“Until 1929, people traveled between the Hawaiian Islands by steamboat, schooner, or outrigger canoe. But seas could be rough and the trip took days.” (Michelle Liu)
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 at sheltered beaches, which provided access to good fishing grounds, as well as facilitating convenient canoe travel.
As long-distance voyaging declined, the need shifted from voyaging canoes to large canoes for chiefly visits and warfare within the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in changes in canoe design.
Then, competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different steam ship routes, rather than engage in head-to-head competition.
Inter-Island operated the Kauai and Oʻahu ports plus some on Hawaiʻi. Wilder took Molokai, Lānai 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)
Mahukona, Kawaihae and Hilo were the Big Island’s major ports; Inter-Island served Kona ports, Kaʻū ports and the Hāmākua ports of Kukuihaele, Honokaʻa and Kūkaʻiau. Wilder served Hilo and the Hāmākua stops at Paʻauhau, Paʻauilo and Laupāhoehoe.
Then, on April 27, 1927, “Mr and Mrs WE Eklund of Hilo are returning home from Maui this morning via airplane. They are passengers on the first commercial airplane trip to be made between the two islands, their pilot being Martin M Jensen.” (Star Bulletin, April 27, 1927)
Jensen was in the Islands as a result of the Dole Derby. In April 1927, the Hawaiian Pineapple Co began a national advertising campaign, independent of the Association of Hawaiian Pineapple Canners.
The advertisements were centered on the brand name “Dole,” which was stamped in bas-relief on the top of every can of pineapple produced by the company. The advertising was designed to enable consumers to identify the Hawaiian Pineapple Co’s products from other company’s products, no matter what label the can carried.
The advertising campaign was launched in a spectacular way. At the time, Charles Lindbergh successfully completed his solo flight across the Atlantic, leaving New York and landing at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, on May 21 at 10:21 pm. Thousands of cheering people had gathered to meet him. He had flown more than 3,600 miles in 33 ½ hours.
On May 25, 1927 James D. Dole offered $25,000 to the first flyer to cross from the North American continent to Honolulu, Hawai‘i, in a nonstop flight (second place would receive $10,000.)
Four airplanes were in the race, winging across the Pacific: Aloha, Golden Eagle, Miss Doran and Woolaroc … later, only two landed in Hawai‘i. (Woolaroc was the first finisher that landed August 17, 1927 at Wheeler Field after a flight of 26 hours, 17 minutes and 33 seconds.)
Honolulu’s Martin Jensen in the Aloha, with Paul Schluter as navigator finished second. The Aloha was previously christened with a bottle of Waikiki water, complete with Hawaiian singers and hula dancers.
Miss Ruby Smith, an Oakland beauty queen, broke the bottle amidst Hawaiian strains and dances. Jensen was particularly proud of the painted Hawaiian flower lei which draped comfortably around the plane’s nose.
Unfortunately, the other two contestants were lost, Dole put up a $10,000 reward for anyone finding each of the missing planes. A huge search party was set up, soon swelling to 42 ships and planes. The search was to no avail.
In Honolulu, the following day, the Star Bulletin carried James Dole’s statement: “Hawaii is on the lips of the world today, in the minds of countless millions of people.”
“Aviation during this year 1927 has definitely brought our own Hawaiian territory closer than ever before into the consciousness of the whole American people. Time and distance between Hawaii and the Pacific Coast are magically shortened.”
“I feel that this has great practical as well as sentimental value to the people of Hawaii. Business and commerce, social and civic relations, national and international contacts, are the better served, the more greatly inspired and stimulated.”
“Mrs Walter Eklund, now of Kona, was to become the first woman in Hawaii to make an inter-island trip by commercial plane. Mr Eklund in May, 1927 persuaded Jensen to give him and his wife a ride in Jensen’s plane from Wailuku, Maui to Hilo.”
“Eklund, manager of the then Von Hamm-Young Motor Co, and his wife crossed the Channel in Jensen’s one-engine Lewis plane, the ‘Malolo.’ They landed on Wainaku baseball field (Ho‘olulu Park) without difficulty.” (Hawaii Tribune Herald, Nov 3, 1965)
Mr and Mrs Ralph Wilson of Wailuku (he was Von Hamm-Young manager on Maui) took the return flight back to Maui. “‘Mr. Jensen made one little flight to warm up his plane. Again we crawled in, baggage and Mary Louise. Out hopped directly over the ocean leaving out of sight almost instantly the few who had gathered down to see us take off wondering.’”
“‘Mary Louise looked down at the water, misgivingly, ‘Mother are we, going to fall in the water’ l assured her that the man was holding the plane up, so she cuddled down into my arms and went to sleep.’” (Wilson, HTH May 15, 1927)
“Inter-Island commercial flying, with passenger and mail service, is not far distant. This is the declaration of all who follow the signs of the future, for the prospects for such progress are excellent at this time. An appropriation of $25,000 has been made for the field at Waiakea, and when this is in shape, the last link in inter-island aviation will have been made.” (HTH, May 15, 927)
In 1928, Stanley C Kennedy, a Silver Star Navy pilot, convinced the board of directors of Inter-Island Steam Navigation of the importance of air service to the Territory and formed Inter-Island Airways.
Young Kennedy had visions of flying for many years. But it was not until the Great War that Stanley Kennedy was to pilot an airplane. Dissatisfied with a Washington desk job, the naval officer talked his way into flight training in Pensacola, Florida. In short order, Ensign Kennedy sported wings as Naval Aviator No. 302. (hawaii-gov)
On November 11, 1929, Inter-Island Airways, Ltd introduced the first scheduled air service in Hawaiʻi with a fleet of two 8-passenger Sikorsky S-38 amphibian airplanes. The first flight from Honolulu to Hilo with stops on Molokai and Maui took three hours, 15 minutes. (It was later renamed Hawaiian Airlines.) (hawaii-gov)
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