“Word of the Bonin Islands had reached Hawaii, and there were already one or two of the chance residents in Oahu who were entertaining the idea of going to these newly-discovered islands and trying their fortune there as colonists.”
“In [1830] Captain Samuel H Dowsett, father of Mr JI Dowsett of this city, look in the schooner Unity the first inhabitants and colonists to the Bonin Islands.”
“The members of the expedition were almost all foreigners married to Hawaiian women, under the leadership of one Mazarro, an Italian. Others were Millinchamp … Savory and Gilley …” (Daily Bulletin, Aug 23, 1883)
“By 1835, their grass-hut settlement attracted at least six more enterprising wāhine and several other disaffected Westerners, including Englishman William Gilley. One of the colony’s 16 wāhine bore children who took his name – among them William Jr., Michael, Lizzie, and around 1840, George.” (Hancock)
“[S]upplies came by way of roving whalers that occasionally appeared on the eastern horizon. As a teenager, George Gilley jumped at the first opportunity to leave on one, arriving in Hawai‘i via a whaling ship and sticking around.”
“An 1855 letter, sent to the Bonin Islands from a family friend in Honolulu, mentioned that ‘George has been here 2 or 3 times but I could not persuade him to go home and see his mother. He seems to like this place so much.’” (Hancock)
Historians suggest “that young Hawaiian males left Hawai’i as workers on whaling ships and traveled to China, Europe, Mexico, and the U.S. mainland. In addition, many ventured into the Pacific Northwest territory, worked in the fur trade, and ended up settling in those areas.” (pbs-org)
“Hawaiian sailors were known for their seamanship and swimming abilities and made desirable recruits for the whaling captains, so much so that the Hawaiian government began to regulate this recruitment and passed laws requiring bonds to ensure the sailors’ return to the islands as early as the 1830s.”
“The demographic decline due to foreign diseases (an additional import of the early western whalers) made it all the more important to ensure the return of local sailors to Hawai‘i. Nonetheless, the role of Kānaka maoli in the American whaling fleet continued to increase.” (NOAA)
“Sandwich Island crew … are complete water-dogs, therefore very good in boating. It is for this reason that there are so many of them on the coast of California; they being very good hands in the surf.”
“They are also quick and active in the rigging, and good hands in warm weather; but those who have been with them round Cape Horn, and in high latitudes, say that they are useless in cold weather. In their dress they are precisely like our sailors.” (Dana, 1840)
“Gilley is described as ‘one of Hawaii’s own children’ and many of the crew also are reported to be from Hawai’i. This portrayal dovetails with other narratives about Captain Gilley’s Kanaka heritage and the vessel’s primarily Native Hawaiian crew.” (Lebo)
“Many thousands of Native Hawaiian seamen took whaling cruises beginning with four young men who left in 1819 aboard the American whaleship Balaena. … over 7,000 native seamen … shipped aboard foreign whaling vessels between 1859 and 1867.” (Lebo)
Of all of those Hawaiians that set sail, George Gilley is “the only known Native Hawaiian whaling captain in history”. (Hancock) (Lebo)
“Gilley navigated Arctic storms and treacherous fields of coral, ice, and thrashing leviathans that shivered the timbers of all who braved the North Pacific in the great blubber rush of the 19th century.”
“Propelled by a jetstream of sheer talent, Gilley was an exemplar of the Native Hawaiian initiative, skill, and fearlessness that rendered a small island kingdom a player in the global economy.” (Hancock)
Gilley, as Captain of the William H Allen, was involved in a couple notable, fateful voyages in the north Pacific … there was an Arctic whaling disaster that included “the loss of 11 whaling vessels, including the Desmond, all of which were abandoned in the ice near Point Tangent, Alaska, on September 5, 1876.” (Lebo)
“The [William] H Allen. This Honolulu whaler and trader returned from the Arctic on Thursday last, have done very fairly. She brings two survivors of the wrecked crews of last season, the only ones, so far as at present known, remaining out of the sixty men who elected to stay by the ships.”
One of these is a Hawaiian and the other a Tahitian. They report that one of the ships – the Acors Barnes – could have been got out last fall, but that the Tahitians on board found some rum, got drunk, and run her ashore. The two [survivors] lived among the Indians during the winter.” (PCA, Oct 27, 1877)
Then, “At East Cape, the crew of the [William] H Allen had a fight [some called it a massacre] with the Indians, who boarded her and demanded rum. This being refused the Indians began an [assault] upon the crew, which ended in the killing of some fifteen of the former.”
“The Indians of that locality have long been reputed to be a bad lot. In the attack, one Hawaiian seaman lost his life [Honuailealea (Lebo)], and two were wounded.” (PCA, Oct 27, 1877)
“[T]he trading conflict revolved around liquor, a commodity the whalers often traded to Siberian and Alaskan natives for ivory, furs, and other local articles. … The traders included several chiefs, numerous young men, a few women, and several elderly men.”
“They came from one of several villages at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. They frequently traded with whalers and with native communities on both sides of the Bering Strait as well as those who lived on the intervening islands.” (Lebo)
“[A]t 4 o’clock in the afternoon on the 4th of July, 1877, a canoe drew abreast of us, and then left; after that, another canoe pulled up, with thirty or more men aboard, along with two women. When they approached the ship, two chiefs boarded, along with the men, while the women remained on the canoe.” (Polapola; Lebo)
“[O]ne of the chiefs was caught stealing liquor and that the skirmish erupted when that chief and another native assaulted the captain and first mate.” (Lebo) “After our battle, the Hawaiians were victorious”. (Polapola; Lebo)
“Gilley and his crew of Hawaiians, African Americans, and Cape Verdeans killed thirteen Alaska Natives … The episode reverberated for years, and trust between the whalers and the Native population around Cape Prince of Wales never recovered.” (NPS)
“Sometime around Kalākaua’s birthday race in 1880, Gilley registered a home address in Pauoa, O‘ahu, but he did not stay there long. He followed the whaling industry to San Francisco, where he became captain of the bark Eliza until at least 1884, touching at Honolulu occasionally.”
“By 1886, the middle-aged whaler downgraded station but upgraded technology, becoming first mate on the steam-powered Grampus. No longer captain, Gilley lost regular listing in whaleship reports.” (Hancock)
“In 1899, gold was discovered at the coastal settlement of Nome, Alaska, drawing thousands of prospectors and, apparently, George Gilley, who arrived via the bark Alaska in the spring of 1900.”
“In August, he sailed over to the Siberian coast, and anchored near the shore. … As the ship approached Sledge Island, about 20 miles offshore, Gilley took a seat on the ship’s rail and looked across the blue at the coast of stone gray and green.”
“Then the wind shifted, and for once in his life, he did not rise to meet its force. The boom swung around and knocked George Gilley into the frigid sea. His men raced astern as the ship grazed onward, only to watch him drown.”
“The crew worked like whalers, and not without difficulty, to hoist Gilley’s lifeless body out of the water, back into the crisp morning air. They took him on to Nome. … His death was not evidently reported in Hawai‘i.” (Hancock)
