Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks | Page 43

December 9, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Solace

The keel for the Iroquois was laid on March 26, 1926 along with the keels for two other ships; Iroquois was delivered thirteen months later. She was built by Newport News Shipbuilding for the Clyde Steamship Company as the passenger liner.

Iroquois was designed for luxury liner service along America’s eastern seaboard and was handsomely appointed and featured ornate staircases and darkwood paneling in their public spaces.

She met the highest classification of the American Bureau of Shipping and was touted as the largest and fastest vessel in service between Florida and New York. She could carry 640 passengers in first class and 114 in steerage. Their crews numbered 166. (Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School)

On July 13, 1936 Iroquois had an accident while she was running for the Eastern Steamship Company. She ran aground on Bald Porcupine Island. Captain Walter Hammond was preparing to leave for New York early in the morning. Under thick fog, the vessel ran aground and then the tide left the ship beached high.

In mid-1940, she was purchased by the US Navy and was extensively modified her internally, creating a hospital ship with a capacity for 418 patients and accommodations for a complement of 466, including a small cadre of nurses.

Renamed Solace, her aft, fake funnel was removed and she was painted all white, with bold red crosses emblazoned on her sides, funnel and top decks; she was commissioned on August 9, 1941 and assigned to the Pacific fleet and soon was home ported in Hawai‘i. (Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School)

She arrived at Pearl Harbor on October 27, 1941. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941,) the Solace was the only hospital ship operating in the Pacific. She was anchored at Pearl Harbor when at 8 am the first of the attack started.

The ship discharged 141 patients to duty in order to make room for casualties. On December 7th, 132 patients were admitted aboard the ship (over 70 percent of casualties were burn cases.) (pearlharbor-org)

“As soon as it was realized that air raid was on, steps were immediately taken to close all watertight doors and ports, and cargo ports except the two at the gangways, to call away rescue parties, and to prepare all hospital facilities and supplies for maximum service.”

“The emergency ward of 50 beds was put together, and as many patients then in wards returned to duty or moved as possible. Two motor launches were immediately dispatched with rescue parties to the Arizona, and other boats lowered and sent on similar duty.”

“About 0820 hours, boat loads of casualties began to arrive, and were immediately taken care of by the medical personnel, assisted by available men from the deck divisions.”

“At 0900 the ship got underway, having slipped it’s forward and after moorings, and shifted from berth X4, near Dobbin and destroyers to berth X13 in the clear.”

“All hands worked most energetically to handle the casualty cases. Too much praise cannot be given to the doctors, nurses, and corpsmen of the ship.”

“Special mention is made of the heroic action in the face of grave danger in the case of the first two boat crews and their stretcher parties.”

“They boarded the burning Arizona, while its crew was abandoning ship, and they rescued the burned and injured casualties found on its deck, some very close to the flames, and three casualties on a camel and one man swimming in oily water that was aflame.”

“After unloading at the Solace, #2 motor launch made two trips to the West Virginia and brought back casualties to the Solace; #1 motor launch on its second trip rescued several more men from the stern of the Arizona and more casualties from the West Virginia.”

“On its third trip it received casualties from the West Virginia. On its fourth trip, it picked up some men in the water and transferred them to a gig. Shortly thereafter, when many men had jumped into the water after an explosion on board that ship the boat picked up over three dozen.”

“The surface was covered with flames. The boat engineer, jumped into the water to rescue an Ensign. The Coxswain had to get into the water to quench his own smoldering jumper. With this boat load delivered to the Solace and a quick change of clothes for its crew, the boat took a salvage party to the Oklahoma where it remained until about midnight.”

“Assisting the ship during the most difficult time were about six medical officers from other ships, one civilian doctor (USPHS,) five volunteer nurses part of first day and eleven part of second day”

“In addition to the ship’s chaplain, Protestant, two Catholic chaplains, from Nevada and Tangier, were aboard most of the first two days.” (Action Report by Benjamin Perlman, Commanding Officer, December 12, 1941)

For the rest of the war, until she was joined by the Relief from her North Atlantic duties, by the Comfort and also the Tranquility, the Solace, known as the “Great White Ship,” carried on alone doing an efficient and noteworthy job servicing the fleet at such bloody places as the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. (navy-mil)

Solace served in the Pacific Theatre of Operations throughout the entire war and participated in six major island invasions. Between December, 1941, and January, 1946, she steamed over 170,000 nautical miles and provided treatment and evacuation home for over 25,000 patients.
Solace (ex Iroquois) was sold by the US War Shipping Administration to the government-owned Turkish Maritime Lines in April of 1948. She underwent a year-long conversion effort to restore her for future use as a passenger liner; renamed Ankara, her passenger spaces were completely modernized allowing for 175 in first-class, 152 in second-class and 72 in steerage-class.

Ankara was popular with Mediterranean passengers, and often carried pilgrims to Mecca until laid up in 1977. After remaining idle for almost four years, and at age 54, she was sold for scrap in 1981. (Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School)

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Solace

Solace-WC

Solace-along_side-Haven

ss-iroquois-beached

iroquois-beached

Ankara

November 21, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bonin

‘Mu nin to’ or ‘Bu nin to’ are the Japanese sounds for three Chinese ideographs which would be translated ‘no man island.’ A group of Islands later took the name Bonin Islands.

A Spanish explorer, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, was reported to have discovered the islands in 1543; he had given the name Arzobispo to the islands.

Villalobos commanded an exploring expedition that sailed from Mexico some time in 1542 or 1543. After reaching the Philippines on August 26, 1543, he sent off a small ship, the San Juan, having a crew of eighteen or twenty men, to explore in a northerly direction.

Somewhere about the beginning of October they sighted some islands, which from the description were almost certainly some of the Bonin group. They did not land and shortly afterwards steered back for the Philippines, and the chief reason given is that their stock of water was not sufficient for them to proceed.

In about the year 1675 a Japanese vessel was driven by a storm to these islands which, though uninhabited, they found to be pleasant and fruitful and, in default of other name, described as Buninto.

But this is not the name by which they are commonly known in Japan, nor is the year 1675 the first in which there is record of them, for these same islands are claimed to have been discovered in 1592 by a certain Ogasawara Sadayori, a Japanese warrior under Hideyoshi.

The Islands were granted to him as a fief, so that they became known as the Islands of Ogasawara (the name the group keeps today.)

“This small but interesting, and from its situation, valuable group of islands, lies in latitude 27° north, longitude 146° east, within five hundred miles distance from the city of Yedo in Japan.”

“It appertains to Great Britain, having been discovered by an English whaling vessel in 1825, and formally taken possession of by Captain Beechey of HMS Blossom in 1827. There were no aboriginal inhabitants found on the islands nor any trace that such had existed.”

“Their aggregate extent does not exceed two hundred and fifty square miles; but their geographical position — so near Japan, that mysterious empire, of which the trade will one day be of immense value —“

“… gives them a peculiar importance and interest. The climate is excellent, the soil rich and productive, and there is an admirable harbour well fitted for the port of a commercial city.” (Alex Simpson, Acting Britich Consul for the Sandwich Island)

HMS Blossom, under command of Captain Beechey, was a sloop carrying fifteen guns and a complement all told of 122 men. She had been dispatched from England on May 19, 1825, with instructions to co-operate with Franklin and Parry’s Arctic Expeditions.

The Blossom anchored in a harbor on June 9, 1827, having first attempted to fetch the southernmost group; but finding wind and current against the ship and discovering in the nearest land an opening which appeared to give promise of a good harbor, Captain Beechey made for this and anchored in Port Lloyd, to which he gave this name out of regard to the then Bishop of Oxford.

Captain Beechey was much surprised to find here two Europeans who turned out to have been two of the crew of the English whaler William, which vessel had been wrecked in Port Lloyd some eight months previous to the Blossom’s arrival. The name of one of the men was Wittrein; that of the other is not given.

It appears that after the wreck of the vessel the crew set to work to build a small schooner in order to find their way to Manila, as the chances of their being picked off from Port Lloyd were somewhat remote.

To their surprise, however, a whale ship, the Timor, appeared, and took off the crew of the wrecked vessel with the exception of these two men.

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. Savory, on his recovery, threw himself warmly into the project.

Shortly after (1830,) colonists from Hawaiʻi made their way to Bonin. Nathaniel Savory, an American citizen – but none the less under English auspices – was one of the founders of the first colony, of which he subsequently became chief, on the Bonin Islands.

Savory had served in some capacity on an English merchantman which in the year 1829 put in at Honolulu. He lost a finger in his right hand during the firing of a cannon salute. Having to undergo surgical treatment, his vessel left him behind at the port of Oahu.

“They sailed accordingly in 1830, took with them some Sandwich Island natives as labourers, some live stock and seeds, and landing at Port Lloyd, hoisted an English flag which had been given them by Mr. Charlton.”

Savory had many acquaintances among the storekeepers in Honolulu, and many friends among the captains of whalers and small trading vessels to the South Seas. From all accounts, the islands were fruitful; fish and turtle abounded; the climate was warm and genial; and the prospects of opening out some lucrative trade seemed altogether promising.

Plans took shape, the scheme being furthered in every way by Mr. Richard Charlton, at that time British Consul in Honolulu; and a schooner was fitted out which eventually set sail in the month of May, 1830, with Savory, Aldin Chapin, John Millinchamp, Charles Johnson, and Matteo Mazarro; they arrived on June 26, 1830. (Cholmondeley, Tokyo Metropolitan University)

Owing to the circumstances under which the first colony had been established on the Bonins, the early settlers, whether British subjects or not, had always regarded themselves as coming ultimately under the jurisdiction of the British Consulate in Hawaii.

“The cliffs in many places round the harbour came so close to the beach as to leave no cultivatable ground between them and the sea; but where valleys occur they have all been turned to account, with the exception of one on the west side of the inner harbour, which has probably been left vacant as a careening and repairing place for vessels.” (Captain Collinson; Cholmondeley)

Materially, the colony was prospering, and opportunities of sale and barter were furnished when, not unfrequently, whalers and other vessels came to visit it.

After Savory established himself on the Bonin Islands, captains of whalers and trading vessels came along to see him; take news of him back to his family; become bearers of their letters to him; and it is with him that Savory’s store-keeper friends want to transact business.

“The little settlement has been visited by several whaling vessels since that period, and also by a vessel from the British China Squadron.”

“(Mazarro,) anxious to get additional settlers or labourers to join the infant colony, the whole population of which only numbers about twenty, came to the Sandwich Islands in the autumn of 1842 in an English whaling vessel.”

“He described the little settlement as flourishing, stated that he had hogs and goats in abundance, and a few cattle; that he grew Indian corn and many vegetables, and had all kinds of tropical fruits; that, in fact, he could supply fresh provisions and vegetables to forty vessels annually.” (Alex Simpson, Acting British Consul for the Sandwich Islands)

“The island was greatly developed by grains which Savory had sent from the United States, and everything was so blooming and prosperous …” (Boston Transcript, August 30, 1887; Daily Bulletin, October 31, 1887)

Commodore Perry re-opened the long closed doors of Japan in 1861. That year, Japan made the first attempt is made to recover her long lost hold on the islands.

Towards the end of the year 1861, a Japanese steamer was despatched to Port Lloyd from Yedo, as the city of Tokyo was originally called, having on board a commissioner, subordinate officers, and about a hundred Japanese colonists.

On Sunday, November 21, 1875, the Meiji Maru, a Japanese ship, captained by an Englishman or American of the name of Peters, left Yokohama at noon with four Commissioners on board — Tanabe Yaichi, Hayashi Masaki, Obana Sakusuke, and Nezu Seikichi. Her destination was the Bonin Islands – Japan took control of the Bonin Islands.

From the year 1876 until 1904 when, under the Revised Treaties foreigners secured the right of travel and residence in any part of the Japanese Empire, no new settlers other than Japanese could make their home on the Bonin Islands.

The two chief islands are no longer ‘Peel’ Island and ‘Bailey’ Island. As newer maps and charts supersede the old ones, the names given by Captain Beechey will gradually disappear and be forgotten. ‘Peel’ Island is now Chichijima, Father Island; its harbor Futami ; ‘Bailey’ Island is Hahajima, or Mother Island. (Lots of information here is from Cholmondeley.)

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Native’s House

Crushing the Sugar Cane

Lohala Palm

Chichijima – the Landing

Bonin Islands-view of the Coast

A Sugar Mill Shed

Chichijima – the Jetty

Japanese Men-of-War in Bonin Harbor

Map Showing Position of the Bonin Islands

November 15, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1800s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1800s – horses arrive, sandalwood economy and Henry ‘Ōpūkaha’ia sails to New England. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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November 3, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Early Recognition of Importance of Hawai‘i to US Trade

“The importance of the Sandwich Islands to the commerce of the United States, which visits these seas, is, perhaps, more than has been estimated by individuals, or our government been made acquainted with.”

“To our whale fishery on the coast of Japan they are indispensably necessary: hither those employed in this business repair in the months of April and May, to recruit their crews, refresh and adjust their ships; they then proceed to Japan, and return in the months of October and November.”

“It is necessary that these ships, after their cruise on Japan, should return to the nearest port; in consequence, a large majority resort to these islands, certain here to obtain any thing of which they may be in want.”

“A small proportion, however, of these vessels have proceeded for supplies and refreshments, in the fall, to the ports on the coast of California …”

“… but as the government of Mexico have now imposed a duty of two dollars and one eighth, per ton, on every ship that shall anchor within their waters, whether in distress or otherwise, this will, of course, prevent our whale ships from visiting that coast; and the Sandwich Islands will then remain as the only resort for them, after their cruise on the coast of Japan.”

Of the ships that visited the islands, all but a small fraction were American. “The commerce of the United States, which resorts to the Sandwich islands, may be classed under five heads, viz.:”

“First, Those vessels which trade direct from the United States to these islands, for sandal-wood, and from hence to China and Manilla, and return to America.” (Annually, the number may be estimated at six.)

“Second, Those vessels which are bound to the north-west coast, on trading voyages for furs, and touch here on their outward-bound passage, generally winter at these islands, and always stop on their return to the United States, by the way of China.” (The number may be estimated at five.)

“Third, Those vessels which, on their passage from Chili, Peru, Mexico, or California, to China, Manilla, or the East Indies, stop at these islands for refreshments or repairs, to obtain freight, or dispose of what small cargoes they may have left.” (The number may be estimated at eight.)

“Fourth, Those vessels which are owned by Americans resident at these islands, and employed by them in trading to the northwest coast, to California and Mexico, to Canton and Manilla.” (The number may be estimated at six.)

“Fifth, Those vessels which are employed in the whale-fishery on the coast of Japan, which visit semi-annually.” (The number may be estimated at one hundred.).” (John Coffin Jones Jr, US Consulate, Sandwich Islands, October 30th, 1829)

“When we reflect that, only a few years since, the Sandwich Islands were not known to exist, when but lately they were visited only by a few ships bound to the north-west coast of America …”

“… and these merely stopping to purchase a few yams or potatoes, and that now there annually come to this remote corner of the globe forty thousand tons of American shipping, with the sure prospect that in no long protracted period this number will double …”

“… we are led to conclude, that the Sandwich Islands will yet be immensely more important, to the commerce of the United States which visits these seas, than they have been.”

“The annual, if not semi-annual, visit of one of our ships of war to these islands, is conceived to be necessary; and would, no doubt, be attended with the best advantages, affording to our commerce, in these seas, protection, assistance, and security.”

“For this station, a sloop of war would be sufficient for every purpose required; and, if so arranged as to visit these islands in the months of March, April, and May, and again in October and November …”

“… every desired object would then be effected, and the result be, that our merchantmen, and whalers would come to the islands with perfect security; their tarry here made safe, and many abuses and inconveniences with which they are now shackled, would be done away.”

“The very knowledge that a ship of war would semi-annually be at the Sandwich Islands, would be of infinite service to our commerce in general, which enters the waters of the North Pacific ocean.”

“Since my residence on these islands, as an officer of government, I have repeatedly, in the discharge of my official duties, felt the want of protection and aid from the power of my government.”

“I have been compelled to see the guilty escape with impunity; the innocent suffer without a cause; the interests of my countrymen abused; vessels compelled to abandon the object of their voyage, in consequence of desertion and mutiny …”

“… and men, who might be made useful to society, suffered to prowl amongst the different islands, a disgrace to themselves and their country, and an injury to others, whom they are corrupting, and encouraging to do wrong.”

“I would suggest … the propriety of recommending to our government that a ship of war be detached for the protection of American commerce in these waters, that she be required annually to visit the Society and Marquesas Islands, and, semi-annually, the Sandwich Islands …’

“… that in the intermediate periods when she might not be employed at such islands, it shall be required that she visit the ports of California and Mexico, to afford protection to our commerce and citizens in that quarter, where they have for a long time been suffering under the abuses of an ill-regulated government.” (John Coffin Jones Jr, US Consulate, Sandwich Islands, October 30th, 1829)

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‘Port_of_Honolulu’,_watercolor_and_graphite_on_paper_by_Louis_Choris-1816

Honolulu_Harbor-Choris-1822

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

November 1, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1790s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1790s – including John Young and Isaac Davis joining Kamehameha, Vancouver visits, Battles of Kepaniwai and Nu‘uanu, etc. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

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