Lahaina Roads | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

“(T)he citizens of Maui in particular, and of the Territory or Hawaiʻi in general, as well as many strangers who, in the past, have visited Maui, up to the present time have been required to submit to the most unsatisfactory, antiquated, and often dangerous methods of landing”.

“After years of patient and persistent effort on the part of the citizens of this Island there has been constructed and brought to completion at Māla , one of the most modern and up to date wharves”. (Maui Chamber Resolution 1922)

Māla Pier, dedicated in 1922, planned to eliminate the inconvenience of light freighters to load/unload steamers anchored in Lāhainā Roadstead.

The Maui Chamber of Commerce went on record as strongly opposed to the use at Māla Wharf of small boats from and to the steamers Mauna Kea and Kilauea.

Nearby was the Baldwin Packers pineapple cannery, it was hoped that this new pier would facilitate transporting the pineapple.

Likewise, sugar from the upslope Pioneer Mill was expected to be run out the wharf to be loaded directly onto large ocean voyaging cargo vessels.

Building the massive wharf in those days was no minor undertaking and the army corps of engineers developed the design and erected the wharf.

It was noted at the time that Hawaiians familiar with the local tides, coastline and ocean activity recommended against its construction in that location.

The ill-fated structure was built anyway and on the very first attempt to pull a cargo ship alongside the wharf for loading the vessel crashed into Māla Wharf causing serious damage to the structure.

It was soon discovered that the ocean currents at Māla Wharf were too treacherous for the ships to navigate safely.

Strong currents and heavy surf damaged many others when they tried to tie-up there. (Reportedly, only a handful of steamers ever landed there successfully.)

Produce had to be taken by barge to awaiting ships. By 1932, the roads had been improved enough to transport the fruit by truck to Kahului Harbor.

The State closed the wharf in the 1950s. Several subsequent plans have been discussed to the pier and adjoining lands.

In 1971, proposals by the Xanadu Corp to construct a restaurant, museum, shops, offices, park, parking lot and small marina at the site were announced. (Lahaina Sun)

Initial plans called for a 193-space parking lot situated at the Kaʻānapali side of the foot of the pier. A park was planned between the parking lot and the shoreline which would block the parking area from sight while on the pier. (Lahaina Sun)

Four buildings, housing 18 shops and 10 offices would be staggered on alternate sides of the pier. Park and fishing areas would be located between the buildings. Some of the shops would be cantilevered over the water. (Lahaina Sun)

The bulk of the four buildings would be one story, with two sections of each building rising another story. Near the end of the pier, a bait and tackle shop is planned. Plans also call for construction of a one-story Hawaiiana Museum. (Lahaina Sun)

At the pier’s end would be a two-story restaurant which could seat 200. Behind the restaurant would be an art gallery. Plans also include a 40-ship marina. The marina would be situated close to shore and would require dredging operations. (Lahaina Sun)

In 2012, principals of Harbor Quest LLC discussed plans for another boat harbor at Māla.

Their testimony before the council described the details: “A channel approximately 650 feet long and 125 (feet) in width would be constructed through what is now Māla Wharf access road. The channel would transect Front Street, opening into a harbor basin with a surface area approximately three times the size of Lahaina Small Board Harbor.” (Lahaina News)

The vision is for a mixed-use, inland harbor village situated on 24-plus acres of land on the south side of Kahoma Stream between the ocean and Honoapiilani Highway. (Lahaina News)

The proposed plans for the private venture are still on the drawing board but include 143 fifty-foot slips, three anchor restaurants, 160 retail establishments, 16 residential condominiums, haul-out facility and a four-story parking garage. (Lahaina News)

Nearby, Kahoma Village, an affordable workforce housing project was recently constructed. However, the Hawaii State Supreme Court upheld a decision by a lower court invalidating a permit for Kahoma Village.

The Supreme Court agreed with the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals that the Maui Planning Commission should have allowed a group of neighboring residents to intervene on Kahoma Village, a 203-unit, $60 million fast-track affordable housing project that was approved in 2014.

It’s not about automobiles – this is the area where ships anchor off Lāhainā.

Lāhainā Roads, also called the Lāhainā Roadstead is a channel of the Pacific Ocean in the Hawaiian Islands. The surrounding islands of Maui and Lānaʻi (and to a lesser extent, Molokaʻi and Kahoʻolawe) make it a sheltered anchorage.

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between the continent and Japan whaling grounds brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

Between the 1820s and the 1860s, the Lāhainā Roadstead was the principal anchorage of the American Pacific whaling fleet. During that time, up to 1,500 sailors at a time were on the streets of the small town.

One reason why so many whalers preferred Lāhainā to other ports was that by anchoring in a roadstead from half a mile to a mile from shore they could control their crews better than when in a harbor.

“This mountain barrier (West Maui Mountains) shuts off the trade wind, and Lahaina roadstead is as smooth as the proverbial millpond, though a brief time may bring the sailor to a wind-tossed portion of Neptune’s domain of a very different finality.” (The Friend, April 1903)

“Four channels lead into this inland sea, from the north, from the west, from the south, and from the southeast, and each has its own significant name. The islands which make these channels are seen most comprehensively from the hill back of the town -“

“Molokai on the right, stretching westward; Lanai directly in front, blocking the ocean on the southwest; and Kahoolawe, long and low, on the left, running southwestward.” (The Friend, April 1903)

“The anchorage being an open roadstead, vessels can always approach or leave it with any wind that blows. No pilot is needed here.”

“Vessels generally approach through the channel between Maui and Molokai, standing well over to Lanai, as far as the trade will carry them, then take the sea breeze, which sets in during the forenoon, and head for the town.” (The Friend, April 30, 1857)

“The anchorage is about ten miles in extent along the shore and from within a cable’s length of the reef in seven fathoms of water, to a distance of three miles out with some twenty-five fathoms, affording abundant room for as large a fleet as can ever be collected here.” (The Friend, April 30, 1857)

“I shall never forget the finest sight of ships under sail I ever saw. It was a beautiful Sabbath morning at Lahaina. A very few ships were anchored off our place. The familiar cry of “Kail O!” was early heard and a glance towards the point towards Molokai revealed a ship under full sail coming down the channel.” (Paradise of the Pacific, 1906 – referring to 1851-1861)

“It was soon followed by another and another until the increasing numbers ceased to be numbered. It was a fine sight as they came into view. As if some common agreement they had all agreed to make the port the same time. They had come from the Arctic and the Okhotsk sea”. (Paradise of the Pacific, 1906 – referring to 1851-1861)

After whaling ended, the Roadstead continued to be used.

Since the 1930s, the US Navy had been using the Lāhainā roadstead between Maui and Lānaʻi as a protected deepwater anchorage for fleet deployment.

While the support facilities were limited on land, the location offered a convenient alternative to the crowded Pearl Harbor for temporary fleet basing.

Through the 1940s, Lāhainā Roads was as an alternative anchorage to Pearl Harbor.

While planning for the attack on the US Pacific Fleet, Japanese planners hoped that some significant units would be at anchor there because with Lāhainā’s deep water, those elements of the Pacific Fleet in all likelihood would never have been recovered.

The possibility that the Pacific Fleet would be at Lāhainā anchorage was taken seriously in the plan of the Japanese naval strike force for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Scout planes were dispatched from the fleet, and submarines were sent to Lāhainā Roads to inspect the anchorage. (The ships were at Pearl Harbor.)