Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Falls Of Clyde

News on Falls of Clyde prompts me to bring her story back …

She was launched December 12, 1878 by shipbuilders Russell & Co at Port Glasgow, Scotland; the four-masted, full-rigged ship Falls of Clyde became part of the Falls Line fleet – all of which were named after Scottish waterfalls.

Falls of Clyde has a wrought-iron hull with a net tonnage of 1,748 tons and has a registered length of 266-feet, with a 40-foot beam and a 23.5-foot depth of hold.

She was rated the highest rating the maritime insurance firm could provide (Lloyd’s of London.)

Used for trade between Britain and India, the ship was under the British flag and journeyed into the Pacific, stopping at Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Falls of Clyde made 10 voyages to American ports while under the British flag.  Sailing to San Francisco and Portland for wheat, she also made one voyage to New York. The voyages to San Francisco were particularly important, for they involved the ship in one of the United States and Britain’s most significant maritime trades, the California grain trade.

She was later sold to Captain William Matson in 1898 with plans to be used for the lucrative sugar trade between Hawaiʻi and the continent.  However, according to US law, Falls of Clyde needed American registry to trade between American ports, a right denied to foreign-built and registered vessels.

“The four masted iron ship Falls of Clyde (under the command of Captain Matson,) floating the Hawaiian flag, the Oceanic Steamship Company’s pennant and her own signal letters, came into the harbor at 10 o’clock this morning.  … “

“The Falls of Clyde brings about 1,000 tons or general merchandise, a large part of which is machinery for the Honolulu plantation.  She also brings 40 mules and 8 horses for the plantation and a stallion for W. G. Irwin & Co.”  (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1899)

“She is the first four masted Iron ship with yards on each mast that ever came into this harbor flying the Hawaiian flag. Her authority for flying this flag is a temporary register Issued to her by Hawaiian Consul General Wilder at San Francisco.”  (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1899)

A special provision was added to the 1900 ‘Organic Act;’ Section 98 of the Act states: “That all vessels carrying Hawaiian registers on the twelfth day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and which were owned bona fide by citizens of the United States, or the citizens of Hawaii …”

“… together with the following-named vessels claiming Hawaiian register, Star of France, Euterpe, Star of Russia, Falls of Clyde, and Wilscott, shall be entitled to be registered as American vessels, with the benefits and privileges appertaining thereto, and …”

“…the coasting trade between the islands aforesaid and any other portion of the United States, shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of law applicable to such trade between any two great coasting districts.”

Converted to US registry, Falls of Clyde then was involved in the Hawaiian transpacific sugar trade for Matson Navigation Co.  She carried people, too.

Her cargo hold was not limited to the sugar plantation business; just as modern Matson ships bring in assorted cargo that fill a variety of shelves across the islands, the Falls of Clyde supplied the Islands with various goods that filled the needs of the past.

Here’s a brief summary of an early manifest: “The ship Falls of Clyde sailed yesterday for Hilo with an assorted cargo valued at $23,599 and including the following: 95 bbls flour, 41 ctls wheat, 914 ctls barley, 231 bales hay, 18,521 lbs bran, 12 ctls corn, 75,000 lbs rice, 12 tons salt, 6492 gals wine, 900 lbs lard, 25 cs canned goods, 189,947 lbs fertilizer, 114,174 ft lumber, 38,000 lbs cement, 4200 lbs tobacco, 550 gals distillate, 65 cs gasoline, 150 cs coal oil, 101 cs assorted oils, 100 bxs soap, 1 cs arms and ammunition, 15 pkgs agricultural implements, 3 pkgs machinery, 3 rolls leather, 50 sks coal, 75 pkgs wagon material, 10 pkgs millwork, 6 cs matches, 25 bales paper, 85 kegs white lead, 20 cs paints, 6 pkgs dry goods, 4 pkgs bicycles and parts, 3 bales twine, 1 cs shoes, 30 mules.” (San Francisco Call, February 19, 1905)

The four-masted vessel, originally rigged as a ship, was down-rigged to a bark; in addition, Matson modified and built a large wooden deckhouse forward and a charthouse on the poop deck.

She carried sugar from Hilo to San Francisco until 1906 when the Associated Oil Company (a group of 45 independent oil producers in which Matson had an interest) bought the ship and in 1907 Falls of Clyde was once again modified when she was converted into a sailing oil tanker.

Associated Oil added 10-tanks within the hull, a boiler room and a pump room with a carrying capacity close to 750,000-gallons.  She also carried molasses from Hilo to San Francisco over the next 13 years.

In 1921, she was sold to the General Petroleum Corporation who, after dismasting, then used her as a floating petroleum barge in Ketchikan, Alaska.

General Petroleum reorganized as Socony-Vacuum (now Mobil Oil) in 1959 and developed new shore facilities at Ketchikan. No longer needed, Falls of Clyde was again sold and towed to Seattle, and laid up.

After several attempts to save the ship of the fate of being scuttled as a breakwater, a group of civic and historic-minded folks in Hawaiʻi, aided by funds from the Matson Navigation Co. and other donations (spearheaded by the Friends of Falls of Clyde,) purchased and returned the ship to Honolulu in 1963.

With lots of voluntary help she was restored, remasted and rerigged and, under management of Bishop Museum, in 1970 she was opened to the public at Pier 5.

Damaged by Hurricane Iwa in 1982, she was moved to Pier 7, and over the course of a few years she was restored and became the centerpiece of the Hawaiʻi Maritime Center, moored at Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor.

Maintaining any boat is expensive, particularly one that dates to the late-1800s.

The Friends of Falls of Clyde mobilized and rallied, again, and on September 25, the Museum’s Board of Directors approved the sale to the Friends, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Falls of Clyde.  (The Friends took ownership of the Falls of Clyde from Bishop Museum on September 30, 2008.)

“The ship Falls of Clyde (FOC) was placed on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places (HRHP) and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1973. It was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1989 because of its exceptional national significance as the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat in the world.” (HHF)

On June 28, 2023 the State of Hawai‘i Department of Transportation announced that it will seek to remove the Falls of Clyde from the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. The Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board recently met to address an application to delist the Falls of Clyde.

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation testified, “If the Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board concurs with HDOT’s finding and subsequently takes action to remove the ship from the state register of historic places, only one of its five designations would be affected.”

“Removing the listing from the Hawai‘i Register would have no effect on the national designations, which are governed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. FOC would still be listed on the National Register and as a National Historic Landmark.” (HHF)

Let’s remember the bottom line … Falls of Clyde is the world’s only surviving four-masted, full-rigged ship and is the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat.  (Lots of information and images from NPS, Historic Hawaiʻi and Friends of Falls of Clyde.)

Physical things help us see things. Losing the last means we no longer ‘see’ her to remember her.

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Toilet Paper, Bottled Water …

Folks in Hawai‘i have developed a scarcity mentality – whenever the wind blows, it rains hard or someone gets a hint of a possible dock strike on the West Coast there is a run on toilet paper, bottled water and any number of ‘essentials.’

Maui Mento Braddah helps show this …

“Historically the first modern toilet paper was made in 1391, when it was created for the needs of the Chinese Emperor family. Each sheet of toilet paper was even perfumed. That was toilet paper as we have come to think of it.”

“In the late fifteenth century, paper became widely available. However, mass manufacturing of modern toilet paper began in the late 19th century.”

“Joseph C. Gayetty created the first commercially packaged toilet paper in 1857. His toilet papers were loose, flat, sheets of paper. Joseph founded The Gayetty Firm for toilet paper production in New Jersey and his first factory-made toilet paper was ‘The Therapeutic Paper.’”

“Thomas Seymour, Edward Irvin and Clarence Wood Scott began selling some kind of toilet paper in Philadelphia in 1867. In 1879, Scott brothers founded the Scott Paper Company. The Scott Paper Company’s toilet paper was the first toilet paper sold in rolls. In 1890 the Scott Paper Company made its Waldorf brand toilet paper in rolls.”

“In 1871, Zeth Wheeler patents rolled and perforated toilet paper. In 1877 he founded the Albany Perforated Wrapping Paper Company. In 1897, company began selling and marketing standard perforated toilet paper on a roll.”  (Toilet Paper History)

The average person in the US uses about 100 rolls of toilet paper each year. The US has been mass producing toilet paper since the late 1800s. And while other industries like shoe manufacturing have fled the country, toilet paper manufacturing has not. Today there are almost 150 US companies making this product.  (Zagorsky)

“In Honolulu the issue is tissue. And you don’t ask for the salt and pepper. You ask for salt and paper.”

“Toilet paper and salt have all but vanished from the shelves of Hawaii’s stores as a result of the 100‐day West Coast shipping strike that has largely cut off the fleet of ships that normally brings supplies to Hawaii from San Francisco, 2,400 miles east.” (NY Times Oct 19, 1971)

But we have not been alone; back in 1974, “Johnny Carson told his faithful late-night television audience. ‘But have you heard the latest? I’m not kidding. I saw it in the paper. There’s a shortage of toilet paper.’” (NY Times, Feb 3, 1974)

“The day after Carson read the clipping (and made a few jokes) about the ‘toilet paper shortage’ people didn’t realize the story had been about commercial toilet paper and there was a surge of panic buying of consumer-grade toilet paper.”

“This resulted in the stores selling out of the toilet paper they had on the shelves — which of course reinforced the rumor of a toilet paper shortage.” (Snopes)

Back then (1974) the New York Times was suggesting folks on the continent were getting what folks in Hawai‘i already had … a “‘shortage psychology,’ almost an eagerness among many Americans to anticipate the next shortage. Such an attitude, brought on by shortages of gasoline, electricity and, for a time, even onions, seems to assure no future shortage of shortage rumors.”

But, Hawai‘i is different … Hawai‘i is the most-isolated populated-place.

In 2022, Hawai‘i imported $2.52B, making it the 49th largest importer out of the 53 importers in United States. That year, Hawai‘i exported $703M, making it the 53rd largest exporter out of the 53 exporters in United States. (Observatory of Economic Complexity)

With respect to food, Hawai‘i’s local production is 9.3% of total market requirement, and the state is dependent on imports for the remaining 90.7%, mainly from the continental US.  (Loke and Leung)

And, what comes into Hawai‘i is dependent on an efficiently operating import system.  That invariably involves ships bringing these products to our shores.  And, that is dependent on the functioning docks on the continent and in the Islands.

The longshore industry is the work of loading and unloading ships’ cargoes. In the old days of clipper ships, sailings were frequently unscheduled, and labor was often recruited at the last minute by shoreside criers calling: “Men along the shore!” – giving rise to the term “longshoremen.” (ILWU)

The first longshore unions on the West Coast were founded in the 19th century. By 1902 the longshoremen were loosely affiliated with the American Federation of Labor’s International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). But their ties to national headquarters were weak, and most returned or lost their charters within a few a years.

Initially, the longshore unions grew slowly. Each local was protective of its geographical jurisdiction and limited work opportunities, and none was eager to give up their autonomy to any federation.

“‘Almost all of our domestic cargo arrives via the West Coast ports,’ said Warren Sugimoto, administrative services officer with Hawaii’s harbors division.”

“‘If the [work stoppage] lasts awhile, it will have a major impact. If it’s very short term, the impact would be negligible.’” (Los Angeles Times)

As an example, “The International Longshore and Warehouse Union strike shut down every dock on the West Coast while bosses and union leaders fought over a new contract.”

“Hawaii residents were completely dependent on those shipments for a variety of goods – salt, rice – but none seems to have stuck in the memory like the lack of toilet paper.” (Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2020)

As indicated in the 1974 experience with the remark by Johnny Carson, shortages can develop overnight (for no apparent reason – other than someone (and a growing number of others) feels the need to have ‘enough’).

Think back to 2020, during the COVID days … businesses in Hawai‘i were rationing toilet paper and other commodities because of the ‘run’ on these items.  It seems like anything can trigger the next, at any time.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ala Wai Boat Harbor

Waikīkī was well-suited for Hawaiian shallow-draft canoes that did not require deep water and could be easily beached.

Deeper-draft Western ships anchored off-shore, “it is unquestionably the most eligible anchoring place in the island.”  Its advantages were sandy bottom, soft coral, irregular reef and mild surf. Nonetheless, while foreign ships did anchor at Waikīkī, it was not the perfect harbor.  (Vancouver 1793)

“…On rounding Diamond hill the village of Wyteetee (Waikīkī) appears through large groves of cocoanut and bread-fruit trees … A reef of coral runs along the whole course of the shore, within a quarter of a mile of the beach, on which the sea breaks high; inside this reef there is a passage for canoes. Ships frequently anchor in the bay, in from sixteen to twenty fathoms, over a sand and coral bottom.”  (Corney, 1818)

On shore, Waikīkī was famous for its fishponds with one listing citing 45 ponds.  The ten fishponds at Kālia were loko puʻuone (isolated shore fishponds formed by a barrier sand berm) with salt-water lens intrusion and fresh water entering from upland ʻauwai (irrigation canals.)  These were later used as duck ponds.

Following the Great Māhele in 1848, many of the fishponds and irrigated and dry-land agricultural plots were continued to be farmed, however at a greatly reduced scale (due to manpower limitations.)

In the 1860s and 1870s, former Asian sugar plantation workers (Japanese and Chinese) replaced the taro and farmed more than 500-acres of wetlands in rice fields, also raising fish and ducks in the ponds.

Toward the beginning of the 1900s, downtown Honolulu was the destination for Hawaiian visitors, who numbered only about 3,000. While Honolulu had numerous hotels, there were few places to stay in Waikīkī.

In 1891, at Kālia, the ‘Old Waikiki’ opened as a bathhouse, one of the first places in Waikīkī to offer rooms for overnight guests. It was later redeveloped in 1928 as the Niumalu Hotel; the site eventually became the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

In 1906, the US War Department acquired more than 70-acres in the Kālia portion of Waikīkī for the establishment of a military reservation to be called Fort DeRussy.

The Army started filling in the fishponds which covered most of the Fort site – pumping fill from the ocean continuously for nearly a year in order to build up an area on which permanent structures could be built.  Thus, the Army began the transformation of Waikīkī from wetlands to solid ground.

As part of the government’s Waikīkī Land Reclamation project, the Waikīkī landscape was further transformed with the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal – begun in 1921 and completed in 1928 – resulted in the draining and filling in of the ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.

During the 1920s (before Ala Moana Park,) a barge channel was dredged parallel to the shore through the coral reef to connect Kewalo Basin to Fort DeRussy.

Part of the dredge material helped to reclaim wetland that was filled in with dredged coral; this created the area now known as Ala Moana Park (completed in 1934.)

Smaller boats, moored in the dredged area, also traveled along this channel to Kewalo Basin to get out to sea.  While no formal facilities were built, boats anchored in the nearshore waters; this was the beginning of the Ala Wai Boat Harbor.

Portions of the coastal area were used as a public park (1936-1947.)   Around this time, the land was conveyed from the City to the State (1949) and some land-based boat-related uses started popping up.

Ala Moana Park grew in popularity as swimming beach; with growing use and concern for interaction between Park users and boaters, in 1951, a channel was dredged directly out to sea.  The reef rubble that was dredged was used to fill in this old navigation channel (between Kewalo and the Ala Wai Harbor.)

Over the years, the Harbor grew incrementally.

The Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor is the State’s largest recreational boat harbor, among about fifty small boat harbors, launching ramps, jetties, wharves and landings statewide transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

It consists of about 700 berths. There are also dry berthing spaces, a harbor agent’s office, comfort stations, showers, paved parking, a launching ramp and pier.

In 2022, there were nearly 333.3-million people in the US. There were close to 12-million registered recreational water vessels in that year, meaning that about 4% of our population owns a recreational watercraft of some sort.

Hawaiʻi, the only island state completely surrounded by water, ranks last (50th) in the number of boats, as well as boats per capita in the country (Florida ranks 1st in the number of boats; Minnesota ranks 1st per capita.)

© 2023 Hoʻokuleana LLC

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mail and Early Tourism

“Tourism means travel, and travel requires transportation. During most of the nineteenth century, visiting Hawaii meant crossing the vast Pacific Ocean on a sailing ship from San Francisco, a distance of some 2,100 miles.”

“At the height of the California gold rush (around 1850) diminutive schooners and brigs dominated the Hawaii trade. Carrying freight was their main business though passengers were also accommodated.”

“Before steamships ‘our business dealings with that port [San Francisco], which comprised more than all others combined…was dependent upon sailing vessels, which served also for passenger accommodation and mail opportunities, often weeks apart in arrival. Tourist travel was not encouraged thereby.’”

“It would require the arrival of regular steamship service to get tourism going in Hawaii.  Steamships provide greater speed and more predictable schedules than sailing vessels.”

“Mark Twain arrived in Honolulu on the steamship Ajax. Ajax’s inaugural round trip voyage from San Francisco arrived in Honolulu on January 27, 1866 with 68 passengers.” (UHERO)

Mark Twain’s travelogue Roughing It helped shape America’s image of the islands for 30-odd years: “On a certain bright morning the Islands hove in sight, lying low on the lonely sea, and everybody climbed to the upper deck to look.  After two thousand miles of watery solitude the vision was a welcome one.”

“As we approached, the imposing promontory of Diamond Head rose up out of the ocean its rugged front softened by the hazy distance, and presently the details of the land began to make themselves manifest: first the line of beach; then the plumed coacoanut trees of the tropics …”

“In place of roughs and rowdies staring and blackguarding on the corners, I saw long-haired, saddle-colored Sandwich Island maidens sitting on the ground in the shade of corner houses, gazing indolently at whatever or whoever happened along …”

“… instead of wretched cobble-stone pavements, I walked on a firm foundation of coral, built up from the bottom of the sea by the absurd but persevering insect of that name, with a light layer of lava and cinders overlying the coral, belched up out of fathomless perdition long ago through the seared and blackened crater that stands dead and harmless in the distance now …”

“… instead of cramped and crowded street-cars, I met dusky native women sweeping by, free as the wind, on fleet horses and astride, with gaudy riding-sashes, streaming like banners behind them …”

“… instead of the combined stenches of Chinadom and Brannan street slaughter-houses, I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India …”

“… in place of the hurry and bustle and noisy confusion of San Francisco, I moved in the midst of a Summer calm as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden …”

“… in place of the Golden City’s skirting sand hills and the placid bay, I saw on the one side a frame-work of tall, precipitous mountains close at hand, clad in refreshing green, and cleft by deep, cool, chasm-like valleys – and in front the grand sweep of the ocean …”

“… a brilliant, transparent green near the shore, bound and bordered by a long white line of foamy spray dashing against the reef, and further out the dead blue water of the deep sea, flecked with ‘white caps,’ and in the far horizon a single, lonely sail – a mere accent-mark to emphasize a slumberous calm and a solitude that were without sound or limit.”

“When the sun sunk down – the one intruder from other realms and persistent in suggestions of them – it was tranced luxury to sit in the perfumed air and forget that there was any world but these enchanted islands.”  (Twain)

“After two round trips, the California Steam Navigation Company decided against offering further voyages because the service was unprofitable without government subsidy.”

“However, a year later the U.S. postmaster general contracted with the California, Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company to provide monthly mail service between San Francisco and Honolulu for a period of 10 years.”

“The steamship Idaho arrived in Honolulu under the provisions of the mail contract on September 17, 1867. That marked the beginning of regular steamship service between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.” (UHERO)

“While freight and mail were the most important cargo between Australia and San Francisco, steamships also carried sizable number of passengers.”

“For example, the 11 steamships en route to San Francisco from Sydney and Auckland in 1875 carried a total of 1,121 passengers, 10 to Honolulu, 227 from Honolulu, and 884 were in-transit.”

“The 12 vessels en route to Auckland and Sydney from San Francisco carried a total of 855 passengers, 264 to Honolulu, 24 from Honolulu, and 567 were in-transit. Thus there were many more passengers passing through Honolulu than passengers going to Honolulu.”

“Pacific Mail maintained its service between Australia, Honolulu and San Francisco for an uneventful 9 years; the service ended after its mail contract expired on October 1, 1885. Oceanic Steamship Company stepped up to fill the void. …”

The US government contributed money toward the mail contract “and between 1888 and 1891 the Hawaiian government contributed $1,500 per trip. … the single factor that kept the ships sailing was subsidy.”

“Hawaii benefited financially from government mail subsidies to trans-Pacific steamship companies as passengers passing through Honolulu could play tourist for a day during their several hours of layover in Honolulu.”

“The economic value of one-day tourism did not go unnoticed. Thrum’s Annual, 1894 observed that during a very difficult year of 1893: ‘While trade in general has felt depressed this past year…Still we have benefitted somewhat by the extra through travel by the frequent steamers to and fro between the occident and orient, as also in the new line established between the Colonies and Vancouver via this port…’”

“At the end of the day lei-decked departing passengers were sent off with Hawaiian music provided by the Royal Hawaiian Band. ‘Steamer Days’ would later be extended to all departing ships in the Honolulu-San Francisco route ‘to give the local boat with departing residents and tourists as good a sendoff.’” (UHERO)

“The signing of the Reciprocity Treaty between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1876, which permitted sugar grown in Hawaii to be shipped to the U.S. duty free, greatly stimulated sugar production and overall economic activity in the islands.”

“Demand for shipping increased sharply. More shipping was required to transport sugar from the outer islands to Honolulu and then on to the U.S. mainland. More shipping was needed to carry more goods to Hawaii as well. Shipping was the lifeline of Hawaii.”

Thrum’s Annual, 1881 observed “… that we import nearly everything that we eat, drink, wear, or use, and San Francisco is our principal source of supply. We are producers and exporters of sugar, rice, and a few other minor articles, but importers of all else.”

“More shipping service meant potentially more visitors and tourists.”

“With direct service between the U.S. mainland and Honolulu and through trans-Pacific service via Honolulu, Hawaii was able to tap into two potential tourist markets—tourists bound for Hawaii as their final destination and travelers in transit to other destinations beyond Hawaii.”

Thrum’s Annual, 1888 expressed its optimism for this opportunity as follows: “The two or three lines of sailing packets that used to suffice, with their passages of from ten to twenty or more days from San Francisco, are now strengthened by direct monthly steamers of the Oceanic Steamship Company, as also the monthly call, both ways …”

“… of their Australia, New Zealand and San Francisco line of steamers, all of which vessels make the trip in seven days between this port and San Francisco, and often times less.”

“These boats fitted with every comfort for passengers, and officered by courteous and experienced men, make it a pleasure trip in every sense of the word.”

“The natural consequences has been to encourage in a marked degree the travel of tourists and others, whether in pursuit of health, pleasure or profit. And it is but the beginning of what these islands are destined to attract when the facts of our climate and natural attractions become known to the intelligent public.” (UHERO)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Writing An Oral Language

When Captain Cook first visited the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian was a spoken language but not a written language.  Historical accounts were passed down orally, through chants and songs.

After western contact and attempts to write about Hawaii, early writers tried to spell words based on the sound of the words they heard.  People heard words differently, so it was not uncommon for words to be spelled differently, depending on the writer.

The planning for the formal written Hawaiian language in the early part of the nineteenth century was started by the American Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawai‘i, starting in 1820.

A committee of some of these missionaries (Hiram Bingham, C. S. Stewart and Levi Chamberlain) worked on the development of the Hawaiian alphabet.  (Hiram was my great-great-great grandfather)

Bingham noted, “To make the spelling and reading of the language easy to the people, and convenient to all who use it, was a matter of great importance, almost indispensable to our success in raising the nation.”

“It was, therefore, a part of our task to secure to the people a perfect alphabet, literal or syllabic, of all the sounds which were then in use, and which would need soon to come into use in the progress of the nation.”

“Those who had attempted to write the names of places and persons in the islands, had materially failed, even in the most plain and common. No foreigner or native, at the islands, could illustrate or explain the peculiarities and intricacies of the language.”

“[W] we found the dialect in use by foreigners often materially misled us, so that none could be trusted as to accuracy; and it required time to detect and unlearn errors.”

“In the oft recurring names of the principal island, the largest village, and of the king of the leeward islands, ‘Owhyhee’ [Hawai‘i], ‘Hanaroorah’ [Honolulu] and ‘Tamoree’ [Kaumuali‘i], scarcely the sound of a single syllable was correctly expressed, either in writing or speaking, by voyagers or foreign residents.”

“Had we, therefore, followed the orthography of voyagers, or in adopting an alphabet, made a single vowel stand for as many sounds as in English, and several different vowels for the same sound, and given the consonants the ambiguity of our c, s, t, ch, gh, & c …”

“… it would have been extremely difficult, if not impracticable to induce the nation to become readers, in the course of a whole generation, even if we had been furnished with ample funds to sustain in boarding-schools, all who would devote their time and labor to study.”  (Bignham)

On July 14, 1826, the committee prepared a final report to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions titled “Report of the committee of health on the state of the Hawaiian language.”   The report is signed by Hiram Bingham and Levi Chamberlain.

“Aiming to avoid an ambiguous, erroneous, and inconvenient orthography, to assign to every character one certain sound, and thus represent with ease and exactness the true pronunciation of the Hawaiian language, the following five vowels and seven consonants have been adopted: a, e, i, o, u, h, k, I, m, n, p, w.”

“These twelve letters, and possibly eleven, omitting either u or w, will express every sound in the pure Hawaiian dialect. The power of the vowels may be thus represented: – a, as a in the English words art, father; e, as a in pale, or ey in they; i, as ee or i in machine – o, as o in no; u, as oo in too. They are called so as to express their power by their names – Ah, A, He, O, Oo.”

“The consonants are in like manner called by such simple names as to suggest their power, thus, following the sound of the vowels as above – He, Ke, La, Mu, Nu, Pi, We.”

“The following appeared sometimes to be interchangeable: b and p, k and t, l and r, v and w, and even the sound of d, it was thought by some, was used in some cases where others used k, l, r, or t. For purely native words, however, k, l, p, and w were preferred.”

“The slight variation in quantity, though not in quality, of sound in the vowels requires no mark of distinction, any more than in the variation of the sound of a in the English words art and father. Here the quantity may differ slightly though it is not necessary to put a distinctive mark, or make a different character.”

“In the few dipthongal combinations ae, ai, ao, and au, whether more close or more open, each letter retains its original mono-sound. A-i, when sounded in quick succession, resemble the sound of the English pronoun I, and a~u, in quick succession, the sound of the English on in loud; so the Hawaiian word Jiau (hibiscus) resembles the full, round, English interrogative how.”

“In the name of the island, second in size in the group, whether pronounced Mau-i or Ma-u-i, there is no such difference as to cause a mistake in a native hearer.”

“Consonants are not doubled, and never end a word or syllable.”

“Double or triple vowels are never used to express a single sound, and where they occur, are sounded separately, as a-a, e-e, i-i y o-o, u-u. The accent being generally on the former, the latter is a sort of echo, as in the name Ha’-a-li-li-o’, but sometimes the reverse, as Ka-a’-hu-ma’-nu.”

“The convenience of such an alphabet for the Hawaiian language, undisturbed by foreign words, is very obvious, because we can express with simplicity, ease, and certainty, those names and phrases with the sound of which former voyagers were utterly unable to make us acquainted by English orthography.”

“Though it were possible to spell them with our English alphabet it would still be inconvenient. A few names may illustrate the reasons for our new orthography.” (Bingham)

One of the examples Bingham uses is the spelling (and pronunciation) of the chain’s main northern Island. There continues to be discrepancy in how it is spelled and pronounced; but Bingham makes it pretty simple – Kauai is pronounced ‘Cow-eye’ or ‘Kau ai’. (Bingham)

As Bingham concludes, “It could hardly be possible to write any language in the world with a more simple or limited alphabet, and at the same time equally intelligible to the children who use it.”

“A syllabic alphabet of ninety-five characters would have been tolerably convenient for all native words, but not so simple or convenient as the alphabet adopted.” (Bingham)

The Hawaiian language uses two special diacritical marks.  The kahakō (‘macron’ consisting of a horizontal line over the vowel) lengthens the pronunciation of the vowel on which it is placed.  The ‘okina ( ʻ – glottal stop) signifies a clean break between two vowels. 

Planning for the written Hawaiian language and development by the missionaries was modeled after the spoken language, attempting to represent the spoken Hawaiian sounds with English letters.

Interestingly, these same early missionaries taught their lessons in Hawaiian, rather than English.  In part, the mission did not want to create a separate caste and portion of the community as English-speaking Hawaiians.  In later years, the instruction, ultimately, was in English.

The alphabet of 1826 has stood the test of time.

(Here’s a handy link to translate Hawaiian words:  https://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.85/cgi-bin/hdict?l=en)

(Another side note … If using Word and you don’t have Hawaiian fonts, you can find the ʻokina and kahakō in Word by using the “Insert” (typically top/left in the tool bar,) then “Symbol” (typically far right,) then “More Symbols.”)

(We use Character code 02BB from Unicode (hex) for the ʻokina and Character code 0304 from Unicode (hex) for the kahakō.  Word allows you to create shortcut keys by assigning keys for repeated use.  We use Ctrl ~ for the ʻokina and Alt ~ for the kahakō.)

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