Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Penguin Bank

“As for the depths themselves, the greatest yet discovered … was the Penguin Deep, discovered by the British vessel Penguin (in 1896) north of New Zealand where a depth of 5,155 fathoms was found.”  (New York Tribune, January 25, 1920)  (Four years later, the USS Nero instruments registered a depth of 5,269 fathoms – almost six miles.)

HMS Penguin was an Osprey-class sloop (United Kingdom, later Australia.) Launched on 1876, Penguin was operated by the Royal Navy from 1877 to 1881, then from 1886 to 1889.

She was 170 feet long, had a beam of 36 feet, a draft of 15 feet 9 inches and had a displacement of 1,130 tons.  The propulsion machinery consisted of a single engine that gave her a top speed of 9.9 knots and a maximum range of 1,480 nautical miles (1,700 mi.) (She was also Barque rigged.) The standard ship’s company was 140-strong.

After being converted to a survey vessel, Penguin was recommissioned in 1890, and conducted survey work around the Western Pacific islands, New Zealand and the Great Barrier Reef until 1908, when she was demasted and transferred to the Australian Commonwealth Naval Forces for use as a depot and training ship in Sydney Harbor.

After this force became the Royal Australian Navy, the sloop was commissioned as HMAS Penguin in 1913. Penguin remained in naval service until 1924, when she was sold off and converted into a floating crane. (The vessel survived until 1960, when she was broken up and burnt.)

In addition to finding the deepest bottom of the ocean (at the time, as noted above,) Penguin was involved in finding other ocean bottoms – one happened in Hawaiʻi.

Let’s step back a bit.

Hawaiʻi is the world’s most-isolated populated-place.  In round numbers, we are 5,000-miles from Washington DC, New York, Florida, Australia, Philippines, Hong Kong & the North Pole; 4,000-miles from Chicago, Tokyo, New Zealand & Guam and 2,500-miles from Los Angeles, all other West Coast cities, Samoa, Alaska & Mexico.

While, today, technology keeps us constantly and instantly in touch and aware of world events, the same was not true in the past.  Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, you had at least a one-week time lag in receiving “news” (that arrived via ships.)

At the time, Great Britain and its possessions were spread across the globe.  Communicating between these holdings created challenges.

Step in Sir Sandford Fleming, a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor.  Among other feats, he proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada’s first postage stamp, and, in 1862, Fleming had submitted a plan to the Government for a trans-Canada railway.

In the same year, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the British-Australian Telegraph Company.  Fleming was one of the staunch advocates for a Pacific telegraph cable.

A Colonial Conference held in Sydney in 1877 passed resolutions concerning a Pacific cable, one of which sought subsidies from the US Government for a cable running from the United States to New Zealand.

In 1879, Fleming wrote to the Telegraph and Signal Service in Ottawa about the railway and cable:  “If these connections are made we shall have a complete overland telegraph from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.”

“It appears to me to follow that, as a question of imperial importance, the British possessions to the west of the Pacific Ocean should be connected by submarine cable with the Canadian line. Great Britain will thus be brought into direct communication with all the greater colonies and dependencies without passing through foreign countries.”

The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, and with it a telegraph line across Canada, strengthened Fleming’s position. The decision to extend the railway to Vancouver in 1886 helped even more.  (atlantic-cable)

At the 1893 Australasian Conference held in Sydney the Postmaster General of New South Wales suggested laying a cable from New Caledonia (already linked to Australia by cable) to Fiji, Honolulu and San Francisco.

That brings us back to the Penguin. She was commissioned to make soundings and survey areas for suitable cable routes and station locations.

That brought her to Hawaiʻi.

“The Penguin left Sydney on April 10, proceeding by way of Suva Fiji to Palmyra Island, where a party was landed to observe the tides.  The steamer then proceeded to the north and made an accurate survey of Kingman reef, which was found to be sixty miles due north of Palmyra Island.  (The Sun (NY,) July 30, 1897)

“The British survey steamer Penguin, which arrived (in Honolulu) yesterday, has just completed the preliminary survey for the Australian-British Columbian cable. She ran a line of soundings from Palmyra Island to a point 300-miles to the southward of Honolulu, finding and average depth of 2,700 fathoms.”

“After spending three weeks here in receiving general repairs the Penguin will return to Palmyra Island and run a line of soundings southwest to Sydney.”  (The Sun (NY,) July 30, 1897)

The Penguin made another discovery here.

“The Penguin … must await stores and advices before resuming her survey work, but in the interim will make an accurate survey of the shoal discovered to the southward, sailing from here on the 12th for that purpose, and returning again later.”  (The Hawaiian Star, August 7, 1897)

“HBMS Penguin will leave at daylight tomorrow to survey a shoal near this group, expecting to be back Sunday morning.”  (Evening Bulletin, August 11, 1897)

“Although the officers aboard the Penguin were loathe to give any information it was learned that at about 10 o’clock on Tuesday night (July 20, 1897) and while about 30-miles of the Island of Oʻahu, the ‘tell-tale’ of the ship showed that a shoal 26-fathoms below the surface of the water, had been struck.”  (Pacific Commercial, July 22, 1897; Clark)

The name of the shoal appears to have varied early names.

“The steamer JA Cummins went off fishing with a party of excursionists this morning.  The steamer will cruise about Kamehameha shoal (the new reef discovered by HBMS Penguin) and return tonight or early tomorrow.”  (Evening Bulletin, September 11, 1897)

“The Albatross started from Honolulu on July 9.  She first went dredging at the Penguin shoal and went from there to Puako, on Hawaii.”  (Evening Bulletin, July 29, 1902)

Today, it’s more commonly referred to as Penguin Bank.

Penguin Bank (about 20 miles long and 10 miles wide within the Kaiwi Channel) is the eroded summit of a sunken volcano, now a broad submarine shelf off Molokai Island with depths of less than 200 feet deep. It is capped with sand and fossil corals. The Bank is generally too deep for most live corals and is a relatively barren habitat compared to shallower waters nearby. The base rock is lava of the same kind that forms Molokai Island.  (Grays Harbor)

It was one of the seven principal volcanoes (along with West Molokai, East Molokai, Lānai, West Maui, East Maui and Kahoʻolawe) that formerly constituted of Maui Nui.

The top of Penguin Bank and other banks and shelves throughout the Pacific basin are found at similar depths, because these banks were formed by an interplay between reef growth and past low stands of global sea level.  (Agegian)

Penguin Bank is noted for highest concentrations of humpback whales during their winter sojourns in Hawaiʻi. While in Hawaiʻi, Humpback Whales are found in shallow coastal waters, usually less than 300-feet. The average water depth in Penguin Banks is around 200-feet, but water depths can range from about 150-feet to 600-feet.  (NOAA)

It’s also one of Hawaiʻi’s premier fishing sites.  “Yachts May Cruise – The yachtsmen are thinking of making a cruise starting Saturday and returning Monday night, Monday being Labor Day.”

“Two plans are at present being discussed.  One is to go to Waianae and remain off that place fishing.  The other plan is a more extensive on.  It is to go to Penguin Shoal on the west coast of Molokai to fish, returning Monday via Rabbit Island, where the yachtsmen may stop for a day’s rabbit and bird shooting.”  (Evening Bulletin, September 1, 1904)

In 1902, the first submarine cable across the Pacific was completed (landing in Waikīkī at Sans Souci Beach) linking the US mainland to Hawaiʻi, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji and Guam to the Philippines in 1903.   (The first Atlantic submarine cable, connecting Europe with the USA, was completed in 1866.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pantheon Block

It was a time before the automobile; folks rode horseback or were carried in horse or mule drawn carriage, trolley or omnibus (the automobile didn’t make it to the Islands until 1890.)

“James Dodd has leased the premises known as the Bartlett House, at the corner of Hotel and Fort streets, he called it the Pantheon Hotel. The premises have been renovated, repaired, painted and papered throughout, making them look almost as good as new.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, October 30, 1878)

“Mr. Dodd has had experience in the hotel business, and from his urbanity of manner and good business habits we doubt not but the new place will be well kept. He intends to have, in connection with the hotel, a finely arranged livery stable with a full complement of carriages and saddle horse for the accommodation of the public.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, October 30, 1878)

The May 23, 1883 issue of the Daily Bulletin noted, “James Dodd’s Pantheon Saloon is nearly finished building. It is very handsomely designed.”

He also had the Long Branch sea bathing baths in Waikīkī and ran an omnibus (bus) line from downtown to Waikiki.

“The Pantheon Saloon has a large commodius room attached to the bar where its patrons can sit at ease and pass their leisure tune reading the latest papers.”  (Hawaiian Star, February 13, 1895)

Then, the “Black Death” (Bubonic Plague) struck Honolulu.

Its presence caused pause in the opening months of 1900 and was on everybody’s mind, with good reason; the same disease had decimated a third of the world’s population during the fourteenth century.  It started to spread in Honolulu.

“The other center of infection is block 19, north and east of block 20 at the Pantheon livery stables and saloon. From this place 3 cases in all have been traced, 2 Chinese and 1 white American.”  (Public Health Reports, February 8, 1900)

As more people fell victim to the Black Death, on January 20, 1900, the Board of Health conducted “sanitary” fires to prevent further spread of the disease.

The Pantheon premises were condemned and burned.

With five fire engines strategically placed, the controlled incineration of the Pantheon stables and saloon took place in the morning of February 7, 1900. Other places connected with the four victims were also disposed of.  (Papacostas)

“The structure mainly consists of a series of heavy timbers for the walls upon which has been laid a corrugated iron roof.  … the premises in rear of the stables disclosed the same ramshackly series of lean-tos and sheds as were generally found all through the Chinatown district”.  (Hawaiian Gazette, February 6, 1900)

Another fire, started between Kaumakapili Church and Nuʻuanu Avenue, blazed out of control, due to the change in wind.  The fire burned uncontrollably for 17 days, ravaging most of Chinatown.  People trying to flee were beat back by citizens and guards into the quarantine district.

The extent of the fire and the estimates of the area ranged from 38-65 acres.  The fire caused the destruction of all premises bounded by Kukui Street, River Street, Queen Street (presently Ala Moana Boulevard) and Nuʻuanu Avenue.

Dodd died January 21, 1900 – but the Pantheon returned.

“Like the Phoenix the Pantheon arose from its ashes. Although it is not on the same spot it is so near it that one looking for the favorite drinking place cannot go far astray. Ever since the old Pantheon was started many years ago by the late James Dodd it has been noted for the good cheer obtainable there.”

“Now that its old proprietor is no more, the reputation of the place is kept up to its former old standard and there is nothing to be desired in the way of refreshment for the inner man that cannot be obtained there.” (Honolulu Republican, June 16, 1901)

“The Pantheon saloon reopened in the new building at Fort and Hotel streets last night. TA Simpson. FM Kiley and JF O’Connor are in charge there. The house is quite large and looks neat.”  (Hawaiian Star, September 25, 1900)

“The Pantheon is homelike and as an oasis in a desert to the tired and thirsty traveller. It is the place to drop in and take a drop. Never is a want left unsatisfied in the Pantheon. To make your want known is to have the want catered to and in a way that is satisfactory. Courteous treatments the rule and although there are other places there is but one Pantheon, the Pantheon on Hotel street.”

The name of the saloon is over the door. It is on Hotel street.  There the thirsty may be refreshed and the weary rest.  (Honolulu Republican, June 16, 1901)

On July 19, 1909 the Evening Bulletin announced, “Architect HL Kerr has just completed the plans for a two-story building on the Ewa-mauka corner of Hotel and Fort streets, and bids on its construction will shortly be called for. The building will be of concrete and steel construction and will be built so as to allow the erection of more stories if necessary.”

“The structure will be known as the Pantheon building and will be erected by the Pantheon Building Company, of which Mrs JM Dowsett is the principal stockholder.”  (Hawaiian Gazette, July 20, 1909)

In the 1950s, owners decided to modernize the facade. Concentrating on the shop-fronts the owners added shiny Arizona sandstone surrounds and new plate-glass windows.  Failing to transform the building sufficiently to attract shoppers heading to the new Ala Moana and Kahala shopping malls, the owners added paneled treatment for the upper story.   (Papacostas)

Contractor Lucas called it “an ornament to the city” and, in its retrospect for 1911, Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual described it as “the principal structure of the year.”   (Papacostas)  The Pantheon remains today at Hotel Street and the Fort Street Mall.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Go For Broke

On January 28, 1943, the US War Department called for volunteers for a new combat team.  The mainland quota was 3,000 and the Hawaiʻi quota was 1,500.

But wait, we are getting a little ahead of the story.  Let’s look back.

On December 7, 1941, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor forced the US into World War II.  On the day of the bombing and for six weeks after, the Nisei (Hawaiʻi born, 2nd generation Japanese in Hawaiʻi) and other cadets in the University of Hawaiʻi’s ROTC were made part of the Hawaiʻi Territorial Guard and assisted in guarding vital facilities on the island of Oahu.  They served as part of the armed forces defense of the islands for a 7-week period.

However, on January 19, 1942, the Army discharged all the Japanese Americans in the ROTC – and changed their draft status to 4C … “enemy alien.”  Wanting to serve, one hundred and seventy students petitioned the military governor: “Hawaiʻi is our home; the United States our country. We know but one loyalty and that is to the Stars and Stripes. We wish to do our part as loyal Americans in every way possible, and we hereby offer ourselves for whatever service you may see fit to use us.”  (hawaii-edu)

A year later, the War Department announced that it was forming an all-Nisei combat team – the call for volunteers for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was made.  The Territory of Hawaiʻi raised a total of 10,000-volunteers and so its quota was increased to 2,900 while the mainland quota was lowered proportionately to 1,500.  

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was activated on February 1, 1943 at Camp Shelby Mississippi; the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce held a Farewell Ceremony for Hawaiʻi 442nd soldiers on March 28, 1943, at ʻIolani Palace.  By April 1943, the recruits arrived for training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

The Hawaiʻi-born Nisei, also known as “Buddhaheads,” made up about two-thirds of the regiment. The remaining third were Nisei from the mainland (they came from the Pacific coast, the Rocky Mountain states, the midwest and the eastern seaboard.)  Immediately, the two factions fought with each other (because of different perspectives based on where they grew up.)  (goforbroke-org)

At the time, Japanese in the US were placed in internment camps; more than 110,000-people of Japanese ancestry (including 60-percent who were American citizens) were forcibly “relocated” from their homes, businesses and farms in the western states (about 1,000 were interned in Hawaiʻi.)

Back at the training camp, the Buddhaheads thought the mainlander Nisei were sullen and snobby, and not confident and friendly. Soon misunderstandings turned into fistfights.  In fact, that was how mainlanders got the name “Katonk.” (They say it was the sound their heads made when they hit the floor.)

The Katonks were fairer skinned, and spoke perfect English. The Buddhaheads were darker skinned and spoke Pidgin – a mixture of Hawaiian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese and broken English.  (goforbroke-org)

Money was another big divider between the groups. The Buddhaheads gambled heavily and spent freely using the cash sent by their generous parents who still worked in Hawaiʻi. They thought the Katonks were cheap. They didn’t realize that the Katonks sent most of their meager Army pay to their families imprisoned in the camps.  (goforbroke-org)

The friction between the two groups was so bad that the military high command considered disbanding the 442nd. They thought the men could never fight overseas as a unit. The Army decided to send a group of Buddhaheads to visit the internment camps in Arkansas (the men thought Camp Jerome and Camp Rowher were little towns with Japanese families.)

But when the trucks rolled past the barbed wire fence, past the guard towers armed with machine guns pointed at the camp residents, past the rough barracks where whole families crowded in small compartments with no privacy – suddenly the Buddhaheads understood. Word of the camps spread quickly, and the Buddhaheads gained a whole new respect for the Katonks. Immediately the men in the 442nd became united – “like a clenched fist.”

From May 1943 through February 1944, the men trained for combat; they excelled at maneuvers and learned to operate as a team. In March, Chief of Staff General George Marshall inspected the regiment. Following their training, on April 22, 1944, the 442d packed up and were bound for Italy.

The motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was “Go For Broke.” (It’s a gambling term that means risking everything on one great effort to win big.)

The soldiers of the 442nd needed to win big … they did.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit for its size and length of service in the entire history of the US Military.

In total, about 14,000-men served.  Members of this unit earned over 18,000-individual decorations including 9,486 Purple Hearts and 5,200 Bronze Stars. The Combat Team earned five Presidential Citations, the only military unit ever to claim that achievement.

General of the Army George C Marshall praised the team saying, “there were superb: the men of the 100/442d … showed rare courage and tremendous fighting spirit … everybody wanted them.” General Mark W. Clark (Fifth Army) said, “these are some the best … fighters in the US Army. If you have more, send them over.”  (army-mil)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, “a combat team … of loyal American citizens of Japanese descent has my full approval, (and) will add to the … 5,000 … already serving in the … (100th Infantry Battalion, and Military Intelligence Service) … Americanism is not … a matter of race or ancestry. A good American is one who is loyal to this country and to our creed of liberty and democracy.”

The 442d may be best known for its rescue of the Lost Texas Battalion of the 36th Infantry Division, in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France, near Biffontaine and Bruyeres on October 30, 1944.

The 442nd and the 141st Texas Regiment were both part of the 36th Division under the command of Major General John Dahlquist. They were fighting in Eastern France, near the German border.  The 141st Texas Regiment advanced four miles beyond friendly forces – the Germans surrounded them.  More than 200 Texans were stranded on a ridge, they were low on food, water and ammo.

Isolated for six days, the Texans had beaten back five enemy assaults. Deaths and casualties mounted.  During the six days, the 442nd fought to rescue the Lost Battalion.  After 34 days of almost non-stop combat – liberating Bruyeres and Biffontaine, rescuing the 211 Texans, and nine more days of driving the Germans through the forest – the 442nd’s total casualties were 216 men dead and more than 856 wounded.

As part of the Allies’ Southern Group of Armies, the 100/442d fought in eight campaigns and made two beachhead assaults in Italy and France, captured a submarine and opened the gates of Dachau concentration camp.

It is ironic that this team liberated Dachau, because some of these Japanese Americans were detained in American camps before being drafted into service, and still had family in those US camps. Nisei were denied their property, freedom to move, live in their own homes, work, and learn in the western US.  (army-mil)

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team included the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion, 232nd Combat Engineer Company, 206th Army Ground Force Band, Antitank Company, Cannon Company, Service Company, medical detachment, headquarters companies, and two infantry battalions. The 1st Infantry Battalion remained on the mainland to train new recruits. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions would join the legendary 100th Battalion, which was already fighting in Italy.

The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was actually composed of two distinct units: the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion.  These two units were formed independently at different times and do not share a common lineage.  The 100th Battalion would eventually become the 442nd’s 1st battalion in June 1944.  (the442-org)

Some quotes about the members of the 442:
“You not only fought the enemy … you fought prejudice and won.” President Harry S Truman

“Never in military history did an army know as much about the enemy prior to actual engagement” General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Pacific Theater

“My fellow Americans, we gather here today to right a grave wrong … now let me sign HR 442.” President Ronald Reagan, Civil Liberties Act of 1988

“The Nisei saved countless lives and shortened the war by two years.”  Charles A Willoughby, General MacArthur’s Intelligence Officer

Soldiers wear a wide assortment of insignia, ribbons, medals, badges, tabs and patches.  The distinctive unit insignia for the 442d Infantry Regiment, Organized Reserves Corps (Hawaiʻi) was originally approved on May 22, 1952. It was amended to withdraw “Organized Reserves Corps” from the designation on June 30, 1959.  (Pentagon-mil)

The 442d’s insignia is blue and white, the colors for the Infantry. The taro leaf, from the coat of arms of the 100th Infantry Battalion, is identified with Hawaiʻi, and the Mississippi River steam boat symbolizes the place of activation of the 442d Infantry Regiment (Camp Shelby, Mississippi.)  (Pentagon-mil). (Lots of information here from 442-org, goforbroke-org and army-mil.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Liliʻuokalani Protestant Church

The queen was fond of the congregation – which once numbered in the thousands, according to church records – and donated hymnals, cut-glass chandeliers and a seven-dial, universal-calendar clock. The church was renamed for Liliʻuokalani in 1975.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, let’s step back.

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863) (the “Missionary Period”,) about 184-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM gave the following instructions to these missionaries: “Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … Your views are not to be limited to a low, narrow scale, but you are to open your hearts wide, and set your marks high.”

“You are to aim at nothing short of covering these islands with fruitful fields, and pleasant dwellings and schools and churches, and of Christian civilization.”  (The Friend)  Reverend John S Emerson and his new bride Ursula Sophia Newell Emerson were part of the Fifth Company of missionaries.

Emerson was born December 28, 1800 in Chester, New Hampshire; he descended from a branch of the Emerson family emigrating from England and settling in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1652. Emerson left home at the age of 15 and started his studies preparing for college, and subsequently graduated from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1826.

After graduating, like so many of the Alumni of American colleges, he became a teacher before entering upon his theological studies. These were pursued for three years at Andover, where he graduated in 1830.  He anticipated becoming a missionary in India, but, yielded to a special call from the Sandwich Islands.

He married Ursula on October 25, 1831 in the old parsonage of Nelson, among the New Hampshire hills, where her father, Rev. Gad Newell, was the pastor from 1794 to 1859.  They left for the Islands a month after their wedding (November 20, 1831) and spent almost six months on board ship – arriving in the Islands May 17, 1832.

“Very soon after his arrival the ‘general meeting’ of the Mission assigned Mr and Mrs Emerson, to the station of Waialua, on Oʻahu.”  (The Friend, April 1867) Waialua stretched along the coast for 30-miles with a population of 8,000.  They sailed from Honolulu on a small schooner to get there.

On July 24, 1832 they formed the Congregational Church at Waialua, Oahu’s second oldest Hawaiian church.  The first facility (first of four) was a hale pili (thatched house,) dedicated on September 25, 1832 (it was situated at what is today the site of Haleʻiwa Joe’s on the corner of Kamehameha Highway and Haleʻiwa Road.)

“From the commencement of his labors at Waialua, he endeavored to interest his people in the diligent reading and study of the Bible. He had so arranged the reading of the Bible, that his people were accustomed to read the entire Bible through once in about three years.”

“In the daily morning prayer-meeting which has been kept up for many years, at the church, and which he usually attended, he would read and comment on the chapters for the day. We recollect, some months ago to have asked an old Hawaiian, belonging to the Waialua church, how many times he had read the Bible through. His reply was “eiwa” (nine!)”  (The Friend, April 1867)

The government selected a spot for a second church to replace the first one.  An adobe building, about 100-feet by about 50-feet was built around 1840-1841 on what is now the cemetery area of the present church property.

Emerson served the Church until 1842 when he took a position as professor at the Lahainaluna Seminary on Maui, and also served as pastor of the Church at Kāʻanapali.   He published five volumes of elementary works, three of them in the Hawaiian language, and, while at Lahainaluna, was joint author, with Rev. Artemas Bishop, of an “English Hawaiian Dictionary,” based on Webster’s abridgment (Lahainaluna, 1845.)  He later returned to Waialua and served the congregation until 1846.

Service to the people was equally shared by Ursula.  “We are also much impressed by the well-drawn character of Ursula Newell Emerson, whose lovable personality, together with her bountiful, untiring hospitality, is a treasured memory in Hawaiʻi. She nobly rounded out the work of her husband”.  (The Friend, October 1928)

A third church was built of wood in 1890 on the present location and it was this building that Queen Liliʻuokalani worshipped in when she stayed at her beach home along the banks of the Anahulu River.

“Our famous clock was donated to the church by Queen Liliʻuokalani on January 1, 1892. The clock is 32 inches in diameter, with seven functions and hands, one (of) which made one revolution every 16 years!”

“The uniqueness of this one-of-a-kind clock, is that the numerals on the clock dial telling the time were replaced with the letters of L-I-L-I-U-O-K-A-L-A-N-I, the queen’s name.”  (Church Moderator Kuulei Kaio, Star-Bulletin)

The present church building was built after the wooden one was declared unsafe.  In 1960, the fourth (and present) church made of cement was started.  This new building was dedicated on June 11, 1961.  (Later renovations were completed in 1985.)

Theodore Alameda Vierra was the architect for the present church.  He was born on the Big Island in 1902 to an Azorean born Portuguese father and Hawaiian-Scottish mother. He graduated from Kamehameha Schools as president of his class in 1919, graduated from college in San Francisco and later won a scholarship to Harvard University School of Architecture. Vierra was the first native Hawaiian to be admitted to the American Institute of Architecture. (HHF)

The weather vane at the top of the church steeple is in the form of an ʻIwa bird (frigate) in full flight with a fish in its mouth.  Haleʻiwa was the name of the seminary that the Emersons established in the area and the village was eventually named Haleʻiwa (house of the ʻIwa bird.)

ʻIwa is also the name of a slender leafed fern and there are 2 of these leaves at base of the vane.  The religious connotation is brought together with the fish in its mouth.  “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.  The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea gathered many kinds.”  (Lots of information here from the Church website.)

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Pāhonu

Honu neʻe pū ka ʻāina
The land moves like the turtle.
(Land passes slowly but inexorably from owner to heir.)
(Pukui)

From its earliest period of occupation, the Waimānalo Bay region was an extensive agricultural area, featuring taro farms that used the traditional Hawaiian loʻi (pondfield) cultivation system.

Taro was grown in the lowlands, irrigated with water from Waimānalo Stream, as well as on terraced sections that were watered by the small streams and springs flowing out of the Koʻolau Range.

These terraced sections extended for nearly 2-miles in a semicircle at the foot of the mountains around the broad base of the Waimānalo valley. By the 1850s, the area’s fertile soil provided not only taro but also breadfruit, mountain apple, kukui and coconut trees, sweet potatoes and sugar cane.  (NPS)

In addition to the agrarian-based economy, several fishing villages dotted the bay’s shoreline. Two of the best-known villages in the area were Kaupō and Kukui. Kaupō was on a small peninsula opposite Mānana Island (Rabbit Island) and just northwest of Makapuʻu Beach Park (where Sea Life Park is located.)

The village may have been depopulated during the early-1800s and probably was repopulated during the early-1850s when a disastrous smallpox epidemic struck Honolulu and Hawaiians settled temporarily in the Waimānalo Bay region to escape its ravages.

The small fishing village of Kukui was further northwest, along the bay in the Kaiona Beach vicinity near Pāhonu Pond (‘Turtle enclosure’) – a prehistoric walled enclosure where it is said that turtles were kept for the use of Hawaiian chieftains.  (NPS)

Before we go there, let’s look at some findings of Dr Marion Kelly where she speaks of three main technological advances resulting in food production intensification in pre-contact Hawai‘i: (a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pondfields with their irrigation systems and (c) systematic dry-land field cultivation organized by vegetation zones.

The Hawaiian walled fishpond stands as a technological achievement unmatched elsewhere in island Oceania.  Hawaiians built rock-walled enclosures in near shore waters, to raise fish for their communities and families.  It is believed these were first built around the fifteenth-century.

The general term for a fishpond is loko (pond), or more specifically, loko iʻa (fishpond).  Loko iʻa were used for the fattening and storing of fish for food and also as a source for kapu (forbidden) fish.

Samuel Kamakau points out that “one can see that they were built as government projects by chiefs, for it was a very big task to build one, (and) commoners could not have done it (singly, or without co-ordination.)” Chiefs had the power to command a labor force large enough to transport the tons of rock required and to construct such great walls.

The fishponds just described refer to aquaculture to grow fish – they were found throughout the Islands; however, at Waimānalo, Oʻahu, the only remaining aquaculture of green sea turtle known to have been carried out by the early-Hawaiians involved a coastal pond named Pāhonu that was used to maintain turtles until they were ready to be eaten.  (NOAA)

The green sea turtle is the principal marine turtle species in the Hawaiian Islands.  Common names used in the Hawaiian Archipelago include honu, green turtle and green sea turtle.  They are herbivorous, feeding primarily on seagrasses and algae. This diet is thought to give them greenish-colored fat, from which they take their name. (NOAA)

In Hawaiʻi, as throughout Polynesia and other islands in the pacific, sea turtles have always been a traditional part of the local culture and have historically been revered as special and sacred beings.  (Luna)

“There was once a chief who was so fond of turtle meat that he ordered a sea wall be built to keep captured turtles from escaping.  Every turtle caught by a fisherman was put into this enclosure.  No one else was allowed to partake of turtle meat under penalty of death.  No one dared to eat turtle as long as the old chief lived.”  (Pukui; Maly)

Kikuchi in his “Hawaiian Aquaculture Systems,” notes that “An early visitor to Waikiki area remarked that the ruling chief of Oʻahu, Kahekili, ‘mentioned also some others where he had a quantity of turtle.’”

“… We walked back to Mr. Castle’s house, where we sat on a long bench outside, facing the sea.  There Aiona told me the story of Pa-honu, an enclosure for turtles that was once located back of Mrs. Wall’s present home.”  (Pukui; Maly)

Pāhonu, the offshore pond (500 feet long, 50 feet wide,) is just south of Kaiona Beach Park fronting the shoreline; a line of stones, submerged at high tide, but visible at low tide, notes its location.  (Pukui)

Kaiona Beach Park, a small four-acre park at the south end of Waimānalo Bay, is a popular camping site that has also been used for many years as a community boat anchorage.

In 1998, residents of Waimānalo built a boat ramp in the south end of the park, the only paved ramp in Waimānalo. They also placed a monument to Hawaiian fishers from their community near the ramp. Kaiona means “attractive sea.  (Clark)

The beachfront residence named Pāhonu inland of the pond was used from 1980 to 1988 as the base of operations for the popular television series, Magnum PI.  A surf site borders a small channel through the reef and is also known as Magnums. (Ulukau) The ‘Magnum’ house has been removed and other houses are it its place.
 
Next to Pāhonu is Kaʻakaupapa (shallows at the right.)  The old saying of this place was, “Papa ke kānaka, papa nā mea a pau”—“Multitudes of people, multitudes of gods, all in multitudes.”  (Aiona, Informant, Sept. 14, 1939; Cultural Surveys)

Nearby is the Shriners Club, a private clubhouse that opened on April 20, 1931. Popularly known as Shriners Beach, it is used for a wide variety of events, including wedding receptions, birthday parties and other social gatherings.  (Clark)

The green turtle is listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In 1978, the Hawaiian population of the green turtle was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973.  NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have joint jurisdiction for green sea turtles.

State and Federal laws prohibit harassing, harming, killing, or keeping sea turtles in captivity without a permit allowing these activities for research or educational purposes. Divers should be aware that riding turtles is illegal and puts these animals under stress.

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