Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arthur Akinaka

Arthur Akinaka was born in 1909 in Kapalama, Oahu. His mother, Haru Yokomizo, and father, Rinichi Akinaka “were next-door neighbors in a sparsely settled farming area. Before they could leave Japan to better their economic circumstances, their parents felt (it) best that they should get married.”

“My parents came here newly married in 1906 from the back farming area of Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. They boarded (the steamer,) America-Maru, from Kobe”.

“Upon arrival they were met by my (uncle’s business) partner at the wharf. They were encouraged by my uncle, who was operating a soda (water bottling) works with his partner, not to struggle at some sugar plantation, but to try to get started in Palama.”

“So, knowing only one occupation, my mother, then age sixteen, my father, age nineteen, started a small tofu factory (in the hopes of making) a living. Of course, the work was very hard.”

“My sixteen-year-old mother had to get up two o’clock in the morning. And then, after the tofu, aburage [deep fried tofu], and konnyaku [a type of jelly made from the konjac] were made, (my father) would carry (them in) cans around Palama.”

“It was (only) a few months (later) that Judge (William) Rawlins, who owned that building at the intersection of Beretania and King Streets, saw my father (passing by daily) and asked (him) whether he would want to – together with my mother – move over to the premises of Mr. Harry Roberts, who was looking for a replacement (for) his (yard keeper), who was retiring to Japan.”

“And so, that’s how my parents moved (here) to (the corner of Houghtailing and School Streets,) where I was born.” (Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

Arthur grew up on Mr. Roberts’ two-acre estate, “It was a two-acre site, (where) Mr. Roberts, (after) his retirement from the Honolulu Advertiser (as) a commercial artist due to failing eyesight, (had) very thoroughly interested himself in horticulture. My earliest recollections (are of) this two-acre site.”

“This area has always been known as the makai portion of Kapalama. Kapalama extended from the mountain to the sea. The Kamehameha Schools (are located in the mauka portion of Kapalama).” (Akinaka, UH Ethnic Studies Oral History Project)

“As I remember it, both School Street and Houghtailing Road were dirt roads. School Street extended (Ewa only) as far as Kalihi Street, and Kalihi Street went up into Kalihi Valley. In the Waikiki direction – this was before McInerny Tract was subdivided – there (were) a (few) scattered houses.”

“I’m thankful to have been born in this point in time (and not during previous times). When (I was) a youngster, my mother had to prepare food on wood stoves and (I) had to chop (kiawe) firewood (and thence there was) the gradual changeover to kerosene stove and kerosene lamps.”

“When I was born and for many years, we had no electricity, no drinking water. But with McInerny Tract (being opened up), water (mains) came in, sewers came in, electric system came in.”

“It (was) quite interesting to meet up with schoolchildren from near the school site, mostly from mauka of School (Street), as well as down on Vineyard, Kukui Street, all the way toward King Street. They were far more urbanized than I was.”

“In fact, I was looked on as more of a country boy and was finding it difficult to make too many new friends. Of course, there were always boys that are friendly to you, but by and large, I minded myself and studied, which was what my parents and also Mr. Roberts emphasized.”

“[I]n 1917, Queen Lili’uokalani passed away. Of course, that would have made me eight years old. I walked all the way to Nuuanu Street to witness the funeral procession that laid the Queen to rest up Nuuanu Mausoleum.”

Akinaka attended Japanese “language school [that] was on Nuuanu Street, halfway between School and Vineyard [Streets] on premises which now have been taken over by Foster Gardens. It was known as Japanese Central Institute and was started by those (first-generation Japanese) who were Christians.”

“However, when Palama Gakuen was built, in my sixth year of language school, I moved to that school (since it was nearer to home). From there, I continued at Hongwanji [Japanese-language (high) school] on Fort Street. So, I have had ten years of Japanese schooling to a degree where I began to (understand) Japanese culture.”

“[M]y mother had jogakko or middle school education. My father, being the only child and having to leave school after only four years of grammar school education (to tend the family farm,) felt very strongly about all his children at least getting as good education as he could afford. So, there was no question that we (should) continue (on to) college (if we could).”

“When I entered University [ of Hawai‘i], I thought I should try to take up premedicine. But I came to the (early) conclusion that our family finances would not permit (my) being financed through a Mainland medical school, (and) so I shifted to something (in) which I could graduate in (four years) and make a living.”

“So, from one year of pre-medical courses such as chemistry, zoology and botany, I shifted over to whatever engineering subjects they would allow me to take. It was a constant [effort] trying to catch up.”

“I’m very grateful with the teachers (and principals) that I had all through grammar school, high school and university, and how they helped me appreciate the value of a good education and being a good citizen.”

“I graduated in 1930 after the disastrous 1929 stock crash and work was hard to come by. I had always wanted to go into building construction because in that field there were, perhaps, better opportunities. Engineering (was) not (then) open to too many Orientals.”

“But then, the (contracting) firm I (started with) had a very minimum salary [and] was not able to even pay that salary. So it was fortunate that I had, at the University, taken up advanced (ROTC) [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] training (and) upon graduation had (received) a (reserve) commission in the Army.”

“The Corps of Engineers here needed (an additional) young man (for) their staff. The major in charge of the local office took a liking (to me) and hired me. So, I worked for five years (with the) Corps of Engineers on harbor work. But then, come the year ’35, (and) with increasing war consciousness, it was (thought) better that I stay back instead of being assigned to the (more sensitive) Pacific islands. (I was transferred) laterally to Hickam Field (where a military airfield was to be built).”

“But after eight years (with the) Federal civil service I shifted over (in 1938) to the first Territorial Planning Board. … There was (then) a national trend (in long-range planning) among the forty-eight states; all of them had state planning boards.”

“At that time (for the territory,) it was desirable to make an inventory of the resources – (geographic), social, economic, and industrial. So, using (Mainland state reports) as a pattern, the Territory of Hawaii made its own report. One of the important things about statewide planning is (that) unless it is implemented subsequently with (projects and funding) it (soon is) forgotten and filed away on shelves.”

“The Territorial Planning Board was a creature of the Legislature. The Legislature, realizing that war (was) imminent, decided there was not the need to put (further) human resources to further planning.  So, that office was closed in June 1941.”

“And rather than try to, in a frustrating manner, make a go in the government service with a career, I was advised, being still young, to try my luck out on my own. That’s how I started out.”

“I, having a reserve commission, approaching earning a captaincy, volunteered to (join) the military right (after) the Pearl Harbor (attack). But since my father and my younger brother (were) in Japan, (I was) not (a) welcome volunteer.”

Following the attack on Pearly Harbor, “the first year, we, together with couple other construction firms, produced these sixteen-men pre-fabricated (military) housing units. (Our company) must have produced a thousand of (them), which were fabricated in that block, (then a large empty lot), just makai of Blaisdell Center.”

“Army units would come, with their trucks, and haul (them away) and assemble (them) wherever they were assigned. And then, with that first year program over, came construction of warehouses, office additions, (a) cold storage building, hospital additions, all of which kept me busy. As I take inter-island plane trips and fly over [the island], I notice next to the airport, still standing and in use, many of the warehouses that (we) had built.”

Following the wars, “I ran for the Senate [in 1948]. There were six of us, and I didn’t qualify with the first three, but I didn’t come

in last. It [the campaign] was a last-minute assignment. It was not something which I had preplanned and programmed.”

“But as a result of that, I guess I won the respect of Mayor [John H.] Wilson. He invited me to succeed a department head who had reached compulsory retirement age. [But] at that time [because the position was] only a two-year appointment, requiring me to give up my business because it was too related, I had to thank the mayor and refuse it.”

“My business was something I had built up over a period of close to ten years. But when I went to see the mayor after, he told me to think it over. He (said), ‘Arthur, you are privileged to be an American citizen, and with it, you have had the benefit of public education and protection in police, health, and so on’”

“He would think, (that) when (one were) asked – and not many people get asked – there should be but one answer. And my answer to him was, irrespective of the way I felt, ‘Yes, sir.’” (From 1951 to 1955, Akinaka served two terms as a building department head.)  Following that, he remained in private practice for the rest of his career.

In his long engineering career, Arthur was recognized for not only his professional endeavors, but his contributions to the community. He dedicated his time and energy to various organizations including the UH Alumni Association, Kamehameha Lions Club, Kalihi-Palama Community Council, Kalihi YMCA, Advisory Group for the Prison Correctional Industries, and Board of Trustees for Kuakini Medical Center, to name a few. (Akinaka & Associates)

In 1966, the firm was incorporated and since 1984 led by his son, Robert Y. Akinaka.  Today, the company is a locally owned firm headed by Ken C. Kawahara. (Akinaka & Associates)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kawaihae Harbor

Kawaihae is also generally referenced as Pelekane, which means ‘British,’ possibly named after the Young and the Davis families who lived there (when Isaac Davis (born in Pembrokeshire, Wales) died in 1810, his friend and co-advisor to Kamehameha, John Young (an Englishman born in Liverpool,) looked after Davis’ children.)

The vicinity around what is now Kawaihae Harbor (“the water of wrath”) has been the scene of many important events, from the killing of Kamehameha’s rival and cousin, Keōua in 1791, to interactions with foreign visitors, including Captain George Vancouver of Great Britain, Otto von Kotzebue of Russia, and dignitaries from France, the United States and other nations.

Kamehameha had a house here.  Following his death in 1819 and the succession of Liholiho to rule as Kamehameha II, Kawaihae served as the initial Royal Center for Liholiho, who sought consolidation of his forces and consecration of his leadership role, there.  (Kelly)

When the Pioneer Company of the American Protestant missionaries arrived the next year, they first stopped at Kawaihae; this is where the missionaries first learned that the kapu system had been abolished and heiau were destroyed.

Kawaihae’s position as the center of inter-island trade and transport on northwest Hawai‘i is detailed in a description published in the Merchant’s Magazine and Commercial Review in 1858:

“Kawaihae is a small village in the bay of the same name in the western shore of Hawaii…It derives its importance from being the port of the rich and extensive grazing uplands of Waimea, one of the finest agricultural districts of the islands, which has not yet developed its full resources.”

“Forty or fifty whale ships have annually visited this port for the last few years, to procure salted beefs and Irish potatoes, which are considered the finest produced in the islands.“

Features of the village in 1861 were described by Charles de Varigny, the secretary of the French Consulate in Honolulu (who later served Kamehameha V as finance minister and minister of foreign affairs.)

Varigny observed how much of the village was given over to its commercial functions: “The village consists chiefly of a single large wooden structure which serves as a country store and warehouse for the products of the district. Around the shop are clustered several makeshift buildings providing annexes for further storage.”

“A small wharf serves for the departure and landing of travelers. At a short distance from shore floats an old stripped-down vessel, its melancholy hull balancing at anchor and providing storage for products arriving from Honolulu.” (pacificworlds)

Over time, Kawaihae and Waimea (up the hill) developed a synergistic relationship.  The area was a canoe landing area, whether for commerce or combat.  (This is where Maui’s chief Kamalālāwalu landed in his assault against Lonoikamakahiki’s Hawaiʻi forces (Lono won.))  But Kawaihae’s presence was really focused on commerce as a landing site.

A 1914 map of Kawaihae Village shows a concentration of development along the shoreline; the uplands of the Kawaihae region remained undeveloped pasture land.

During WWII war years (1941-1945,) Kawaihae’s role as the shipping outlet for Waimea was intensified.  Troops were shipped in and out through Kawaihae. At the southern end of the bay, in Kawaihae 2, amphibious landing exercises were conducted and military emplacements were set up in the area of Puʻukohola Heiau.

The war in the Pacific had been over less than a year when on April 1, 1946, an earthquake off the Aleutian Islands caused a tsunami that devastated the Hawaiian Islands.  Although no lives were lost at Kawaihae, its effects wiped out commercial fishing activity there and it was reported that the tsunami “…was the beginning of the end for the Kawaihae Fishing Village. People left.”  (Cultural Surveys)

The old landing had been destroyed in the 1946 tsunami and the one built in 1937 had proven unsafe in high seas. By the 1950s, the need for improved harbor facilities at Kawaihae was apparent.

The Kawaihae Deep-Draft Harbor project was authorized by the US Congress in 1950; to be constructed were: “an entrance channel 400 feet wide, approximately 2,900 feet long, and 40 feet deep; a harbor basin 1,250 feet square and 35 feet deep; and a breakwater with a maximum crest elevation 13 feet above low water and approximately 4,400 feet long, of which 3,200 feet would be protected with heavy stone revetment.”

The harbor was created by dredging part of an extensive coral reef which extended 4,000-feet seaward and ran along the shore more than a mile south of Kawaihae town; the reclaimed reef area created a coral flat peninsula that extends approximately 1,000-feet makai (seaward) of the piers across the natural reef, forming a beach along the south harbor boundary and terminating at the outer breakwater.

The harbor’s construction was hailed as an “economic shot in the arm,” for sugar planters in the Kohala region of the island would no longer had to ship their crops overland to Hilo or to Kailua-Kona. The harbor would serve military needs as well. The Army was about to acquire a 100,000-acre training site nearby and could unload supplies at Kawaihae Harbor.  (Cultural Surveys)

At the completion of construction in 1959 (officially dedicated on October 5, 1959,) the Kawaihae facilities included an inter-island terminal, mooring areas, and a large harbor basin with a wide entrance channel.  Harbor modifications in 1973 widened the entrance channel and enlarged the basin (a little over 71-acres.)

The South Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor entrance channel and 850-foot West breakwater was constructed as part of Operation Tugboat and completed in December 1970.  As part of Project Tugboat, the Army used conventional high explosives to blast an 830-foot entrance channel, 120-feet wide/12-feet deep and a 200 by 200-foot turning basin.

(“Project Tugboat” was conducted by the Army’s Nuclear Cratering Group; perhaps because of this, some suggest nuclear explosives were used to clear the small boat harbor.  However, twelve 10-ton charges of an aluminized ammonium nitrate slurry explosives (placed 36-feet deep and 100 to 120-feet apart) were used; they were meant to simulate the yield of a nuclear explosion, but were not radioactive.)

After years of delay, it was recently announced that a project to improve the eastern portion of Kawaihae Small Boat Harbor is moving forward.  Among the improvements are a 445-foot long floating dock, as well as a 47-foot-long access ramp, gangway and 25 berthing stalls. Later a paved access road and new water system is planned.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William (Will) Joseph Arthur Goodhue

“When we pause to consider that here is a studious and altogether competent observer who has had 18 consecutive years of constant and exclusive leprosy practice among 800 to 500 patients, constituting one of the largest segregated colonies in the world, we begin to realize the value of his accumulated experience and his opinions as a leprologist.” (Report of the Governor of Hawaii, To the Secretary of the Interior, 1914)

William (Will) Joseph Arthur Goodhue was born October 4, 1868 in Quebec, Canada and graduated from Rush and Dartmouth Colleges in medicine. He went to Hawaiʻi in 1902 as an intern practicing on Kauai.

He fell in love with Alice Saburo Hayashi, aged sixteen, and she ran off with him to Honolulu where he had been offered a job, and he set up a home with her in Pālama.  A child (William Goodhue George) was born in 1903; William paid child support, but did not marry Alice.

Dr Goodhue and John D McVeigh assumed the positions of Resident Physician and Superintendent of Kalaupapa.  Goodhue was not only a surgeon in the colony, but spent a great deal of time developing new treatments and improving upon old ones; several of his findings were published in medical journals.

In October 1905, Goodhue married Christina “Tina” Meyer, daughter of Henry and Victoria (Bannister) Meyer.  Tina was grand-daughter of Rudolph Wilhelm Meyer, prior Superintendent of the Kalawao settlement (Kalaupapa) (who served with Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope.)

Will and Tina had three children, all born at Kalaupapa: William Walter Goodhue, John D. Goodhue and Victoria Goodhue. They were later divorced.

Sister Leopoldina of Kalaupapa said of Goodhue, “We had been in the work nearly fifteen years and until Dr. Goodhue came we had never been assisted by a doctor only a very few times, as they were so much in dread of leprosy.”

“Dr. Goodhue, a true American brave and fearless, plunged into the work with strong will and whole heart doing wonderful work, and it became like a different place.”

The noted author, Jack London, visited the colony, and wrote of his friend, “Dr. Goodhue, the pioneer of leprosy surgery, is a hero who should receive every medal that every individual and every country has awarded for courage and life-saving. … I know of no other place … in the world, where the surgical work is being performed that Dr. Goodhue performs daily.”

“I have seen him take a patient, who in any other settlement or lazar house in the world, would from the complication of the disease die horribly in a week, or two weeks or three – I say, I have seen Dr. Goodhue, many times, operate on such a doomed creature, and give it life, not for weeks, not for months, but for years and years.”

But that is not all.  Goodhue used Alice Ball’s treatment of using chaulmoogra oil at Kalaupapa; and out of the five hundred and twelve patients, one hundred and seventy-five have been taking regular treatment.  (London)

(Ball isolated the ethyl ester of chaulmoogra oil (from the tree native to India) which, when injected, proved extremely effective in relieving some of the symptoms of Hansen’s disease.  Although not a full cure, Ball’s discovery was a significant victory in the fight against a disease.)

Goodhue, speaking to members of the legislature visiting Kalaupapa in 1921, said, “With two years’ chaulmoogra oil treatment, I believe sixty-five per cent of the chronic cases of leprosy on Molokaʻi can be cured.  And within ten years, all cases should be cured, and Kalaupapa be abandoned as a leper settlement.”

Once known as leprosy, the disease was renamed after Dr. Gerharad Armauer Hansen, a Norwegian physician, when he discovered the causative microorganism in 1873, the same year that Father Damien volunteered to serve at Kalaupapa.

Goodhue retired in 1925.  He had contacted Hansen’s disease and left Hawaiʻi for Shanghai, China, to visit his son who was attending college there (he did not wish to be confined to the leper colony where he had worked all those years on Molokaʻi.)

He lived there on his pension and died of a heart attack on March 17, 1941. He had made the request that if he should not recover to bury him there.  (Lots of info here from NPS.)

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by Peter T Young 5 Comments

James Wight

James Wight was born in India in 1814 of Scotch-Irish parentage; he received liberal education at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1836.

At 22 years of age, he went to Australian with the intention of practicing his profession as physician, but his interest was for business pursuits.  After thirteen years practicing medicine, there he abandoned the profession and migrated to Hawaiʻi.  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

Wight, with the initial intent to go to the gold fields of California, came to Hawaiʻi in 1850 with his wife (Jane Tompkins Wight – formerly of Cape Colony, South Africa, now called Cape of Good Hope.)

On August 2, 1850, they went from Honolulu to Kawaihae and from there to Mahukona in an open boat.

While attempting to land ashore at Mahukona on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, the small boat was ship wrecked during a storm.  Their 13-month old daughter Ada Wight drowned during the tragedy.

Once ashore, Dr. Wight was made aware of white parishioners living close by. He made the decision to venture out and get help for his ailing family.  (Restarick)

They were given a grass house and there during the night, Jane Wight gave birth to a child while the dead one lay in the room.  (The Wights had 13 children, six of whom died before they were grown.)

The Wights were persuaded to stay in Hawaiʻi; he became an influential community leader, serving as postmaster, circuit judge (1852-1863,) representative to the territorial government (1886) and a member of the house of noble (1886-87.)  In the House, he was noted for his independent stand and those were trying times.

He enjoyed remarkably good health during his long life and Dr. Wight’s home was noted for its hospitality. His word was his bond and during his long residence he was seldom involved in litigation. Of the thousands who have been in his employ, all speak of him as a generous though firm employer.

Although he had no inclination to practice medicine, he was always ready to assist any sufferer needing the services of a physician.    (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

He had initially established a store with a pharmacy and carried on business until 1884, when he sold it to SG Wilder.  Wight then turned his business interest to land investments and Hawaiʻi’s emerging sugar and cattle industries.

He became interested in sugar when the Kohala Plantation was started and paid quite an interest in that concern. He established the Hālawa Plantation and conducted it for a number of years.    (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)

Wight bought Puakea and built the first animal mill on the Island to process sugar and began raising cattle.  (Wight’s daughter Clara and her husband Howard Rattenbury Bryant continued the cultivation of sugar cane at Puakea until 1930 when the last crop was milled and the operation closed.)  Parker Ranch later leased the Puakea lands from the Estate and finally purchased the ranch in 1944.

Wight was reportedly one of the first to import orchids from England and ironwood trees from Australia.  Mrs. Wight owned the first carriage seen in Kohala. It had a single seat with a perch forward for the driver.

In approximately 1860, the family purchased a large parcel of land that looked out over the ocean on which to build their homestead.

They built a home, Greenbank, on 22-acres in Kohala; it was once a showcase home and social center of the Kohala district for many years.  (The property is reportedly haunted; a stone shark god idol at the property was later given to Bishop Museum.)

Several buildings were added to the estate, including additional residence, caretaker quarters and a carriage house for his buggy. Later years would include a greenhouse adjacent to the main house where some of the first botanical species in the state were grown.

Dr. James Wight passed away on the morning of September 2, 1905 at Kohala; he was the oldest and one of the most respected of the foreign settlers in that district.

He had been closely identified with the progress of the islands for more than fifty-five years.  (Hawaiian Gazette, September 5, 1905)  (Lots of images and information here from greenbankhawaii.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Interisland Air Passengers

“Until 1929, people traveled between the Hawaiian Islands by steamboat, schooner, or outrigger canoe. But seas could be rough and the trip took days.” (Michelle Liu)

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi.  Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.

As long-distance voyaging declined, the need shifted from voyaging canoes to large canoes for chiefly visits and warfare within the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in changes in canoe design.

Then, competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different steam ship routes, rather than engage in head-to-head competition.

Inter-Island operated the Kauai and Oʻahu ports plus some on Hawaiʻi.  Wilder took Molokai, Lānai and Maui plus Hawaiʻi ports not served by Inter-Island. Both companies stopped at Lāhainā, Māʻalaea Bay and Makena on Maui’s leeward coast.  (HawaiianStamps)

Mahukona, Kawaihae and Hilo were the Big Island’s major ports; Inter-Island served Kona ports, Kaʻū ports and the Hāmākua ports of Kukuihaele, Honokaʻa and Kūkaʻiau.  Wilder served Hilo and the Hāmākua stops at Paʻauhau, Paʻauilo and Laupāhoehoe.

Then, on April 27, 1927, “Mr and Mrs WE Eklund of Hilo are returning home from Maui this morning via airplane. They are passengers on the first commercial airplane trip to be made between the two islands, their pilot being Martin M Jensen.” (Star Bulletin, April 27, 1927)

Jensen was in the Islands as a result of the Dole Derby.  In April 1927, the Hawaiian Pineapple Co began a national advertising campaign, independent of the Association of Hawaiian Pineapple Canners.

The advertisements were centered on the brand name “Dole,” which was stamped in bas-relief on the top of every can of pineapple produced by the company. The advertising was designed to enable consumers to identify the Hawaiian Pineapple Co’s products from other company’s products, no matter what label the can carried.

The advertising campaign was launched in a spectacular way.  At the time, Charles Lindbergh successfully completed his solo flight across the Atlantic, leaving New York and landing at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, on May 21 at 10:21 pm. Thousands of cheering people had gathered to meet him. He had flown more than 3,600 miles in 33 ½ hours.

On May 25, 1927 James D. Dole offered $25,000 to the first flyer to cross from the North American continent to Honolulu, Hawai‘i, in a nonstop flight (second place would receive $10,000.)

Four airplanes were in the race, winging across the Pacific: Aloha, Golden Eagle, Miss Doran and Woolaroc … later, only two landed in Hawai‘i. (Woolaroc  was the first finisher that landed August 17, 1927 at Wheeler Field after a flight of 26 hours, 17 minutes and 33 seconds.)

Honolulu’s Martin Jensen in the Aloha, with Paul Schluter as navigator finished second.  The Aloha was previously christened with a bottle of Waikiki water, complete with Hawaiian singers and hula dancers.

Miss Ruby Smith, an Oakland beauty queen, broke the bottle amidst Hawaiian strains and dances.  Jensen was particularly proud of the painted Hawaiian flower lei which draped comfortably around the plane’s nose.

Unfortunately, the other two contestants were lost, Dole put up a $10,000 reward for anyone finding each of the missing planes. A huge search party was set up, soon swelling to 42 ships and planes.  The search was to no avail.

In Honolulu, the following day, the Star Bulletin carried James Dole’s statement: “Hawaii is on the lips of the world today, in the minds of countless millions of people.”

“Aviation during this year 1927 has definitely brought our own Hawaiian territory closer than ever before into the consciousness of the whole American people.  Time and distance between Hawaii and the Pacific Coast are magically shortened.”

“I feel that this has great practical as well as sentimental value to the people of Hawaii.  Business and commerce, social and civic relations, national and international contacts, are the better served, the more greatly inspired and stimulated.”

“Mrs Walter Eklund, now of Kona, was to become the first woman in Hawaii to make an inter-island trip by commercial plane.  Mr Eklund in May, 1927 persuaded Jensen to give him and his wife a ride in Jensen’s plane from Wailuku, Maui to Hilo.”

“Eklund, manager of the then Von Hamm-Young Motor Co, and his wife crossed the Channel in Jensen’s one-engine Lewis plane, the ‘Malolo.’ They landed on Wainaku baseball field (Ho‘olulu Park) without difficulty.”  (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Nov 3, 1965)

Mr and Mrs Ralph Wilson of Wailuku (he was Von Hamm-Young manager on Maui) took the return flight back to Maui. “‘Mr. Jensen made one little flight to warm up his plane. Again we crawled in, baggage and Mary Louise.  Out hopped directly over the ocean leaving out of sight almost instantly the few who had gathered down to see us take off wondering.’”

“‘Mary Louise looked down at the water, misgivingly, ‘Mother are we, going to fall in the water’ l assured her that the man was holding the plane up, so she cuddled down into my arms and went to sleep.’” (Wilson, HTH May 15, 1927)

“Inter-Island commercial flying, with passenger and mail service, is not far distant. This is the declaration of all who follow the signs of the future, for the prospects for such progress are excellent at this time. An appropriation of $25,000 has been made for the field at Waiakea, and when this is in shape, the last link in inter-island aviation will have been made.” (HTH, May 15, 927)

In 1928, Stanley C Kennedy, a Silver Star Navy pilot, convinced the board of directors of Inter-Island Steam Navigation of the importance of air service to the Territory and formed Inter-Island Airways.

Young Kennedy had visions of flying for many years.  But it was not until the Great War that Stanley Kennedy was to pilot an airplane.  Dissatisfied with a Washington desk job, the naval officer talked his way into flight training in Pensacola, Florida.  In short order, Ensign Kennedy sported wings as Naval Aviator No. 302.  (hawaii-gov)

On November 11, 1929, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd introduced the first scheduled air service in Hawaiʻi with a fleet of two 8-passenger Sikorsky S-38 amphibian airplanes. The first flight from Honolulu to Hilo with stops on Molokai and Maui took three hours, 15 minutes.  (It was later renamed Hawaiian Airlines.) (hawaii-gov)

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