Thaddeus | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Missionary Travel to the Islands

“What wonder that we so long for release from this little prison-house!” (Laura Fish Judd – 1828)

From 1820 to 1847, there were 12-Companies of missionaries sent under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to the Islands. Every group of missionaries arrived by ship, sailing from New England, around Cape Horn and finally reaching the Hawaiian Islands usually after a five-month sea voyage. (Miller)

The Prudential Committee of the ABCFM in giving instructions said: “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)

The Pioneer Company, led by Hiram Bingham, left New England on the “Thaddeus” and arrived in the Islands on April 4, 1820, two centuries after their forebears, the pilgrims, landed from the “Mayflower” in New England.

For the most part, the missionaries were married – typically ‘just married’ a few weeks or months of their departure. In the Pioneer Company, by the middle of the trip, four of the wives were pregnant. (The following is a composite from writers from different Companies describing the trip.)

Travel wasn’t easy.

“We were hardly able to stand even by holding on with both hands and every now and then we were called to belch up the contents of our stomachs without discrimination.” Sea sickness was a constant issue for these non-sailors. (Judd; Miller)

Things were stored everywhere. Stephen Shepard observed that “the way to our room is blocked up with potato bags and other provisions, so as to render it almost impassable; having to scramble over a large quantity of luggage to get in or out.” (Miller)

Sleeping quarters were tight. A journal entry by Maria Patton noted, “It (the stateroom – serving 4 people) is 7 feet wide and 5½-feet long, and has a window about the size of a tea cup directly over my berth. … it contains a bureau, 8 trunks, 4 bandboxes, each of us a writing desk, 8 bags, 4 baskets …” (Maria Patton; Miller)

“Last evening, found myself much exhausted in consequence of fatigue through the day in putting order in our little room. To accomplish a little, costs much labor on board a vessel. I am grieved to find it too much the case, that with my bodily strength, my spirits sink. Several such seasons have arisen in my new situation.” (Sybil Bingham)

“… those who occupy the higher berths have to climb before we can get into them. And what is still worse, not a breath of fresh air can get in, and the cockroaches are so thick, they crawl over us and the smell is intolerable. My berth is the highest in the place, so high that there is only 12 inches between my head and the deck.” (Patton; Miller)

The “day commenced (with) the study of the Owhyhee language. … This evening held our first singing school. It is greatly to be wished that we could all join with our hearts and voices too …” (Sybil Bingham)

“After having been out ninety-four days, and witnessing nothing but floating barques like our own, some monsters of the deep, the expansive ocean and the wide-spread heavens, I can not describe to you the joyful emotions which the sight of land has this day produced. We have a fair view of Terra del Fuego on the right, and Staten Land on the left.” (Lucy Thurston)

Then, after many more days at sea, “Memorable day – a day which brings us in full view of that … land so long the object of our most interested thoughts. Between twelve and one this morning, the word was … ‘land appears’ … ‘Owhyhee sight!’”

“There was but little sleep. When the day afforded more light than the moon we were all out, and judge you, if possible, what sensation filled our breasts as we fixed our eyes upon the lofty mountains of Owhyhee!”

“O! It would be in vain to paint them. I attempt it not.”

“A fair wind carried us by different parts of the island near enough to discern its verdure, here and there a cataract rushing down the bold precipice.” (Sybil Bingham)

Upon landing, an observer ashore noted, “They look careworn and feeble; Mr. W- said ‘hungry.’” (Laura Fish Judd)

Intelligence of the arrival of our mission at the Islands, reached the United States seventeen months after we left Boston. (Lucy Thurston)

Over the course of a little over 40-years (1820-1863 – the “Missionary Period”,) about 180-men and women in twelve Companies served in Hawaiʻi to carry out the mission of the ABCFM in the Hawaiian Islands.

By the time the Pioneer Company arrived, Kamehameha I had died and the centuries-old kapu system had been abolished; through the actions of King Kamehameha II (Liholiho,) with encouragement by former Queens Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani (Liholiho’s mother,) the Hawaiian people had already dismantled their heiau and had rejected their religious beliefs.

Today, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, a nonprofit educational institution and genealogical society, exists to promote an understanding of the social history of nineteenth-century Hawai‘i and its critical role in the formation of modern Hawai‘i.

The Society operates the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, comprised of three historic houses and a research archives with reading room. The Society also compiles the genealogical records of the American Protestant missionaries in Hawai‘i and promotes the participation of missionary descendants in the Society’s activities.

Through the Site and Archives, the Society collects and preserves the documents, artifacts and other records of the missionaries in Hawai‘i’s history; makes these collections available for research and educational purposes; and interprets the historic site and collections to reflect the social history of nineteenth century Hawai‘i and America.

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Thaddeus

Portraits_of_Hiram_and_Sybil_Moseley_Bingham,_1819,_by_Samuel_F.B._Morse

Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston

Rocks where Thaddeus landed-Ahuena ruins in background-1928

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Map of Kailua Bay

Terra del Ffuego-Strait of Magellan

Tierra-del-Fuego-Map

February 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Polar Bears and Reindeer

Within ten years after Captain Cook’s 1778 contact with Hawai‘i, the islands became a favorite port of call in the trade with China. The fur traders and merchant ships crossing the Pacific needed to replenish food supplies and water.

The maritime fur trade focused on acquiring furs of sea otters, seals and other animals from the Pacific Northwest Coast and Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States.

Needing supplies in their journey, the traders soon realized they could economically barter for provisions in Hawai‘i; for instance any type of iron, a common nail, chisel or knife could fetch far more fresh fruit meat and water than a large sum of money would in other ports.

A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China and the Hawaiian Islands to Britain and the United States (especially New England).

Foreign vessels had long recognized the ability of the Hawaiian Islands to provision their ships with food (meat and vegetables,) water, salt and firewood.

Salt was Hawaiʻi’s first export, carried by some of the early ships in the fur trade back to the Pacific Northwest for curing furs. Another early market was provided by the Russian settlements in Alaska.

On January 21, 1821, the Thaddeus (the brig that carried the Pioneer Company from Boston to Hawai‘i) was sold to Liholiho (Kamehameha II). Liholiho put her into service in the Northwest trade. On July 12, 1821, William Sumner sailed the Thaddeus to Maui to gather a load of salt to trade for goods at Kamchatka. (Mills)

In Kamchatka, “Salt is at present issued, but not in sufficient quantities; were that article more liberally distributed, the people might in some years prepare fish to last them several successive ones.”

“From the quantity now supplied by the king of the Sandwich islands, it is to be hoped that the first productive season will be taken advantage of.” (Cochrane)

“The principal riches of Kamtchatka may be said to consist in the animals of the chase, of which there are so prodigious a number, that there are not sufficient inhabitants to take them. The most valuable are foxes of various colours, a few sea and more river otters, with an immense number of sables.”

“Bears, wolves rein-deer and mountain-sheep, and sometimes a few lynxes, are also to be found. The number of skins annually exported and consumed in the peninsula is about thirty thousand, of which sables and foxes form the principal part.” (Cochrane)

On behalf of the Hawaiian government Alexander Adams “brought home a couple of deer the last time with a view of their thriving in the islands, but they had not long been suffered to go at large in Hanarura valley …”

“… when Pitt [Kalanimōku] happening to be unwell, fancied that the flesh of the deer would do him good, and one of them was killed for him to taste. This he found so much to his liking that he ordered the other one to be killed, thus ending the life of poor Adams’ deer.” (Macrae)

“Deer were not the only kind of wild animals introduced into Honolulu during the reign of Liholiho. [T]hat monarch dispatched his American-built brig, the Sunbeam [likely the Thaddeus], commanded by an Englishman, Captain John Bowles, and manned by Sandwich Islanders …”

“… to St. Peter and St. Pauls (Petropaulovski), Kamtschatka, with a cargo of salt as a present to his imperial brother, the Czar of Russia.”

“In return for this gift on the part of the Sandwich Islands king, the governor of St. Peter and St. Paul’s, who was then Captain Ricord, an Englishman, gave such articles as seemed most desirable, including some animals, with a view of propagating the breed.” (Macrae, footnote)

“[T]he beautiful clipper entered the harbour of Peter and Paul in Kamchatka. She flew a flag which to the watchers on shore was absolutely unknown; blue, white, and brown.”

“She seemed to be full of men, and saluted the fort with seven guns. In those days Petropavlovsk was practically the only Russian port on the Pacific, for the Amur River belonged as yet to the Chinese, and Vladivostok was still a desert.”

“The arrival of any ship in that God-forsaken port was a rare and great event, much more that of a vessel so mysterious. The whole population – about three hundred souls – gathered on the foreshore.”

“All the authorities were there, with the Governor at their head. This was Captain Ricord, an English naval officer who, with numerous compatriots, was in the Russian service, and had received, after many adventures, the governorship of Kamchatka as a reward for his distinguished services. …”

“Captain John Bowles [was] commanding the clipper Sunbeam of His Majesty Kamehameha II, King of the Sandwich Islands. The Sunbeam’s cargo consisted of salt, intended by His Majesty as a present to the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias …”

“… in return for which His Majesty hoped that his ‘dear brother’ would send him animals fit to be bred in His Majesty’s islands – and especially bears!” (Poliakoff)

They made the trade and “Amongst the animals were two Siberian bears, but what became of them when landed at Honolulu is now forgotten.” (Macrae, footnote) (This summary was inspired and informed by Peter Mill’s recent book ‘Connecting the Kingdom;’ it’s a good read on sailing vessels in the early Hawaiian monarchy.)

February 17, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kamehamehas Acquired Western Ships

Before European open ocean exploration began, Eastern Polynesia had been explored and settled. (Herb Kane)

Voyaging vessels were double-hull; hulls were deep enough to track well while sailing across the wind or on a close reach into the wind. The round-sided V hulls provided lateral resistance to the water while under sail. (Herb Kane)

The most widely distributed and presumably most ancient sail was a triangle made up of strips of fine matting sewn together and mounted to two spars, one serving as a mast; the other, as a boom, usually more slender and either straight or slightly curved.

Throughout Eastern Polynesia, the same basic design probably persisted throughout the era of long distance two-way voyaging. (Herb Kane)

The double-hulled voyaging canoes were seaworthy enough to make voyages of over 2,000 miles along the longest sea roads of Polynesia, like the one between Hawai‘i and Tahiti.

Fast forward to post-‘contact’ and the time of the Islands’ unification; a new style of boat was in the islands and Kamehameha started to buy and build them.

Following the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778, more “ships were coming into the harbor at Honolulu – merchant vessels, war ships and ships out to discover new lands.”

“Of these the chiefs and people bought arms and gunpowder. Kamehameha had several storehouses well stocked with foreign arms, but nobody wanted money or clothing.”

“On the part of the foreigners potatoes and yams were in great demand. The chief accordingly went into the cultivation of these foods, and grew potatoes on the hill of ‘Ualaka‘a between Manoa and Makiki, and yams at Ka‘akopua, and sold them to the foreigners.”

“Canoeloads of provisions from Hawaii and the other islands were distributed among the chiefs, counselors, lesser chiefs, warrior chiefs, soldiers, followers, cultivators, paddlers, runners, canoe makers, and craftsmen; no one was left out. And in the same way distribution was made to the households of the chiefs.” (Kamakau)

Then, in 1790, Kamehameha acquired his first Western boat, the Fair American. It was not bought or built by Kamehameha: one of Kamehameha’s ‘Kona Uncles,’ Kame‘eiamoku, overpowered the ship and turned it (and its weapons) and its only survivor, Isaac Davis, over to Kamehameha.

In 1795, Kamehameha had a fleet of 20 vessels, tonnage of from 20 to 40 tons. Each vessel was well armed and manned. (US Naval Institute) “In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Kamehameha I methodically acquired all the materials and crafts needed to construct ships locally, and he purchased larger foreign brigs and schooners when good opportunities arose.” (Mills)

“Kamehameha and successive high chiefs purchased most foreign vessels with sandalwood harvests by maka‘āinana from Hawai‘i’s forests, which Chinese coveted for incense and medicine.” (Mills)

By 1805, Kamehameha had a sizable navy, consisting of more than 40 large ships and several hundred peleleu, all equipped with guns of various caliber. (The peleleu was a long and deep double canoe with a covered platform and foreign sail, and was built for Kamehameha by his foreign friends.) (US Naval Institute)

The first Western-style vessel built in the Islands was the Beretane (1793.) Through the aid of Captain George Vancouver’s mechanics, after launching, it was used in the naval combat with Kahekili’s war canoes off the Kohala coast. (Thrum)

Encouraged by the success of this new type of vessel, others were built. The second ship built in the Islands, a schooner called Tamana (named after Kamehameha’s favorite wife, Kaʻahumanu,) was used to carry of his cargo of trade to the missions along the coast of California. (Couper & Thrum, 1886)

From 1796 until 1802 the kingdom flourished. Several small decked vessels were built. (Case) According to Cleveland’s account, Kamehameha possessed at that time twenty small vessels of from twenty to forty tons burden, some even copper-bottomed. (Alexander)

Kamehameha eventually built at least three shipyards, at Kealakekua Bay and Kawaihae on Hawai‘i Island and another on O‘ahu at Waikiki. (Mills)

“What holds the king’s attention more than any other subject, though, is shipbuilding. Already, it is said, he can accurately and with true discernment spot the strengths and weaknesses in any ship’s construction. All equipment and tools relating to shipbuilding, he regards as particularly valuable.”

“One cannot do better, therefore, than to use such tools as articles of trade when going to Owaihi. Any sailor wo is at the same time, a ship’s carpenter is particularly welcome there, and is straightaway presented with a piece of land and almost anything else that he may want.” (Georg Langsdorff in Mills)

“As to his navy, Kamehameha had the largest naval force in the entire Pacific during his time. Japan had gone into seclusion from 1638 to 1852, during which time she forbade anyone from leaving the country or from building ships, under penalty of death. America acquired the Louisiana Territory during this time, and had not yet reached her Pacific boundaries.”

“Lisiansky, a Russian naval officer, was much impressed by Kamehameha’s might and in comparing his army and navy with those of other South Sea Islands, styled them ‘invincible.’ He noted that they included some 7,000 warriors and about 60 Europeans, a large arsenal of modern weapons, and a fleet of many war canoes and ships.” (US Naval Institute)

Kamehameha was the greatest Polynesian Commander in Chief that ever lived. He placed the art of warfare on a scientific basis, and to insure peace to his people, he built the largest navy in the entire Pacific region, in spite of the fact that he did not have occasion to test its strength.

He believed in security, and he achieved his grand and favorite object, so that before he died, he was able to issue the following challenge to his friends and advisors: ‘Strive as ye may to undo that which I have established in righteousness, ye will never reach the end.’ (US Naval Institute)

Interest and acquisition of Western ships must have run in the family …

Not to be left out, Liholiho (Kamehameha’s son who reigned as Kamehameha II) bought the Thaddeus on January 21, 1821. (The Thaddeus brought the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries to the Islands and arrived at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.)

Shortly thereafter, she sailed to the Northwest Coast for seal and otter skins; she arrived back to the Islands on October13, 1820 and shortly thereafter Liholiho purchased the Thaddeus for 4,000 piculs of sandalwood. (Mills)

Another of Kamehameha’s sons, Kauikeaouli (who later reigned as Kamehameha III), was, as a child, “chiefly occupied with his toy boats rigged like warships and with little brass cannon loaded with real powder mounted on (their] decks. The firing off of these cannon amused him immensely. …”

“As he grew older, perhaps eight or nine years old, he used to go out with a boatload of boys, generally in the sail boats … and he would haul the sails and do any of the work without trying to assume command, for even up to the time when he became king he was simple in his ways.” (Kamakau) Liholiho and Kauikeaouli each acquired several Western ships.

March 30, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

1620 … 1820 … Today

The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620 with 102 passengers and about 25 carefully selected crew, arriving in the New World 67 days later.

She was a ‘sweet’ ship in that she had been engaged in the wine trade in the Mediterranean since 1616. She had also been engaged in fur trade with Norway and had experienced the storms of the North Sea, a most treacherous body of water.

The dimensions of the Mayflower were 90 feet in length (12 Feet more than a tennis court), 26 feet in width, with a tonnage of 180. Small as she was she was larger than the Discovery, which landed at Virginia in 1607. (NCMayflower-org)

Most of the passengers were of English origin seeking a new home free from religious persecution where they might retain their English identity and customs.

Not all the Mayflower passengers were Separatists. The Merchant Adventurers recruited a number of colonists seeking financial opportunity in the New World.

Others, such as Myles Standish, had been hired by the Separatists specifically for their expertise in certain areas. Standish was an English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as a military advisor for Plymouth Colony for military professional; he did not travel for religious reasons.

The roots of Congregational churches in America go back to the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1620 and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The Pilgrims came from England to the New World seeking religious freedom at the time of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The churches they established in New England became known as Congregational churches. (First Congregational Church Nantucket)

The coming of Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia and other young Hawaiians to the continent had awakened a deep Christian sympathy in the churches and moved the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to establish a Foreign Mission School and a mission to the Hawaiian Islands.

Among the other Hawaiian students at the Foreign Mission School were four Hawaiians, Thomas Hopu, William Kanui, John Honoliʻi and Prince Humehume (son of Kauai’s King Kaumuali‘i.)

When asked “Who will return with these boys to their native land to teach the truths of salvation?” Hiram Bingham and his classmate, Asa Thurston, were the first to respond and offer their services to the Board. (Congregational Quarterly)

“It is for no private end, for no earthly object that you go. It is wholly for the good of others, and for the glory of God our Saviour. … Your mission is a mission of mercy, and your work is to be wholly a labor of love. … “

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries from the northeast US set sail from Boston on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands.

There were seven American couples sent by the ABCFM to convert the Hawaiians to Christianity in this Pioneer Company. These included two Ordained Preachers, Hiram Bingham and his wife Sybil and Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy; two Teachers, Mr. Samuel Whitney and his wife Mercy and Samuel Ruggles and his wife Mary; a Doctor, Thomas Holman and his wife Lucia; a Printer, Elisha Loomis and his wife Maria; and a Farmer, Daniel Chamberlain, his wife and five children.

With the missionaries were the four Hawaiians.

After about 160 days at sea, on March 30, 1820, the Pioneer Company of American Protestant missionaries first see the Islands. Later that day, they learned the kapu was abolished, Kamehameha died and Liholiho was now King. They landed at Kailua-Kona on April 4, 1820.

Bingham designed the Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu; it was constructed between 1836 and 1842 in the New England style of the Hawaiian missionaries and is one of the oldest standing Christian places of worship in Hawaiʻi.

I am a direct descendant of Myles Standish from the Mayflower.

I am a direct descendant of Hiram Bingham from the Thaddeus.

So, now, another 200 years later … What’s up for today?

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February 16, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kapa Moe

Hawaiian bark cloth was originally called kapa which literally translates to “the beaten thing.” Kapa was used for clothing, bed covers, items of trade and gift items, indicators of wealth and status and objects of ceremonial or religious events. (Romanchak)

Clothing consisted of three main items of apparel: the pāʻū or skirt for the women, the malo or loincloth for men and the Kihei or shawl for members of both sexes. (Romanchak)

Most kapa was made from the inner bark of the wauke plant (paper mulberry) because it made soft, white kapa. The bark is stripped, soaked, and then compressed into sheets with special patterned wooden beaters and finally dyed and decorated.

To make kapa, Hawaiian women used wooden mallets to pound the strips of bark together to form sheets of various sizes, textures, and thicknesses.

The kapa sheets were then decorated with stamps and painted with brushes made from the seed of the hala (pandanus) tree; kapa was colored by native dyes and decorated with block printing. (Arthur)

For bed covers, Hawaiian women made kapa moe consisting of five sheets of kapa. The top sheet was decorated, but the four sheets underneath were plain white kapa. The set of five sheets were sewn together on one side with thread made with strips of kapa. (Arthur)

The top layer was known as the kilohana, it was colored and decorated with pigments; the collective name for the inner kapa sheets was ‘iho.’ (Brigham) The loose-leaf design allowed the user to choose how many layers needed on a given night.

“(T)apa moe (sleeping cloth), made principally for the chiefs, who use it to wrap themselves in at night, while they sleep. It is generally three or four yards square, very thick, being formed of several layers of common tapa, cemented with gum, and beaten with a grooved mallet till they are closely interwoven. The colour is various, either white, yellow, brown or black according to the fancy of its owner.” (Brigham)

“During the ordinary summer weather along the coast the native use of the kapa moe in a close grass house would have been impossible to a white man, so warm is this covering. Sleeping in an open cave on the summit of Mauna Loa (13,675 ft) …”

“… I could not bear a kapa moe over my ordinary clothes, although water was freezing in the calabashes at my feet. In the morning the bedmaking in a native house consisted in carefully folding the kapa moe and putting it in a safe place.” (Brigham)

A notable kapa moe belonging to Princess Kaʻiulani was installed at the Art of the Pacific gallery at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (not currently on public view.) it is described as an unusually large five-layer kapa moe.

Kaeppler noted that the design of Kaʻiulani’s kapa moe may metaphorically incorporate the saying, “He aliʻi ke aloha, he kilohana e paʻa ai,” “Love is like a chief, the best prize to hold fast to,” in honor of Kaʻiulani. One corner of an underside white layer of the kapa is signed “Kaiulani.”

Kapa moe were gradually replaced by blankets. Later, another bed cover, the Hawaiian quilt, came into regular use.

The wives of American missionaries introduced the patchwork quilts and their construction to Hawaiians. The first missionary women arrived in 1820, and were warmly welcomed by some of the highest-ranking Hawaiian men and women.

Lucy Thurston, the wife of Asa, one of the first missionaries, recorded in her journal: “Monday morning, April 3rd (1820,) the first sewing circle was formed that the sun ever looked down upon in his Hawaiian realm. Kalākua, queen-dowager was directress.”

“She requested all the seven white ladies to take seats with them on mats, on the deck of the Thaddeus. Mrs. Holman and Mrs. Ruggles were executive officers to ply the scissors and prepare the work….The four native women of distinction were furnished with calico patchwork to sew – a new employment to them.” (Thurston)