“Tourism means travel, and travel requires transportation. During most of the nineteenth century, visiting Hawaii meant crossing the vast Pacific Ocean on a sailing ship from San Francisco, a distance of some 2,100 miles.”
“At the height of the California gold rush (around 1850) diminutive schooners and brigs dominated the Hawaii trade. Carrying freight was their main business though passengers were also accommodated.”
“Before steamships ‘our business dealings with that port [San Francisco], which comprised more than all others combined…was dependent upon sailing vessels, which served also for passenger accommodation and mail opportunities, often weeks apart in arrival. Tourist travel was not encouraged thereby.’”
“It would require the arrival of regular steamship service to get tourism going in Hawaii. Steamships provide greater speed and more predictable schedules than sailing vessels.”
“Mark Twain arrived in Honolulu on the steamship Ajax. Ajax’s inaugural round trip voyage from San Francisco arrived in Honolulu on January 27, 1866 with 68 passengers.” (UHERO)
Mark Twain’s travelogue Roughing It helped shape America’s image of the islands for 30-odd years: “On a certain bright morning the Islands hove in sight, lying low on the lonely sea, and everybody climbed to the upper deck to look. After two thousand miles of watery solitude the vision was a welcome one.”
“As we approached, the imposing promontory of Diamond Head rose up out of the ocean its rugged front softened by the hazy distance, and presently the details of the land began to make themselves manifest: first the line of beach; then the plumed coacoanut trees of the tropics …”
“In place of roughs and rowdies staring and blackguarding on the corners, I saw long-haired, saddle-colored Sandwich Island maidens sitting on the ground in the shade of corner houses, gazing indolently at whatever or whoever happened along …”
“… instead of wretched cobble-stone pavements, I walked on a firm foundation of coral, built up from the bottom of the sea by the absurd but persevering insect of that name, with a light layer of lava and cinders overlying the coral, belched up out of fathomless perdition long ago through the seared and blackened crater that stands dead and harmless in the distance now …”
“… instead of cramped and crowded street-cars, I met dusky native women sweeping by, free as the wind, on fleet horses and astride, with gaudy riding-sashes, streaming like banners behind them …”
“… instead of the combined stenches of Chinadom and Brannan street slaughter-houses, I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India …”
“… in place of the hurry and bustle and noisy confusion of San Francisco, I moved in the midst of a Summer calm as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden …”
“… in place of the Golden City’s skirting sand hills and the placid bay, I saw on the one side a frame-work of tall, precipitous mountains close at hand, clad in refreshing green, and cleft by deep, cool, chasm-like valleys – and in front the grand sweep of the ocean …”
“… a brilliant, transparent green near the shore, bound and bordered by a long white line of foamy spray dashing against the reef, and further out the dead blue water of the deep sea, flecked with ‘white caps,’ and in the far horizon a single, lonely sail – a mere accent-mark to emphasize a slumberous calm and a solitude that were without sound or limit.”
“When the sun sunk down – the one intruder from other realms and persistent in suggestions of them – it was tranced luxury to sit in the perfumed air and forget that there was any world but these enchanted islands.” (Twain)
“After two round trips, the California Steam Navigation Company decided against offering further voyages because the service was unprofitable without government subsidy.”
“However, a year later the U.S. postmaster general contracted with the California, Oregon and Mexico Steamship Company to provide monthly mail service between San Francisco and Honolulu for a period of 10 years.”
“The steamship Idaho arrived in Honolulu under the provisions of the mail contract on September 17, 1867. That marked the beginning of regular steamship service between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.” (UHERO)
“While freight and mail were the most important cargo between Australia and San Francisco, steamships also carried sizable number of passengers.”
“For example, the 11 steamships en route to San Francisco from Sydney and Auckland in 1875 carried a total of 1,121 passengers, 10 to Honolulu, 227 from Honolulu, and 884 were in-transit.”
“The 12 vessels en route to Auckland and Sydney from San Francisco carried a total of 855 passengers, 264 to Honolulu, 24 from Honolulu, and 567 were in-transit. Thus there were many more passengers passing through Honolulu than passengers going to Honolulu.”
“Pacific Mail maintained its service between Australia, Honolulu and San Francisco for an uneventful 9 years; the service ended after its mail contract expired on October 1, 1885. Oceanic Steamship Company stepped up to fill the void. …”
The US government contributed money toward the mail contract “and between 1888 and 1891 the Hawaiian government contributed $1,500 per trip. … the single factor that kept the ships sailing was subsidy.”
“Hawaii benefited financially from government mail subsidies to trans-Pacific steamship companies as passengers passing through Honolulu could play tourist for a day during their several hours of layover in Honolulu.”
“The economic value of one-day tourism did not go unnoticed. Thrum’s Annual, 1894 observed that during a very difficult year of 1893: ‘While trade in general has felt depressed this past year…Still we have benefitted somewhat by the extra through travel by the frequent steamers to and fro between the occident and orient, as also in the new line established between the Colonies and Vancouver via this port…’”
“At the end of the day lei-decked departing passengers were sent off with Hawaiian music provided by the Royal Hawaiian Band. ‘Steamer Days’ would later be extended to all departing ships in the Honolulu-San Francisco route ‘to give the local boat with departing residents and tourists as good a sendoff.’” (UHERO)
“The signing of the Reciprocity Treaty between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1876, which permitted sugar grown in Hawaii to be shipped to the U.S. duty free, greatly stimulated sugar production and overall economic activity in the islands.”
“Demand for shipping increased sharply. More shipping was required to transport sugar from the outer islands to Honolulu and then on to the U.S. mainland. More shipping was needed to carry more goods to Hawaii as well. Shipping was the lifeline of Hawaii.”
Thrum’s Annual, 1881 observed “… that we import nearly everything that we eat, drink, wear, or use, and San Francisco is our principal source of supply. We are producers and exporters of sugar, rice, and a few other minor articles, but importers of all else.”
“More shipping service meant potentially more visitors and tourists.”
“With direct service between the U.S. mainland and Honolulu and through trans-Pacific service via Honolulu, Hawaii was able to tap into two potential tourist markets—tourists bound for Hawaii as their final destination and travelers in transit to other destinations beyond Hawaii.”
Thrum’s Annual, 1888 expressed its optimism for this opportunity as follows: “The two or three lines of sailing packets that used to suffice, with their passages of from ten to twenty or more days from San Francisco, are now strengthened by direct monthly steamers of the Oceanic Steamship Company, as also the monthly call, both ways …”
“… of their Australia, New Zealand and San Francisco line of steamers, all of which vessels make the trip in seven days between this port and San Francisco, and often times less.”
“These boats fitted with every comfort for passengers, and officered by courteous and experienced men, make it a pleasure trip in every sense of the word.”
“The natural consequences has been to encourage in a marked degree the travel of tourists and others, whether in pursuit of health, pleasure or profit. And it is but the beginning of what these islands are destined to attract when the facts of our climate and natural attractions become known to the intelligent public.” (UHERO)
