Place Names | Page 103 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 21, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Mokulua

Mokulua (meaning, “the two islands”) are two islets off the windward coast of O‘ahu.

They are also commonly known as “The Mokes” or the “Twin Islands.” They are about a mile off Lanikai.

The larger island is also known as Moku Nui, Big Moke and Two Humps (13-acre land area.)

The smaller island is also known as Moku Iki, Baby Moke and One Hump (9-acre land area.)

The Mokulua islands are part of the summit caldera of the Ko‘olau shield volcano that slid into the ocean in one or a series of massive landslides more than a million years ago.

In what scientists call the Nu‘uanu Debris Avalanche, a landslide sheared off a third of O‘ahu and swept material more than 140 miles north of O’ahu and Moloka’i.

The Mokulua Islands, large basaltic outcrops from the sea floor, are located about 4,000 feet offshore and rise approximately 200 feet above sea level.

These old offshore islets (as well as many others off O‘ahu and around the Neighbor Islands) form the Hawai‘i State Seabird Sanctuary, created to protect the thousands of seabirds who seek refuge in and around the main Hawaiian Islands.

The majority of seabird-nesting colonies in the main Hawaiian Islands are located on the offshore islands, islets and rocks. Many of these offshore islands are part of the Hawaii State Seabird Sanctuary System.

These sanctuaries protect seabirds, Hawaiian Monk seals, migrating shorebirds, and native coastal vegetation. These small sanctuary areas represent the last vestiges of a once widespread coastal ecosystem that included the coastlines of all the main Hawaiian Islands. (DLNR)

Mokulua are primary nesting sites for ‘Ua‘u kani (Wedge-tailed Shearwater) and ‘Ou (Bulwer’s Petrel.)

The Wedge-tailed Shearwater is a dusky brown bird with white breast feathers, long and thin wings, a hooked bill and a wedge-shaped tail.

The wailing sound made by these birds at their burrows at night inspired the Hawaiian name, which means “calling or moaning petrel.”

The Bulwer’s Petrel has long pointed wings, a long pointed tail, a black bill and pale short legs. Adult males and females are overall sooty-brown, with a pale bar across the proximal half of upper wings.

Multiple commercial operations cater to the Mokulua-bound kayakers and provide equipment rental and guided eco-tours. Permits are required to land any business-oriented vessel at the regulated sanctuaries.

The sandy beach at Moku Nui is a destination for thousands of (resident and visitor) kayakers, surfers, and boaters every year.

Clearly marked paths on the shoreline of Mokulua North are the only places visitors are allowed to walk. In addition to the no alcohol rules, bringing dogs to the islet, camping and campfires are prohibited.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

MokuluaIslands-Lanikai-Kailua

Lanikai

Lanikai-SDASM Archives (Karle Criss)

Lanikai-Mokulua

Lanikai_Monument-(gokailuamagazine)-1925

House lots for sale in Lanikai at the intesection of Mokalua and Aalapapa Drive. Photo from Lisa Cates

Mokulua-Lightning_Strikes

Lanikai-Beach-(elstika)

February 20, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaniakapūpū

Kaniakapūpū (translated roughly as “sound (or song) of the land shells”) sits on land managed by the State of Hawaii, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, as the Honolulu Watershed Forest Reserve and a Restricted Watershed.

Located in the Luakaha area of Nu‘uanu Valley, O‘ahu, Kaniakapūpū is the ruins of the royal summer palace of King Kamehameha III (Kauikeaouli) and Queen Kalama. Before that, it was the site of a heiau used for healing (heiau hoʻōla) since ancient times.

The structure at Kaniakapūpū (modeled on an Irish stone cottage) was completed in 1845 and is reportedly built on top or in the vicinity of an ancient heiau. It was a simple cottage, a square with four straight walls.

During the Battle of Nu‘uanu in 1795, the forces of King Kamehameha I engaged the warriors of Kalanikupule at Luakaha, some say this was a turning point of that great struggle.

In 1847, as part of an event observing an anniversary of Restoration Day or Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (celebrating sovereignty being returned to the Kingdom of Hawaii by the British,) Kaniakapūpū was the site of celebration hosted by the King and with guests in attendance in excess of 10,000 people (reportedly, the largest lūʻau ever recorded.)

It is rumored that Kamehameha III may have drafted the Great Mahele here, the land reforms implemented in 1848 that abolished the ahupua‘a system and allowed for private land ownership.

Today, stone ahu or mounds sit just across Lulumahu Stream, marking what many believe to be grave markers of fallen warriors.

The gravesites, the location of the original heiau known as Kaniakapūpū and the placement of the King’s summer palace all attest to the significance of this very special place.

Kaniakapūpū has been placed on both the National and State of Hawaii’s Register of Historic Places.

On November 13, 2002, the burial mounds were brought to the attention of the Oʻahu Island Burial Council. After full discussion, several motions were adopted which would assist in the preservation of Kaniakapūpū and the burial mounds.

When I was at DLNR, we presented and the Land Board unanimously approved (December 8, 2006) the establishment of a Kokua Partnership Agreement with Aha Hui Mālama O Kaniakapūpū.

Aha Hui Mālama O Kaniakapūpū is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Hawaiian cultural traditions through the conservation of native ecosystems.

Through this partnership, Aha Hui Mālama O Kaniakapūpū would take responsibility for the maintenance and ongoing stewardship of Kaniakapūpū, its immediate surrounding area and the burial mounds located across of Lulumahu Stream.

Aha Hui Mālama O Kaniakapūpū was charged with creating controlled access which would be obtained by permit consistent with the Restricted Watershed rules and would be supervised by a member of the Hui who could also act in a curator capacity.

A plaque placed at the site reads,”Kaniakapūpū – Summer Palace of King Kamehameha III and his Queen Kalama Completed in 1845, it was the scene of entertainment of foreign celebrities the feasting of chiefs and commoners.”

“The greatest of these occasions was a luau attended by an estimated ten thousand people celebrating Hawaiian Restoration Day in 1847.”

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Kaniakapupu

Kaniakapupu-(joy)

Kaniakapupu

Kaniakapupu-layout-map

February 12, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whippoorwill Expedition

“When the USS Whippoorwill left Honolulu at 5 o’clock on the afternoon of Thursday, July 24 (1924), carrying scientists who were to make a survey of the Line islands for the Bishop Museum, the vessel headed first to Fanning.”

“Halfway between the Hawaiian group and the atolls of the southern Pacific, the Line islands, coral-bound, are strewn on the bosom of an equatorial sea. Stepping-stones, as it were, up from the lazy latitudes.” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

Line Islands, chain of coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, some of which belong to Kiribati and some of which are claimed as unincorporated territories belonging to the US

“There is Palmyra, the northernmost, where a man may joust with land crabs measuring 14 inches in diameter. There is Washington, the little paradise, which is as beautiful as any island in Polynesia.”

“There is Jarvis, the desolate; where the broken schooner Amaranth, tossed up nearly a dozen years ago, lies bleaching in the sun of endless days.”

“There is Christmas where, in company with native divers, one may wrest the bearing pearl shell from the coral bottom of the lagoon; where the pickled awa float, belly upwards, on the waters of an inland lake, and where the Bay of Wrecks on the reef-set, windward shore, offers convincing evidence, century-old.” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

The Navy Department assigned the minesweeper Whippoorwill, under Captain W. J. Poland, to survey the Line Islands; the first group left Honolulu on July 24, 1924.

The scientific personnel were under the leadership of Charles H. Edmondson, and the members of the group concentrated on zoology, botany, conchology, entomology, and geology.

Edmondson came to Hawaii in 1920 with a joint appointment as professor of zoology and director of the Marine Biology Laboratory of the newly constituted University and as zoologist at the Bishop Museum. (UH)

The second group, with C Montague Cooke, Jr., in charge of the scientific personnel, left Honolulu on September 15, 1924 and visited Baker and Howland Islands.

“‘We had three objectives,’” Dr Edmondson said, in explanation’ and they were Christmas, Jarvis and Washington. The scientific work on Fanning had been well covered by Sr Stanley C Ball and myself in 1922 and Palmyra had been investigated by other parties – Dr CM Cooke Jr, and Professor Joseph E Rock in 1913, and Lorrin A Thurston, ‘Ted’ Dranga and David Thaanum a couple of years ago.”

“Dranga went diving for pearl shell. … ‘I saw a couple of natives diving,’ he said, ‘and I jumped into a skiff and rowed out to them. … ‘Sharks? One must expect that. But we kept close to the boat. … No I didn’t find any pearls.’”

“‘Pearls are scarce and one might get hundreds of shells before finding a single one. Sharks add to the fun of pearl-diving,’ he admitted, ‘but I, for one, would have appreciated the sport a great deal more it there had been none of the beasts around.’” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

A good deal of material in the natural sciences and geology was collected, and the ensuing reports were published by Bishop Museum. Notes on and a location map of some archaeological remains on Howland were made for future study.

“(T)he navy boat docked at Honolulu at 9 o’clock on the evening of the twenty-seventh. Dor Edmondson announced that the expedition had been a conspicuous success.”

“‘The real research work will take a long time, Edmondson concluded, ‘but it is certain that every collection we made will give us a clearer insight into the distribution of plant and marine forms in the Pacific and will aid, ultimately, in the solution of the problem of the origin and migrations of the Polynesians.’” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

Landing at Washington Island, from the Whippoorwill Expedition-PP-46-2-001

Whippoorwill_(AT-O–169)

Location-of-the-five-US-Line-and-Phoenix-Islands-PRIA

February 10, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Lighting Strikes Twice

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands.

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

In the early 19th century, whaling voyages often took two years or more.

George Pollard was captain of the Essex, a Nantucket whaling vessel that sank in 1821 after being rammed by a sperm whale in the South Pacific.

The Essex’s epic tale inspired Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick;” however, the author isn’t believed to have used Pollard as the basis for the book’s notorious Captain Ahab.

After the tragedy of the Essex, Captain George Pollard and other survivors endured a 95-day journey in small boats that resulted in sickness, starvation, and, ultimately, cannibalism. However, this dramatic experience was not the final chapter in Pollard’s career as a whaling captain.

Despite the Essex tragedy, Pollard was offered another captaincy soon after, this time of the Two Brothers; before departing, Pollard had said he believed “lightning never strikes in the same place twice.”

Such was not the case.

The Two Brothers set sail for the Pacific, leaving Nantucket on November 26, 1821. By winter 1822, the ship had rounded the tip of South America. The crew was on its way to newly discovered whaling grounds near Japan; she made her way around Cape Horn, then up the west coast of South America.

On the night of February 11, 1823, the Two Brothers hit a shallow reef at French Frigate Shoals (nearly six hundred miles northwest of Honolulu in what is now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.)

The ship broke apart in the heavy surf. Stunned by the disaster and by his horrible misfortune, Captain Pollard was reluctant to abandon the ship. The crew pleaded with their captain to get into the small boats, to which they clung for survival throughout the night.

The entire crew of Two Brothers was rescued by an accompanying ship, the Martha, and they headed back to Oʻahu.

In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists made an exciting discovery at French Frigate Shoals. Following over three weeks of successful survey in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the team began to explore for new shipwreck sites at French Frigate Shoals using tow board surveys in an area near a historic anchorage.

Within minutes of the first tow, the divers spotted a large anchor in approximately 15-feet of water. The age and size of this anchor gave the impression that it was not simply left as a mooring in an anchorage.

After snorkeling around in the area, the team came across the first clue that this site was more than a lone anchor: a blubber pot set into a hole in the reef top. This discovery initiated a larger survey of the area, and soon two more was found.

At the time, researchers did not know the identity of the find. Three whaling ships, all American vessels, have been reported lost at French Frigate Shoals: the South Seaman, wrecked in 1859; the Daniel Wood, wrecked in 1867; and the Two Brothers.

It wasn’t until May of 2010 when a small team was able to return to the site that maritime archaeologists began to believe they were indeed looking at the scattered remains of the Two Brothers.

During the 2010 inspection, the team uncovered more tools of whaling on the seafloor, including four more whaling harpoon tips (for a total of five), four whaling lances, ceramics, glass, and a sounding lead (among dozens of other artifacts) all dating to an 1820s time period.

The preponderance of evidence suggested to the team that they were looking at the Two Brothers, the only American whaler lost at French Frigate Shoals in the 1820s.

Pollard gave up whaling, though he was just in his mid-30s, and returned to Nantucket, Mass., where he became a night watchman – a position of considerably lower status in the whaling town than captain.

This and other American whaling ships lost in Papahānaumokuākea are the material remains of a time when America possessed over 700 whaling vessels and over one fifth of the United States whaling fleet may have been composed of Pacific Islanders.

The whaling shipwreck sites in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands help tell this part of Hawaiian and Pacific history, and remind us about the way that this remote part of the United States is connected with small communities in New England half way around the world.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

A sketch by Thomas Nickerson depicting the attack and sinking of the ship Essex-(NOAA)

Two-Brothers-Ginger-Jar-(NationalGeographic)

Two-Brothers-Cooking-Pot-(NationalGeographic)

Two-Brothers-Blubber-Hook-(NationalGeographic)

Two-Brothers-Anchor-(NationalGeographic)

The sinking of the Essex was the inspiration for Melville’s Moby-Dick

Two_Brothers-(sott-net)

French_Frigate_Shoals-(NOAA)

Site plan of the southern section of the Two Brothers shipwreck site completed 2010-(NOAA)

February 6, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Laysan Island Cyclorama

“Almost exactly in the middle of the Pacific, midway between our Pacific coast and Japan, there is a small island, a coral atoll with a surface of about three and a half square miles, which supports perhaps the most dense bird population in the world”.

“Here, on a level plain from which every vestige of vegetation has been worn away, is a mass of these great birds nearly a square mile in extent. He may have seen birds before by the thousand, perhaps by tens of thousands; but surely not literally by the million!”

“(A)lbatrosses, some two million of them, are by no means the most numerous bird inhabitants of this great oceanic aviary. Most of the surface, save that just described, is covered with a coarse, sedge-like, tufted grass among which several millions of terns of about six species, have their homes.”

“In another place is an exceedingly picturesque bit of rocky scenery in which the immaculately white “love birds” have established a rookery. These, unlike other terns are silent birds, and hover like great white butterflies close above the visitor, silently inspecting him without either fear or anger.”

“A very different scene presents itself in the rookery of the great, greenblack ‘man-o-war birds,’ the outcasts and pirates of this oceanic aviary. Graceful beyond compare while on the wing, they have a particularly savage and cruel aspect when seen at close quarters on their nests.”

“But any description of the scene would be inexcusably defective were we to omit mention of the weird color effects produced by the combination of the snow white coral sand, the dark green vegetation, and the intense blue of the tropic sky …”

“… often mottled with purple clouds; while embracing all is the thundering surf of intense green, white crested waves near shore, and, further out, the wonderful deep blue of the Pacific.”

“Try as we may; this scene can not be described, and as day after day the wonder of it grew and deepened, the writer found constantly recurring and intensifying the great desire to have it reproduced as a masterpiece of art for the benefit of the State University and the people of Iowa.”

“And then the ‘Laysan Island scheme’ had its birth.”

“To any one who has seen a really good cyclorama, such as that of the “Battle of Gettysburg,” where the observer gazes upon hundreds of thousands of men and miles of space, a veritable miracle of vast numbers in intense action …”

“… the actual figures in the foreground so skillfully joined to the painted background as to deceive the very elect, the ‘Laysan Island’ scheme will make an immediate appeal.”

“The plan is, briefly, to construct in our new museum a cyclorama of Laysan Island. … It was with the Laysan idea in view that room was reserved for this exhibit in the north end of ‘Bird Hall’ in the new museum, and marked ‘Laysan Room’ in the plans.” (Nutting; Iowa Alumnus, 1909)

“Laysan Island Cyclorama offers a 360-degree view of Laysan, an outpost of the Hawaiian atoll and a bird sanctuary, at its heyday, when it boasted 8 million birds of 22 different species in 1.5 square miles.”

“In 1902 Charles Nutting, director of the UI Museum of Natural History, first traveled to Laysan as a scientific advisor to a government expedition. He was so inspired by the multitudes of terns, albatrosses, finches, boobies, and other birds that he vowed to re-create the scene in Iowa City.”

“Nutting led the UI in a nine-year fundraising campaign. Laysan frequently made headlines in The Daily Iowan. In 1909, the football team even performed a skit at a lecture on Hawaii to raise funds for the trip.”

“In 1911, Nutting sent Homer Dill, who managed the museum’s bird and mammal collections, along with UI students Horace Young and Clarence Albrecht and muralist Charles Corwin back to Laysan to gather specimens for an exhibit.”

“The party found the island very different from the paradise Nutting had described almost a decade earlier. In addition to evidence of feather poaching, rabbits introduced by a guano miner in 1903 had overwhelmed the island, stripping it of its vegetation and decimating insect populations.”

“Lacking food and shelter, some seabirds took flight to other islands, but land birds were unable to fly the long distances to other islands.”

“Despite this, Dill returned to Iowa City with 36 large crates of specimens (total of 398 birds representing 23 species), including plants and sand. Museum studies students handcrafted thousands of wax leaves for the display, and Corwin painted a 138-foot-long backdrop.” (The mounting of the 106 birds and installation of the cyclorama foreground required nearly three years.)

“When it opened, the cyclorama was one of the first in the world to feature a natural theme and is one of a handful of cycloramas still existing today.”

“In 1912, UI sophomore Alfred Bailey returned to the island, but ran out of poison and ammunition, barely affecting the rabbit population.”

“In 1923 the Tanager Expedition killed the last of the rabbits on Laysan Island — too late for the Laysan rail, Laysan honeycreeper and Laysan millerbird, which went extinct due to the devastation. Two more species, the Laysan finch and the Laysan duck, remain endangered. All of these species are featured in the Cyclorama.”

“No major modifications have been made to the cyclorama, but renovations in the early 2000s included the addition of interpretive signs and a soundtrack of bird calls of all 22 living and extinct species that have inhabited the island. While museum staff have hand-cleaned parts of the background mural, no major conservation work has been done.” (U of Iowa)

Over 100-years later, Laysan Island Cyclorama, on the third Floor, West End of Hageboeck Hall of Birds in the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History, is still open.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger