Hawaii | Page 375 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 1, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Big W

The initial movie (1963) was about a group of strangers seeking buried treasure. Just before he kicked the bucket, Jimmy Durante tells them the treasure is under the ‘Big W’.

Later, Jonathon Winters makes the revelation:

Though not in Hawai‘i, that ‘W’ apparently motivated others to create their own Big W at the Wai‘alae Country Club.

Word is that Wai‘alae member Ethan Abbott came up with the idea and the club eventually moved four existing palm trees behind the 7th green to create the Wai‘alae W. (GolfNewNet)

Wai‘alae’s Big W has been around since 2009 – over 80-years after the golf club was formed.

Wai‘alae was originally built at the time before flight; Matson Navigation C. had luxury ocean liners bringing wealthy tourists to Hawaii – but, they needed a hotel equally lavish to accommodate their passengers at Waikīkī (at that time, the 650 passengers arriving in Honolulu every two weeks were typically staying at Hawaiʻi’s two largest hotels, the Alexander Hotel and the Moana.)

The availability of the Waikīkī land began putting wheels into motion. A new hotel was planned and conceived as a luxurious resort for Matson passengers, the brainchild of Ed Tenney (who headed the “big five” firm of Castle and Cooke and Matson Navigation) and Matson manager William Roth (son-in-law to William Matson founder of Matson Navigation.)

Castle & Cooke, Matson Navigation and the Territorial Hotel Company successfully proposed a plan to build a luxury hotel, The Royal Hawaiian, with 400 rooms on the 15-acre parcel of Waikiki beach to be leased from Bishop Estate.

The ground-breaking ceremony took place on July 26, 1925. However, the official building permits were delayed while city officials changed the building code to allow increased building heights. After $4 million and 18 months, the resort was completed.

On February 1, 1927, the Royal Hawaiian (nicknamed The Pink Palace) was officially opened with the gala event of the decade. Over 1200 guest were invited for the celebration that started at 6:30 pm and lasted until 2 am.

The great depression of the 1930s severely reduced travel and resulted in bankruptcy of the Territorial Hotel Co. Matson took over the obligations and interests of the Territorial Hotel Co. which included the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the Moana Hotel and Waiʻalae Golf Club.

ITT Sheraton purchased The Royal Hawaiian from Matson in June 1959. The Royal Tower Wing was added to the existing structure in 1969. The resort was sold in 1974 to Kyo-ya Company, Ltd., with Starwood Hotels & Resorts operating it under a long-term management contract.

In 2008, the Royal Hawaiian again underwent significant renovation (to the tune of $85-million) and held its official grand reopening on March 7, 2009. The Tower section was renovated yet again in November 2010 and reopened as The Royal Beach Tower with upgraded rooms.

The course was part of the Territorial Hotel Co’s Royal Hawaiian Hotel – the golf course opened for play on February 1, 1927 and was the land-based extension of the luxury cruise folks had on Matson cruise ships.

Local players were able to use the course, and by payment of annual fees for play became “privilege card holders” in the Territorial Hotel Company’s Waiʻalae Golf Club.

In 1930, a group of these Waiʻalae players formed a private club within the Waiʻalae Golf Club which they called Waiʻalae Country Club. It enlarged a small service building close to the main clubhouse, installed showers and had its own clubhouse where the swimming pool is now located.

Later (September 30, 1942,) Waiʻalae Country Club was incorporated. The military built a replacement for the Pavilion (a building used for dining and dancing that had burned down) because of the heavy use of the course by military personnel during the war.

Hawaiian Opens (under various sponsorships) have been held at Waiʻalae since 1928. The First PGA Tour Hawaiian Open Golf Tournament was held in the fall of 1965. Today, Waiʻalae is home to the Sony Open in Hawaiʻi. (Lots of images and information here is from the waialaecc-org.)

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The new golf course at Waialae-(waialaecc-org)-1929.

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The original home of Waialae Country Club, the former Paul Isenberg garage and servants’ quarters-(waialaecc-org)

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Waialae_Country_Club-The Pavilion-(waialaecc-org)-1927

Clubhouse,-The section on the left was the old Army theater building-(waialaecc-org)-1955

Royal Hawaiian Hotel under construction in 1926

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Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World Poster

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January 31, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Russians are Coming

The 1700s and 1800s were a time of imperial expansion and colonial occupation for many European nations, including Russia. In 1733, Russian Tsar Peter I commissioned the Great Northern Expedition, an ambitious exploration of Eastern Siberia and the Northern Pacific Ocean.

Vitus Bering (1681-1741), a Dane in the service of the Russian Navy, and Aleksei Chirikov (1703-1748) a Captain in the Russian Navy, were commissioned to explore and map Russia’s northeast coast.

In 1741, their explorations landed them in Alaska and they realized that the Siberian fur trade could be profitably extended further east. In the beginning, private companies conducted the fur trade throughout the Aleutian Islands and around Kodiak. (NPS)

In 1799, Tsar Paul I consolidated these private companies into one entity, the Russian American Company. This gave the Russian American Company (RAC) a monopoly on Russia’s North American trade. It also entrusted the RAC with the government of Russia’s North American colonies. (NPS)

During the early part of this century Russian America was governed by Count Baranoff, who resided at Sitka, he was a ‘rough, rugged, hospitable, hard-drinking old Russian; somewhat of a soldier, somewhat of a trader; above all, a boon companion of the old roystering school, with a strong cross of the bear.’ (Alexander)

When Baranof laid down the management of the Russian American Company, the dominion of the Czar in North America was at its greatest breadth

Its outposts were from St. Michael to Ross in California; from Sitka to Attu Island. For nearly 30 years he had been extending the limits of the possessions of his Imperial Master (Andrews)

Anxious to establish a trade with the Sandwich Islands, and well aware of their growing importance, in 1814, Baranoff sent the Bering to negotiate with the native monarch. (Dall)

Hawai‘i’s Russian story starts when three-masted Bering (sometimes spelled Behring) wrecked on the shores of Kaua‘i’s Waimea Bay early on the morning of January 31, 1815. The Behring had a load of seal skins/otter pelts bound for the Russian-American Trading Company in Sitka, Alaska.

The ship’s cargo and the sailors’ possessions were confiscated by Kaua‘i’s ruler, Kaumuali‘i.

The Russian-American Company (the owner of the ship and its cargo) sent Bavarian Georg Anton Schäffer to the Hawaiian Islands to retrieve the cargo or seek appropriate payment.

Later that year, Schäffer arrived in Honolulu. There, Kamehameha granted him permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor.

But, instead, Schäffer began building a fort and raised the Russian flag. When Kamehameha discovered this, he sent several of his men to remove the Russians from O‘ahu, by force, if necessary. The Russians judiciously chose to sail for Kaua‘i, instead of risking bloodshed.

Once on Kaua‘i, Schäffer gained the confidence of King Kaumuali‘i, when he promised the king that the Russian Tsar would help him to break free of Kamehameha’s rule.

“It would appear that the Russians had determined to form a settlement upon these islands; at least, preparations were made for the purpose; and I was informed by the commandant, that if I chose, I might get a situation as interpreter.”

“Amongst other things, I told him that I understood the Russians had some intention of forming a settlement on the Sandwich islands.”

“This reached the captain’s ears; and he gave me a severe reprimand, for having, as he expressed it, betrayed their secrets.
He desired me to say no more on the subject in future, otherwise I should not be permitted to quit the ship.”

“I know not what obstacle prevented this plan from being carried into effect; but although the Neva remained several months in the country, I never heard any more of the settlement.” (Campbell)

In 1817, however, it was discovered that Schäffer did not have the support of the Russian Tsar. He was forced to leave Hawai‘i, and Captain Alexander Adams, a Scotsman who served in the navy of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, raised the Kingdom of Hawai‘i flag over the fort in October 1817.

Eventually, over-hunting greatly diminished the number of sea otters and fur seals in the North Pacific. By the 1850s, New Archangel, which once owed its existence to the fur trade depended instead on a shipyard, a fish saltery, sawmills and an ice-exporting business.

The RAC and the Russian government no longer profited from the colony, instead focusing their main commercial activities on tea importing. The Crimean War highlighted Russian America’s vulnerability to attack by other European nations.

The Tsar decided to sell in 1867 rather than lose the territory in another war. The US States bought Alaska for $7.2 million, or approximately 2 cents per acre, and Russia ended its 126-year-old North American enterprise. (NPS)

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January 30, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

William Watman

William Watman was part of Captain Cook’s crew; he had joined the Resolution as an able bodied seaman, but later was classed as a Gunner’s Mate.

“He had formerly served as a marine twenty-one years; after which he entered as a seaman on board the Resolution in 1772, and served with Captain Cook in his voyage toward the South Pole.” (Cook’s Journal) “(A)fter which the Captain managed to obtain a place in Greenwich Hospital for his ageing seaman.” (King)

“On learning that Cook was preparing for his third voyage Watman managed to convince Cook that he would be a worthwhile member of the crew and he joined the Resolution on 3 Feb. 1776 whilst it was still in the dock at Deptford being re-fitted.” (Captain Cook Society)

Shortly thereafter (April 26, 1776, while the Resolution was still in the River Thames), Watman prepared his will, “In the name of God Amen, I Wm. Watman, Mariner on board his Majesty’s Ship Resolution, James Cook Esqr. Commander, being of sound and disposing mind and memory do hereby make this my last Will and Testament,”

“First and principally I commend my Soul into the Hands of Almighty God hoping for Remission of all my Sins through the Merits of Jesus Christ my Blessed Saviour, and Redeemer, and my Body to the Earth or Sea as it shall please God,”

“And as for such wordly estate and effects which I shall be possessed of or intitled unto at the time of my decease, I give and bequeath the same as followeth, that is to say …”

“I give and bequeath unto my Brother Thomas Watman of Strutton in the County of Surrey, all such wages, sum and sums of Money as now is, or hereafter shall be due to me for my service or otherwise on Board the said Ship, or any other Vessel or Ship …”

“… and I do hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my said Brother Thomas Watman sole Executor of this my last Will and Testament,”

“And I do give and bequeath unto my said Executor all the Rest and Residue of my said Estate whatsoever both Real and Personal, hereby revoking and making void all other and former wills by me heretofore made and do declare this to be my last Will and Testament …”

“Names as Witnesses in the presence of the said Testatr. Jams. Cook, Wm. Bligh.” “Normally members of the crew call on their messmates to witness their will. But Watman was able to call on Captain Cook and William Bligh the Master of the Resolution, to be his witnesses. This must indicate the esteem in which he was held by the ship’s officers.”

“During the voyage, he had frequently been subject to slight fevers, and was a convalescent when we came into the (Kealakekua) bay, where, being sent on shore for a few days …”

“… he conceived himself perfectly recovered, and, at his own desire, returned on board; but the day following he had a paralytic stroke, which in two days more carried him off.”

“He died on board the Resolution on 1 February 1779 whilst it was anchored in Kealakekua Bay.” (Captain Cook Society) “Watman was supposed by us to be about sixty years old” (King)

“At the request of Terreeoboo (Kalaniopu‘u), the remains of this honest seaman were buried on the morai (Hikiau Heiau); the ceremony being performed with great solemnity.”

“Kaoo and his brethren were present it the funeral, who behaved with great decorum, and paid due attention while the service was performing.”

“On our beginning to fill up the grave, they approached it with great awe, and threw in a dead pig, together with some cocoa-nuts and plantains.”

“For three successive nights they surrounded it, sacrificing hogs, and reciting hymns and prayers till morning.”

“We erected a post at the head of the grave, and nailed thereon a piece of board; on which was inscribed the name and age of the deceased, and the day of his departure from this life.”

“These they assured us they would not remove, and they will probably be permitted to remain, so long as such frail materials can endure.” (King)

Later, a monument was erected near Hikiau Heiau, the inscription reads: “In this Heiau, January 28, 1779, Captain James Cook R.N. read the English burial service over William Watman, Seaman. The first recorded Christian Service in the Hawaiian Islands. Erected by the Kona Civic Club, 1928”.

With respect to his will, it “was proved at London, the fourteenth day of October in the (year) of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty, before the Worshipful Francis Simpson, Doctor of Laws, Surrogate of the Right Worshipful Peter Calvert, Doctor of Laws, Master Keeper or Commissary of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury …”

“… lawfully constituted by the Oath of Thomas Watman, the Brother of the deceased and sole Executor named in the said Will, to whom Administration of all and singular the Goods, Chattels and Credits of the said deceased was granted he having been first sworn duly to Administer.” (Captain Cook Society)

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William Whatman memorial-Kealakekua

Memorial plaque at the Hikiau Heiau, Kealakekua Bay, Big Island, Hawaii

Watman Memorial-Opukahaia Memorial (moved to Kahikolu in 1993)

January 29, 2018 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Samuel Chenery Damon

In the Colonial Records in the Boston Libraries relating to the founders of Scituate, Massachusetts, and their descendants, the name John Damon was spelled Daman. He came to the colony of Plymouth probably as early as 1628, with his sister Hannah and Uncle William Gilson who was their guardian.

After the ‘Boston Tea Party’ the Colonists enrolled themselves into companies of ‘Minute Men’ to assemble at a moment’s warning, which was to be given by the ringing of bells, firing of guns, etc; Samuel Damon and Simeon Damon, his brother, were under the command of Capt. Joseph Stetson.

Among the men to respond to the ‘Lexington Alarm’ on April 19th, 177 5, enrolled in Captain John Clapp’s Company of Minute men, appear the names of Samuel Damon, Daniel Damon, John Damon (brothers), and Stephen Damon.

“In the year 1793, Samuel Damon with his family consisting of his wife and eleven children, came from Scitnate, Mass. And located a farm on what was known as Parker’s Hill, near Springfield. Here he built a log house in which he reared his family. This farm was known for many years as the Damon farm”. (Damon)

Samuel Chenery Damon, son of Colonel Samuel Damon, was born in Holden, Massachusetts, February 15, 1815. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1836, studied at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1838-39, and was graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1841. He was an American missionary.

He was preparing to go to India as a missionary and was studying the Tamil language for that purpose, when an urgent call came for a seaman’s chaplain at the port of Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands. He was ordained September 15, 1841, and he decided to accept the position at Honolulu.

He married Julia Sherman Mills of Natick, Massachusetts on October 6, 1841. Julia’s uncle, Samuel John Mills Jr, was one of five participants in the famous 1806 Williams College ‘Haystack Prayer Meeting’ that led to the beginning of a secret missionary fraternity called the Society of Brethren, the first Protestant foreign missions organization in America.

Mills later led in the formation the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions or ABCFM (the Protestant missionaries who came to Hawaiʻi in 1820.)

In 1842, the Damons moved to Honolulu at the direction of the American Seamen’s Friend Society – Damon served as the chaplain at O‘ahu Bethel Church (Seamen’s Bethel) for 42 years, serving the sailors of vessels who entered the port of Honolulu.

“Beth-el” was designated as a refuge for sojourners. At that time more than 100 whaling vessels with approximately 6,000 sailors aboard entered the port of Honolulu annually.

Materials for the building had been contributed by several ship owners in Norwich and New London, Connecticut. A residence for the chaplain was also built nearby.

The chapel was of average size, measuring 48 feet by 30 feet. The main hall seated 300 persons; the basement had a reading room, a book depository, and a marine museum. Dedicated in 1833, the chapel stood until 1886. (Watson)

Damon preached two sermons on Sunday with an additional service on Wednesday. He ministered to the needs of the visiting sailors, which could include food, clothing, and temporary shelter.

He encouraged sailors to refrain from liquor and carousing while on leave. He also collected the sailors’ mail until a post office was established in 1851. Concerned with educating his seagoing flock, he collected books on spelling and arithmetic.

In 1886 a raging waterfront fire destroyed the Seamen’s Bethel, which was still Bethel Union’s home. The idea surfaced of combining Bethel Union, now without a home, with the well-established Fort Street Church (at what is now the ʻEwa Makai corner of Fort Street and Beretania at the top of the Fort Street Mall.)

In 1887 a formal merger of Bethel Union and Fort Street Church created Central Union Church, with 337 members. They first built a church across from Washington Place (1891,) then built the present Central Union in 1920.)

Perceiving a need for a newspaper, Damon founded ‘The Temperance Advocate and Seamen’s Friend’ (later reduced to ‘The Friend,’) which published local and world news, announcements, messages from the visiting sailors, and articles and sermons written by the chaplain himself. Printed regularly, the newspaper totaled an estimated one-half million copies over the years. (Watson)

The Friend described itself as the “Oldest Newspaper West of the Rockies” in the early 1900s; it was a monthly newspaper for seamen which included news from both American and English newspapers as well as announcements of upcoming events, reprints of sermons, poetry, local news, editorials, ship arrivals and departures and a listing of marriages and deaths.

In the mid-1800s, many professing Christians migrated to Hawaii from South China looking for a better life working on the Sugar Plantations. In February 1869, with the support of Damon, Sabbath Evening meetings for the Chinese were held under the guidance of Samuel Aheong, a Chinese plantation worker.

Aheong returned to China in 1870. Damon made the facilities of the Bethel Church available for Sunday afternoon services and personally taught a small group of Chinese English in a night school in the parish hall. (FirstChinese)

Samuel and his wife Julia visited missions overseas in Egypt and Syria. They also made a trip to the United States to observe the settlements in California. In 1849 revisited Holden during a trip to the centennial celebration in Philadelphia, to which he was a delegate.

Damon passed away in 1885 at the age of seventy and lies buried at O‘ahu Cemetery. Three years after his passing, his brother-in-law Samuel C Gale gave the citizens of Holden the beautiful Damon Memorial that housed both the Gale Free Library and the Holden High School. The library, said Gale in his dedicatory speech, was Damon’s inspiration.

Click the following link of a portrayal of Reverend Samuel Chenery Damon (portrayed by David C Farmer) as a Mission Houses Cemetery Pupu Theatre (recorded on cellphone, sound is weak:)

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The Seamen’s Bethel Chapel-1896

Bethel’s Church, Honolulu, Hawaii, founded in 1833 as Seamen’s Bethel Church

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January 26, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Object of the Māhele

“The object of the Māhele was to ensure that in the event of annexation, Kamehameha III and other elite Hawaiians would not be dispossessed of their landholdings.”

“The strategy was to convert those landholdings into a legal form that would be recognized by an incoming colonial government – whether American, British, or French – as private property.” (Banner)

This falls back to the concept of the ‘Law of Nations’ – “Hobbes was … the first who gave a distinct, though imperfect idea, of the law of nations. He divides the law of nature into that of man, and that of states: and the latter is, according to him, what we usually call the law of nations.”

“‘The maxims,’ he adds, ‘of each of these laws are precisely the same: but as states, once established, assume personal properties, that which is termed the natural law, when we speak of the duties of individuals, is called the law of nations when applied to whole nations or states.’” (Law of Nations, 1844)

“The general usage now is not to touch private property upon land, without making compensation, unless in special cases dictated by the necessary operations of war, or when captured in places carried by storm, and which repelled all the overtures for a capitulation.” (Kent, 1826)

The matter was of serious interest to Kamehameha III …

“Only those lands belonging to the government could be confiscated in the event of conquest by an invading country. This was undoubtedly on the mind of Kamehameha III as discussed on December 18th, 1847 in Privy Council, ‘if a Foreign Power should take the Islands what lands would they respect?’”

“Recognition as a nation-state in 1843 prevented the legal colonization of Hawai‘i but Kamehameha III was well aware of the threat of imperialism. The acquisition of another state’s territory through conquest was not outlawed in international law until the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1929. This topic was discussed in Privy Council on December 18th, 1847:” (Preza)

“The King remarked before this rule was passed if his lands were merely entered in a Book, the Government lands also in a Book and all private allodial titles in a Book, if a Foreign Power should take the Islands what lands would they respect.”

“Would they take possession of his lands?”

“Mr. Wyllie replied that after the recognition of His Majesty’s Independence by the United States, Great Britain and France, and the engagement of the two latter powers near to take possession of any part of the Islands, he thought the danger adverted to by the King was exceedingly remote.”

“Those Great Powers held the World in check, and they were not likely to permit that any other Powers should take a possession of the Islands which they bound themselves not to take.”

“So long as the King, as hitherto, governed his Kingdom justly and with due regard to the rights of all Foreigners and to the laws of Nations, no Nation could have a plea to seize the Islands.”

“Mr. Lee gave it as his opinion, that except in the case of resistance to, and conquest by, any foreign power the King’s right to his private lands would be respected.”

“The King said unless it were so, he would prefer having no lands whatever, but he asked during the French Revolution were not the King’s lands confiscated?”

“Mr. Wyllie replied they were confiscated, but that was by the King’s own rebellious subjects, and it was to prevent such a risk here, that he regreted that Mr. Lee had not added to his rules one to the effect that in the event of Treason to, or rebellion against, the King, all lands of the King, held by Chiefs Landlords or whomsoever should ipso facto revert to the King.”

“The King observed that he would prefer that his private lands should be registered not in a separate Book, but in the same Book as all other allodial Titles, and that the only separate Book, should be that of the Government lands.” (Privy Council Minutes, December 18, 1847)

“In our opinion, while it was clearly the intention of Kamehameha III to protect the lands which he reserved to himself out of the domain which had been acquired by his family through the prowess and skill of his father, the conqueror, from the danger of being treated as public domain or Government property …”

“… it was also his intention to provide that those lands should descend to his heirs and successors, the future wearers of the crown which the conqueror had won; and we understand the act of 7th June, 1848, as having secured both those objects.”

“Under that act the lands descend in fee, the inheritance being limited however to the successors to the throne, and each successive possessor may regulate and dispose of the same according to his will and pleasure, as private property, in like manner as was done by Kamehameha III.” (Hawaii Supreme Court, Addressing Estate of Kamehameha IV 1864)

“The Māhele did not provide much land to Hawaiian commoners, but it was not supposed to. The Māhele was a means by which the Hawaiian elite hoped to preserve its eliteness under colonial rule, by holding on to its land.” (Banner)

The first māhele, or division, of lands was signed on January 27, 1848; the last māhele was signed on March 7, 1848.

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