Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Young Brothers – Innovation and Opportunity

John Nelson Young had 5-kids – Edith, Herbert, William, John and Edgar; they hailed from San Diego.

In the summer of 1899, the four boys ran a glass-bottomed boat at Catalina Island; this was the beginning of the famous glass-bottom boat rides that continue today.

It marked the beginning of the innovation and opportunity that followed the brothers.

They took guests out fishing during the day; to help promote their activities they took hotel employees on moonlight sails.  It’s not clear if this was the beginning of the booze cruise or pau hana parties.

They saw opportunity in Hawai‘i; in January 1900, Herbert (29) and William (25) arrived in Honolulu; in October of that year, their younger brother, John Alexander Young, arrived – they called him Jack (18).

They formed Young Brothers.

Their early years were focused around Honolulu Harbor.  They would run lines for anchoring or docking vessels, carry supplies and sailors to ships at anchor outside the harbor, and various other harbor-related activities.

They built a glass bottom boat and started a sport fishing service – and would take pictures of the people with their fish. Some suggest this was the beginning of the charter boat business in Hawai‘i. 

They expanded into shark fishing … Jack also saw another opportunity and a new sport was born – they took customers out to ‘hunt’ flying fish, with customers at the bow of their skiff with shot guns “taking pot shots at fish on the fly”.

Back then, there were two inter-island freight carriers, Inter-Island Steam Navigation and Wilder Steamship Company.  In 1905 Inter-Island bought out Wilder. (Later Inter-Island became Hawaiian Airlines.)

Opportunity knocked again for Young Brothers.

Libby’s shut down its pineapple operation in windward O‘ahu and started planting pineapples on the west end of Molokai.

Libby’s built a wharf at Kolo,  just below Maunaloa.  Kolo had a shallow channel and the Inter-Island Steam Navigation ships couldn’t get in.

The brothers made a special tender and with its first barges, YB-1 and YB-2, Young Brothers got into the freight business, carrying pineapple from Kolo Wharf to Libby’s O‘ahu cannery.

With expanded freight service to Molokai (to Kolo and Kaunakakai,) Young Brothers further innovated with the practice of tandem towing – towing two barges with one tug.

They pioneered the system because two barges were needed to serve Molokai – they would drop one off at Kolo and then carry on to Kaunakakai; they’d pick up the Kolo barge on the way back to Honolulu.

(The 1946 tsunami destroyed Kolo Wharf. Rather than repair it, Libby’s bought trucks and shipped their pineapples out of Kaunakakai.)

Young Brothers’ innovation did not stop.  In 1929, their new tug, the Mikimiki, was launched.

The excellent performance of the original Mikimiki led to the adoption of her basic design for a large fleet of tugs that the US Army Transport Service copied for World War II service.

Young Brothers continued with another innovation; the Kapena class tugs that modernizes the Young Brothers’ fleet.  They are named for two prior captains; the first was named for Jack Young Sr and his oldest son Jack Young Jr.  Both were instrumental in making Young Brothers a leader in inter-island shipping. 

Jack Young had three children, Jack Jr, Babe and Kenny.  Jack Sr had 11 grandchildren, but he and his wife had died knowing only one of them. Jack Sr is my grandfather, but I never knew him or my grandmother; Kenny is my father.

While the Youngs have been out of Young Brothers for a long time, we still feel very much a part of it and its heritage.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maritime Fur Trade

The maritime fur trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly traded in China for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.  (ESDAW)

Before the European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Its trade developed in the Early Middle Ages (500-1000 AD), first through exchanges at posts around the Baltic and Black seas.

“We have encountered a divine marvel … There are mountains, which slope down to the arm of the sea, and their height reaches to the heavens …. Within these mountains are heard great cries and the sound of voices and [some people] are struggling to cut their way out of this mountain …”

“Their language is unintelligible. They point at iron objects and make gestures as if to ask for them. If given a knife or an axe, they supply furs in return.” (Primary Chronicle, Etkind in the year 1096)

“In their quest for fur, the Russians colonized a huge, exotic, and inhospitable space, called “the land of darkness” by early Arabic travelers. Combining barter with coercion, the Russians locked the peoples of the Arctic North into a system of trade that led to the extermination of animals and humans.” (Etkind)

The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. (ESDAW)

Originally, Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of the pelts of martens, beavers, wolves, foxes, squirrels and hares. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia, a region rich in many mammal fur species, such as Arctic fox, lynx, sable, sea otter and stoat (ermine).

In a search for the prized sea otter pelts, first used in China, and later for the northern fur seal, the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska.

The European discovery of North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly the beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur felt hat, as beaver hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe.

Fur was relied on to make warm clothing, a critical consideration prior to the organization of coal distribution for heating. Portugal and Spain played major roles in fur trading after the 1400s with their business in fur hats.

The North American fur trade began as early as the 1530s was a central part of the early history of contact between Europeans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada.

In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland. Sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for the natives’ well-worn pelts. The first pelts in demand were beaver and sea otter, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk.

Captain Chauvin made the first organized attempt to control the fur trade in New France. In 1599 he acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and tried to establish a colony near the mouth of the Saguenay River at Tadoussac

 French explorers, voyageurs and Coureur des bois such as Étienne Brûlé, Samuel de Champlain, Radisson, La Salle, and Le Saeur, while seeking routes through the continent, established relationships with Amerindians and continued to expand the trade of fur pelts for items considered ‘common’ by the Europeans.

England was slower to enter the American fur trade than France and Holland, but as soon as English colonies were established, development companies learned that furs provided the best way for the colonists to remit value back to the mother country.

Furs were being dispatched from Virginia soon after 1610, and the Plymouth Colony was sending substantial amounts of beaver to its London agents through the 1620s and 1630s. London merchants tried to take over France’s fur trade in the St Lawrence River valley.

From the 17th through the second half of the 19th century, Russia was the world’s largest supplier of fur. The fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia, the Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas.

The European discovery of North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly the beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur felt hat, as beaver hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe. Fur was relied on to make warm clothing, a critical consideration prior to the organization of coal distribution for heating.  (ESDAW)

James Cook’s expedition brought the news about the sea otter. Cook’s sailors traded several pelts on Cook’s river for a few glass beads each, and then sold them to the Chinese in Canton for two thousands pounds. Published in 1784, this story caused new British and French expeditions to Alaska. (Etkind)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Tamana

“If placed within its international context, the Sv. Nikolai’s 1808 voyage has significance for Russian expansion in North America that might be compared, for example, to the 1540 expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado on the northern borderlands frontier of New Spain.”  (Preface, Wreck of the Sv Nikolai)

The Sv. Nikolai (a 45-50-foot schooner,) owned by the Russian American Company, set sail from New Arkhangel (modern-day Sitka, Alaska) to explore and identify a site for a permanent Russian fur trading post on the mainland south of Vancouver Island in the Oregon Country.

Heavy seas drove the ship aground on the Washington coast just north of the mouth of the Quileute River, forcing twenty-two crew members ashore.

Over the next several months the shipwrecked crew clashed with Hohs, Quileutes and Makahs; they lived in hand-built shelters roughly 9-miles up the Hoh River.

The tribes captured and enslaved several of the crew members. In 1810, an American captain sailing for the Russian American Company ransomed the survivors.  (Owens)

OK, but what about Hawaiʻi? … Let’s look back.

Throughout the years of late-prehistory, AD 1400s – 1700s, and through much of the 1800s, the canoe was a principal means of travel in ancient Hawaiʻi.  Canoes were used for interisland and inter-village coastal travel.

Most permanent villages initially were near the ocean and sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating canoe travel between villages.

With “contact” (arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778,) a new style of boat was in the islands and Kamehameha started to acquire and build them.  The first Western-style vessel built in the Islands was the Beretane (1793.)

Through the aid of Captain George Vancouver’s mechanics, after launching, it was used in the naval combat with Kahekili’s war canoes off the Kohala coast.  (Thrum)

Encouraged by the success of this new type of vessel, others were built.  The second ship built in the Islands, a schooner called Tamana (named after Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu,) was used to carry his cargo of trade to the missions along the coast of California.  (Couper & Thrum, 1886)

Then, on June 21, 1803, the Lelia Byrd, an American ship under Captain William Shaler, arrived at Kealakekua Bay with two mares and a stallion on board – they were gifts for King Kamehameha.

The captain left one of the mares with John Young (a trusted advisor of the King, who begged for one of the animals) then left for Lāhainā, Maui to give the mare and stallion to Kamehameha.

During his stay, Shaler asked Kamehameha for one of the chief’s small schooners. Wanting bigger and better, in 1805, Kamehameha traded the 45-ton Tamana and a cargo of sandalwood for the Lelia Byrd,) a “fast, Virginia-built brig of 175-tons.” It became the flagship of Kamehameha’s Navy.

Kamehameha kept his shipbuilders busy; by 1810 he had more than thirty small sloops and schooners hauled up on the shore at Waikīkī and about a dozen more in Honolulu harbor, besides the Lelia Byrd.  (Kuykendall)

That, then, takes us to the Tamana and her fate.

Shaler’s agent, John Hudson, sailed the Tamana east to Baja California.  Within a year, Hudson sold the Tamana to Russian Captain Pavl Slobodchikov for 150 sea otter skins.

Slobodchikov renamed the Tamana to Sv. Nikolai.

With a makeshift crew of three Hawaiians and three Americans, Slobodchikov sailed the newly-named Sv Nikolai back to Hawaiʻi, and later returned to New Arkhangel (Sitka, Alaska) in August 1807 where the boat served the Russian fur traders along the Northwest Coast of North America.

At the time, the Northwest was unsettled territory.  To bypass hostile Native Americans in the Northwest, the Russian American Company contracted with American ships to carry Russian fur traders to California.

Then, the Sv. Nikolai took the fateful trip in 1808 (as noted in the introductory paragraphs, above.)

Under Nikolai Isaakovich Bulygin, the Sv. Nikolai sailed to explore the coast of Vancouver Island and select a site for a settlement on what is today the Oregon coast.

The expedition did not succeed.  Near Destruction Island the ship was becalmed and they aimlessly drifted.  Then, on November 1, 1808, Sv. Nikolai was pushed onto a rocky reef by a heavy squall.

The ship did not sink immediately, and everyone on board reached shore safely. At low tide the crew returned to the vessel to salvage sail canvas, food, munitions and other supplies.  (NOAA)

The survivors (including Anna Petrovana Bulygin (Captain Bulygin’s wife) – reportedly the first western woman to set foot in Washington state (Cook & Black) were crossing the Hoh River and three of the group, including the captain’s wife, were captured.

The rest of the crew then followed the Hoh River inland. They spent the winter in the valley, foraging for food and constructing a boat which they hoped would take them down the river and out to the freedom of the ocean.

In February 1809, they attempted to leave in their new boat, but at the mouth of the river it capsized. All the rest of the crew was taken captive. They lived in captivity for about 18 months.

In May 1810, an American vessel arriving in Neah Bay learned of their plight and attempted to arrange their release. All but seven members of the expedition were eventually freed. However both the captain and his wife died in captivity.  (NOAA)

A monument was constructed on Upper Hoh Road to commemorate the 1808 shipwreck of a Russian sailing vessel near Rialto Beach.  It was created to remember the lives lost when the Russian brig Sv. Nikolai (formerly owned by King Kamehameha and known as the schooner ‘Tamana’) beached in heavy squalls along the Pacific coast of the North Olympic Peninsula.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Wreck of the George N Wilcox

She was built in Scotland for H Hackfeld Co of Honolulu in 1892; she was named “George N Wilcox,” for the Grove Farm Plantation owner.

“George N Wilcox” had already completed one successful voyage when it sailed from Middleborough, England on May 10, 1894, bound for Honolulu around Cape Horn. (Soboleski)

Let’s look back …

On September 26, 1849, sea captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld arrived in Honolulu with his wife, Marie, her 16-year-old brother Johann Carl Pflueger and a nephew BF Ehlers.

Having purchased an assorted cargo at Hamburg, Germany, Hackfeld opened a general merchandise business (dry goods, crockery, hardware and stationery,) wholesale, as well as retail store on Queen Street.

As business grew its shipping interest, manufacturing and jobbing lines developed a web of commercial relationships with Europe, England and the eastern seaboard. Hackfeld outfitted several whalers and engaged in the trans-shipment trade.

George Norton Wilcox (known as GN,) the second son of eight boys, born in Hilo August 15, 1839 to missionary parents, Abner and Lucy Wilcox, took over the lease for Grove Farm sugar operation on Kaua‘i and quickly became its sole owner.

GN Wilcox was not only a plantation owner; he was also an engineer, statesman, businessman and a world traveler. More importantly, he was also a philanthropist and humanist, who left an extensive legacy of endowments and public donations.

Back to the boat …

The bark George N Wilcox “left Middleborough on the 10th of last May for Honolulu, laden with 1000 tons of coal and about 1200 tons of general merchandise. In the latter portion of the cargo were tons of Christmas goods”. (Morning Call, September 30, 1894)

“The NW point of Molokai, within forty miles of Honolulu, is proving to be a place to be avoided. A heavy sea lolls in there from the northeast, and a strong current draws around the point.”

“On the afternoon of the 18th (September, 1894,) Captain Wolters of the line new iron bark GN Wilcox, 130 days out from Middleborough hove to in that part of Oahu Channel to wait for morning before rounding Dimond Head.” (The Friend, October 1, 1894)

“The vessel was off the coast of Molokai and going along under close sails. Captain Wolters was on deck and ordered the sails reefed, as he did not care to reach port until the following morning.” (Morning Call, September 30, 1894)

“In going about, the current set him ashore, and the valuable ship and cargo were suddenly wrecked at five o’clock beneath the precipice of that coast. The crew were compelled to take to the boats in haste, before the breakers swept over them.” (The Friend, October 1, 1894)

“Ten miles south-southeast from Molokai light house, firmly imbedded on the sharp high jutting rocks of Lae o ka Ilio Point, one of the most dangerous portions of the Hawaiian coast …

“… behind the tall sheltering lava cliffs on the windward side of the Island of Molokai and directly at the entrance of Kaiwi channel lies the wreck of the fine, new, steel German bark George N Wilcox.”

“Heavily listed to port, and with her snowy sails lashed into hundreds of strips, flying and flashing in every direction, and heavy angry seas washing her decks from stem to stern …”

“… the wrecked vessel a pitiable sight indeed, at once a menacing, though expensive monument to gross carelessness on the part of some or else the victim of a luckless fate. (Hawaiian Star, September 20, 1894)

“Considerable quantities of wreckage from the GN Wilcox are reported to have stranded along the windward shores of Oahu. Many valuable cases have been saved which floated out of the wreck. Parties who bought the wreck and cargo for $1,200 are making a good profit out of it. The vessel is fast breaking up.” (The Friend, October 1894)

“Captain Wolters has been sailing to the islands since 1871 and this is the first ship he has ever lost. He is considered the commodore of Hackfeld & Co’s fleet and is a man in whom the company has every confidence.”

“The first ship he ever brought out was the Elsie Wylie. Since that time he has had command of the old CR Bishop and the H Hackfeld. A few years ago he gave up going to sea for some time and superintended the building of the company’s ships.”

“When the Wilcox was completed, a little over two years ago, he was given the command of her and took her to the islands on her maiden voyage.”

The crew “corroborated the details of the wreck as given, and say that Captain Wolters did all that man could do to save the fine vessel of which he was commander.” (Morning Call, September 30, 1894)

The machinery and railroad material were salvaged, but, according to Rex Hitchcock who was deputy-sheriff of the island at that time, the Hawaiians disposed of most of the Rhine wine. (Cooke)

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George N Wilcox-Morning Call-Sept 30 1894
George N Wilcox-Morning Call-Sept 30 1894

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Peleleu

“Where the sunbeams had slept placidly on an unbroken surface of azure, they were now reflected hither and thither by the black sides of canoes, the flashing of outriggers, the sheen of polished metal, the scarlet and yellow of innumerable feather cloaks …”

“… the glittering of oars amid the spray-rain, the gleaming of dusky bodies, and the forward leap of the high prows, whose painted eyes seemed to glow with the fire of life.”

“And in advance was the famous double war canoe Peleleu, the rowers straining at the oars, and the kahili-bearers and warriors standing around the mighty chief who was destined to make Hawaii a nation”

“On they came, nearing the flat beach of Waikiki, where unless Kalanikapule opposed, they could enter the coral reef and land without impediment.”

“But Kalanikapule chose to meet his rival in the heart of the country among the palis, rather than on the level ground; so, though from Leahi you could have seen the moving of dark masses of men among the forests of the southern side of the island, there was no sign on the beach of opposition to the landing of the Hawaiian troops.” (Gowen)

“Since koa is indigenous plant, i.e. one ‘native’ to Hawaii , it grew ‘wild’ in large forest, and Hawaiians did not propagate it. … The prime importance of koa was in the making of canoes, not only the single kinds, kaukahi, but even double kinds, kaulua, which consisted of two canoes lashed together in a special way.”

“Before making a canoe, the Hawaiians employed a kahuna, or priest, to offer prayers and sacrifices to Ku, the long-bearded god of canoe makers, that the work should be successful. Then the kahuna aided the men in selecting a suitable tree in the forest. … The part made from the koa trunk was the wa‘a.”  (Krauss)

Waʻa Peleleu, or simply Peleleu, were long canoes or long voyages were usually 50 feet long, but some were 100 and even 150 feet long. Such canoes were 1 to 2 feet wide and carved from a single log.  (Krauss)

Canoes evolved to meet new demands; the sail had become the primary power mode – those also evolved.  “In the early 1790s the watch aboard a foreign ship sailing off O‘ahu saw a vessel approaching which, by the cut of its sails, appeared to be European.”

“But as it drew near and passed by it was seen to be a Hawaiian canoe with sails cut to European shape. This was the fore-and-aft spritsail.  It was a simple modification, changing the ancient triangular sail to a four-sided shape.”

“Also, from the base of the mast the foot of the sail ran horizontally aft to the clew (bottom trailing edge) where the sheet (controlling line) connected to it. In larger canoes the foot was laced to a boom. This rig quickly became the standard for most Hawaiian sailing canoes.”

“On some of the largest double canoes a sail of about the same shape was used, not with a sprit, but gaff-rigged, the head (top of the sail) laced to a spar which was raised or lowered by halyards, and the entire foot of the sail laced to a boom.” (Herb Kane)

“Kamehameha’s drive to bring all the islands under the rule of Hawai’i Island required much more than the hit and run raids of earlier disputes.”

“Keeping armies in the field required great numbers of huge canoes, not only for invasion but also for keeping the army supplied, which meant canoes capable of returning to Hawai‘i Island, sailed (not paddled) short-handed and against the prevailing wind, for supplies and reinforcements.”

The peleleu class war canoes were invented for that purpose. “These were sailing vessels with deep hulls, some armed with swivel guns, carrying fore-and-aft sail rigs, either as spritsails or gaff-rigged and capable of sailing upwind.” (Herb Kane)

“The peleleu were a fleet of very large war-canoes which Kamehameha I had made from koa trees felled in the forests back of Hilo, Hawaii. Their construction was begun about the year 1796.”

“In spite of the fact that the Hawaiian historian, Malo, speaks of the peleleu with a certain pride and enthusiasm, they are to be regarded rather as monstrosities, not belonging fully to the Hawaiian on whose soil they were made, nor to the white men who, no doubt, lent a hand and had a voice in their making and planning.” (Malo)

“So great was the size of these canoes and such their depth from the gunwale down, that flooring had to be made on which the paddlemen might stand, or rest their feet while sitting on the usual paddlers’ seats.” (Emerson in Mills)

“They were excellent craft and carried a great deal of freight. The after part of these crafts were similar in construction to an ordinary vessel (i. e. was decked over).”

“It was principally by means of such craft as these that Kamehameha succeeded in transporting his forces to Oahu when he went to take possession of that part of his dominion when he was making his conquests.” (Malo)

“The large, wide and deep peleleu canoes, however, quickly became obsolete.  In comparison with standard double canoes, they were unwieldly, labor intensive, and impractical for common use”. (Mills)

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