirs and catching brightly colored fish with a butterfly net for various shore aquariums.”
“Not averse to picking up a few dollars here and there, we four would often conduct parties to the sandab grounds. Sandab, a tasty fish and much in demand, were to be caught only in deep water … We caught then on lines with dozens of hooks each …”
Some suggest this was the beginning of charter fishing; likewise, this marked the beginning of the famous glass-bottom boat rides which were to prove of such great interest and profit at Catalina.
The Great Adventure
After the season on Catalina ended, Herb landed a berth on a schooner bound for the Hawaiian Islands, and Will decided to join him on what he would later call ‘the great adventure.’ “On January 9, 1900, we sailed out of Golden Gate toward the Great adventure …”
“At last, on January 19, after a fine voyage, we sighted Honolulu. The green shores. the white beach and coral formations, the boats of the Kanakas, the town rising at the harbor edge to be lost in the verdure of the tropical plants …”
“Although there was then no actual tourist trade, which has of late years assumed such importance in Hawaii, all ships on their way to or from the Orient and Australia made Honolulu a port of call, and the harbor in 1900 was always a veritable forest of masts so that mooring was at a premium.”
The first view of Honolulu that greeted Herb and Will on January 19, 1900 revealed a town numbering fewer than 45,000 residents. For several days, Chinatown had been burning to what would become a smoldering ruin in an effort to rid the city of bubonic plague.
“We dropped anchor at quarantine and stood on deck, silently, in wonder at the natural beauty of the island. Would our dreams come true here?”
“Herb and I had just seventy-five dollars between us, which wasn’t very much. It had to last until we were able to find some new occupation. The decision was easy as we were in no danger of starvation aboard the Surprise, and we could still have our jobs there.”
Jack Young arrived later that year (October 16, 1900); Youngest of all, Edgar, arrived in July 1901 (but being only fifteen at the time, he attended McKinley High School before returning to California to study medicine; he became a Doctor and returned to the Islands.)
They Formed Young Brothers
The brothers bought a small launch, the Billy, and started running a ‘bum boat’ service in Honolulu harbor – they called their family business Young Brothers.
Their early years were focused on activities at Honolulu Harbor. When a ship came in, the anchor line had to be run out to secure the ship. Or if the ship needed to unload, a line had to be carried to the pier. The brothers would run lines for anchoring or docking vessels, carry supplies and sailors to ships at anchor outside the harbor, and various other harbor-related activities.
They did other things to entertain people, as well.
Shark Hunting
From their first days in Honolulu, the Young brothers were fascinated by the big sharks that infested the waters just outside the harbor where the garbage was dumped.
While the three brothers (Herb, Will & Jack) were involved in their daily harbor activities, they came to befriend boat captains, passengers and interested bystanders who were fascinated by tales of sharks, and more particularly whether they attacked humans.
This led to a small side-business in shark hunting that quickly earned William the nickname ‘Sharkey Bill.’ Fishing parties would he formed from among hotel guests, who were taken out on the Billy for a day of shark fishing.
Flying Fish Hunting
It was the idea of Jack … “He has been plying the waters of the bay at all hours of the day and night for many years and had grown so accustomed to seeing the buzzing blue fish leap out of the water as his launch plowed past that he knew, almost to a foot, where every school of flying fish is between the bell buoy and Diamond Head.”
“Yesterday a new sport was born; Waikiki bay was the birthplace, and HP Wood of the Hawaii promotion committee was the accoucheur. For the first time in the history of the field and gun were flying fish flushed with a steam launch and shot on the wing.”
“Taking pot shots at fish on the wing is sport of the first water, affording plenty of exercise in the good sea air, giving the opportunity for quick shooting, providing for the use of all the alertness contained within a man and being not too hard upon the fish.”
Activities In and Around Honolulu Harbor
The next year they bought the Fun from the Metropolitan Meat Market and took over the contract to deliver meat and other fresh supplies to the ships anchored in the harbor.
Herb and Will also worked as a diving team, salvaging lost anchors, unfouling propellers, or inspecting hulls of ships for repairs. A more frequently needed undersea service was to scrape the sea growth off the hulls of ships.
The launches of the Young Brothers were routinely asked to pull stranded boats or ships off the shore or reef or to rescue ships in trouble at sea.
They entered a contract to use the Waterwitch launch as a revenue and patrol boat, and to take boarding officers to all incoming liners. Herb had the privilege of presenting her and flying the Custom’s flag on May 21, 1903. The Waterwitch remained in service for over forty years.
Young Brothers Boathouse
The first Young Brothers Boathouse was near the lighthouse in Honolulu Harbor. ln March of 1903, the Youngs moved to a spot near what is now Piers 1&2. The Young Brothers’ boathouse was home to Herb, Will and Jack and was a structure well known on the waterfront.
“Young Brothers’ Boathouse, where we lived, near the harbor entrance, was the center of information along the waterfront. From this point of vantage, everything going in or out, or approaching, was seen by those of us on duty at the Boathouse.”
“Two or three launchmen and a couple of deckhands were sure to be found about the place besides ourselves, and we were on twenty-four-hour service with the Customs people and Immigration Service.”
“In front were moored our boats, the Fun, the Billy, the Brothers and the Huki Huki. Alongside was warped the Water Witch, a fifty-footer used for Customs work. This boat, brought down by Archie Young, for whom we went to work at first on Oahu, is still in service after thirty-two strenuous years.”
Young Brothers Incorporated in 1913
In 1903, Edith moved to the Hawaiian Islands and joined her brothers. In 1905, Herb sold his interest in the Young Brothers business and went to the mainland to look for work as a diver.
“Young Brothers was incorporated [May 5, 1913], and for the first time someone outside the family directed activities.” Following incorporation, Will stopped taking an active role in the operations of the company, preferring to pursue his fascination with sharks, and eventually left the islands for good in 1921 to become a well-known international shark hunter.
Jack, the last founding member of the company, remained as the operating manager.
Libby’s
Libby began to grow pineapple on land leased from Molokai Ranch; their activities were focused primarily in the Kaluakoʻi section of the island. Lacking facilities and housing, the plantation began building clusters of dwellings (“camps”) around Maunaloa.
Libby’s need to ship fruit from the growing area on Molokai, to pineapple processing on Oʻahu created an opportunity for the brothers. Young Brothers, using their first wooden barges, YB1 and YB2, hauled pineapples from Libby’s wharf to Honolulu. “That’s how [Young Brothers] started the freight.” (Jack Young Jr)
Tandem Towing
With expanded freight service to Molokai (to Kolo and Kaunakakai,) Young Brothers further innovated with the practice of tandem towing – towing two barges with one tug.
About 1929, Young Brothers’ Captain Bob Purdy pioneered this because two barges were needed to serve Molokai. They would drop one barge off at Kolo for pineapples and then carry on to Kaunakakai for general freight; they’d pick up the Kolo barge on the way back to Honolulu.
Building Breakwaters
Most associate Young Brothers as an inter-island barge company. But, in their early years in the Islands, Young Brothers did a lot of things. Young Brothers was given a contract to help with the original dredging of Pearl Harbor. They engaged to tow mud scows out to sea and dump them.
They also got involved in the construction of a couple substantial breakwaters that continue to protect Hilo and Nawiliwili.
Miki and Kāpena Class of Tugs
In 1929, the tug Mikimiki (‘to be quick, to be on time’) was launched. She made the voyage to Hawaiʻi from the West Coast, towing a 140-foot steel barge, in eleven days, sixteen hours and ten minutes. This worked out to an average speed of 8.5 knots, bettering the record of the earlier Seattle-built Mahoe by almost three days.
The excellent performance of the original Mikimiki led to the adoption of her basic design for a large fleet of tugs produced for the US Army Transport Service in West Coast shipyards for World War II service.
At the beginning of 1942, more ships were needed for the war effort. Folks recognized the Mikimiki design “could be used as it was a proven, reliable tug that has already been drawn and lofted, and was available with only slight design changes”.
Miki-class tugs were built for the US Army during World War II to haul supplies and rescue stalled ships; a Miki-class tug landed men on the beach in Normandy during World War II.
Young Brothers continued with another innovation; the Kāpena class tugs that modernizes the Young Brothers’ fleet. ‘Kāpena’ means ‘captain’ in the Hawaiian language, and the name for the class of ships celebrates the skill and innovation of Young Brothers’ Hawaiian navigators and will be home-ported in Kaunakakai, Molokai.
“The Kāpena Jack Young is named after Captain Jack Young, one of three brothers who founded Young Brothers in 1900 [and his son, Jack Young Jr, who was also a captain and active with the company]. Each of the four new Kāpena class tugs are named after an original Young Brothers’ captain, including nā Kāpena George Panui Sr. and Jr., Bob Purdy, and Raymond Alapa‘i.”
Young Brothers Moving Forward
In 1999, Saltchuk Resources, Inc acquired Young Brothers and selected assets of Hawaiian Tug & Barge. Saltchuk is the parent company of Foss Maritime.
Saltchuk is a privately owned family of diversified transportation and distribution companies headquartered in Seattle. Throughout North America, Saltchuk companies provide Air Cargo, Marine Services, Energy Distribution, Domestic Shipping, International Shipping and Logistics.
In 2014, Hawaiian Tug & Barge (HTB) was rebranded and incorporated into the Foss Maritime fleet, and Young Brothers remains a wholly-owned independent subsidiary of Foss Maritime, part of the Saltchuk Marine family of companies.
Our Young Family Connection
I am the youngest brother of the youngest brother of the youngest brother of Young Brothers. (My grandfather was the youngest of the Young Brothers; my father was the youngest brother in his generation; and I am the youngest brother in our family.)
Jack Young Sr is my grandfather. Jack Sr had three children, Jack Jr, Dorothy (Babe) and Kenny. Kenny is my father. When Jack Sr’s two sons (Jack Jr and Kenny) became old enough, they joined Young Brothers.
While the Young family has been out of Young Brothers for a long time, we still feel very much a part of it, and its history and heritage.
Click the link for more information on the 125 Anniversary:
(Lots of information here is from Young Brothers, Young family background and genealogy, William Youngs’ book ‘Shark! Shark!, and oral history interview with Jack Young Jr.)
