Pacific | Page 2 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 1, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Currents

Historically the world was thought of having 4 oceans the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic. Today we have five oceans (adding the Southern (around Antarctica)) covering over 71 percent of the earth’s surface and over 97 percent of the earth’s water. (National Geographic)

The term ‘Seven Seas’ has referred to bodies of water along trade routes, regional bodies of water, or exotic and far-away bodies of water.

In Greek literature (which is where the phrase entered Western literature), the Seven Seas were the Aegean, Adriatic, Mediterranean, Black, Red and Caspian seas, with the Persian Gulf thrown in as a “sea.”

In Medieval European literature, the phrase referred to the North Sea, Baltic, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black, Red and Arabian seas.

As trade picked up across the Atlantic, the concept of the Seven Seas changed again. Mariners then referred to the Seven Seas as the Arctic, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Not many people use this phrase today, but you could say that the modern Seven Seas include the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans. (NOAA)

Oceans have currents, the continuous, predictable, directional movement of seawater driven by gravity, wind and water density. Ocean water moves in two directions: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal movements are referred to as currents, while vertical changes are called upwellings or downwellings. (National Geographic)

Ocean currents exist both on and below the surface. Some currents are local to specific areas, while others are global. And they move a lot of water. The largest current in the world, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is estimated to be 100 times larger than all the water flowing in all the world’s rivers.

A characteristic surface speed is about 2 to 20 inches per second. Currents generally diminish in intensity with increasing depth.

Vertical movements exhibit much lower speeds, amounting to only a few meters per month. As seawater is nearly incompressible, vertical movements are associated with regions of convergence and divergence in the horizontal flow patterns. (Britannica)

All of this moving water helps more stationary species get the food and nutrients they need. Instead of going looking for food, these creatures wait for the currents to bring a fresh supply to them.

Currents also play a major role in reproduction. The currents spread larvae and other reproductive cells. Without currents many of the ocean’s ecosystems would collapse. (Ocean Blue Project)

Ocean surface currents tend to form ring-like circulation systems called gyres. A gyre is a circular ocean current formed by a combination of the prevailing winds, the rotation of the Earth, and landmasses.

Continents interfere with the movement of both surface winds and currents. Gyres form in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Gyres in the Northern Hemisphere travel in clockwise directions while gyres in the Southern Hemisphere travel in counter-clockwise directions. It takes about 54 months for water to travel the circuit of the North Pacific gyre, while only 14 months in the North Atlantic gyre.

In the Northern Hemisphere near the equator, trade winds drive currents westward, forming a North Equatorial Current (NE), which moves at about 1 m/sec. At the western boundary of an ocean basin, the water turns and flows towards the North Pole, forming the western-ocean boundary currents.

Western boundary currents are very strong. Two examples are the Gulf Stream (GS) that runs in the Atlantic ocean basin and the Kuroshio Current in the Pacific ocean basin.

They are narrower, but deeper and swifter, than the other currents in the gyre. For example, speeds of 2 m/sec have been measured in the Gulf Stream. These currents, as deep as 1 km, generally remain in deeper water beyond the continental shelf. Western-ocean boundary currents carry warm water from the equator north.

The broad, gentle pitch of the continental shelf gives way to the relatively steep continental slope. The more gradual transition to the abyssal plain is a sediment-filled region called the continental rise. The continental shelf, slope, and rise are collectively called the continental margin. (Britannica)

Eventually, the western boundary currents fall under the influence of the westerly winds and begin flowing to the east, forming the North Atlantic Current (NA) and North Pacific Current (NP).

When they approach the eastern-ocean boundaries of continents, they turn and flow south, forming the eastern-ocean boundary currents. Eastern-ocean boundary currents are shallower and slower than western-ocean boundary currents.

Current flow over the continental shelves (the edge of a continent that lies under the ocean), close to shore, carrying colder waters from the north to the south. Two examples are the California Current (Cal) in the Pacific Ocean basin and the Canary Current (Can) in the Atlantic Ocean basin.

One major current, the equatorial Countercurrent (EC), appears to be an exception to the circulation pattern set up by the gyres. This countercurrent forms just north of the equator in the region between the north equatorial current and the south equatorial current and flows in the opposite direction. (Hawaii-edu)

January 27, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The Great Ocean

The Pacific is a big ocean: it covers more than one-third of the earth’s surface and more area than all of its land. It stretches more than 10,000 miles from Panama to the Philippines and almost as far from the Bering Sea to Antarctica.

The Pacific is the mother of oceans, the setting of romantic and moonlit isles, the hunting ground of explorers, buccaneers, and traders, the battleground where an empire bent upon world conquest was vanquished by a nation determined to preserve its cherished freedoms, and the home of the Polynesians, a hardy breed of people whose beginnings are obscure and full of conjecture.

Three distinct regions – Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia – make up the Pacific world.

Largest among these regions is Polynesia; the designation Polynesia is derived from the Greek nesos, an island, and poli, many.

Polynesia forms an almost perfect equilateral triangle with Easter Island at the apex, Hawaii at the left corner of the base line, and New Zealand at the right. The distance between each point of the triangle is between four and five thousand miles.

The islands of the Pacific number into the thousands and range from shoals and atolls to mighty land masses. They are commonly identified as continental or oceanic islands, depending on the geological story they tell.

Continental islands are geologically parts of the continental platforms, for their rock types and structures are similar to those of the continental land masses; oceanic islands, generally the product of volcanism, are far removed from the continents and differ in geological structure with the continental land masses.

Stretching from northwest to southeast for a distance of 1,500 miles across the Pacific lie the Hawaiian Islands, where Nature blended a forerunner to paradise.

The archipelago was built by sustained and prodigious volcanic activity that probably began some sixty million years ago through a series of fissures in the ocean floor.

The islands represent the tops of an enormous submarine mountain range. Wind, rain, surf, and other agents have eroded some of the islands into small remnants that project only a few feet above the surface of the ocean.

The Hawaiian Archipelago consists of islands, reefs, shoals, atolls, and pinnacles varying in size from 4,030 square miles to a few acres.

Largest in the group is the Island of Hawaii, which boasts two of the world’s most consistently active volcanoes, the highest insular mountain, and the largest single mountain mass. Smallest of the lot is Gardner Pinnacle, a stack of volcanic rock of three acres.

The timeless buildup of the islands continues, and if one could have a glimpse into the future he would probably see new islands thrusting their tops above the ocean to the southeast.

Plant spores and seeds borne by currents, winds, and migratory birds eventually found their way to these once barren islands and mantled them with a carpet of vegetation.

The native birds were probably blown in by strong winds; the Hawaiian bat and seal, the only native mammals, probably came in under their own power; and the pig, dog, and other animals and plants were introduced by the first settlers. The coconut may have been brought by the early voyagers or it may have been carried by ocean currents.

Into these isolated and far-flung islands came the hardy Polynesians, who had ventured into the unknown fastnesses of the vast Pacific in search of a homeland.

Their conquest of the Great Ocean and its far reaches is one of the most remarkable achievements in the pageant of life, but little is known about it.

In Hawaii, the Polynesians found an extravaganza of color – a land at once gentle and harsh, a land of freshness, primitive and untouched, of deep canyons and lofty mountains and fertile valleys and abundant forests. Nature had given generously of her best in creating such a masterpiece.

The uplands provided logs for their canoes and stone for their primitive tools; in the waters surrounding the islands they found an abundance of food, in the valleys, rich and productive lands for their agriculture.

And on the summit of a volcano they found Halemaumau – the abode of their goddess Pele.

Of it some made a shrine, a place of pilgrimage and prayer. While the homage paid to Pele was inspired essentially by fear, it was nonetheless worship, and they immortalized her in song and dance and in legend and tradition.

Hundreds of years later, a wise government set aside a part of her land as a national park, to be preserved for the benefit and enjoyment of all people for all time. (All here is copied from Hawaii Nature Notes, Hawaii National Park, November 1953)

December 5, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Foreign Interest in Hawai‘i

Polynesia is a region of the Pacific Ocean and forms, together with Melanesia and Micronesia, one of the three cultural areas of Oceania.

Polynesia extends from the Hawaiian Islands in the north to New Zealand in the south, and from Tuvalu in the west to Rapanui (Easter Island) in the east. The region includes Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, and the Cook and Marquesas Islands.

The name Polynesia derives from Greek words meaning many islands and refers to the numerous islands of the region. (The-Crankshaft Publishing)

In Polynesia, as in North America – New France (Canada to Louisiana (1534,)) New Spain (Southwest and Central North America to Mexico and Central America (1521)) and New England (Northeast US (1585, 1607, 1620)) – there was foreign interest.

Since the first contact with Westerners, starting with the Spanish and Portuguese explorers, the Polynesian islands have been colonized by various European and Asian countries.

In the central Pacific, practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18^th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation; then, the opening years of the 19^th century saw the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.

Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast and Canton, China.

At the same time, the Hawaiian demand for American goods was rapidly increasing, owing to the improved standards of living. The central location of the Hawaiian Islands brought many traders, and then whalers, to the Islands.

“And so for forty years Hawaiians wanted everything on every ship that came. And they could get it; it was pretty easy to get. Two pigs and … a place to live, you could trade for almost anything.” (Puakea Nogelmeier)

Centuries of experience taught Great Britain that having fortified stations all over the world is the only way to protect her commerce in peace or in war.

Other foreign nations were not slow to grasp this idea. France, Germany, Holland, Spain and Russia are second only to Great Britain in the possession of such stations. (Harman)

Hawai‘i is the strategic point of control for the whole northern Pacific.

Any foreign power occupying Hawai‘i would have an impregnable base from which to strike at any part of the Pacific coast and destroy the Pacific commerce. Not only this, but Hawai‘i is the only base in the Pacific from which this could be successfully done.

The British, Russians, French, Americans and others were all interested in Hawai‘i. At various times, different countries took or demonstrated ‘control’ of Hawai‘i.

Here are just a few examples: Russia – Fort in Honolulu – 1815; US – The Battle of Honolulu – 1826; French – Catholic Protests Resulting in the Edict of Toleration – 1839; Belgian Company of Colonization – 1843; Britain – Paulet Affair – 1843; French Invasion of Honolulu – 1849; US – Protectorate Proclamation – 1851; US – Attempt at Annexation – 1854; US – Annexation – 1898.

Hawaiian Kingdom Request for American and British Troops to Land in the Islands

At the time of the overthrow, the Committee of Public Safety felt “the public safety is menaced and lives and property are in peril, and we appeal to you and the United States forces at your command for assistance.”

“(A) small force of marines and sailors was landed from the United States ship Boston, as a precautionary step for the protection of American life and property, and as a safeguard against night incendiarism stimulated by the hope of plunder, greatly feared by many of the best citizens.” (Stevens, The North American Review, December 1893)

That wasn’t the only time American Troops landed to keep the peace and/or restore order. It happened a couple of times; and, … it was requested by the Monarchy.

Election Riot of 1874: On February 12, 1874, nine days after the death of King Lunalilo, an election was held between the repeat candidate David Kalākaua and Queen Emma, widow of King Kamehameha IV.

The election was held by the members of the legislature, not the public. The election was held in a special session of the Legislature at the old Courthouse on Queen Street (it was almost the last official action to take place in the courthouse.) When the vote was tallied, Kalākaua won by a count of 39 – 6.

Emma’s supporters (referred to as the “Queenites,” “Emmaites” or the “Queen Emma party”) were unhappy with the decision – an angry mob of about 100 of the Queen’s followers gathered.

“The only alternative, in this emergency, was to seek aid from the war vessels in port. About half-past 4 pm, a written request was sent by Charles R Bishop (the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Hawaiian Kingdom,) on behalf of the Government, to the American Minister Resident, for a detachment to be landed from the US ships Tuscarora and Portsmouth, lying in the harbor. And a similar request was transmitted to the British Consul General.” (Hawaiian Gazette – March 4, 1874)

A force of 150 American marines and sailors under Lieutenant Commander Theodore F. Jewell were put ashore along with another seventy to eighty Britons under a Captain Bay from the sloop HMS Tenedos.

The Wilcox Rebellion – 1889: Americans landed another time. “On the 30th of July, 1889, an insurrection was set on foot by Robert W. Wilcox and Robert Boyd (to overthrow the present Government of Hawaii and depose the King) on the afternoon of the same day, together with their adherents, about 100 in number, were defeated. The ringleader, with about 60 of his followers, was imprisoned.”

“About 6 o’clock am a message from the King informed me that an armed party, led by Mr. Wilcox, was in possession of the palace grounds, and soon thereafter it was learned that insurgents were in charge of the building containing the Government offices.”

“As soon as possible I had communication with Commander Woodward of the USS Adams, and at once all necessary preparations were made to land a force, if found necessary for protection of the people and property interests.” (Merrill, American Legation; Blount Report)

“About 70 sailors and marines from the USS Adams, then in the harbor, were landed by permission with a machine gun to protect life and property at the legation and in the city, and their appearance on the streets had a favorable effect on the populace.”

“The members of the cabinet and many prominent residents expressed much commendation of the prompt landing of the men, and remarked upon the very salutary effect their presence seemed to have among the people on the streets.” Merrill, American Legation, Blount Report)

“Remaining over night, quartered at the armory, they returned on board the next morning when tranquility was restored.” (Blount Report)

Click he following link for more information on Foreign Interests in Hawai’i.

https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Foreign-Interest-in-Hawaii.pdf

October 25, 2019 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Glass Balls

I suspect many people would believe the occasional glass fishing float found on our shores is strictly a Japanese and Pacific Ocean phenomenon.

Actually, the first glass fishing floats probably came from Norway and were used in the Atlantic. From 1762 to 1880, a Norwegian glass company was in business and it is believed they were producing glass floats as early as the late-1700s.

The first time these “modern” glass fishing floats are mentioned is in the production registry for Hadelands Glassverk in 1841. The registry shows that this is a new type of production.

However, there might have been some other versions of glass floats in use before that time. In the early 19th-century, the Schimmelmanns Glassverk (1779–1832) produced dark brown and very thick, bottle glass floats.

Aasnaes Glasvaerk, in business from 1813 to 1883, produced 122,493 glass floats just in the year 1875. A glass float with Aasnaes’s mark on the seal button is a collector’s item.

Early evidence of glass floats being used by fishermen comes from Norway in 1844, where small egg-sized floats were used with fishing line and hooks. Around the same time, glass was also used to support fishing nets.

The Japanese started producing small glass floats in the early-1900s and the first Asian floats came ashore along the West Coast just before 1920.

These Japanese floats are part of early recycling efforts – initial Japanese floats were made from recycled sake bottles. Most floats are shades of green because that is the color of glass from these sake bottles (especially after long exposure to sunlight).

Other brilliant tones such as emerald green, cobalt blue, purple, yellow and orange were primarily made in the 1920s and 1930s. The most prized and rare color is a red or cranberry hue.

To accommodate different fishing styles and nets, the Japanese experimented with many different sizes and shapes of floats, ranging from 2 to 20 inches in diameter. Most were rough spheres, but some were cylindrical or “rolling pin” shaped.

Asahara Glass Company had several factories and made a variety of sizes. Asahara made baseball- to orange-size floats for tako jigs, salmon gillnetting and seine fishing; grapefruit-size floats for seine and long-line cod fishing; basketball-size for tuna operations, bottom trawls and crab trapping; and the small rolling pin floats were used for tako jigs and troll fishing.

The earliest floats, including most Japanese glass fishing floats, were hand made by a glassblower. Recycled glass, especially old sake bottles, was typically used and air bubbles in the glass are a result of the rapid recycling process.

After being blown, floats were removed from the blowpipe and sealed with a “button” of melted glass before being placed in a cooling oven. This sealing button is sometimes mistakenly identified as a pontil mark (scar where the punt was broken from a work of blown glass.) However, no pontil (or punty) was used in the process of blowing glass floats.

While floats were still hot and soft, marks were often embossed on or near the sealing button to identify the float for trademark. These marks sometimes included kanji symbols.

A later manufacturing method used wooden molds to speed up the float-making process. Glass floats were blown into a mold to more easily achieve a uniform size and shape.

Seams on the outside of floats are a result of this process. Sometimes knife markings where the wooden molds were carved are also visible on the surface of the glass.

By 1939, millions of Japanese glass floats were being used; although Japanese glass fishing floats are no longer being manufactured for fishing, there are thousands still floating in the Pacific Ocean.

By the 1940s, glass had replaced wood or cork throughout much of Europe, Russia, North America and Japan.

Today most of the glass floats remaining in the ocean are stuck in a circular pattern of ocean currents in the North Pacific Gyre.

Off the east coast of Taiwan, the Kuroshio Current starts as a northern branch of the western-flowing North Equatorial Current. It flows past Japan and meets the arctic waters of the Oyashio Current.

At this junction, the North Pacific Current (or Drift) is formed which travels east across the Pacific before slowing down in the Gulf of Alaska.

As it turns south, the California Current pushes the water into the North Equatorial Current once again, and the cycle continues.

Although the number of glass floats is decreasing steadily, many floats are still drifting on these ocean currents. Occasionally, storms or certain tidal conditions will break some floats from this circular pattern and bring them to ashore.

They most often end up on the beaches of Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Washington or Oregon in the United States, Taiwan or Canada.

Today, most of the remaining glass floats originated in Japan because it had a large deep sea fishing industry which made extensive use of the floats; some were made by Taiwan, Korea and China.

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Large_Glass_Fishing_Float_with_Net-14_inches

3-piece mold float thought to have originated in Korea. It has an amber seal button

14-in diameter-honey amber color. The float on the right is purple about 12-in diameter

AASNAES_from_Norway_1883

Blunt Nosed Torpedo

Camaleyre-French

Duraglas, made in USA, vintage 2-piece molded float with the Duraglas mark on the base

Estonian-Teardrop

‘Fortex’ were made in Scotland in the period 1910-1920

Hokkaido roller & is about 6-in long

Irish_Shamrock

Japan_Bullet_Rollers

Mexican Swirl Float

Norwegian Amber M Egg Float

Oriental_Fishing_Floats-1938

Overlapping_3_Fish_Euro

Pie Crust seal honey amber glass fishing float

Russian_Snakeskin

Sapri-brown-amber Italian Societa Altare

February 12, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whippoorwill Expedition

“When the USS Whippoorwill left Honolulu at 5 o’clock on the afternoon of Thursday, July 24 (1924), carrying scientists who were to make a survey of the Line islands for the Bishop Museum, the vessel headed first to Fanning.”

“Halfway between the Hawaiian group and the atolls of the southern Pacific, the Line islands, coral-bound, are strewn on the bosom of an equatorial sea. Stepping-stones, as it were, up from the lazy latitudes.” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

Line Islands, chain of coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, some of which belong to Kiribati and some of which are claimed as unincorporated territories belonging to the US

“There is Palmyra, the northernmost, where a man may joust with land crabs measuring 14 inches in diameter. There is Washington, the little paradise, which is as beautiful as any island in Polynesia.”

“There is Jarvis, the desolate; where the broken schooner Amaranth, tossed up nearly a dozen years ago, lies bleaching in the sun of endless days.”

“There is Christmas where, in company with native divers, one may wrest the bearing pearl shell from the coral bottom of the lagoon; where the pickled awa float, belly upwards, on the waters of an inland lake, and where the Bay of Wrecks on the reef-set, windward shore, offers convincing evidence, century-old.” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

The Navy Department assigned the minesweeper Whippoorwill, under Captain W. J. Poland, to survey the Line Islands; the first group left Honolulu on July 24, 1924.

The scientific personnel were under the leadership of Charles H. Edmondson, and the members of the group concentrated on zoology, botany, conchology, entomology, and geology.

Edmondson came to Hawaii in 1920 with a joint appointment as professor of zoology and director of the Marine Biology Laboratory of the newly constituted University and as zoologist at the Bishop Museum. (UH)

The second group, with C Montague Cooke, Jr., in charge of the scientific personnel, left Honolulu on September 15, 1924 and visited Baker and Howland Islands.

“‘We had three objectives,’” Dr Edmondson said, in explanation’ and they were Christmas, Jarvis and Washington. The scientific work on Fanning had been well covered by Sr Stanley C Ball and myself in 1922 and Palmyra had been investigated by other parties – Dr CM Cooke Jr, and Professor Joseph E Rock in 1913, and Lorrin A Thurston, ‘Ted’ Dranga and David Thaanum a couple of years ago.”

“Dranga went diving for pearl shell. … ‘I saw a couple of natives diving,’ he said, ‘and I jumped into a skiff and rowed out to them. … ‘Sharks? One must expect that. But we kept close to the boat. … No I didn’t find any pearls.’”

“‘Pearls are scarce and one might get hundreds of shells before finding a single one. Sharks add to the fun of pearl-diving,’ he admitted, ‘but I, for one, would have appreciated the sport a great deal more it there had been none of the beasts around.’” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

A good deal of material in the natural sciences and geology was collected, and the ensuing reports were published by Bishop Museum. Notes on and a location map of some archaeological remains on Howland were made for future study.

“(T)he navy boat docked at Honolulu at 9 o’clock on the evening of the twenty-seventh. Dor Edmondson announced that the expedition had been a conspicuous success.”

“‘The real research work will take a long time, Edmondson concluded, ‘but it is certain that every collection we made will give us a clearer insight into the distribution of plant and marine forms in the Pacific and will aid, ultimately, in the solution of the problem of the origin and migrations of the Polynesians.’” (Advertiser, September 6, 1924)

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