Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks | Page 30

April 29, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Esplanade

Coral doesn’t grow in freshwater. So, where a stream enters a coastal area, there is typically no coral growth at that point – and, as the freshwater runs out into the ocean, a coral-less channel is created.

In its natural state, thanks to Nuʻuanu Stream, Honolulu Harbor originally was a deep embayment formed by the outflow of Nuʻuanu Stream creating an opening in the shallow coral reef along the south shore of Oʻahu.

Honolulu Harbor (it was earlier known as Kuloloia) was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.) The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Tradewinds blow from the Northeast; the channel into Honolulu Harbor has a northeasterly alignment. Early ships calling to Honolulu were powered only by sails. The entrance to the harbor was narrow and lined on either side with reefs. Ships don’t sail into the wind. Given all of this, Honolulu Harbor was difficult to enter.

Boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.)

It might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow. In 1816 (as stories suggest,) Richards Street alignment was the straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor. (Richards Street was named for a man selling luggage to tourists in his shop on that street.)

As Honolulu developed and grew, lots of changes happened, including along its waterfront. What is now known as Queen Street was actually the water’s edge.

The reef belonging to the land of Waikahalulu, on the south side of Honolulu Harbor, had been purchased by the government from the Queen Dowager Kalama.

Then, from 1856 to 1860, the work of filling in the land to create an area known as the “Esplanade” or “Ainahou,” and building up a water-front and dredging the harbor to a depth from 20 to 25-feet took place.

About 22-acres of reef land were added to the downtown area between Fort Street and Alakea Street; it was filled in with material dredged from the harbor.

Following the demolition of Fort Kekuanohu (Fort Honolulu) in 1857; its walls became the 2,000-foot retaining wall used to extend the land out onto the shallow reef in the harbor.

The remaining fort materials were used as fill to create what came to be known as the Esplanade (it’s where Aloha Tower and surrounding land now stand.)

The old prison was built in 1856-57, to take the place of the old fort (that also previously served as a prison.) The new custom-house was completed in 1860. The water-works were much enlarged, and a system of pipes laid down in 1861.

An 1887 Hawaiian Government Survey map of Honolulu shows continued urban expansion of the Downtown Honolulu area.

Many dredging and filling operations soon followed, and the 1890s and 1900s saw the construction of many new piers and channels in the harbor, the dredged material going to create new dry land areas.

The dredging of Honolulu Harbor and expansion of the Esplanade soon followed; major alteration of Honolulu from its natural configuration began in 1890 with the dredging of the main channel to 200 ft width by 30 ft deep for about 1000 ft through the sand bar at the entrance.

Piers were constructed at the base of Richards Street in 1896, at the site of Piers 17 and 18 in 1901 to accommodate sugar loading and at Piers 7 and 12 in 1907. Further dredging was conducted at the base of Alakea Street in 1906.

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Honolulu_Harbor-Esplanade_Lots-Reg0279 (1857)

Honolulu_Map-(1847)-over_GoogleEarth

Honolulu_Harbor-InteriorDept-Wall-Reg_1119 (1886)

Honolulu Harbor-Ships pulled by canoes-Henry Walker-1843

‘Honolulu_Beach’-would_later_become_the_area_from_Pier_5_to_Fort_Armstrong-Burgess-(SagaOfTheSandwichIslands)-mid-1850s

Auguste_Borget_-_’Honolulu_Waterfront’,_graphite_on_paper,_1838

Western_ships_docked_in_Honolulu’s_deep_harbor-early-1800s

Boats_in_Honolulu_Harbor-1900

Honolulu_Harbor-Aerial-June 11, 1924

Downtown_Honolulu–Map-1893

April 13, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kalolopahū

For a period of five years from the time of Cook’s landing at Hawai‘i, the waters of the islands were busy with ships, some of which were “friendly” and others that were “bent on destroying men and governments”. (Kamakau)

In 1789, Simon Metcalf (captaining the Eleanora) and his son Thomas Metcalf (captaining the Fair American) were traders; their plan was to meet and spend winter in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Eleanora arrived in the islands first at Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi. After a confrontation with a local chief, Metcalf then sailed to the neighboring island of Maui to trade along the coast. On February 1790, the Eleanora anchored off of Honua‘ula.

Kalola, the widow of Kalani‘ōpu‘u, was staying at Honua‘ula at the time of the arrival of the ship with her new husband Ka‘opuiki.

Captain Simon Metcalf anchored his trading ship the Eleanora off shore, probably at Makena Bay, to barter for necessary provisions.

“Ka‘opuiki was glad to go on board to trade for iron, muskets, and red cloth; but muskets were the objects he most desired. The people brought in exchange hogs, chickens, potatoes, bananas, and taro.”

“Night fell before they had finished their bargaining, and the next day Ka‘opuiki and others went out again to trade further; but the strangers were unfriendly and beat them off with ropes.”

“When Ka‘opuiki heard from the people of Honua‘ula about the small boat which it was customary to keep tied to the back of the ship, he determined to steal the boat at night.”

“At midnight when the guard on the skiff and the men of the ship were sound asleep, Ka‘opuiki and his men cut the rope without being seen from the ship. As they were towing it along, the guard awoke and called out to those on board the ship, but he was too far away to be heard; he was killed and his body thrown into the sea.”

“The boat was taken to Olowalu and broken up, and the iron taken for fishhooks, adzes, drills, daggers, and spear points.” (Kamakau)

Metcalf sailed to Olowalu but found that boat had been broken up for its nails. (Nails were treasured like gems in ancient Hawaiʻi; they were used for fishhooks, adzes, drills, daggers and spear points.)

Chiefess Kalola, knowing the explosive nature of the situation, declared a three-day kapu on all canoes approaching the Eleanora.

When the kapu was lifted and Kalola’s husband Ka‘opuiki returned only the stolen boat’s keel and the watchman’s stripped thighbones, an enraged Metcalfe invited the villagers to meet the ship, indicating he wanted to trade with them.

However, he had all the cannons loaded and ready on the side where he directed the canoes to approach. “(T)he ship opened fire and shot the people down without mercy, just as if they were creatures without souls. Even those who swam away were shot down.”

“John Young was an eyewitness on board the ship and has testified to the great number who were killed at this time. At noon that day the Eleanor sailed, and the people went out and brought the dead ashore, some diving down into the sea with ropes and others using hooks; and the dead were heaped on the sands at Olowalu.”

“Because the brains of many were oozing out where they had been shot in the head, this battle with the ship Eleanor and her captain was called “The spilled brains” (Kalolo-pahu).”

“It was a sickening sight, as Mahulu and others have reported it; the slaughtered dead were heaped upon the sand; wives, children, parents, and friends came to view and mourn over their dead; and the sound of loud wailing arose.” (Kamakau)

After the massacre, Metcalfe weighed anchor and sailed back to the island of Hawai’i.

This tragedy, termed the Olowalu Massacre, set into motion a series of events which left two Western seamen and a ship (the Fair American) in the hands of the ambitious Big Island chief Kamehameha.

John Young (off the Eleanora) and Isaac Davis (off the Fair American) befriended Kamehameha I and became respected translators and his close and trusted advisors. They were instrumental in Kamehameha’s military ventures and his ultimate triumph in the race to unite the Hawaiian Islands.

Several months after the massacre at Olowalu, Kalola watched the Great Battle of Kepaniwai from ʻIao Valley. Kamehameha stormed Maui with over twenty thousand men, and after several battles Maui troops retreated to ʻIao Valley.

Kalola escaped through the Olowalu Pass and down to Olowalu, where she boarded canoes for Molokai. On the island of Molokai Kalola became ill and they could not carry out their original intention of going to Oahu to join Kahekili.

Kamehameha followed Kalola to Molokai and asked Kalola for Keōpūolani (Kalola’s granddaughter) to be his queen. Kalola, who was dying, agreed to give Kamehameha Keōpūolani and her mother Kekuiʻapoiwa Liliha, if he would allow the girls to stay at her death bed until she passed.

Kamehameha camped on Molokai until Kalola died, and then returned to Kona with his high queen Keōpūolani. Later, both Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) were sons born to Kamehameha and Keōpūolani.

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Olowalu-old

Olowalu

Olowalu-aerial

Olowalu-Valley

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Olowalu-Ahupuaa

April 10, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whaling

The war for independence against the British on the American continent (1775-1783) closed the colonial trade routes within the British empire.

The merchantmen and whalers of New England swarmed around South America’s Cape Horn, in search of new markets and sources of supply. A market was established in China.

China took nothing that the US produced; hence Boston traders, in order to obtain the wherewithal to purchase teas and silks at Canton, spent 18-months or more of each China voyage collecting a cargo of sea-otter and other skins out of the northwest side of the American continent, highly esteemed by the Chinese.

Years before the westward land movement gathered momentum, the energies of seafaring New Englanders found their natural outlet, along their traditional pathway, in the Pacific Ocean.

Practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation; then, the opening years of the 19th century saw the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.

Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast and Canton, China.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Orient brought many ships to the Islands. They needed food and water, and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

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.

Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.

Whalers’ aversion to the traditional Hawaiian diet of fish and poi spurred new trends in farming and ranching. The sailors wanted fresh vegetables and the native Hawaiians turned the temperate uplands into vast truck farms.

There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar. Hawaiians began growing a wider variety of crops to supply the ships.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour “on Japan,” “on the Northwest,” or into the Arctic.

The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years. For Hawaiian ports, the whaling fleet was the crux of the economy. More than 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824.

“At present the whale ships visit the Sandwich Islands in the months of March and April and then proceed to the coast of Japan, the return again in October and November remain here about six weeks, and then proceed in different directions …”

“… some to the Coast of California, others cruise about the Equator when they return thither again in March and April and proceed a second time to the Coast of Japan; it usually occupies two seasons on that coast to fill a ship that will carry Three Hundred Tons.” (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

“The number of hands generally comprising the Company of a whale ship will average Twenty Five; and owing to the want of discipline, the length and the ardourous duties of the voyage, these people generally become dissatisfied and are willing at any moment to join a rebellion or desert the first opportu(nity) that may offer …”

“… this has been fully exemplified in the whale ships that have visited these islands, constant disertions have taken place and many serious mutinies both contributing to protract and frequently ruin the voyage.” (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

The effect on Hawaiʻi’s economy, particularly in areas in reach of Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo, the main whaling ports, was dramatic and of considerable importance in the islands’ history.

Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.

Then, whaling came swiftly to an end.

In 1859, an oil well was discovered and developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

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Port-of-Lahaina-Maui-1848

Lahaina as seen from Lahainaluna-(portion_Lahainaluna_engraving)-1838

Koloa_Landing-Kauai-(KauaiMuseumCollection)

Rotch fleet in the midst of a school of sperm whales off the coast of Hawaii-LOC-1833

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A view of whale fishery, from A Collection of Voyages round the World…Captain Cook’s First, Second, Third and Last Voyages, 1790 (NOAA)

Cutting up the ‘junk’ – central section of the head of sperm whales

head oil from sperm whales could be bailed directly into casks

Hoisting the blanket strip

Trying the horse pieces – the minced ‘horse piece’ to the ‘try-pot’

‘The wharf-gauging oil’, by David H. Strother, a New Bedford whaling wharf covered with casks of whale oil. (Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, June 1860)

Stripping the ivory for scrimshaw

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EarlyOilField-Titusville-WC

April 7, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Aloha Tower

Honolulu Harbor (it was earlier known as Kuloloia) was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.

Boats either anchored off-shore, or they were pulled into the harbor (this was done with canoes; or, it meant men and/or oxen pulled them in.) It might take eight double canoes with 16-20 men each, working in the pre-dawn calm when winds and currents were slow.

A few years after, in 1825, the first pier in the harbor was improvised by sinking a ship’s hull near the present Pier 12 site. As Honolulu developed and grew, lots of changes happened, including along its waterfront. What is now known as Queen Street used to be the water’s edge.

Between 1857 and 1870, the coral block walls of the dismantled Fort edged and filled about 22-acres of reef and tideland, forming the “Esplanade” or “Ainahou,” between Fort and Merchant Streets.

In 1904, the area around South Street from King to Queen Streets was filled in. The Hawaiʻi Department of Public Works reported that “considerable filling (was) required” for the extension of Queen Street, from South Street to Ward Avenue, which would “greatly relieve the district of Kewalo in the wet season.”

With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and anticipated increased trans-Pacific shipping, government and business planned to further enlarge Honolulu Harbor by dredging Kalihi Channel and Kapālama Basin.

Even in today’s high-tech environment with tools and toys with satellite support, the simple illumination from a known point continues to serve as a navigational aid, as well as warn mariners of hazardous areas.

Carl W Winstedt and the National Construction Company began construction on the Aloha Tower in 1924. The project took a year and a half to complete.

Aloha Tower opened in 1926; at 10 stories and 184-feet, 2-inches tall it was the tallest building in the Territory (and remained such for the next forty years.) (LRB)

It has 4 clocks, each face 12 feet in diameter (by far the biggest clock in the Territory of Hawai‘i and one of the largest in the United States at the time) and facing different directions, were made of bronze and weighed 7 tons each.

“Large public clocks first appeared in the 1840s and 1850s. In 1842, James Hunnewell presented Kawaiahaʻo Church with the large church clock on the gallery wall below the new organ.”

The public clock served the functional purpose of telling passers-by the time. But it also served as a village landmark, a reference point, and a symbol of civic pride. Indeed, public clocks were something of a status symbol for a community, a sign that a town had reached a certain level of prosperity, that there was action there.

If a ship or person was too far away to read the clock, two other means of time synchronization were provided. A time ball was lowered to the bottom of the forty-foot mast atop the tower each day at noon, and the blast of a siren was sounded at 7 am, noon and 4 pm.

Aloha Tower was built as a control tower for the Honolulu harbormaster and a lighthouse as part of a modern freight and passenger terminal at piers 8, 9 and 10.

In addition, it provided offices for the harbor master, pilots and customs officials. The eleventh floor of the tower served as a lookout for the harbor pilots, with balconies on all four sides.

In the day (pre-1959 trans-Pacific jetliner service,) the method of travel to Hawai‘i was by ship. Aloha Tower welcomed cruise passengers/visitors to the islands.

When the attack on Pearl Harbor came on December 7, 1941, Coast Guardsmen took up defensive positions around Aloha Tower and protected it from being occupied.

The Aloha Tower received little damage during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but shortly thereafter, it was camouflaged with brown and green paint, and its light was extinguished for the remainder of the war.

Pre- and during WW II, the tower had been secretly a control facility for military convoy shipping for the Pacific Theater of Operations.

The military took control of the facility and painted it camouflage to minimize detection. (In 1947, the green camouflage paint was sandblasted from the tower and the brilliant white paint replaced.)

By the late 1960s, tall buildings were crowding the tower, and the Coast Guard decided to discontinue the beacon atop the Aloha Tower and install one on a 220-foot television tower.

This navigational aid served until 1975, when the present Honolulu Harbor Light was established on a metal pole at the end of Pier 2.

Owned by the State of Hawai’i, the Aloha Tower was renovated in 1994, at no cost to taxpayers, by the developer of the adjacent Aloha Tower Marketplace.

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19990624 CTY Construction of the Aloha Tower between 1924 and Sept. 1926 when the Aloha Tower was dedicated. COPY PHOTO BY DENNIS ODA FROM THE STATE ARCHIVES ON JUNE 23, 1999.

Honolulu_Harbor-Aerial-December 25, 1927

Honolulu_Harbor_Aerial-1928

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Aloha Tower 1946, camaflaged. Press release photo.

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Aloha_Tower,_Honolulu,_1959

Aloha Tower Marker Under Tower

Old-Boat-Days

Matson_Boat_Day

April 2, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hāna Landing

On December 19, 1853 the Privy Council awarded a monopoly to The Hawaiian Steam Navigation Company to operate steamers inter-island. In 1860 a propeller steamer Kilauea made its appearance; however she had a checkered run due to being laid up for repairs or lack of coal on many occasions.

In November, 1868, the SS Kilauea was withdrawn and the islands were without inter-island steamer service for two years. Sailing ships in the coasting trade filled the void created by the withdrawal of the Kilauea in 1868 until she was refit and returned to service in October, 1870. (HHF)

In the mid-1870s interisland transportation consisted of one steamer and around 30 sailing schooners, sloops and other boats. During this era the sugar cane industry utilized these vessels. In 1871 Samuel G. Wilder became the agent for the government-owned SS Kilauea and started Wilder & Company in 1872. (HHF)

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

Inter-Island operated the Kauaʻi and Oʻahu ports plus some on Hawaiʻi. Wilder took Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi 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)

Later, inter-island trade was carried almost exclusively by the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, the successor to the firm of Thomas R Foster & Co (the original founders of the company) and which, in 1905, acquired the Wilder Steamship Co. (Congressional Record)

“The Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co, established in 1883, own(ed) and operate(d) a fleet of first-class vessels engaged exclusively in the transportation of passengers and freight between ports on the islands of the Hawaiian group.” (Annual Report of the Governor, 1939)

Regular sailings of passenger vessels are maintained from Honolulu four times weekly to ports on the island of Hawaiʻi, four times weekly to Molokaʻi, twice weekly to Kauaʻi, three times weekly to Lānaʻi and daily, except Monday and Saturday, to ports on the island of Maui. Included in the fleet are 12 passenger and freight vessels.” (Report of the Governor, 1930)

During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, Inter-Island Steam Navigation had the SS Haleakalā, Hualālai, Kilauea and Waiʻaleʻale. There were others that carried 12-passengers such as the SS Humuʻula, which was primarily a cattle boat.

On the Maui and Molokai Route, Wilder’s had the main service for most Maui and Molokai ports. Wilder’s steamers ran a “milk run” stopping at Molokai ports before arriving at Lahaina on the run from Honolulu.

From Lahaina, they proceeded around northern West Maui to Kahului and thence to Hāna or Kipahulu and then retraced their route stopping at various ports along northern East Maui, Kahului, Lahaina and Molokai.

The steamer route along the northern East Maui augmented the often unpredictable overland route between Hāna and Haiku. When overland service between West Maui and Wailuku/Kahului was terminated in 1888, the steamers carried all the mail from Lahaina to Kahului or other parts of Maui.

At Hāna, Maui, a series of landings, jetties, and pier had been in use since at least 1882 – the landing was located near the foot of Keawa Place.

In March 1902, the Hāna Landing was “washed away by the great storm of the first of the month.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 31, 1902)

It was replaced in 1903. “The wharf measures about sixty feet by thirty feet and has a shed of corrugated iron over the end toward the water measuring forty-nine by thirty-eight feet.”

“A wall of solid masonry was also constructed near the northeast corner of the landing to protect it against heavy surf, which in times of storm has often lined the platform from its foundations.”

“Hāna people are much pleased with the new structure. The covered wharf will make an excellent dancing pavilion, inasmuch as those who have the festivity in charge intend that the floor shall be covered with smooth tongue and groove lumber.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June 29, 1903) (A July 4 luau and dance were held that year.)

But the location of the landing had its challenges. “Unusually stormy weather has been reported from Hāna this week. On Tuesday two of the Claudine’s shore boats were tossed high upon the beach at the Hāna landing by the strong surf running, but no serious damage resulted.” (Maui News, November 5, 1915)

The decision was made to replace the smaller landing with a larger pier. Original drawings were produced by the Board of Harbor Commissioners. They are dated from September 1918 to March 5, 1919, and are signed by Lyman H. Bigelow, Chairman.

The pier at Hāna Bay (also historically known as Kauiki Bay ca. 1920, and as Kapueokahi Bay ca. 1882) was completed in the first half of 1921.

When the 1921 structure was built, it was referred to as “Hāna Wharf”, not as a pier (as it is known today). Because of a manpower shortage due to the military draft for service during World War, about 60 prisoners were used to man its construction.

When the pier was constructed, sugar had been grown commercially in Hāna for about 70 years. The Kaeleku Plantation Company was then the only plantation operating in the Hāna vicinity.

Bagged sugar from the Kaeleku mill was transported to Hāna Pier via the plantation railway system. From the wharf, the bagged sugar would often be lightered to a waiting transport ship anchored a short way offshore. Between 1922 and 1945, all of Kaeleku Plantation Company’s bagged sugar was shipped out of Hāna Pier. (HHF)

It was originally a commercial harbor under the jurisdiction of HDOT. The facility was transferred to the Department of Land & Natural Resources Boating Division in the early 2000s, then conveyed back to HDOT in 2010.

Shortly after the transfer, investigations of the facility determined it was unsafe and the pier was condemned and closed. In 2016, due to safety hazards, the decision to remove the pier was made.

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