Images of Old Hawaiʻi

  • Home
  • About
  • Categories
    • Ali’i / Chiefs / Governance
    • American Protestant Mission
    • Buildings
    • Collections
    • Economy
    • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
    • General
    • Hawaiian Traditions
    • Other Summaries
    • Mayflower Summaries
    • Mayflower Full Summaries
    • Military
    • Place Names
    • Prominent People
    • Schools
    • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
    • Voyage of the Thaddeus
  • Collections
  • Contact
  • Follow

January 9, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Henry Poor

Henry French Poor was the eldest son of Henry Francis Poor and Caroline Paakaiulaula Bush; he was born here June 8, [1857].

“Poor received his early education under Mr. Gulick, Sr., father of the late Charles T. Gulick of Honolulu. He afterwards attended Punahou College, at that time under the direction of Professor Church.”

“He left school, however, at the age of 13 and entered the banking house of Bishop & Co. as a clerk, where he remained about eight years.”

“At that time, owing to ill health, Mr. Poor first visited the United States, where he spent some three months. When he returned to Honolulu he entered the mercantile house of Castle & Cooke.”

“At this time he was selected by the Government to act as secretary to Hon. C P. Iaukea, the head of the Hawaiian Embassy to the coronation of Alexander III of Russia.”

“Continuing from there he made a tour of the world, visiting the greater part of Europe, India, Japan, Egypt, the United States and England and meeting many great personages there. His visit to India was immediately connected with the question of securing a labor supply for the plantations of Hawaii.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1899)

“Henry F Poor was one of the most brilliant Hawaiians whose cradle ever rocked in these beautiful Islands.  … He possessed the generous spirit of his race and the keen intelligence of his New England’s forebears.”

“As secretary to Colonel Iaukea on the Kalakaua embassy to the rulers of the world he covered himself with honors and his bright letters were published in the local papers.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

“While abroad Mr. Poor received several foreign decorations, among which were the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan, the Order of Simon Bolivar of South America, an Austrian and a Russian order and several others. He also held the Hawaiian Order of Crown of Hawaii and Order of Kapiolani.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1899)

“Later on he went to Samoa with Governor Bush and to his tact and gentlemanly action was due the fact that the Kaimiloa incident did not end in an international scandal.” (The Independent, Nov 29, 1899)

“In 1887 [Kaimiloa] was purchased by King Kalakaua, and after being fitted up as a man-of-war, was sent on a mission to Samoa. This mission was a failure …”

“King Kalakaua had just returned from a trip around the world. Sundry people, at all the places he stopped filled him with hot air, and he wanted to be emperor of the Pacific. On his return to Honolulu he promptly set about the work of trying to get control of all the islands which had not yet been seized by European rulers.”

“[Kalakaua’s] Prime Minister, Gibson, induced him to fit out the Kaimiloa as a war ship and send it on a diplomatic mission to Samoa, where Ambassador ‘Ned’ Bush was instructed to either annex the place or induce the King of Samoa to make a treaty acknowledging that Kalakaua was the supreme ruler of a Pacific Island confederacy.”

“On board the warship was ‘Admiral’ Jackson, Ambassador Bush, Henry Poor, secretary of the legation, a big crew, an enormous quantity of gin, a band, and plenty of the King’s dreamy ideas of a Pacific confederacy.”

“To this day the mystery of how the vessel ever reached Samoa has not been solved, and it is a wonder that she ever got there at all, for gin and other drink never flowed freer on a private craft than it did on the Kaimiloa. …”

“Then wild with the dissipation or the voyage, the crew mutinied, and capturing Secretary Poor, chained him to the deck.”    (PCA Aug 8, 1902)


“The officers and crew of the Kaimiloa began to go ashore almost nightly to carouse in the streets of Apia. One night gunner William Cox, on returning to the ship, got into a fight with other officers.”

“He rushed the powder magazine, threatening to blow up the ship. Lt. Frank J. Waiau and ship’s carpenter John Galway stopped him, but the brawling went on. Lt. Sam I. Maikai, nominally in command, went ashore with Waiau to report to the Hawaiian legation.”

“They wanted to resign but Bush would not hear of it. He ordered them back on board and sent along his secretary, H. F. Poor. Jackson also went along with them. He and Poor, revolvers in hand, found the mutineers trying to take over the armory.

“They drove the mutineers out on deck. Waiau over-powered Cox and put him in irons on the bridge.” (Adler)

“The German warship Olga was in the harbor at the time, and her captain, noticing the row on the Hawaiian vessel, sent a longboat over … and threatened to tow the whole outfit bark to Hawaii unless the trouble subsided. …”

“On arrival [back in Honolulu] here [Kaimiloa] was dismantled, and never again used for war purposes. No one knows how many sins were committed aboard the vessel while trading in the South Seas, but many people have heard something of the story of her remarkable cruise as a man-of-war to Samoa.”   (PCA Aug 8, 1902)

Poor hosted Robert Louis Stevenson on his visit to the Islands.  On January 24, 1889, Stevenson arrived in Honolulu and spent the first six months of that year in the Hawaiian Islands (he later settled and lived in Samoa.)

“For the first few days the Stevenson party stayed with Henry Poor and his mother Mrs Caroline Bush, at 40 Queen Emma Street, Honolulu (24-27 January).”

“Then on 27 January 1889 they moved to Poor’s bungalow, Manuia Lanai, at Waikiki, three miles east of Honolulu.  In early February Stevenson decided to send the Casco back to San Francisco and stay on to work in Hawaii.”

“As a result he rented the house next to Henry Poor’s. This too was a one-storey ‘rambling house or set of houses’ in a garden, centred on a lanai, ‘an open room or summer parlour, partly surrounded with venetian shutters, in part quite open, which is the living room’”.  (RLS Website)

Henry French Poor died in Honolulu on November 28, 1899 and is buried at O‘ahu Cemetery.

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Prominent People, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Kaimiloa, Robert Louis Stevenson, Curtis Iaukea, Henry Poor, Manuia Lanai, Hawaii

May 17, 2020 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kaimiloa

The Royal Hawaiian Navy was created solely as a result of King Kalākaua’s plan for a confederation of Polynesian nations. This was an era of kingdom-building, and alliances were in vogue.

King Kalākaua had been in office since 1874, overseeing his small independent country. Influenced by his recent trip around the world, he looked forward to developing alliances with other Polynesian countries, seeing Hawaii in the center position. By 1883, commissioners had visited the Gilbert Islands and the New Hebrides, without success. (Kauai Historical Society)

The High Commissioner was a special Hawaiian envoy tasked with traveling to the various island nations of the Pacific to enlist them into the confederation.

In anticipation of the High Commissioner’s transportation needs, the Hawaiian government purchased a three-masted steamship named the “Explorer.” The ship was refitted as a gunboat and armed with Gatling guns and cannons. The name “Explorer” was translated into Hawaiian and the ship was renamed the “Kaimiloa”. The ship’s captain was George E Gresley Jackson.

His Hawaiian Majesty’s Ship Kaimiloa was commissioned on March 28, 1887, for the naval service of the Kingdom and comprised the whole of the Hawaiian Navy. (ksbe)

HHMS Kaimiloa was the first and only ship of the Hawaiian Royal Navy. The ship was a 170-ton Explorer gunboat, made in Britain in 1871. King Kalākaua bought the ship for $20,000 and added the rigging.

It sailed from Hawaiʻi to Samoa and other Pacific islands in an effort by Kalākaua to form a confederation of Polynesian states to counteract European imperialism.

The mission was facing an uphill climb in its endeavors. Imperial Germany was already in discussion with Samoa, and both Britain and the United States were interested in the structure of power within the region.

This important region was of interest to most of the European powers – two years after this voyage, the warships of the United States, England, and Germany were all at anchor in Apia Bay, as Germany had asserted a right to possession. (Kauai Historical Society) Talks did not progress well.

Capt. Jackson was a former British naval officer, and more recently, the former head of a reform school. Members of the crew were former students. On board was John E Bush, as the King’s embassy; the crew was Hawaiian. (Kauai Historical Society)

With only one month of training, the youths were put to the test when the Kaimiloa was ordered to transport the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to Samoa. The ship departed Honolulu on May 18, 1887, and arrived in Samoa 29 days later. (ksbe)

Historical accounts indicate that from the beginning there were problems with the officers and the crew. Upon arrival in Samoa on June 15th, the festivities were problematic as well. (Kauai Historical Society)

Robert Louis Stevenson, then a resident of Samoa, is quoted regarding a reception at the Hawaii embassy: “Malietoa, always decent, withdrew at an early hour. By those that remained, all decency appears to have been forgotten.”

In the morning, he added, the revelers were aroused from a drunken stupor and sent home. King Malietoa is reported to have said: “If you came here to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away”. (Kauai Historical Society)

Due to the music program which was in effect at the reform school, some of these crew members were also members of a military band. They were led by Charles Palikapu Kaleikoa.

While the Kaimiloa was in Samoa, the Cadet Band performed concerts in Apia, the capital city, and around Samoa. The Hawaiian Consul reported (August 23, 1887:) Her (Kaimiloa’s) cadet band also became popular and their concerts were an appreciated treat to the Samoans. (ksbe)

The Hawaiian Consul in Samoa, also impressed with their exemplary conduct, reported in a letter: “I must say a word in praise of the Reform School boys. It was a matter of surprise to me to observe how well they behaved on shore and aboard, and how well they performed their duties.” (ksbe)

Under the direction of Lorrin A Thurston, the Kaimiloa was recalled. She returned to Honolulu Harbor on September 23, 1887; this appears to be her only voyage for the state. (Kauai Historical Society)

The crew was disbanded and the ship was decommissioned. After this, Kaleikoa joined the Royal Hawaiian Band and continued to play in it until his retirement 40 years later and retired as assistant band leader. (ksbe)

After it was decommissioned, the Kaimiloa was still used as a quarantine ship, but in 1888 she was sold and used as a transportation vessel between the Hawaiian Islands.

For a while, she was used for interisland shipping, transporting coal and oil. After a period in dry dock, her engines were removed (and used to turn wheels in a sugar mill operation) and in 1910, the hull was burned. (Kauai Historical Society)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook 

Follow Peter T Young on Google+ 

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn  

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

© 2020 Hoʻokuleana LLC

King_Malietoa_Laupepa_aboard_Kaimiloa,_1887
Kalakaua_aboard_Kaimiloa-(HSA)-PP-96-13-013-1887
Kaimiloa-cadet band
HHMS_Kaimiloa_in_Honolulu_Harbor
HHMS_Kaimiloa_anchored_at_Honolulu_Harbor
Hawaiian-Samoan_meeting_aboard_Kaimiloa_1887
Crew of Kaimiloa

Filed Under: Economy, Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks Tagged With: Hawaii, King Kalakaua, Honolulu Harbor, Kaimiloa, Samoa

June 28, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Polynesian Confederacy

The last decades of the 19th-century were a period of imperial expansion, especially in the Pacific. European (primarily Britain, France and Germany,) Asian (Japan) and American (US) were making claims and establishing colonies across the Pacific.

After the British took control of Fiji in 1874, only three major island groups remained independent in the Pacific: Tonga, Hawai‘i and Sāmoa. The Euro/American powers had marked off all three of these groups as falling under their own spheres of interest.

However, the Americans took a specific interest in Hawai‘i, the British in Tonga, and the Germans, British and Americans all claiming a right to determine the future of Sāmoa. (Cook)

Kalākaua (one of the most theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the protection and development of the Polynesian race; (Walter Murray Gibson) fell in step with him … The king and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island confederation.  (Stevenson)

“(Gibson) discerned but little difficulty in the way of organizing such a political union, over which Kalākaua would be the logical emperor, and the Premier of an almost boundless empire of Polynesian archipelagoes.”  (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

“The first step once taken between the Hawaiian and Samoan groups, other Polynesian groups and, inclusively, Micronesian and Melanesian groups, might gradually be induced to enter into the new Polynesian confederation just as Lord Carnarvon gets colony after colony to adopt His Lordship’s British Federal Dominion policy.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 17, 1877)

As early as 1880, the American consul in Hawaiʻi had complained that Kalākaua was “inflamed by the idea of gathering all the cognate races of the Islands of the Pacific into the great Polynesian Confederacy, over which he will reign.”

On June 28, 1880, Kalākaua’s Premier Walter Murray Gibson, introduced a resolution in the legislature noting, “the Hawaiian Kingdom by its geographic position and political status is entitled to claim a Primacy in the family of Polynesian States …”

“The resolution concluded with an action “that a Royal Commissioner be appointed by His Majesty, to be styled a Royal Hawaiian Commissioner to the state and peoples of Polynesia …” (Kuykendall)

It passed unanimously and within six months Gibson became the head of a new ministry, as Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Although Kalākaua had been elected and serving as King since 1874, upon returning from a trip around the world, it was determined that Hawaiʻi’s King should also be properly crowned.

“It was through (Gibson’s) influence that the Hawaiian Legislature ceremonies of the occasion were impressively enacted in the presence of the representatives of the most of the great civilized powers and with the warships of many nations giving salutation to the event in the harbor of Honolulu.”  (Daggett; Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 6, 1900)

“ʻIolani Palace, the new building of that name, had been completed the previous year, and a large pavilion had been erected immediately in front of it for the celebration of the coronation. This was exclusively for the accommodation of the royal family; but there was adjacent thereto a sort of amphitheatre, capable of holding ten thousand persons, intended for the occupation of the people.”  (Liliʻuokalani)

“On Monday, 12th February, the imposing ceremony of the Coronation of their Majesties the King and Queen of the Hawaiian Islands took place at ʻIolani Palace. … Like a mechanical transformation scene to take place at an appointed minute, so did the sun burst forth as the clock struck twelve, and immediately after their Majesties had been crowned.”  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, February 17, 1883)

Then, to set the stage for the assemblage of the Polynesian Confederacy, Gibson wrote a diplomatic protest that the legislature officially approved, condemning the predatory behavior of the Great Powers in the Pacific.

“Whereas His Hawaiian Majesty’s Government being informed that certain Sovereign and Colonial States propose to annex various islands and archipelagoes of Polynesia, does hereby solemnly protest against such projects of Annexation, as unjust to a simple and ignorant people, and subversive in their ease of those conditions for favourable national development which have been so happily accorded to the Hawaiian nation.” (Gibson Protest, August 23, 1883)

The protest evoked the goals of the Confederacy and justified Hawai‘i’s right to lodge such a protest based on its dual status as both a Polynesian state and part of the Euro/American community of Nations. (Cook)

Kalākaua’s vision of a Polynesian Confederacy reflected a complex and multi-dimensional understanding of both the identity of the Hawaiian people and how that identity connected and allied them with a broad array of other peoples and states across the globe.

 It was a project that envisioned Hawai‘i as intimately connected to the Euro/American powers through the bonds of an international community built on the shared ideals of constitutional governments, formal diplomatic recognition, and the rule of law.

At the same time, it envisioned the nation as closely allied with other non-European peoples against the shared threat of the Euro/American empires. More specifically, however, it envisioned Hawai‘i as part of a Polynesian community whose members needed to rely upon one another in order to maintain both their independence and shared identity. (Cook)

John Bush, Hawaiʻi’s ambassador to Sāmoa, succeeded in negotiating Articles of Confederation, which the Hawaiian cabinet ratified in March 1887.  Kalākaua sent the Kaimiloa to salute High Chief Malietoa Laupepa in Sāmoa.  (However, a German warship there warned Kalākaua to stop meddling in Samoan affairs.)  (Chappell)

Later, the Berlin Act (signed June 14, 1889,) between the US, Germany and Britain, established three-power joint rule over Sāmoa.  This ultimately led to the creation of American Sāmoa.

Eventually, the confederacy attempts failed.  It part, it is believed too many changes to existing systems were proposed, many of which were modeled after the Western way.

However, Kalākaua’s dream was partially fulfilled with later coalitions (although Hawaiʻi is not the lead.)  In 1971, The Pacific Islands Forum, a political grouping of 16 independent and self-governing states, was founded (it was initially known as the South Pacific Forum, the name changed in 2000.)

Members include Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Sāmoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Later (2011,) eight independent or self-governing countries or territories in Polynesia formed an international governmental cooperation group, The Polynesian Leaders Group.

The eight founding members are: Sāmoa, Tonga and Tuvalu (three sovereign states;) the Cook Islands and Niue (two self-governing territories in free association with New Zealand;) American Sāmoa (an unincorporated territory of the United States;) Maʻohi Nui (French Polynesia) and Tokelau (a territory of New Zealand.)

Its members commit to working together to “seek a future for our Polynesian people and countries where cultures, traditions and values are honored and protected”, as well as many other common goals.  (PLG Memorandum of Understanding, 2011)

The image shows the coronation of King Kalākaua in 1883.  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook  

Follow Peter T Young on Google+  

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn   

© 2014 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Filed Under: General, Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance Tagged With: Hawaii, Kalakaua, Walter Murray Gibson, Kaimiloa, Polynesia, Polynesian Confederacy, American Samoa

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Connect with Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • William Geiger
  • Minute Men
  • Royal Footsteps Along the Kona Coast
  • Hawai‘i As Seen By An Artist In 1816
  • Pukaʻōmaʻomaʻo
  • Kona Coffee Living History Farm
  • George Herman Huddy

Categories

  • General
  • Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance
  • Buildings
  • Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings
  • Hawaiian Traditions
  • Military
  • Place Names
  • Prominent People
  • Schools
  • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
  • Economy
  • Voyage of the Thaddeus
  • Mayflower Summaries
  • American Revolution

Tags

AG Curtis Alii Amphibious Captain Vancouver Charles Hinckley Whitmore Charles James McCarthy Choris Christianity Coastal States Organization Discrimination FDR Foodland Foreign Mission School Fort Weaver Future Farmers of America General Meeting Hoopuloa Ice Floe Intermediate School James Kapaa Japan John Rollin Desha Kaname Yonamine Kansas Kaukahoku Kaunakakai Kukionapeha Land Titles Luakaha Makaioulu Makapuu Miriam Likelike Cleghorn New York Oahu Charity School . Ownership School SEAL Soaring SOEST Teruya Thomas ap Catesby Jones Uncle Tom's Cabin Valentines Waikiki Beach Zephaniah Swift Spalding

Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

Copyright © 2012-2021 Peter T Young, Hoʻokuleana LLC

 

Loading Comments...