Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young 1 Comment

George Lucas

George Lucas (May 7, 1821 – March 2, 1892) was born in County Clare, Ireland; he first came to Hawaiʻi in 1849.  His father, the first George Lucas, moved his family to Australia by the British government to take charge of the government domain there.

He remained there for several years, and met and married Miss Sarah Williams.  Shortly after his marriage, hearing of the gold excitement in California, he set sail, accompanied by his wife, for San Francisco.

En route, they stopped in the Islands for three weeks for the ship to re-provision, finally reaching California on the last day of December, 1849. He met with little success as a miner, deciding, instead, to remain in San Francisco and establish himself as a carpenter.  He prospered for about six years; however, had a severe loss due to a fire.

He could not forget Hawaiʻi, and in July, 1856, he returned there to make the Islands his home. He began his contracting and building business, and founded the Honolulu Steam Planing Mill.

The energy and perseverance of the man brought its reward when he opened the Mill on the Esplanade – a “shapely stuccoed brick structure.” This mill was one of Honolulu’s leading manufacturing establishments, and has always furnished employment to a large number of mechanics and laborers.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 03, 1892)

Although the plant began in a small way, turning out finishings and equipment needed for his contracting jobs, its volume of business grew steadily and became the largest concern of its kind in the islands. (Nellist)

“This mill is well fitted and complete in every respect, having machines of the latest patterns and make, and capabilities for turning out work in great variety. It is fitted with a planer, strikers, blind machines, morticers, running lathes, band and jig saws, tenoning machine, and rip and cross-cut saws of every size, and other machines.”

“The proprietor, Mr. George Lucas, first started business in this city March 7, 1859, but found that the rapidly-increasing demand for woodwork finish, in all its requirements, made it absolutely necessary for him to open the present establishment, which now ranks second to none in any city.”

“First-class workmen are employed in this establishment, and all work is guaranteed. The mill is of brick, 82 x 42 feet, and 14 feet high. The engine is of twenty-horse power. Twenty men are employed in this establishment.”   (Browser; Maly)

Lucas’ Honolulu Planing Mill building served a couple other critical purposes at Honolulu Harbor.  First, the clock tower served as a range marker for ships aligning to enter/leave the harbor.  (“The line of the harbor light (red) and the clock tower of the Honolulu Planing Mill on Fort … just touches the west side of this channel at the outer end.”)  (Hawaii Bureau of Customs)

In addition, the clock served as a local time piece, as well as the official time to mariners.  “Time-Signal at Planing Mill … a time-signal has been established at the Honolulu steam-planing mill, Honolulu, Sandwich islands. The signal is a whistle, which is sounded twice daily by electric signal from the survey office; … (giving time associated with) Greenwich mean time.  (Nautical Magazine, January 1890)

The Lucas clock didn’t always work, “Lucas’ clock … At 7 this morning the clock was of the opinion that 10:45 was about the correct time.”  (Hawaiian Star, October 25, 1895)

“Lucas’ clock on the Esplanade has been groggy for some time lately but repairs are being made.  It’s a godsend to the waterfront people and the government should keep it in repair.”  (Evening Bulletin, July 12, 1897)

Others wanted to be different, “Maui wants to adopt the Government time on Lucas’ clock with five minutes added, but some few will not agree to it. The result is a great uncertainty in times. (Maui, June 28)” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 1, 1890)

Lucas was one of the first contractors and builders in Honolulu, and constructed many of the business buildings in the city.

He built the Campbell Block, the Pantheon Block, the Brewer Block and many other large downtown buildings, and was responsible for all woodwork construction in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the one downtown, it was later the Army/Navy YMCA and now the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum.)

Most notably, when King Kalākaua decided to build ʻIolani Palace, he named George Lucas as general superintendent and the contractor for all of the cabinetry, woodwork and finishing in the Palace.  (Nellist)

George Lucas supervised the carpentry, using fine imported (e.g., American walnut and white cedar) and Hawaiian (koa, kou, kamani and ʻōhiʻa) woods.

The sophisticated mansard roofs and the detailed brickwork, moldings and wrought iron were completed in time for Kalākaua’s coronation ceremony on February 12, 1883, for which the palace served as centerpiece.  (Kamehiro)

For many years Mr. Lucas was Chief Engineer of the Honolulu Volunteer Fire Department, and during the reign of King Kalākaua he was offered the position of superintendent of public works, but declined it. (Nellist)  After retiring, he was acting Chief for six months, as the Department was unwilling to nominate anyone else, and only did so because he refused to serve.

“It was through his persistent efforts that the first two steam fire engines were imported to these islands, and when he retired from the office of Chief he still retained a deep interest in the department, and was made an honorary member of No. 1 Engine.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 3, 1892)

Lucas was the founder and first president of the old Mechanics’ Library (Honolulu Library and Reading Room,) now the Hawaiʻi State Library.

George and Sarah had nine children; the seven who lived were Thomas, Charles, John, George, Albert, William and Eliza. (Nellist)

Following his death in 1892, sons Thomas, Charles and John formed a partnership, Lucas Brothers, to carry on the trade and business of carpenters, builders and contractors; it lasted until April 19, 1910, when son John incorporated the concern.

“No citizen was better known than he. He could count his friends by the score, and when he made a friend it was a friendship that would last forever.”

“There are few individuals in Honolulu who have done more in the way of charity and benevolence in proportion to their means than Mr. Lucas.”    (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, March 3, 1892)

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John Coffin Jones Jr

John Coffin Jones Jr was the only son of a prominent Boston businessman (in mercantile and shipping business) and politician. (John C Jones Sr served as speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was legislative colleague of John Quincy Adams (and one of the signors for Massachusetts of the Ratification of the US Constitution for that State.))

Young Jones was born in 1796 in Massachusetts and seems to have gone to sea at an early age.  He left to work in the sandalwood trade under Captain Dixey Wildes.   (Kelley)

Jones (also known in Hawaiian documents as John Aluli) was appointed US Agent for Commerce and Seamen on September 19, 1820. When he acknowledged his commission as Agent for Commerce and Seamen, he mentioned two previous voyages he had made to Canton and an extended visit to the Sandwich Islands.  (State Department)

He began to serve in October of 1820, at the port of Honolulu.   As Agent for Commerce and Seamen, Jones became the first official US representative in the Hawaiian Islands.  His role was to help distressed American citizens ashore, both seamen and civilians, serving without salary from the US government and required to report on commerce in Hawai‘i.

(The post of commercial agent was raised to Consul effective July 5, 1844, and held by Peter A. Brinsmade, who had already been appointed commercial agent on April 13, 1838.)

Jones was already agent for the prosperous Boston firm of Marshall and Wildes (one of four American mercantile houses doing business in Honolulu,) and by accepting the additional responsibility from his country, the firm and he might hope that through his reports to Washington the voice of commerce in the Pacific would be heard more clearly by the US Government.  (Hackler)

When Jones arrived in 1821 the sandalwood trade with China was still thriving. King Kamehameha I had monopolized, the cutting and exporting of sandalwood during his reign, but after his death in 1819, Kamehameha II was unable to enforce the conservation policies of his father, and unrestricted cutting of sandalwood soon threatened to deplete the hillsides of this rare wood.

But, while the wood lasted and the market held up in Canton, the American merchants in Honolulu competed fiercely with each other for the valuable cargoes, and pressed on the Hawaiians all sorts of goods which were to be paid for in sandalwood.  (Hackler)

He was considered an advocate for commercial interests in Hawaiʻi and immediately collided with the missionary group led by Rev. Hiram Bingham.  For the next couple of decades he contended for commercial advantages for the US. He set up his own trading firm in 1830 and made many voyages to California during the next ten years.  (Kelley)

“Since the discovery of the whale fishery on the coast of Japan, and the independence of the republics of the western coasts of North and South America, the commerce of the United States at the Sandwich islands has vastly increased.”

“Of such importance have these islands become to our ships which resort to the coast of Japan for the prosecution of the whale fishery, that, without another place could be found, possessing equal advantages of conveniences and situation, our fishery on Japan would be vastly contracted, or pursued under circumstances the most disadvantageous.”  (Jones, to Captain Wm B Finch, October 30, 1829)

As US Agent for Seamen, Jones had a burdensome responsibility.  Many seamen were put ashore because of illness, and they became the special concern of Jones. This was a responsibility and an expense.

In his first report to the Secretary of State on December 31, 1821, Jones complained of the commanders of American ships who were in the habit of discharging troublesome seamen at Honolulu and taking on Hawaiian hands.  (Hackler)

In addition, Jones reported to the Department that 30,000 piculs of sandalwood were sent to China in American ships that year, and estimated that the price for this wood in Canton should be about $300,000. The Hawaiian chiefs were becoming increasingly indebted to the American merchants in Honolulu and payment was slow in coming.

To add to his burden, in 1822-23 the crews of three wrecked American vessels were brought to the islands; in 1825 he explained his disbursements at Honolulu on behalf of seamen as being very heavy, as many men were put ashore without funds.  (Hackler)

“The number of hands generally comprising the Company of a whale ship will average Twenty Five; and owing to the want of discipline, the length and the ardourous duties of the voyage, these people generally become dissatisfied and are willing at any moment to join a rebellion or desert the first opportu(nity) that may offer;”

“- this has been fully exemplified in the whale ships that  have visited these islands, constant disertions have taken place and many serious mutinies both contributing to protract and frequently ruin the voyage.”  (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

He wrote that the only solution was the posting of a US naval vessel at Honolulu, at least during the periods between March and May, and October and December, when the whalers gathered at the port.  (Hackler)

The service of Jones as consular agent in Honolulu put him in the middle of a number of commercial and political causes. Both as government representative and private trader during a formative period, he was an energetic figure and is credited with leadership in opening trade between Hawaiʻi and Spanish California.

By 1829, Jones seemed to have fallen out of favor with the Hawaiian rulers. At that time the King and the principal chiefs addressed a protest to Captain Finch of the USS Vincennes, accusing Jones of maltreating a native and lying about royal morals.  (Hackler)

Jones’ several marriages caused additional concern. He married Hannah Jones Davis, widow of his partner, William Heath Davis Sr, in 1823.  His younger stepson, William Heath Davis, Jr, became a prominent California businessman.

Jones continued to live with Hannah but also lived with Lahilahi Marin, daughter of Don Francisco Marin, and had children by both. In 1838, he married Manuela Carrillo of Santa Barbara, California and deserted Hannah and Lahilahi.

In December, 1838, returning from one of his periodic business trips to California, he introduced Manuela as his wife. This apparently enraged Hannah Holmes Jones, who promptly petitioned the Hawaiian Government for a divorce on grounds of bigamy.

The charge was upheld by the King and led to his writing Jones on January 8, 1839, that “… I refuse any longer to know you as consul from the United States of America.”  (Kamehameha III; Hacker)

Jones left the Islands and settled in Santa Barbara in 1839 and continued as a merchant both in California and Massachusetts. He died on December 24, 1861, leaving his wife and six children.  (Kelley)

The image shows Honolulu Harbor in 1826 (with the Dolphin in the harbor. (Massey))

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The Last Survivor

The message: “Air Raid, Pearl Harbor. This is no drill” came at 0755 on December 7, as Japanese planes swept overhead in an attempt to cripple the Pacific Fleet.  Taney, moored alongside Pier 6, Honolulu Harbor, stood to her antiaircraft guns when word of the surprise attack reached her.

The US Coast Guard Cutter Taney (originally launched as the Roger B Taney) was named for Roger Brooke Taney, who was born on March 17, 1777 in Calvert County, Maryland.  Roger Taney was a lawyer and later served in President Andrew Jackson’s administration as Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury – he was later appointed as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.

Roger B Taney, Coast Guard Builders No. 68, was laid down on May 1, 1935 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.  She was launched on June 3, 1936.   The Roger B Taney departed Philadelphia on December 19, transited the Panama Canal from the 27th to the 29th, and arrived at her home port, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaiʻi, on January 18, 1937.

The Taney had arrived in the Pacific at a time when the US, and Pan-American Airways in particular, was expanding its commercial air travel capabilities.  The “Clipper” flights across the Pacific to the Far East made islands like Hawaiʻi, Midway, Guam and Wake important way-stations.

In the 1930s, the US Bureau of Air Commerce (later known as Department of Commerce) was looking for islands along the air route between Australia and California to support trans-Pacific flight operations (non-stop, trans-Pacific flying was not yet possible, so islands were looked to as potential sites for the construction of intermediate landing areas.)

To affirm a claim on remote Pacific islands, international law required non-military occupation of all neutral islands for at least one year.  An American colony was established at Canton (Kanton) and aney transported and supplied colonists on the island (1938-1940.) (Canton was picked by Pan-Am for its trans-Pacific flight flying boat operations.)

The 327-foot Secretary class cutter Taney was designed and initially missioned to interdict opium smugglers and carry out search and rescue duties from the Hawaiian Islands through the central Pacific Ocean.  In 1940 and 1941, Taney received successive armament upgrades in anticipation of war, with 3- and 5-inch guns capable of shooting at both surface and airborne targets, additional .50 caliber machine guns, depth charge racks and throwers, and sonar for locating submarines.

On the eve of Pearl Harbor, Taney was officially assigned to the US Navy’s Destroyer Division 80, though she retained her Coast Guard crew. When Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor and other American military installations in Hawaiʻi on December 7, 1941, she was tied up at Pier 6, Honolulu Harbor, where she was able to repeatedly engage Japanese planes which flew over the city.

When the attack subsided, Taney immediately commenced anti-submarine patrol duties off Pearl Harbor and was at sea for 80 of the first 90 days of the war.

After service in the Pacific and a major retrofit, Taney was sent into the Atlantic serving as the Flagship of Task Force 66, US Atlantic Fleet and command vessel for six convoys of troop and supply ships between the US and North Africa. Returning to the Pacific after a dramatic reconfiguration as an Amphibious Command Ship in 1945, Taney participated in the Okinawa Campaign and the occupation of Japan.

Immediately after the end of the Pacific war in September 1945, Taney steamed into Japanese home waters where she assisted with the evacuation of Allied prisoners of war.

Following World War II, Taney was reconfigured for peacetime duties and from 1946 until 1972 she was home ported in Alameda, California. Known as “The Queen of the Pacific,” Taney carried out virtually every peacetime Coast Guard duty including decades of Ocean Weather Patrol throughout the Pacific, fisheries patrols in the Bearing Sea and countless search and rescue missions.

During the Korean War, Taney received additional anti-submarine weapons and frequently carried out plane-guard duties off Midway Island and Adak, Alaska.

The mid-1970s were a period of transition for the Coast Guard with the passage of the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act and the nation’s shift towards increased interdiction of narcotics smugglers.  These operations called for off-shore patrols of up to three weeks.

Stationed in Virginia, Taney completed the last Coast Guard ocean weather patrol in 1977, and from 1977 to 1986 carried out search and rescue duties, training cruises for the Coast Guard Academy and drug interdiction in the Caribbean.

She was formally decommissioned on December 7, 1986 (after more than 50-years of continuous service) and turned over to the city of Baltimore, Maryland for use as a museum ship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  Over her distinguished career, Taney received three battle stars for World War II service and numerous theatre ribbons for service in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Since the 1960s, Taney is the last ship still afloat that fought in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Consequently, from that time on she was often referred to as “The Last Survivor of Pearl Harbor.”  A plaque memorializing her participation in the attacks is at Pier 6, Honolulu Harbor.  (Lots of information here from USCG.)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Captain Jacob Brown

Captain Jacob Brown was “a follower of the sea from his twentieth year”.

The whalers of New Bedford and the other Eastern Ports fished the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  They were hunting for whale products that were in high demand – whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

In the Pacific, rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area.   The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands.

Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

William Rotch, the owner of several whaling vessels, was reportedly Nantucket’s greatest whaling merchant; he later moved to New Bedford. One of his ships was the Honqua (sometimes spelled Hoqua.)

Crew list records from the New Bedford ships’ registries show that Jacob Brown was First Mate on the Honqua on an Atlantic whale hunt from July 19, 1841 to June 29, 1843.

Then, on a September 1, 1843 to April 13, 1846 hunt into the Pacific, Brown was Captain.  He later captained another Honqua Atlantic whaling ground sail from 1846 to 1849.

It’s not clear if there were intervening sailings, but on a whale hunt in the North Pacific, Brown captained one of “seven sails of this fine fleet of 1851, the Honqua, the New Bedford, the Arabella, the America, the Armata, the Mary Mitchell, and the Henry Thompson, (that were) wrecked there, and left behind as monuments of the dangers which meet these hardy mariners in their adventurous calling.”

“The Honqua, in 1851, was totally wrecked on a sunken rock in that sea (near Cape Oliver (Sea of Ochotsk, Russia – near the Arctic Circle.”))

Brown and his wife Cordelia Hastings Brown were shipwrecked and spent four months in the Siberian snows before being rescued by a whaling ship.

All was not lost,  the rescuing Captain of the whaleship Canton, Captain James Allen Towners, purchased the salvaged  whale oil of the Honqua (1,100 bbls of oil saved, however sold at a heavily discounted price.)

From Siberia, Brown and family were eventually brought to Hawaiʻi, by way of China.

After making a trip to his home in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Captain Brown returned to Hawaiʻi a year later, his family joining him in Honolulu six years later, and remained to take a part in the development of the islands.

He retired from the sea in 1852 to assume a government position in Honolulu which placed him in charge of all government wharves and buoys at the port.

He was also captain of the towing tug “Pele.” The “Pele” was the first steam tug used in Hawaiʻi (screw tug with thirty-horse power,) called into service in 1854.

Its primary use was for towing vessels in and out of the harbor and replaced the use of men or animals to bring ships into the harbor against the prevailing northeast tradewinds.

“Prior to the launching of this vessel primitive power was used to bring the craft through the passage to an anchorage; a rope of great length was used, and it was a never-to-be-forgotten sight to see yokes of oxen, teams of horses and natives tugging at the rope. A time was consumed in making a start, but when once in motion, it was a steady walk-away.”

Richards Street was aligned as a straight path used by groups of men, and later oxen, to pull ships through the narrow channel into the harbor.

In 1856, the Pele was also used to tow barges about the harbor in connection with the Honolulu Harbor dredging operations. Pele served, with short interruptions, as the sole tug for shipping at Honolulu until after 1882.

Brown is later noted as registered owner or partner in several boats in Honolulu: Warwick, Jenny, Haunani, James Makee and CR Bishop.  These were typically used for inter-island movement of people and goods.

One of the partners was Thomas R Foster, an initial organizer of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company which was later incorporated on February 19, 1883.   (Brown, a friend of Foster’s, was one of the original promoters of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company.)  That company founded a subsidiary, Inter-Island Airways, that later changed its name to Hawaiian Airlines.

Born in 1815 to Jacob Brown and Ruth Morgan Brown, Captain Jacob Brown died on July 3, 1881 in Boston, Massachusetts, at the age of 66.  He and members of his family are buried at Oʻahu Cemetery.

He was survived by three children, Jacob F Brown (Civil Engineer and Manager of Hawaiian Abstract & Title,) Arthur M Brown (Attorney, High Sheriff in the Territory of Hawaiʻi (1898-1906,)) and Minnie H (Brown) Gilman; his oldest child, Sarah M Brown, born at sea, later died at the age of 22.

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Puakenikeni

In Mangaian, the pua tree was the tree that guarded the entrance to the land of the spirits in the underworld (Mangaia, traditionally known as Aʻuaʻu Enua (which means terraced) is the most southerly of the Cook Islands.)    (Neal, Agroforestry)

In Tahitian legend, the first pua tree was brought from the tenth heaven by Tane, god of the forests.  Hence the tree is sacred to him, and the images of him were always made of pua wood.  (Neal, Agroforestry)

Indigenous from New Guinea and Northern Australia, to the Marianas and eastward to the Caroline Islands (east of the Marquesas,) it is a shrub or small tree (Fagraea berteriana) grown ornamentally for foliage, flowers and fruit.

Its original Polynesian name was simply “pua” which is still used over most of its native range in Polynesia and is a cognate of the Fijian name. The tree was considered sacred in the Cooks and Tahiti in ancient times. Concoction of the inner bark was used in treating asthma and diabetes.  (Whistler)

It is grown in most Polynesian countries like Tonga, Niue, Uvea, Societies, Cooks, Australs, Mangareva, Marquesas, Samoa (pua lulu.)

In Hawaiʻi, it is called puakenikeni.

Approximately 9,000 new species of flowering plants were introduced to Hawaiʻi from all over the world during the over two centuries since ‘Contact’ (1778.)

Some, including puakenikeni (as well as plumeria, carnation, ginger, pīkake, pakalana and pua male (Stephanotis,)) quickly became favorites of island residents and staples of the lei industry.  (CTAHR)

Lei makers down on the Honolulu docks selling lei during the “Steamer Days” or “Boat Days” (late-1800s to mid-1900s) would string the puakenikeni into fragrant lei.

It earned its name Pua Kenikeni (Puakenikeni) here in Hawaiʻi because at one time the flowers were sold for making lei, each flower (“pua”) cost a dime (kenikeni means dime, ten cents,) hence the name “ten-cent flower.”  (Pukui, Neal, Agroforestry)

“500 persons in Honolulu make a living wholly or partly by selling leis – those fragrant garlands of pikake, ginger blossoms, gardenias, tube roses, carnations and a score of other flowers – which are dangled about the neck upon any excuse from a sailing to a dinner table.”  (The Sunday Morning, June 6, 1937)

Flowers are best harvested 2-3 times per week in early morning.  Open white flowers can be stored at room temperature for up to 3-days.

While most lei do well in dry plastic bags kept in the refrigerator, the exception is puakenikeni which turns brown if refrigerated.  Instead, keep it between damp paper towels in a flat container set in a cool, dark place.

It is one of the few flowers that has three different colors as it ages (with the same scent throughout.)  The first day it’s creamy white, by the second it’s at buttery yellow and on the third it’s a creamy orange.

Lei Pua Kenikeni – Written by John Kameaaloha Almeida (1897-1985)
(Translated by Mary Pukui)

(Click HERE for rendition of Puakenikeni performed by Mark Yamanaka)

No ka lei aloha, lei pua kenikeni
Koʻu hiaʻai a me koʻu hoʻohihi

Ke ʻala hoʻoheno kaʻu aloha
I ka ne mai e welilna kaua

Kaua i ka nani a o ia pua
I ka hana hoʻoipo a ke onaona

Onaona lei nani lei hoʻohie
Hoʻoipo, hoʻoulu mahiehie

Mapu ʻala hoʻoheno i ka poli
Lanikeha i ka ike a ka maka

Eia no ka puana o ke mele
No ka lei pua kenikeni he inoa

For the beloved lei of pua kenikeni
My admiration and delight

Its pleasing perfume I enjoy
Which tells our love for each other

May you and I admire the flowerʻs beauty
With its subtle fragrance so appealing

Fragrant, beautiful and excellent is the lei
Appealing and most attractive

Its soft perfume wins the heart
Its beauty is most entrancing

This is the ending of this song
In praise of the pua kenikeni

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