Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Keawaʻula

Keawaʻula was believed to be part of the Kaʻena Point leina a ka ʻuhane (leaping places of souls into the spirit world;) at the northern part of the Waiʻanae coastline, it is at the western most point of Oʻahu.

Keawaʻula (red harbor or land) got the name from the squid that used to come into the area. When the squid would come into the ocean, from the shore it would appear as a reddish brown color. (ksbe)

Archaeologists turned up evidence of ancient agriculture in Keawaʻula when terraces indicating a former taro site were found at the bottom of the cliff. Several fishing shrines also existed here. (WaiʻanaeHS)

Poha Cave is said to have existed here. This cave had streams of fresh water running through it that were carried to Kaieiewaho Channel between Oʻahu and Kauaʻi. It is said that ancient Hawaiians out fishing would dive down at certain places with large calabashes and come up with fresh water from these streams. (WaiʻanaeHS)

Many years later, in 1859, when a house lot was being cleared in this area, a cave entrance covered by three large, flat stones was found. Freshwater was found inside, and people came from miles around to drink. This cave has since been named Keawaʻula Cave, but many believe it to be the fabled Poha Cave. (WaiʻanaeHS)

Missionary Levi Chamberlain during a trip along the Waiʻanae and Waialua coastline sometime prior to 1849 traveled northwest by canoe from the village of Keawaʻula to a “cove,” presumably a canoe landing, at the southeastern side of Kaʻena Point. (DLNR)

In “front of the little cove” was “a cave used by fishermen occasionally for a residence” which was about 30 feet high and had dimensions of 30 and 15 paces. The cave is described as being at “nearly the west point of the island” and south of the Waiʻanae and Waialua District boundary which dissects Kaʻena Point in an east-west direction. (DLNR)

He traveled from the cave “a short distance over a very rough path along the shore and came to the mokuna (boundary) of the large divisions of the island Wainai and Waiarua.” This may be the cave called “Ke Ana Moe of Kaʻena” in 1954 which was said to be used by travelers from Mākua to Waialua. This cave may have been obscured by construction of the railway bed. (DLNR)

Keawaʻula was known for its aku and ahi fishing grounds. The coastal fisheries were also noted as particularly productive when submerged, woven basket traps (hinaʻi) were used to catch kala and hinalea. (DLNR)

When describing basket traps in general, Kamakau notes a particular pattern and size of basket trap that was made for kala fish and also states it to be “a land abounding in kala fishs”. (DLNR)

Most of the government lands and private lands at Keawaʻula were leased for ranching during the second half of the 1800s and first half of the 1900s. A major portion of Keawaʻula became government land after Laʻamaikahiki relinquished “½” of the ahupuaʻa to the King during the 1848 Māhele and the King then designated it government land. (DLNR)

When the privately-owned lands along the coast were acquired by the State of Hawaiʻi in the 1970s to create Kaʻena Point State Park, all were owned by ranching interests or by families with ranching interests in the area. The Keawaʻula section of the point was owned by Elizabeth Marks who inherited McCandless Ranch.

Keawaʻula is now generally referred to as Yokohama Bay. Several stories suggest the later name. One story suggests this was a favorite fishing spot for Japanese living on Oʻahu; they gave it the nickname Yokohama after the famous fishing village in Japan. (ksbe)

When OR&L extended its rail line around Kaʻena Point, boats carried Japanese laborers, equipment and supplies to the site and freight back; on October 14, 1897, the place where the first Japanese laborers landed for this job is known to this day as “Yokohama Beach.” (ascehawaii)

Another story is that there was a Japanese man who ran the train station there. Because he was Japanese, people nicknamed him “Yokohama” – and thus the place carried it. (WaiʻanaeHS)

The Bay is at the beginning of the Kaʻena Natural Area Reserve. There is a lifeguard and restroom (only at the reserve entrance;) no facilities exist beyond that point. Under the Natural Area Reserve system, off-road driving is prohibited in the area to protect native plant and animal habitats.

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Hawaii
Keawaula
Keawaula_Bay
Keawaula_Yokohama
KeawaulaYokohama
Keawaula-Yokohama
Keawaula Bay Sign
Keawaula-Park_Sign
Waianae District

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Hawaiʻi and the American Civil War

When the first shot of the American Civil War was fired at Fort Sumter off the coast of South Carolina on April 12, 1861, nearly six thousand miles away, the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was a sovereign nation.

On August 26, 1861, five months after the outbreak of hostilities and four months after the news of Civil War arrived in Honolulu, Kamehameha IV issued a Proclamation that, in part, stated, “hostilities are now unhappily pending between the Government of the United States, and certain States thereof styling themselves “The Confederate States of America”.”

With the Proclamation, the King also stated “Our neutrality between said contending parties.”

The discussion of neutrality versus partisanship had to include the reality that the Hawaiian kingdom had no standing army, and most importantly, no navy to protect its harbors if supporting either the Union or Confederacy brought the other side’s vessels to threaten the principal cities of Honolulu or Lāhainā. (Illinois-edu)

Likewise, while the majority of foreigners in Hawaiʻi were Americans from New England who supported the Union cause with great fervor, leadership and advisors to the King included European ties who believed that the Confederacy would succeed in securing its independence.

King Kamehameha IV declared a neutral stance but held largely Unionist sympathies – as did the majority of people living in Hawaiʻi. (NPS)

Although neutrality was declared, Hawaiʻi’s close relationship economically, diplomatically and socially with the United States ensured that the wake of the American Civil War reached the Hawaiian Islands.

Slavery was prohibited by Hawaiʻi’s Constitution of 1852; however, there was considerable debate comparing it to the contact labor system that brought workers from Asia to fill the growing need for labor on the sugar plantations.

This was a kind of indentured servitude, some in Hawaiʻi argued, that was little better than American slavery, a position that tended to fuel opposition to the American slaveholding South.

Prior to the Civil War, whaling and related activities were the primary economic engine of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. The war enabled Hawaiʻi to fill part of the void left by the absence of then-blockaded southern exports, including sugar.

Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict. By the end of the war, over thirty extremely prosperous plantations were in operation and expanded to new levels previously unheard of before the war’s commencement.

In part, because of this boom in business, the majority of Americans living and working on the islands were devoutly pro-Unionist. In fact, many living in Hawaiʻi had an ardent desire to serve in the armed forces.

Hawaiʻi’s neutrality did not prevent many of its citizens from enlisting in either Union or Confederate forces. One, a Hawaiian from Hilo, was Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman, son of Kinoʻole O Liliha, a Hawaiian high chiefess of Hilo. He enlisted in the Union Army and later died of disease in Richmond, Virginia’s infamous Libby Prison.

A dozen Hawaiians (possibly from captured ships) also served as Confederate sailors aboard the famous raider CSS Shenandoah which circumnavigated the globe and sank or captured nearly forty Union and merchant vessels throughout the Pacific. (Captured sailors could be put in chains below deck, marooned on an island or be given the chance to join the crew of the Southern vessel – many chose the latter.)

About 40 individuals who were born and raised in Hawaiʻi served in the Civil War. As many as 200 immigrants to Hawaiʻi who were living here at the outbreak of the war in 1861 may have served in the conflict.

To honor these men, the Hawaiʻi Sons of the Civil War Memorial Committee installed a bronze and stone memorial at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. It is dedicated to those from Hawai’i who served in the war.

Oʻahu Cemetery has thirty Union veterans who rest in a Grand Army of the Republic section of the burial ground (it is identified with four cannons at each corner.) (The Grand Army of the Republic was founded by Union veterans in Decatur, Illinois, in 1866.)

The war lasted from 1861 to 1865. Immediately following the war, many of the once prosperous sugar plantations collapsed as a result of the northern states reestablishing trade with their southern counterparts.

On May 11, 1865, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa (noting the death of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865) noted “No words of ours can do justice to our grief. … All over the world the friends of liberty and justice, the poor, the oppressed everywhere, will weep for him, the Savior of his country, the Liberator of four million slaves, the People’s friend. … His name will forever be revered … The Nation still lives.”

In 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, a group of Union veterans established “Decoration Day” on May 30 as a time to remember and decorate the graves of service members with flowers, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Skate

On April 11, 1900, the Navy purchased the Holland VI, an internal combustion, gasoline-powered submarine from John P Holland for $160,000, after demonstration trials off Mount Vernon, Virginia. This marks the official birth date of the US Navy’s Submarine Force.

Even before the United States entered World War I, the submarine was recognized for its deadly role in warfare as German U-boats torpedoed and sank British shipping in the Atlantic.

Military submarines made their first significant impact in World War I; U-boats saw action in the First Battle of the Atlantic, and were responsible for the sinking of Lusitania, and this is often cited among the reasons for the entry of the United States into the war.

USS F-4, an F-class US submarine, was originally named Skate, making her the first ship of the United States Navy named for the skate (a type of ray.) She was renamed F-4 on November 17, 1911.

The F-4 and three other F-class submarines, the F-1, F-2 and F-3, along with their support vessel, the tender USS Alert, made up the First Submarine Group, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, participating in the development operations of that group along the west coast, and from August 1914, in Hawaiian waters.

They were the first US submarines to be stationed to the new naval facility at Pearl Harbor.

While on a training mission, on Thursday, March 25, 1915, the US submarine Skate (F-4,) with a crew of twenty-one men, exploded and sank in fifty fathoms of water three-quarters of a mile off of Honolulu harbor.

There had been other submarine fatalities and accidents in world history, but this was the first submarine disaster in US naval history.

There were round-the-clock attempts to make contact with the submerged vessel. It was lodged three hundred feet below the surface, and divers could not reach it.

After dragging cables across the ocean floor in the area in attempts to snag and locate the submarine, it was caught late in the morning of the 26th.

The 142′ long submarine, with a diameter of about 15′, displaced 330 tons and could not be moved. Using a combination of hard hat divers, cables, chains and heavy scows with winches, the F-4 was incrementally raised and moved closer to shore over the next two months.

Frank William Crilley, a Chief Gunner’s Mate, made dives to over 300 feet during salvage operations on the sunken Submarine. On April 17, 1915, he rescued a fellow diver who had become entangled at a depth of 250 feet.

For his heroism on this occasion, Frank William Crilley was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1929.

Five months passed before the submarine could be hauled to the surface.

After so many months underwater, only four of the 21 dead aboard the submarine could be identified. The 17 remaining bodies were sealed in four caskets and shipped to Arlington National Cemetery, where they were buried in a common grave.

Their headstone, the size of an individual marker, was marked simply “17 Unknown U.S. Sailors Victims of the USS F-4 March 25 1915.”

The headstone was going to be replaced and destroyed, but it was retrieved and is now part of the Bowfin Museum in Pearl Harbor.

After the drydock examinations of F-4, the vessel was towed by the tugboat Navajo, using the six pontoons, to “an out of the way spot at Pearl Harbor” with a depth of fifteen to twenty feet that was “as nearly beached as possible” with “the pontoons keeping her clear of the harbor floor”.

Apparently the F-4 was left in this spot, to “rot in the mud bank” presumably near the head of Magazine Loch.

Periodically since, the Navy has announced plans to either destroy or examine the F-4 – the oldest surviving U.S. Navy submarine — but because of the deep silt in Pearl Harbor, the exact location is unknown.

In 1957, a more successful Skate was commissioned (the third US submarine named Skate.) It was the first production model of a nuclear-powered submarine to make a completely submerged trans-Atlantic crossing (1958) and the first to surface at the North Pole (1959).

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F-4 (SS-23)-(navsource-org)-1913-15
F class (SS-20 - 23) submarines and their tender are in DD#2 at Mare Island-(navsource-org)-21 January 1913
F-4 (SS-23) at right at anchor in Honolulu, HI. with F-1 (SS-20), center, and F-2 (SS-21) outboard, moored together-(navsource-org)-
Commemorative photo in memory of the F-4 (SS-23)-(navsource-org)
Commemorative group photo of the crew of the F-4 (SS-23)-(navsource-org)
Diver 'Jack' Adrez going down to search for the F-4 (SS-23), when he had made the record dive of 215 feet-(navsource-org)
Edited photo shows how it was moved from deep water into dry dock from record setting depth of 320 ft (salvage record that lasted 54 ys)-(navsource-org)
F-4 (SS-23), at Honolulu along with (from front to back)-F-2(SS-21), F-3(SS-22) and F-1 (SS-20)-(navsource-org)-1914
F-4 (SS-23), in drydock at Honolulu, note the large implosion hole in her port side-(navsource-org)-1 September 1915
Frank William Crilley receiving Medal of Honor
General plans prepared by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts-(navsource-org)-18 June 1910
Harbor scene as the pontoons used to raise the F-4 (SS-23) pass by-(navsource-org)
Naval Constructor Furer developed this method for recovery of the F-4 (SS-23) from the ocean floor off Honolulu with six large pontoons-(navsource-org)
Naval personnel examine the large implosion hole in F-4's (SS-23) port side, in drydock at Honolulu-(navsource-org)-1915
New Arlington Grave Marker
Salvage of F-4 (SS-23), April-August 1915. Bow salvage pontoons emerging from the depths, off Honolulu, Hawaii-(navsource-org)-circa 29 August 1915
Salvage of F-4 (SS-23). Valve manifold and hose leads to submerged pontoons, on board a salvage vessel off Honolulu-(navsource-org)-circa 29 August 1915
Tender Alert (AS-4) at Long Beach CA., F-4 (SS-23) is outboard-(navsource-org)-1914
The salvaged F-4 (SS-23) sits in a floating dry dock in Pearl Harbor in August 1915.

by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Tripler Army Medical Center

Some suggest the Tripler building got its pink color because the color and other design elements were borrowed from the Royal Hawaiian Hotel down in Waikīkī.

However, an engineering booklet related to its design notes, “the layout of the buildings was planned to create an easy, informal environment, avoid an institutional atmosphere and create the impression of a residential community.” (army-mil)

“Therefore, the hospital building, nurses’ quarters, fire house, chapel, bachelor officers’ quarters and mess, theater and enlisted men’s barracks will be of pink stucco finish.” (army-mil)

Let’s step back a bit.

In 1898, the Spanish American war was going on, including in the Pacific (primarily in the Philippines) – Hawaiʻi became involved. The US Army set up Camp McKinley in Kapiʻolani Park and soon realized an urgent need for a hospital in Hawaiʻi.

The Army’s first medical facility in Hawaiian Islands opened in 1898; it was a 30-bed hospital for soldiers and sailors in transit to and from Manila located in the Independence Park Pavilion (an old dance pavilion at the intersection of King Street and Sheridan.) Field medical tents at Fort McKinley added support to the hospital.

Casualties were streaming into Hawaiʻi from the war in the Philippines. The hospital on King Street rapidly grew into a 100-bed operation and was visited by more than 21,000 troops during the Philippine Insurrection following the war with Spain.

Later, in 1907, Department Hospital, a wooden post hospital facility consisting of a single hospital building and mess hall, was constructed at Fort Shafter.

Department Hospital was re-designated “Tripler Army Hospital” on June 26, 1920, named after Brigadier General Charles Stuart Tripler (1806-1866) – in honor of his contributions to Army medicine during the Civil War (he authored of one of the most widely-read manuals in Army medical history, the “Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army of the United States.”)

Then, the US Army Health Clinic, Schofield Barracks, a 500-bed hospital, was completed in 1929. It was activated as the Station Hospital, Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaiʻi.

The attack on Pearl Harbor led to the construction of Tripler Army Medical Center. At the outbreak of World War II, the hospital at Fort Shafter had a 450-bed capacity which, over the years, expanded to 1,000 beds through the addition of one-story barracks-type buildings.

Plans for a new Tripler hospital atop Moanalua ridge were drawn in 1942, construction was authorized in June 1944; the ground was broken August 23, 1944; actual construction began in 1945: and construction was completed in 1948.

When it was completed, Tripler was the tallest building in the Pacific region. (Three additional wings to the hospital were completed in 1985 with other additions/renovations over the years.)

Tripler was dedicated on September 10, 1948 and has been a visible and valuable landmark in Hawaiʻi. It is the largest military medical treatment facility in the entire Pacific Basin.

In 1961, Tripler US Army Hospital became known as US Army Tripler General Hospital, and finally in 1964, the name changed to Tripler Army Medical Center.

In a cooperative agreement with the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1992, the Spark M Matsunaga Medical Center was added at Tripler.

Located on a 375-acre site, Tripler Army Medical Center’s geographic area of responsibility spans more than 52-percent of the earth’s surface, from the western coasts of the Americas to the eastern shores of Africa (encompassing three million square miles of ocean and more than 750,000-square miles of land mass.)

Nearly 800,000-beneficiaries in the Pacific Basin are eligible to receive care at Tripler; this includes active-duty service members of all branches of service, their eligible families, military-eligible retirees and their families, veterans, and many residents of Pacific Islands.

In a typical day, more than 2,000-patients are seen in outpatient clinic visits, more than 1,500-prescriptions are filled, more than 30-surgical procedures are performed, and more than 30 patients are admitted. There are more than 200-births each month. (In August 1955, 427-babies are born at Tripler, setting a record for one-month deliveries.)

by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawaiians Leaving Home

We consistently hear of folks coming to Hawaiʻi, but often overlook that many were/are out-migrating from Hawaiʻi.

And, the increased scale of migration between Hawaiʻi and California and other parts of the continent may have started with us to them, rather than the reverse.

There is historical evidence suggesting that Hawaiians began moving to the US mainland as early as the late-1700s for economic survival.

As early as 1811, Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) had already hired twelve Hawaiians on three year contracts to work for them in the Pacific Northwest. By 1824, HBC employed thirty-five Hawaiians west of the Rocky Mountains.

The number of Hawaiians working as contract laborers for the Hudson’s Bay Company steadily grew. The large number of Hawaiian workers in the village at Fort Vancouver led to the name “Kanaka Town” in the early 1850s – “Kanaka” is the word for “person” in the Native Hawaiian language.

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)

In 1839, John Sutter brought a small group of native Hawaiians with him when he arrived in California. They worked for him and eventually intermarried with local Maidu families. They settled in the area of Vernon, which is now called Verona, where the Feather River flows into the Sacramento River in South Sutter County. (co-sutter-ca-us)

At the time of Sutter’s arrival in California, the territory had a population of only 1,000 Europeans, in contrast with 30,000 Native Americans. It was at that point a part of Mexico and the governor, Juan Bautista Alvarado, granted him permission to settle.

In order to qualify for a land grant, Sutter became a Mexican citizen on August 29, 1840 after a year in the provincial settlement; the following year, on June 18, he received title to 48,827 acres and named his settlement New Helvetia, or “New Switzerland.”

Sutter employed Native Americans of the Miwok and Maidu tribes, Kanakas and Europeans at his compound, which he called Sutter’s Fort.

In his memoirs, Sutter recalled the Hawaiians, using a name then common to describe Hawaiian workers, “I could not have settled the country without the aid of these Kanakas.” They also built the first settlers’ homes in Sacramento – grass shacks, or hale pili, made with California willow and bamboo.

“In the summer of 1865 some Hawaiian fishermen and their “wahine,” who had sailed the placid Pacific in search of new realms for their nomad spirits, arrived in San Francisco bay only to discover that the cool fogs bred dire distress in lungs …”

“… used to none but the fervid breezes of a tropic sea, so on they kept until, after a day and night of clear weather, they reached Vernon, a busy farming community on the banks of the Feather river.” (The San Francisco Call – March 26, 1911)

“It was here that San Mahalone and his companions built their huts and that today their children and grandchildren are peopling this colony this begun over 40-years ago, preserving their individuality and accumulating properties and competencies on the fertile lands of Sutter county.” (The San Francisco Call – March 26, 1911)

“Hawaiians also migrated to Yolo County, California to participate in the Gold Rush and created their own Kanaka Village. There is evidence that Hawaiians settled across California in the late-1800s and even intermarried with Native Americans.”

“Many scholars speculate that Hawaiians migrated to the mainland in order to gain more economic opportunity and to flee from the dramatic Westernization that was changing the face of Hawai’i.” (pbs-org)

In 1894, at Iosepa in Utah, “the colony of Hawaiians established in Skull Valley, Tooele county comes in with a splendid showing this year. This is all the more satisfactory when the difficulties which the colonists have had to contend with are considered.” (Deseret Evening News – December 22, 1894)

“Last spring a few members of the colony accepted the government invitation to return to the Sandwich Islands. Several of these have written back, expressing the wish that they were here, and declaring an intention to return to the colony as soon as practical.” (Deseret Evening News – December 22, 1894)

The Hawaiians’ legacy can be seen today in the places named with Hawaiian words. Theses include include Kanaka, Owyhee (an old Hawaiian name for Hawaii) and Kamai (named after the Hawaiian Kama Kamai): the Kanaka Glade in Mendocino County, California …

… Kanaka Creek in Sierra County, California; Kanaka Bars in Trinity County, California; Kanaka Flats in Jacksonville, Oregon; Kanaka Gulch, Oregon; Owyhee River in southeastern Oregon; and Kamai Point, British Columbia.

Of course, this summary only highlights some of the early outmigration of Hawaiians from Hawaiʻi. Recent decades has seen a flurry of movement of Hawaiians (and others) from Hawaiʻi to the continent. (Some areas on the continent show over 100% increases decade-by-decade in the number of Hawaiians living there.)