Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Rescue in Paradise

Douglas developed the B-18 “Bolo” to replace the Martin B-10; the new model was based on the Douglas DC-2 commercial transport.  The B-18 prototype competed with the Martin 146 (an improved B-10) and the four-engine Boeing 299, forerunner of the B-17 Flying Fortress, at the Air Corps bombing trials at Wright Field in 1935.

Although many Air Corps officers judged the Boeing design superior, the Army General Staff preferred the less costly Bolo; contracts were awarded for 82-planes, the order was increased to 132 by June of 1936.  (Trojan)

The Bolo remained the Air Corps’ primary bomber into 1941. Thirty-three B-18s were based in Hawaiʻi with the 5th Bombardment Group and 11th Bombardment Group.

One of those Hawaiʻi B-18 Bolos, piloted by Boyd Hubbard Jr, took off from Hickam Field at 7 pm February 25, 1941 for a routine inter-island night instrument-navigation training flight. (Trojan)

Other members of the crew were 2nd Lt Francis R. Thompson (co-pilot), S/Sgt Joseph S. Paulhamus (flying engineer), Pvt William Cohn (radio operator), Pvt Fred C. Seeger (passenger), Pvt Robert R. Stevens (passenger) WIA. (Aviation Safety Network)

Their flight path took them over the Island of Hawaiʻi.  While flying on instruments at 10,000-feet, Hubbard’s B-18 suffered a main bearing failure in the left engine.  Hubbard headed to Suiter Field, the Army’s auxiliary field (it is now known as Upolū Point Airport.)

Hubbard made a last split-second correction prior to the crash. As he later described it, the mountain just loomed up before him in the darkness and he just reacted. He pulled back hard on the wheel and the aircraft stalled and belly flopped into the thick underbrush.

Airmen from Hickam later described the site as the “Worst possible place for a forced landing in the Islands.”  (Trojan)

“The quiet of the wooded mountains was shattered by a roaring crash! No human ear heard the sound; but shortly thereafter the phone in my office rang with an urgent persistance.”

They called Frederick Christian Koelling (superintendent of the Kohala Ditch Co and engineer for the Hawi Mill and Plantation Co. (Nellist))

“I picked up the receiver with no inkling of the adventure into which this simple gesture would lead me. The voice which answered was an unfamiliar one, but the message imparted sent me running for help and set in motion the ’rescue in paradise’ which saved the lives of a gallant crew of six army fliers.”

“Prior to the rescue attempt, I asked the Army to locate Bill Sproat, our area supervisor, and fly him over the site of the crash. Bill, being thoroughly ‘at home”’ in this area, could easily give me directions which I felt would minimize the time required to effect a ground rescue.”

“On Wednesday, February 26th, having talked with Bill by telephone and determined the approximate location of the downed plane, I gathered a party of co-workers including Leslie Hannah, Ronald May, Elders Johnson and Lyons, and left Hawi, our home base, at noon for Pololu.”

“Arriving at Pololu, the first station in the Kohala Sugar Company irrigation system, we obtained mules and rode up the winding trail to Kaukini Camp.”

The next day, “we left Kaukini Camp just as dawn was breaking. Our party of eight now pushed on to the end of the trail where we dismounted and the mules were staked out. The area, known as Wailoa, was not as familiar to us as the previous terrain. However, a foot trail had been cleared for another two miles or more through these ravines.”

“We followed this trail until we reached the spot previously agreed upon between Bill Sproat and myself as being the most likely approach to where the plane had gone down.”

“We hacked our way up and down a series of steep ravines, crossing a rushing stream at the bottom of each. … In order to cover more ground, we separated into two parties of four and followed the edges of two gulches above which we had determined was the wrecked plane.”

“After more than an hour of steady climbing, always hampered by the dense foliage, vines and marshy soil underfoot, we met at the top of the second gulch. For another two and one-half hours we struggled and hacked our way with machetes over, through and around trees, staghorn ferns, rotten brush and clinging vines.”

“Two of our men had climbed trees above the underbrush to listen for an acknowledgement from the flyers. The men claimed they heard answering shots sounding like firecrackers in the still air, pak-pak!”

“Immediately the lagging spirits of the party revived. and we continued on with renewed vigor, putting considerable distance behind us over firmer terrain with less undergrowth.”

“After another half hour of steady climbing, we again checked our position, firing more rifle-shots, and again we could hear an answering, pak, pak, pak! As we strained our ears to pin-point the shots, suddenly one of our group saw a flare, a small parachute trailing smoke and fire a considerable distance away.”

“Another ridge, another gulch, until we finally reached a point where we could call to the stranded flyers. … Despite the fact that they had acknowledged our calls, we were very much in doubt as to the physical well-being of the survivors.”

“The scattered debris, the crushed and fallen trees, plus the sight of the badly damaged plane, caused considerable apprehension, as to the condition of the flyers; badly injured or worse.

“Miraculously, and no doubt due to the thick growth of trees and shrubs, the plane had landed with far less impact than it would have, had it crashed in a desert or open area. The survivors were only slightly hurt, a mighty fortunate crew indeed!”

“One of the aviators had a bandage over one eye; another an injured hand, a third had one pants leg ripped off and a lacerated leg, and the fourth bad a bruise on his face!”

“Captain Boyd Hubbard, leader of the crew, had a rather badly bruised arm, but the Lieutenant escaped with only a scratch!  The marvelous condition of the flyers was a most welcome sight to their rescuers. If they had been seriously injured we would have had a much more difficult time getting them down out of the mountains.”

“After some consultation, it was decided that our party and two of the least injured aviators would return to the Kaukini Camp for the night.  Bill Sproat was at that time, leading another party over our trail.”

Among this group were Major Higgins from Wheeler Field, a Dr. Hall, two mechanics and a number of Army personnel. Our presence at the scene would not be necessary as this group was better equipped to assist in the salvage work on the aircraft. Therefore, we immediately set out on our return trip.”

“It was with profound relief that we relaxed somewhat in our saddles after the exhausting descent. However, our troubles were not all over. We now proceeded entirely in darkness. Suddenly, one of the pack mules broke loose and lunged forward down the trail dragging its tie rope. Ronald May, whose mule was next in line, pursued the pack mule.”

“Fortunately, the tie rope became lodged in a rock cleft before the mule had traveled very far. Ronald leapt from his mount and grabbed for the tie rope – at the same instant, one of the aviators brought his flash into play. The sudden bright light [panicked] the mule causing the animal to plunge into Ronald who fell back off the trail and down the cliff coming to a splashing halt in a pool of water ten feet below.”

“We all came to a quick halt, pulling up our mules on the narrow trail. By great good fortune, Ronald was promptly located and, with the aid of a rope, we hauled him back up to the trail, more doused than hurt. The recalcitrant mule was firmly tied into the pack train and we all proceeded on to the stables above the Kaukini Camp.”

“Upon reaching Pololu, we disbanded and I drove the two aviators to [Upolū] Point Field from whence they were flown to Wheeler Field in Oahu. During the following days, the entire crew was brought out of the mountains along with all salvageable parts of the aircraft (the bombsight and instruments, Aviation Safety Network) by Bill Sproat and the Anny personnel who had accompanied him to the site.”

Decades later (during 1980s?) Gary Larkins visited this site and photographed it with top turret intact. Internal fittings and the top turret were removed, including the retractable top turret and nose cone. These parts went to the USAF Museum for use in their restoration of B-18A Bolo 37-469, but the turret did not fit their aircraft. (Aviation Safety Network) (Special thanks to Cindy McKievick for providing her grandfathers’ (FC Koelling) summary of his heroic rescue.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kanakaleonui

Mauna Kea, like Hawai‘i’s other older volcanoes, Hualālai and Kohala, has evolved beyond the shield-building stage, as indicated by:

  • the very low eruption rates compared to Mauna Loa and Kīlauea;
  • the absence of a summit caldera and elongated fissure vents that radiate its summit;
  • steeper and more irregular topography (for example, the upper flanks of Mauna Kea are twice as steep as those of Mauna Loa); and
  • different chemical compositions of the lava. (USGS)

Mauna Kea’s peaceful appearance is misleading. The volcano is not dead. It erupted many times between 60,000 and 4,000 years ago, and some periods of quiet during that time apparently lasted longer than 4,000 years. Given that record, future eruptions seem almost certain. (USGS Volcano Watch)

Pu‘u Kanakaleonui is one of the younger cones of the Laupāhoehoe Volcanics and is less than 13,000 years in age. (USGS)  Kanaka-Leo-Nui (loud-voiced person) “was the name of a retainer of ʻUmi-a-Līloa, a chief who is said to have had a house at the top of Mauna Kea with doors facing each of the six districts of Hawaiʻi.”

“If the chief wanted the Hilo people to bring supplies, he called from the Hilo door to Kanaka-leo-nui, who shouted out the orders from the top of the hill bearing his name.” (Hawaiian Place Names)

About the time Columbus was crossing the Atlantic, ʻUmi a Līloa (‘Umi, son of Līloa), was famous in Hawaiian history for being the first aliʻi (chief) to unify Hawaiʻi Island under a singular rule.

ʻUmi was a religious chief and was known to have erected a number of ahu (shrines) throughout the ʻāina mauna (mountain lands) to make offerings to the akua. After unifying the island, ʻUmi a Līloa chose to live in the ʻāina mauna with his people rather than returning to the lower ahupuaʻa (land divisions) where kānaka typically lived.

“Umi was a trail builder …. Where the a-a was level, his men marked their way across it by smooth going. Where there were depressions in it, they were filled up to the general level, much as a modern engineer would fill them.”

“Where there were hillocks to be crossed, these were cut away if not too high and passed over in a straight line if their altitude forbade grading.” (Sol Sheridan, Mid Pacific Magazine, Oct 1912)

Pu‘u Kanakaleonui is one of the younger cones of the Laupāhoehoe Volcanics and is less than 13,000 years in age. The dark-colored deposit partly surrounding and mantling Pu‘u Kanakaleonui consists of tephra and ejecta blocks of lava mostly 10 to 50 cm in diameter but as large as 3 m long.

Some of the ejecta are from underlying lava flows that were erupted more than 65,000 years ago from the Hāmākua Volcanics. The light-colored surface below the cone consists of lava flows that are not mantled by the explosive tephra and blocks. (USGS)

The next eruption could take place anywhere on the upper flanks of the volcano. As Mauna Kea evolved from its early shield stage (equivalent to Kīlauea and Mauna Loa today) to its present post-shield stage, the volcano lost its rift zones. Consequently, the post-shield eruptions are not concentrated along narrow zones but instead are scattered across the mountain.

A prominent cinder cone will probably be constructed at each vent. The cinder cones responsible for the ‘bumpy’ appearance of Mauna Kea’s surface. The cones were built during the latest eruptive period 6,000-4,000 years ago. The next eruption will likely produce a similar cone.

For example, the most recent eruptive period, 6,000-4,000 years ago, involved eight vents on the south flank of the volcano between Kala‘i‘eha cone (near Humu`ula) and Pu‘ukole (east of Hale Pōhaku). During this same period, eruptions took place on the northeast flank at Pu‘u Lehu and Pu‘u Kanakaleonui.

Lava from Pu‘u Kanakaleonui flowed more than [12 miles] northeastward, entering the sea to form Laupāhoehoe Point. (USGS Volcano Watch)

“[Right back [of the double Hill Holei Kanakaleonui], there is a Hawaiian graveyard. They used to bury there. When they go up and make their adze, and the Hawaiians die up there, they had a little … above Kanakaleonui, in between Red Hill and Kanakaleonui.” (John “Johnny” Ah San Oral History Interview with Kepā Maly)

With the exception of the possible adze maker interments, the apparent restriction of the higher elevation burials to the apex of cinder cones is in sharp contrast to many of the burials found at Kanakaleonui, a well-known burial center located not too far outside of the Science Reserve, just below Pu‘u Mākanaka and the summit plateau.

On current evidence there are more burials in the general environs of Kanakaleonui than probably exist higher on the mountain, possibly on all of the summit plateau.  (AIS Mauna Kea Science Reserve)

The disproportionate number of burials in the environs of Kanakaleonui suggests that the edge of the plateau might have been a major social boundary, with the area below reserved for commoners and the plateau for persons of higher social status (chiefs and priests).

If the very top of the cones were reserved for higher status individuals and the ground below for commoners, then Kanakaleonui must have both.  (AIS Mauna Kea Science Reserve)

Laupāhoehoe is the true ‘Umi’s Trail. ‘Umikoa one, that’s when they go up and they turn around, and they meet ‘Umi Trail. (Mr. Ah San noted that Laupähoehoe-Waipunalei Trail runs up the mountain from near the heiau of ‘Umi – recorded as being named Mämala or Ha‘akoa.)

The trail runs mauka past Ke-ana-kolu (The-three-caves), which was a known resting spot on the trail up the mountain. The caves are approximately one-mile mauka from the old Keanakolu ranch house. (Maly)

Kanakaleonui Bird Corridor (KBC), located on the east slope of Mauna Kea, is a unique transition zone from a Tropical Montane Cloud Forest to a colder, drier subalpine forest.  (Pigao)

The KBC corridor is a continuous uphill slope that currently represents a gradient of woodland to grassland. The dry subalpine landscapes show sharp climate changes with small elevational changes that are easily distinguishable by the amount and type of vegetation present.

Kanakaleonui Corridor is on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands land between Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and Hakalau Forest NWR).  It has many forest birds, especially ‘i‘iwi, ‘apapane, ‘amakihi, ‘elepaio, ‘akiapōlā‘au, and ‘io.

These species (and juveniles of these) are known to travel between wet forests and subalpine māmane forests during the bloom.  The Kanakaleonui Bird Corridor is an interconnecting corridor for this travel. (Hawaii’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Prohibition

The first temperance movement emerged in New England as clergy began to equate drinking alcohol with sins like Sabbath breaking and blasphemy. In 1808, the first temperance society was formed, but it singled-out hard liquor, such as rum, as its only target.

Very early in the temperance movement of Reverend Thomas P Hunt, a Presbyterian minister organized a children’s organization called ‘The Cold Water Army.’  In 1831, the large and influential American Temperance Union urged everyone to only drink cold water (not alcoholic beverages) and take a Cold Water Pledge.

Although Kamehameha III broke it regularly, he made intermittent appeals for abstinence among his fellows. For some years in the 1840s, no liquor was served at official functions.  (Daws)

Pūʻali Inuwai (“The water drinking host”) was formed on March 15, 1843 – the Cold Water Army – Hawaiʻi’s version of the Temperance Movement.

Following the model elsewhere, they first looked at the children, suggesting: if you had 100 drunkards and tried to reform them, you would be lucky to save maybe 10; however, if you had 100 children and taught them temperance from a young age, you could save 90 out of the 100.

Hawaiʻi youth were encouraged to join.  Thousands of children enlisted in the ‘cold water army.’  Once a year they came together for a celebration. They had a grand time on these anniversary occasions.  (Youth’s Day Spring, January 1853)

The Cold Water movement apparently saw some early success.  “Recruits to strengthen the ranks of the cold water army, adds real force to this nation; and not-only to this nation, but to every other nation where the principles of total abstinence are making progress.  Formerly the Sandwich Islanders were a nation of drunkards; but, as a nation, they are now tee-totallers.”  (The Friend, 1843)

However, as time went on the push toward prohibition waned.  From the 1850s, it was legal to make wine. In 1864-1865, acts were passed permitting legal brewing of beer and distillation of spirits under license at Honolulu.  (Daws)

Later, in hopes that free drinking water would entice sailors to stay out of nearby grog shops, “The Temperance Legion has caused to be erected a Drinking Fountain at the corner of King and Bethel streets, on the Bethel premises – a neat and ornamental fountain. … ‘Free to all.’” [dedicated, June 15, 1867] (The Friend, June 1, 1867)

Through the 1870s, Honolulu was the only place in the kingdom where liquor could be sold legally (another instance of the attempt to isolate vice,) but contemporary comment and court reports make it clear that the illegal liquor traffic was brisk everywhere, from Lāhainā and other port towns to the remotest countryside.  (Daws)

Honolulu’s The Friend newspaper began as “Temperance Advocate.”  Then, it meant to many, moderate-restrained-use of liquor.  Not so in all these years.  “It meant total abstinence – nay, even prohibition before there was any such term.”  (The Friend, 1942)

Then, came prohibition.

On the continent, into the 1900s, Americans debated whether the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages should be legal. Members of the temperance movement sought to reduce drinking – or even eliminate it. The Civil War disrupted the movement temporarily, but after the war ended, supporters resumed its mission with renewed enthusiasm.  (US House)

John Granville Woolley was a prominent figure in the American temperance and prohibition movement – he was nominated for the US presidency on the Prohibition party ticket. The Prohibition party – the only party whose principal aim was a ban on the sale of liquor – was founded at a Chicago convention in 1869.

Woolley lobbied for the Prohibition party nationally from the 1880s to the early 1900s and then for the American Anti-Saloon League, a national organization that supported candidates for legislation restricting liquor sales. In 1907, when Woolley vacationed in Hawai‘i, he started a chapter in the Islands. (Hawai’i Digital Newspaper Project)

The Hawaiian legislature passed a liquor licensing law in 1907 in the hope of slowing liquor traffic in the territory. In 1910 Woolley of the Anti-Saloon League of America testified before Congress that the Hawaiian legislature’s licensing law had failed.

Prince Kūhiō stepped in and noted, “There are many good people in Hawaii who believe in prohibition but who do not believe that Congress should enact it.” Woolley pushed Congress to dismantle territorial home rule and Kūhiō fought for home rule. “We are fully capable of settling all our domestic problems,” Kūhiō declared.  (US House)

Congress decided that Hawai‘i should hold a special election on Prohibition. The vote occurred in July 1910.  The Hawaiian Gazette ran political cartoons to persuade people to vote for prohibition in Hawai‘i.

The newspaper’s editorials and political cartoons portrayed the saloon owners as profiting from the sale of alcohol, or “The White Man Burden,” and the alcohol bringing societal ills to the native Hawaiians. (HDNP)

Kūhiō argued against the bill, asserting that Hawai‘i was guaranteed a large degree of local self-governance. (Curtis)  “There are many good people in Hawaii who believe in prohibition but who do not believe that Congress should enact it.,” (Kūhiō, GovInfo)

Ultimately, the Hawai‘i voters voted against prohibition in Hawai‘i. … The Evening Bulletin reported, “The annihilation of the prohibitionists is increasing. If that he possible, in its overwhelming effect as later reports are being received from the other Islands.”

Not one precinct did the pro-Prohibition vote carry on Hawai‘i and the partial returns also indicate this to be a fact on Maui. … The vote indicated anti-prohibitionists’ vote was 7,283 and supporters of prohibition in the Islands tallied 2,185 votes.

“The overwhelming nature of the defeat that has been visited upon the adherents of the [Prohibition] platform in Hawaii, is best indicated by the fact that the anti-prohibitionists polled more votes on Oahu than the prohibitionists polled in the Territory at large.” Evening Bulletin, July 27, 1910)

Pressure in favor of US prohibition grew; in 1917, when O‘ahu was declared a military zone, serving alcohol on the island was banned. Kūhiō viewed the restriction as unfair, since the manufacture and sale of alcohol were still permitted. (GovInfo)

Kūhiō put up a billboard that stated, “You are aware that I am not one who does not touch liquor, neither do I abstain, and I do not want a law which segregates people because they are not white. The days of those activities are over for Hawaii. Kuhio.”

Later, Congress passed the 18th Amendment – the constitutional amendment known as Prohibition – on December 18, 1917. But before it could be added to the Constitution, three-fourths of the states needed to ratify – or approve – the measure. (US House)

While the 18th Amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating beverages, it did not outlaw the possession or consumption of alcohol in the United States.

The 18th Amendment split the Country; everyone was forced to choose – you were either “dry”, in support of Prohibition, or “wet.”  But one thing was clear, Prohibition had little effect on America’s thirst.

Congress imposed prohibition in Hawai‘i in 1918 as a war measure, about a year and a half before the Eighteenth Amendment became effective on the continent. Then, in 1921 in an act supplemental to the National Prohibition Act, the prohibition Act was specifically applied to Hawai‘i, and the territorial courts were given the necessary enforcing jurisdiction. (LRB)

The 18th Amendment would eventually be repealed and overridden by the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933 – it is the only Constitutional amendment to have been fully repealed. (Reagan Library)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Making Sugar

In pre-contact times, sugarcane was not processed as we know sugar today, but was used by chewing the juicy stalks.  Its leaves were used for inside house thatching, or for outside (if pili grass wasn’t available.) The flower stalks of sugar cane were used to make a dart, sometimes used during the Makahiki games. (Canoe Crops)

The first written record of sugarcane in Hawaiʻi came from Captain James Cook, at the time he made initial contact with the Islands.  On January 19, 1778, off Kauai, he notes, “We saw no wood, but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages; near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes.”  (Cook)

Cook notes that sugar was cultivated, “The potatoe fields, and spots of sugar-canes, or plantains, in the higher grounds, are planted with the same regularity; and always in some determinate figure; generally as a square or oblong”.  (Cook)

Sugarcane, a tall perennial grass, is grown in tropical and semitropical climates. (USDA)

To plant it, short sections of sugar cane plant stalk containing one or more node are first planted in soil which has been deep-plowed and formed into furrows that follow the contour of the land. In about 24 months a mass of vegetation (up to 10-feet high) has developed and is ready for harvest.

There are two factors that distinguish cane sugar production in Hawaii from cane sugar production in other parts of the world. First, growers do not harvest Hawaiian sugarcane until it is an average of two years old. In most other areas, sugarcane is harvested after one year of growth. (EPA)

Prior to World War II, almost all cane was cut by hand and transported to the sugar mills through an extensive network of water flumes. When water flumes did not exist, mule-drawn wagons carried the cane to rail roads for transport.

Following World War II, mechanical harvesting completely replaced the hand cutting of cane.  The most common method of harvesting is to snap off the cane at ground level with a bulldozer-type push rake on a large standard tractor. (EPA)

 Sugar cane is processed at two facilities: processing starts at a raw sugar factory and finished at a sugar refinery. The following address raw sugar processing. (Sugar Association)

When harvested, the root structure is left intact so that a second, third, or even fourth crop of sugar cane may be produced from suckers which grow from the root structure of old harvested plants. This process is known as ‘ratooning.’

Bulldozers then rake the cane into piles for cranes, equipped with special grabs, to load the cane into special cane haulers usually consisting of an enormous truck-tractor unit and semi-trailer. (EPA)

The operations necessary for making raw cane sugar are as follows :

  1. The extraction of the juice.
  2. The purification of the juice.
  3. The evaporation of the juice to syrup point.
  4. The concentration and crystallization of the syrup.
  5. The preparation of the crystals or grains for the market by separating them from the molasses. (Rolph)

The cane initially moves to a feeder table, up a conveyor, and then contacts a drum which spreads it out into a thin even blanket. Next it passes over a set of rollers which acts as a primary rock extractor. From there it falls into a flotation bath where rocks and other heavy foreign matter settle in the tank and are carried away.  (EPA)

Following the flotation bath, the cane proceeds up a conveyor where heavy washing begins. Next it passes over drums to be shaken and leveled. The root structure holding the stalks together is then broken and here also final washing occurs.

The cane then moves over trash extractors (oppositely spinning rollers) which grab and strip leaves from the stalks. The resulting trash is conveyed away from the cleaning plant. A series of knives then cut the cane into small lengths for crushing by a pair of corrugated rollers.

Typically, the milling is through a tandem of three rollers, and the chopped cane passes through each mill in succession to remove the sugar cane juice. Either three, four, or five mills in a series are employed to squeeze the juice out of the cane stalks.  (EPA)

Following extraction, sugar cane juice is sent through a clarifier;  after leaving the clarifier, the juice enters a multi-effect steam evaporator from which it emerges with greater density as ‘syrup.’

The syrup then enters vacuum pans where it is converted into molasses. In the pans, sugar crystals are also formed from the syrup by the process of evaporation to saturation. At the end of this operating cycle, the crystals are centrifuged to remove the molasses.

The sugar from the first pan operation is of commercial raw sugar quality and is ready for shipment to a mainland refinery. The molasses remaining from centrifuge of the first boiling operation is called ’A’ molasses. This is returned directly to the pans for a second cycle.

The material from the second pan operation is centrifuged and the sugar produced is also of commercial quality. The molasses remaining from the second pan operation is called ‘B’ molasses. ‘B’ molasses is of low quality sugar content and must be specially processed before additional sugar can be produced.  (EPA)

The raw sugar is then sent in bulk to refineries (C&H) for finishing, packaging and marketing/shipping. The initial step in cane sugar refining is washing the sugar, called affination, with warm, almost saturated syrup to loosen the molasses film.

There are a variety of steps of heating, separation of sugar crystals (in centrifuges), screening, washing and clarification. Two clarification methods are commonly used: pressure filtration and chemical treatment.

To produce refined granulated sugar, white sugar is transported by conveyors and bucket elevators to the sugar dryers. The most common sugar dryer is the granulator, which consists of two drums in series. One drum dries the sugar and the other cools the dried sugar crystals.

In addition to granulated sugar, other common refined sugar products include confectioners’ (powdered) sugar, brown sugar, liquid sugar, and edible molasses. (Food and Agricultural Industry; EPA) (The color and flavor of brown sugar come from the residual molasses left in the crystals during the refining process.)

Several waste products are produced by the sugar industry in raw sugar processing – one was bagasse, and the mills would flume it out of the mill and simply dump it in the ocean.

Later, some of the bagasse was made into canec.  In 1929, Hawaiian Cellulose Ltd, a subsidiary of the Waiākea Mill Company applied for a patent for the manufacture of it.  (County of Hawai‘i)  They made ‘canec.’

Canec was originally the brand name for pressed fiber board made by Hawaiian Cane Products, Ltd., but it has become commonly used to refer to all pressed board of this type.

Also, later, “After passing through the last mill, as much cane pulp (bagasse) as needed is fed into the mill fireroom for use as fuel.”  (EPA)  The bagasse was pelletized and fueled the boiler.

In 1906, the California and Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company (C&H) began refining pure cane sugar in the small town of Crockett, California, near San Francisco. As cargo ships offloaded raw cane sugar from the Hawaiian Islands, the refinery employed 490 people and produced 67,000 tons of refined cane sugar.

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Explorers and Traders … the Pacific and Hawai‘i

The word ‘spice’ is derived from the Latin ‘species’, or ‘special wares’, and refers to an item of special value, as opposed to ordinary articles of trade.  Spices were highly valued because, as well as being used in cooking, many had ritual, religious or medical uses.

They were of high value because of their relative geographical scarcity. Spices could only be grown in the tropical East; South Asia served as a major source of spices – in the South of China, Indonesia, as well as in Southern India and Sri Lanka.

Among the most widespread were the spices cinnamon, pepper, clove, nutmeg, and mace. (Hancock)  Some spices, such as cloves and nutmeg, grew nowhere else in the world.

The spice trade was conducted mostly by camel caravans over land routes (known as the Silk Roads).  The Silk Roads were important routes connecting Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe. (Deepanjana, UNESCO)

From as early as 2000 BC, spices, such as cinnamon from Sri Lanka and cassia from China, were exported along the Silk Road as far west as the Arabian Peninsula and the Iranian Plateau. Other goods were also exchanged/traded – cargoes from China included ivory, silk, porcelain, metals and gemstones.  (Deepanjana, UNESCO)

Later, Spice Routes were established; these were the name given to the network of sea routes that linked the East with the West.  The journey of the goods between all these links in the chain is called a trade route (the word ‘trade’ derives from a term meaning a track or course).

One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade.

in 1513, a Spanish captain, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, went into the interior of Darien (Panama). On September 24, 1513, Balboa sighted a new ocean. He called it the Mar del Sur, or ‘sea of the south’ (South Sea); later (1520), Ferdinand Magellan called it the Mare Pacificum, or Pacific Ocean.

The accounts of the first explorers revealed the potential for high-value commodity exchange, and voyages of exploration were soon followed by those of spice traders. (BOEM)

From 1500 AD onward, first Portugal, and then other European powers, attempted to control the spice trade, the ports which marketed spices, and eventually the territories which grew them. (Cartwright)

The Portuguese established trading posts in China at Macau in 1513, in Timor in 1515, and finally at Nagasaki, Japan in 1543. Within the next decades, Dutch competitors followed the Portuguese across the Indian Ocean and into Southeast Asia. (BOEM)

Then came the Spanish … on November 28 1520, Spaniard Fernao de Magalhais (Ferdinand Magellan) entered the eastern Pacific from the opposite direction, by way of the tip of South America, discovering the strait that now bears his name, and thereby opened up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.”  (Lloyd)

Magellan crossed the ocean to the Philippines, which he named Las Islas Filipinas in honor of the Spanish king, Felipe. (Spate) The Spanish ultimately prevailed against other European competition in terms of Pacific trade. They did this through the founding of their outpost at Manila (Philippines) in 1571 and the establishment of regular transpacific Manila Galleon voyages.

Once a year, gold and silver were transported west from Acapulco to Manila in exchange spices (pepper, clove and cinnamon), porcelain, ivory, lacquer and elaborate fabrics (silk, velvet, satin), collected from both the Spice Islands (Moluccas, Indonesia) and the Asian Pacific coast.

The Pacific fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. (ESDAW)

Originally, Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of the pelts of martens, beavers, wolves, foxes, squirrels, and hares. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia, a region rich in many mammal fur species, such as Arctic fox, lynx, sable, sea otter and stoat (ermine).

it was the French and  British who dominated Pacific exploration in the eighteenth century. Beginning in the mid-1700s, the rival nations began to send out scientific expeditions to explore and chart the islands of the Pacific.

British explorers included Samuel Wallis (1767–68) and Philip Carteret (1767–68). But by far the most wide-ranging and accomplished of the eighteenth-century explorers was the Englishman Captain James Cook, who made three separate voyages to the Pacific in 1768-71, 1772-75, and 1776-80. (Kjellgren, MetMuseum)

After Cook was killed in Hawai‘i, one of his officers – and later a Captain – George Vancouver continued to explore and chart the Northwest Coast.  Commercial traders soon followed, exchanging copper, weapons, liquor, and varied goods for sea otter pelts. (Barbour)

Following Cook’s ‘discovery’ of the opportunities in the fur trade, the North American maritime fur trade became the earliest global economic enterprise.  Cook’s ‘discovery’ resulted in the British and then the Americans participating in the trade.

Following the American Revolution, the new nation needed money and a vital surge in trade. In 1787, two ships (Columbia, captained by John Kendrick, and Lady Washington, captained by Robert Gray) left Boston on a mission around Cape Horn and into the Pacific Ocean. to establish new trade with China, settle an outpost on territory claimed by the Spanish, and find the legendary Northwest Passage.

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China.  The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

Needing supplies in their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance, any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife, could fetch far more fresh fruit, meat, and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England).  Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for refreshment and recreation.

As trade and commerce expanded across the Pacific, numerous countries were looking for faster passage and many looked to Nicaragua and Panama in Central America for possible dredging of a canal as a shorter, safer passage between the two Oceans.

Finally, in 1881, France started construction of a canal through the Panama isthmus.  By 1899, after thousands of deaths (primarily due to yellow fever) and millions of dollars, they abandoned the project and sold their interest to the United States.

After Panamanian independence from Columbia in 1903, the US restarted construction of the canal in 1905.  Finally, the first complete Panama Canal passage by a self-propelled, oceangoing vessel took place on January 7, 1914.

Later, when Navy Commander John Rodgers and his crew arrived in Hawaiʻi on September 10, 1925 on the first trans-Pacific air flight, they fueled the imaginations of Honolulu businessmen and government officials who dreamed of making Hawaiʻi the economic Crossroads of the Pacific, and saw commercial aviation as another road to that goal.

Two years later on March 21, 1927, Hawaii’s first airport was established in Honolulu and dedicated to Rodgers.  1959 brought two significant actions that shaped the present day make-up of Hawai‘i, (1) Statehood and (2) jet-liner service between the mainland US and Honolulu (Pan American Airways Boeing 707.)

Here is a link for more on Explorers and Traders: https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Explorers-and-Traders.pdf

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