Hawaii | Page 328 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 4, 2019 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Birth-Beach of the Boogie Board

Many may not realize that today’s Boogie Board was created in Kailua-Kona, at Wai‘aha, a place commonly referred to as “Honl’s” (after the name of the family that used to live there.)

Wai‘aha (“Gathering Water,”) a little strip of white sand beach, just on the outskirts of Kailua Village, is now a County Beach Park. It is a popular surf spot, especially with bodyboarders.

Tom Morey was staying in the house that once stood on the beach at Wai‘aha in July 1971 when he made the first “boogie board” prototype.

He first called the board “S.N.A.K.E.” (Side, Navel, Arm, Knee, Elbow – because all the body parts were involved in its use) – he trademarked the name Morey Boogie in 1973 and founded Morey Boogie in 1974. (He later called it a Boogie Board after his love of music.)

According to Tom Morey’s son, Sol Morey, “the first boogie board was created in 1971 in order to surf shallower breaks that couldn’t otherwise be enjoyed.”

“The surf at our Hawaii rental on the Kailua coast was where it began with the shaping and sealing of the foam to form the first boogie.”

Tom Morey was a traditional surfboard builder/shaper, but looked for inventions and innovation. In 1964, he created the first TRAF polypropylene fin (his term TRAF being FART spelled backward), innovating the first commercial interchangeable fin system. In 1965, the Skeg Works became Morey Surfboards.

In 1965, Karl Pope became his business partner and the name changed again — Morey-Pope Surfboards. They built, tested and marketed Pope’s Trisect, a three-piece surfboard that folded into a suitcase.

But he had different ideas in Kona; he used an electric carving knife and a household iron, whittled some scrap polyethylene foam into a small rectangular mat and covered it with newspaper and hit the swells in front of his home on the Big Island of Hawaii.

With it, the sport of bodyboarding started in 1971 in Hawaii. (Prior to 1971, bodyboards were made from wood or fiberglass and called paipo boards.)

According to Tom Morey, he took his last nine-foot piece of polyethylene foam (that he had planned for a conventional board) and “grabbed a knife and cut it in half.”

“There was no turning back at that point. I looked at the foam and then at the surf and began fooling around with a hot iron and an electric knife.”

“I found that I could shape the foam using the iron if I put a sheet of newspaper down on the foam first. Later that night, I drew a few curves on the foam with a red marking pen and went to bed.”

Morey rose early on July 9, 1971, and cut and ironed out his planned shape. He left his board as wide as possible and left the nose square so that it would have more structural strength and so he could hold on to it.

“I decided I’d shape the rails like those on a Hot Curl surfboard,” says Morey. “Those were the boards from the 20s and 30s; built before boards had skegs. I cut 45-degree Hot Curl rails into my board.”

“They looked great, but I still wasn’t sure how it would ride.” Morey grabbed his board, ran down to Honl’s and the sport of bodyboarding was born.

Wai‘aha is home to the annual Malama Wai‘aha (Honl’s) Roots Bodyboard contest. The contest (started in 2002) was formed to honor the birth-beach and the birthplace of modern bodyboarding (they held their 10th anniversary event on June 30.)

In 2006, the Hawai‘i County acquired the property fronting the beach and it is now part of the County beach park system. Parking for users is also mauka of Ali‘i Drive and was provided by a developer as a condition of a rezoning.

Morey Bodyboards became a division of Mattel Toys and then Wham-O. In 2005, Tom Morey earned a star on the Huntington Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame.

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May 3, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Royal Centers

Generally thought to have originated from the Marquesas Islands, evidence of early existence in the Hawaiian Islands indicates initial contact and settlement in about 1000 AD.

Early on, with the family unit being the socio-political structure, there was no need for a hierarchical or complex society. However, as the population increased and wants and needs increased in variety and complexity, the need for chiefly rule became apparent.

Eventually, a highly stratified society evolved consisting of the ali‘i (ruling class,) Kahuna (priestly and expert class of craftsmen, fishers and professionals) and Makaʻāinana (commoner class.)

At the time of European contact in 1778, Hawaiian society comprised four levels. People were born into specific social classes; social mobility was not unknown, but it was extremely rare. The Kapu System separated Hawaiian society into four groups of people:

Aliʻi, the ruling class of chiefs and nobles considered to be of divine origin who ruled specific territories and who held their positions on the basis of family ties and leadership abilities;
Kahuna, the priests (who conducted religious ceremonies at the heiau and elsewhere) and master craftsmen (experts in medicine, religion, technology, natural resource management and similar areas) who ranked near the top of the social scale
Makaʻāinana, Commoners (by far, the largest group) those who lived on the land – primarily laborers, farmers, fishermen, and the like; they labored not only for themselves and their families, but to support the chiefs; and
Kauwa (or Kauā), outcasts forced to lead lives generally segregated from the rest of Hawaiian society

The aliʻi attained high social rank in several ways: by heredity, by appointment to political office, by marriage or by right of conquest. The first was determined at birth, the others by the outcomes of war and political process.

Power and prestige, and thus class divisions, were defined in terms of mana. Although the gods were the full embodiment of this sacredness, the royalty possessed it to a high degree because of their close genealogical ties to those deities.

The kahuna ratified this relationship by conducting ceremonies of appeasement and dedication on behalf of the chiefs, which also provided ideological security for the commoners who believed the gods were the power behind natural forces.

Commoners possessed little mana and were therefore prohibited from entering any of the sacred places where nobles and gods communicated, such as the heiau in which the aristocrats honored their gods. Outcasts, with no mana, could interact with commoners but not approach the upper class.

With the stratified social system, it was important to retain the division between aliʻi and makaʻāinana. This was done through a physical separation, such as the Royal Centers that were restricted to only the aliʻi and kahuna.

Royal Centers were where the aliʻi resided; aliʻi often moved between several residences throughout the year. The Royal Centers were selected for their abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

The Hawaiian court was mobile within the districts or kingdom the aliʻi controlled. A paramount’s attendants might consist of as many as 700 to 1000-followers made of kahuna and political advisors (including geologists, architects, seers, messengers, executioner, etc.); servants which included craftsmen, guards, stewards; relatives and numerous hangers-on (friends, lovers, etc.).

There was no regular schedule for movement between Royal Centers. In part, periodic moves served to ensure that district chiefs did not remain isolated, or unsupervised long enough to gather support for a revolt.

In addition to personal economic support, the king also required tribute and taxes by which to maintain and display his political power.

Structures associated with the Royal Centers include heiau (religious structures) and sacred areas, house sites for the aliʻi and the entourage of family and kahuna (priests), and activity areas for burial, bathing, games, recreation, and crafts.

Religion and politics were closely interwoven in Hawaiian culture. The Royal Centers reflect this interrelationship with residential sites, heiau and sacred sites present within a defined royal compound.

Puʻuhonua (places of refuge) were often associated with these Royal Centers, reflecting the strong association between puʻuhonua and sites occupied by the high-ranking aliʻi.

A ruling chief moved his court as desired, travelling along the coasts by canoe with his attendants and setting up temporary establishments at certain sites for purposes of business or pleasure.

On a voyage the aliʻi rode in the raised and sheltered platform in the middle of the canoe which was called the pola, while the paddle-men sat in the spaces fore and aft, their number showing the strength of the king’s following. (Lots of information here from several NPS documents.)

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May 2, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Commanding Officer’s Quarters

Over the years, the face of Pearl Harbor has changed dramatically. When the first Westerner, British seafarer Captain James Cook, came to the islands in 1778, a coral reef barred the entrance of the place known as Wai Momi, making it unsuitable as a port for deep-draft shipping. At that time, nearby Honolulu Harbor was an infinitely more hospitable destination.

It wasn’t until 1826 that the US Navy had its first contact with the Hawaiian Islands, when the schooner USS Dolphin sailed into port. After that, it took more than 13 years for the Navy to begin to recognize the potential of Pearl Harbor.

During a routine survey of the area in 1840, an enterprising naval officer determined that the deep inner harbor could be accessed by completely removing the obstructing reef.

In 1885, Dr. Seth Porter Ford (namesake for the present reference to the island) took ownership and possession of the island. He sold it in 1891.

Ford Island is roughly translated as “Poka Ailana” in Hawaiian and some native Hawaiians did refer to the island by that name.

Despite gaining exclusive rights to Pearl Harbor in 1887, the US did not make any attempt to take advantage of their claim on this strategic estuary until well after the turn of the century.

In 1899, the O‘ahu Sugar Company leased Ford Island and planted about 300-acres of sugarcane on the island. Docks were built on the island and on Waipi‘o Peninsula to facilitate transfer of cane harvests by barge on the way to the mill at Waipahu.

It wasn’t until the capture of Manila during the Spanish-American War, when the US needed to establish a permanent way station in the Pacific to maintain control of the Philippines.

Then, for the first time, the American government began to understand the strategic importance of O‘ahu. Annexation soon followed, but even then, little was done to fortify the area or capitalize on the vast potential of Pearl Harbor.

The US government began acquisition of Ford Island in 1902, and completed this in 1916. The island was used as a joint aviation facility by the Army and Navy until the late-1930s

In preparation for World War I, the Navy selected Ford Island as a site for land-based guns to defend the harbor.

In 1916, the War Department acquired two small parcels of land on Ford Island to be used as casements for two batteries of six-inch rifled guns.

The sites were completed in mid-1917 and were the first presence of military on Ford Island. The batteries were used by the U.S. Army until 1925 by which time they were deactivated and the guns removed.

One of the sites, on the northeast corner of the island, was named Battery Adair (for First Lt. Henry Adair, 10th US Cavalry, who died in Mexico in 1916.)

In the 1920s, the US Navy was building up its Naval Air Station on Ford Island. As part of this growth, in 1922, the Navy began the construction of officers’ homes on the North End of the Island, later known as “Nob Hill.” The officer’s housing is also referred to as Luke Field Housing.

In 1923, six one-story houses are built on Belleau Woods Loop for married Chief Petty Officers (CPOs). These houses were physically separate from the Nob Hill homes, but were also north east of the aviation facilities.

In 1932, three additional CPO houses were added to the original six. However, sometime in the 1930s, one of the homes was demolished.

The 19 houses in Ford Island’s Nob Hill neighborhood—simple, single-story wood bungalows used by US Navy officers and their families—were built between 1923 and 1936.

Quarters K (Hale Loa – Long House,) the Commanding Officer’s quarters, was built on Battery Adair in 1936. The Battery serves as the basement of the home.

In 1937, CDR Robert Hickey became the first resident of Quarters K and he returned in 1958 to live in the same house as Rear Admiral. He planted the tree on the front left hand corner of the house during his first tenure.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, families from the Chief Petty Officers Quarters and Nob Hill gathered in the basement in Quarters K for shelter.

The swimming pool nearby was in the opening scene of the 1965 epic “In Harm’s Way.” Close by, too, is the 1920s bungalow that was John Wayne’s quarters in the movie.

The Nob Hill neighborhood is being restored by Hawaii Military Communities, LLC, as part of the Hawai‘i Public-Private venture to develop, restore and manage Navy housing in Hawai‘i. In June 2009, the first of the homes had been restored.

Partners include Hawaii Military Communities LLC, the US Navy, DLNR’s State Historic Preservation Division, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the City and County of Honolulu and Historic Hawai‘i Foundation.

I had the opportunity to visit Quarters K on a couple of occasions. Once at a reception hosted by the Admiral of the Submarine Base and another on a tour of Pearl Harbor hosted by the commander at Pearl Harbor.

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The restored Quarters K on Ford Island-HistoricHawaiiFoundation-June 2009

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Aerial view of the U.S. Naval Air Station Ford Island, Oahu, Hawaii (USA), in 1962, shortly before its closure.

April 30, 2019 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawaiian Dynasties

The Kamehameha Dynasty ruled for nearly a century from the late-1700s to the late-1800s, while the Kalākaua Dynasty ruled from 1874 to 1893.

Kamehameha Dynasty

Kamehameha I, Paiʻea, Kamehameha the Great (1758-1819)
Born in North Kohala on the Big Island, Kamehameha united all the major islands under one rule in 1810.

The king traded with foreign ships arriving in the islands and enlisted some of the foreigners into his service. During his reign, the export of sandalwood to the Orient brought about the ability for island chiefs to purchase merchandise from abroad.

Kamehameha II, Liholiho – (1796-1824)
The son of Kamehameha and his sacred wife Keōpūolani, Liholiho overthrew the ancient kapu system by allowing men and women of the court to eat at the same table. At the same time, he announced that the heiau (temples) should be destroyed with all the old idols.

Believing like his father that the islands were under the protection of Great Britain, Liholiho and his favorite wife Kamamalu traveled to England in May of 1824, where they were received by the government of King George IV. However, measles afflicted the royal party and Kamāmalu died on July 8 followed by Liholiho on July 14, 1824.

Kamehameha III, Kauikeaouli (1813-1854)
The younger brother of Liholiho had the longest reign in Hawaiian history. He was 10 years old when he was proclaimed king in 1825 under a regency with Ka‘ahumanu, his father’s favorite queen, as joint ruler.

Realizing the need for written laws to control growing problems brought about by increasing numbers of foreigners settling in the kingdom, the declaration of rights, called the Hawaiian Magna Charta, was issued on June 7, 1839. The rights of residents were repeated in the Constitution of 1840.

The Great Mahele (division), the first legal basis for land ownership in the kingdom, was enacted and divided the land between the king, his chiefs and others.

Kamehameha IV, Alexander Liholiho (1834-1863)
The nephew of Kauikeaouli, Alexander Liholiho was the son of Kekūanāoʻa and his wife Kīna‘u, the grandson of Kamehameha I, younger brother of Lot Kapuāiwa and elder brother of Victoria Kamāmalu.

He ascended to the throne after the death of his uncle in December of 1854. On June 19, 1856, he married Emma Rooke.

Concerned about the toll that foreign diseases were taking on his subjects, the king signed a law on April 20, 1859 that established a hospital in Honolulu for sick and destitute Hawaiians. He and Emma personally solicited funds to erect Queen’s Hospital, named in honor of Emma.

Kamehameha V, Lot Kapuāiwa (1830-1872)
Four years older than his brother Kamehameha IV, Lot would also rule for just nine years. In 1864, when it appeared that a new constitution could not be agreed upon, he declared that the Constitution of 1852 be replaced by one he had written himself.

Known as “the bachelor king,” Lot Kamehameha did not name a successor, which led to the invoking of the constitutional provision for electing kings of Hawai`i.

William Charles Lunalilo (1835-1874)
The grandson of a half-brother of Kamehameha I, Lunalilo was the son of Charles Kanaina and Kekauluohi, a sister of Kīnaʻu.

He defeated David Kalākaua in 1873 to become the first king to be elected (therefore, technically, not a part of the Kamehameha Dynasty, although he was related.) He offered many amendments to the Constitution of 1864, such as abolishing the property qualifications for voting.

Lunalilo died of tuberculosis on February 3, 1874, a little more than a year after his election. He became the first Hawaiian to leave his property to a work of charity, creating the Lunalilo Home, which accommodates elderly Hawaiians who are poor, destitute and infirm.

Kalākaua Dynasty

David Kalākaua (1836-1891)
After the death of Lunalilo, Kalākaua (married to Kapiʻolani) ran against and defeated the queen dowager, Emma. Kalākaua was the first king in history to visit the United States.

“The Merry Monarch” was fond of old Hawaiian customs, and he attempted to restore the people’s lost heritage – such actions gave rise to anti-monarchy movements, such as the Reform Party.

In 1887, Kalākaua signed the “Bayonet Constitution,” (signed under threat of an armed uprising) that stripped the king of most of his power and gave foreigners the right to vote. Kalākaua died while on a trip to San Francisco on January 20, 1891, leaving his younger sister Liliuokalani to ascend the throne.

Queen Lili‘uokalani, Lydia Kamakaʻeha Pākī (1839-1917)
Liliʻuokalani (married to John Owen Dominis and living at his mother’s home, Washington Place) inherited the throne from her brother, King Kalākaua, on January 29, 1891.

Two years later, a group composed of Hawaiian Nationals, Americans and Europeans formed a Committee of Safety seeking to overthrow the Hawaiian Kingdom, depose the Queen and seek annexation to the United States; the Queen was deposed on January 17, 1893.

Queen Lili‘uokalani flew the US flag over her personal residence, Washington Place, in 1917 to mourn and honor Hawaiians killed in World War I.

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Collage of Kamehameha and Kalakaua dynasties-HSA

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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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