Iron | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Hawaiian stone tools came in a variety of shapes and sizes, and likewise served a variety of needs. They were traditionally used to scrape, chop, carve, chisel, gouge, perforate and strip.

Stone tools for food-related uses include the poi pounder (used to crush taro and pounded into poi) and mortars & pestles (mortar bowls and stick-shaped pestles crushed seaweed, nuts, leaves and other products used for food, dyes and medicines.)

Other stone tools eased work, such as adzes (smaller ones to slice like a knife; larger ones to carve wood for canoes or idols, as well as to fell trees, dig, scrape, chip or strip.)

Stone tools also assisted in fishing; stone components were used in lures to catch many types of fish and squid. In addition to use in making weapons, stone tools were shaped into clubs, axes, sling stones and other lethal weapons.

We are generally aware of the extensive use and nature of stone tools that the Hawaiians had and used. But, did they also have and use iron tools – if so, how did they get them?

It turns out iron knives were found in the hands of Hawaiians on Kauaʻi on Captain Cook’s first visit in 1778. Iron, crafted into various shapes, was observed on other islands, as well.

Cook noted that the people he met on Kauaʻi were not “acquainted with our commodities, except iron; which however, it was plain, they had … in some quantity, brought to them at some distant period. … They asked for it by the name of hamaite.”

It is interesting to note that a Spanish word for iron ore is “Hematitas”. … Hmmm.

Journals and other accounts by Cook and his officers aboard the Discovery and Resolution, note they observed five pieces of iron.

Of these, the two iron skewers or daggers seen at Maui are believed to have been ship spike nails that they reshaped.

A third piece was a dagger made from a ship’s bolt which was floated in wreckage to Kauaʻi about October, 1778.

Cook’s vessels were at Kauai only a few days in January 1778. When they returned thirteen months later, Samwell and Edgar observed that the Hawaiians had made a dagger from an iron bolt which had been drifted ashore with wreckage five months before.

Edgar remarked: “It was very well beat out into the form of their own wooden daggers.” The Hawaiian wooden dagger, as then described, was pointed at one end and, at the other, perforated for a cord for attachment to the wrist. (Stokes)

Edgar continued: “we saw a great many daggers beat out of our long spike nails we left here last year.” (Stokes)

Crew journals also note two knives, which have subsequently been identified as Japanese. One was a fish knife, always carried on Japanese sampans; the other was a fish and vegetable knife, generally carried on sampans.

Captain Clerke’s record (Jan. 23, 1778) notes, “This morning one of the midshipmen purchased of the natives a piece of iron lashed into a handle for a cutting instrument; it seems to me a piece of the blade of a cutlass; it has by no means the appearance of a modern acquisition; it looks to have been a good deal used and long in its present state; the midshipman … demanded of the man where he got it; the Indian pointed away to the SE ward, where he says there is an island called Tai, from whence it came.” (Stokes)

On the second visit of the ships (1779), Ms. W Bayly ascertained that all the iron seen in the hands of the Kauaʻi natives had floated ashore in wreckage, a statement which Edgar also made on his second visit after a close enquiry of one of the chiefs.

Referring back to the midshipman’s information, it may be noted that there is no island named Tai to the south-east of Waimea, Kauai, where the matter was discussed, and since tai (kai) is the term for “sea” and the current sweeps up to Waimea from the south-east, it therefore appears that the implement was floated in, from the sea.

It turns out that among practically all the Polynesians, as recorded by the European voyagers, iron was immediately recognized and was by far the most desired commodity which the foreigners could supply.

When Cook returned to Hawaiʻi the ships were supplied with fresh provisions which were paid for mainly with iron, much of it in the form of iron daggers made by the ships’ blacksmiths on the pattern of the wooden pāhoa used by the Hawaiians.

The natives were permitted to watch the ships’ blacksmiths at work and from their observations gained information of practical value about the working of iron. (Kuykendall)

This apparent widespread knowledge of iron might imply a common and ancient Polynesian acquaintance with the metal.

A fair conclusion would be that the Hawaiians (and probably all other Polynesians) were not iron smelters, and their acquaintance with iron was limited to the finished material made by other people.

So, it appears evident, before Cook’s contact with the islands, the Hawaiian already had, used and wanted more iron – to make tools and weapons (principally to shape into knives.)

In answering the obvious follow-up question – Where did it come from? – we need simply recall our existing apprehension of the recent and coming debris from the Japan tsunami, as well as the ongoing volunteer activity by thousands across the State clearing our shorelines of marine debris.

As noted in historic records, examination of the flotsam on the windward beaches of the islands reveals principally logs from the north-west coast of America and floats from Japan.

After comparing and considering the possibilities in 1778, it is probable that floating pieces of shipwrecks and other marine debris, from Japan and elsewhere, were the more likely sources of the iron.

While the early Hawaiians benefitted from iron materials, as part of the marine debris floating onto the Islands, the matter of marine debris, beyond that associated with the Japan tsunami, is an ongoing concern in Hawaiʻi. (Most of the information here is from a report prepared by John FG Stokes – Hawaiian Historical Society.)

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The first Hawaiian word written is ‘Hamaite’ – it was spoken to Captain Cook at the time he made contact with the Islands and he wrote it in his journal.

It was made in reference to iron. Some suggest it refers to Hematite (ferric oxide – a mineral form of iron oxide – that is Hematita in Spanish.) However, others suggest ‘Hamaite’ is actually a Hawaiian expression of He maita‘i – good. (Schutz) The following is Cook’s explanation:

“In the course of my several voyages, I never before met with the natives of any place so much astonished, as these people were, upon entering a ship.”

“Their eyes were continually flying from object to object; the wildness of their looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance about every thing they saw, and strongly marking to us, that, till now, they had never been visited by Europeans …”

“… nor been acquainted with any of our commodities except iron; which, however, it was plain, they had only heard of, or had known it in some small quantity brought to them at some distant period.”

“They seemed, only to understand, that it was a substance much better adapted to the purposes of cutting, or of boring of holes, than any thing their own country produced.”

“They asked for it by the name of hamaite, probably referring to some instrument, in the making of which iron could be usefully employed …”

“… for they applied that name to the blade of a knife, though we could be certain that they had no idea of that particular instrument; nor could they at all handle it properly.”

“For the same reason, they frequently called iron by the name of ‘toe,’ which in their language signifies a hatchet, or rather a kind of adze.”

“On asking them what iron was, they immediately answered, ‘We do not know; you know what it is, and we only understand it as ‘toe,’ or ‘hamaite.’”

“The only iron tools, or rather bits of iron, seen amongst them, and which they had before our arrival, were a piece of iron hoop about two inches long, fitted into a wooden handle, and another edge tool, which our people guessed to be made of the point of a broadsword.”

“Their having the actual possession of these, and their so generally knowing the use of this metal, inclined some on board to think, that we had not been the first European visitors of these islands.”

“But, it seems to me, that the very great surprise expressed by them on seeing our ships, and their total ignorance of the use of fire-arms, cannot be reconciled with such a notion.”

“There are many ways by which such people may get pieces of iron, or acquire the knowledge of the existence of such a metal, without ever having had an immediate connection with nations that use it.”

“It can hardly be doubted that it was unknown to all the inhabitants of this sea, before Magellan led the way into it ; for no discoverer, immediately after his voyage, ever found any of this metal in their possession …”

“… though, in the course of our late voyages it has been observed, that the use of it was known at several islands, to which no former European ships had ever, as far as we know, found their way.”

“At all the places where Mendana touched in his two voyages, it must have been seen and left, and this would extend the knowledge of it, no doubt, to all the various islands with which those whom he had visited had any immediate intercourse.”

“It might even be carried farther; and where specimens of this article could not be procured, descriptions might, in some measure, serve to make it known when afterward seen.”