Whale | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

O kane ia Waiʻoloi, O ka wahine ia Waiʻololā
Hanau ka Palaoa noho i kai
Kiaʻi ia e ka ʻAoa noho i uka

Male the narrow waters, female for the broad waters
Born is the Palaoa (whale) living in the ocean
Guarded by the ʻAoa (sandlewood) that grew in the forest

O ke kaʻina a palaoa e kaʻi nei
E kuwili O haʻahaʻa i ka moana

The procession of whales leading forward
To spin to the depths of the sea.
(Kumulipo)

The Hawaiian Chant of Creation, known as the Kumulipo, is a genealogical creation chant composed in Hawaii for the chief, Ka-’I-i-mamao, about the eighteenth century, comprising more than 2,000 lines.

It contains 2,000 names representing 812 generations the sum of linear time in that history is about 22,300 years, or roughly one precession of the equinoxes dating back to around 21,000 BC. (Rubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson)

The koholā or whale was formerly called the palaoa. (Malo) “The whale is the largest ocean creature and a majestic manifestation of Kanaloa.

From the ivory of this creature. The highly prized ‘Palaoa’ or whale-tooth pendant is carved. This palaoa was only worn by ali‘i of highest rank.” (Kanahele)

The scarcity of the palaoa and its connection to Kanaloa brought mana to the carver, to the pendant itself and eventually to the wearer of the pendant.

The aliʻi who possessed this kinolau or body form of the great God would himself/herself acquire the characteristics, intelligence and knowledge of the God. Therefore it would be advantageous for any aliʻi to secure the ivory whale-tooth of this Kanaloa body form. (KIRC)

In the ocean, outside lay a belt called kai-kohola, where swim the whales, monsters of the sea; beyond this lay the deep ocean, moana.

If any large fish – such as a whale – or a log strapped with iron, should be cast ashore, it was to be offered to the gods, (ie, it was to be given to the priests for the use of the king). The whale was not taken by Hawaiian fishermen. (Malo)

The whale species hunted in the 19th century were primarily the North Pacific right, the humpback, the fin and the gray whale; they also caught blue and sperm whale. The right and humpback are baleen species; rather than teeth, baleen plates filter food from water.

Whaling was an integral part of the development of many countries in the early nineteenth century. Whale blubber produced oil that lit the lamps and greased the machines of many of the most “modern” inventions of the time. It was said that whale oil was the illumination and lubrication of the Industrial Revolution. (Bishop Museum)

As the traditional hunting grounds of the Atlantic began to be fished out, whalers turned to the plentiful waters of the Pacific. Some of the most bountiful harvesting grounds were found off the coast of Japan.

Japan’s ports however, were closed to foreign vessels; Hawai‘i became a perfect destination for these whaling fleets needing a place to dock, replenish supplies, repair the ships and rest the crews,.

Whalers began arriving in Hawai‘i in 1819, and by 1822 over sixty ships were docking annually. Honolulu, Lāhainā and Kōloa were the primary anchorage areas for the whalers. By 1846, the number of whaling ships arriving in Hawai‘i had reached 596-ships.

The sailors, and their ships needed supplies, food, tools, liquor and many more commodities that often newly arrived “businessmen” were ready to supply. Hawai‘i became a “gold rush” town that attracted people of all types.

Some of the most influential businesses in modern Hawaiian history got their start from the capitalist opportunities of this period. Hawai‘i also saw the loss of young Hawaiian men who traveled aboard these ships to the northwest coast of America and other destinations. (Bishop Museum)

The whale at Bishop Museum, unlike those that were caught for their oil, is actually a sperm whale. It was the first specimen installed in Hawaiian Hall in December of 1901 and has hung there ever since. It is over 55 feet long and weighs over two tons. (Bishop Museum)

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

WLA_haa_Lei_Niho_Palaoa_Neck_Ornament-Carved sperm whale tooth, braided human hair, olona cordage

Oil was used more than five thousand years ago in Mesopotamia; bitumen was mined by the Sumerians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, who used it in architecture, building roads, caulking ships, and medicines. Later, knowledge of oil and its uses declined.

Oil seeps to the surface in many parts of the world, so the knowledge of oil did not disappear. This is true in northwestern Pennsylvania, where the Seneca tribe, part of the Iroquois nation, collected seep oil for hundreds of years, using it as a salve, insect repellent, and tonic.

Europeans called the dark, gooey substance Seneca Oil and found it effective for treating sprains and rheumatism. It also burned, but was unappealing as a lamp oil due to its unpleasant odor and smoke.

In the 1840s, scientists in Britain began producing an illuminant from the distillation of coal. Dr. Abraham Gesner, a Canadian geologist, made the first successful coal oil in North America, using a bituminous mineral found in New Brunswick. Gesner called it “keroselain” from the Greek word for ‘wax’ and ‘oil,’ which soon became kerosene. (American Chemical Society)

Then, Edwin L. Drake demonstrated practical oil recovery by applying salt-well drilling techniques, including the use of the derrick, and invented the modern method of driving iron pipe.

On August 27, 1859, Drake struck oil 69-feet down in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The well yielded an average of 1,000-gallons daily for three years. The first export was in 1866, relieving the first glut in the market. (American Society of Mechanical Engineers)

So, what does this have to do with Hawai‘i? Let’s look back …

Candles and whale oil provided most of the artificial light in the decades before the Civil War. Whale oil was also used for heating and lubrication in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Demand for whale oil intensified – and prices skyrocketed – with the development of mechanized transportation and industrialization. (American Chemical Society)

The over-fishing of “on shore” New England whales in the 1700s forced local whalers to venture “offshore”, journeying further out in search of their lucrative prey.

The first New England whalers rounded Cape Horn into the Pacific in 1791, and fished off both the Chilean and Peruvian coasts. Many sailed around South America and onward to Japan and the Arctic.

Edmond Gardner, captain of the New Bedford whaler Balaena (also called Balena,) and Elisha Folger, captain of the Nantucket whaler Equator, made history in 1819 when they became the first American whalers to visit the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i.)

A year later, Captain Joseph Allen discovered large concentrations of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. His find was widely publicized in New England, setting off an exodus of whalers to this area.

These ships might have sought provisions in Japan, except that Japanese ports were closed to foreign ships. So when Captain Allen befriended the missionaries at Honolulu and Lāhainā, he helped establish these areas as the major ports of call for whalers. (NPS)

The whaling industry had a major effect upon Hawaiian commerce and trade. As the Northwest fur trade decreased and sandalwood supplies and values dropped, the whaling industry began to fill the economic void.

By 1822 there were 34-whalers making Hawaiʻi a base of refreshment. The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years. For Hawaiian ports, the whaling fleet was the crux of the economy. More than 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824.

From that time the number increased rapidly. Over time, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour “on Japan,” “on the Northwest,” or into the Arctic.

The effect on Hawaiʻi’s economy, particularly in areas in reach of Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo, the main whaling ports, was dramatic and of considerable importance in the islands’ history.

Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.

Then, whaling came swiftly to an end.

Within a few years of the successful 1859 oil well in Titusville, this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

By 1862, the whaling industry was in a definite and permanent decline. The effect in the Islands was striking. Prosperity ended, prices fell, cattle and crops were a drag on the market, and ship chandleries and retail stores began to wither.

Sugar soon took its place.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger

EarlyOilField-Titusville-WC

First_Oil_Well-Drake-Titusville-WC

This is the well near Titusville, Pennsylvania which pumped the petroleum industry into existence 100 years ago. The picture was taken four years after Col. Edwin L. Drake struck oil on August 27, 1859 near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Seated in the foreground is “Uncle” Billy Smith, Drake’s drilling foreman, who was first to notice a dark green liquid bubbling at the top of the hole. His cry of “Oil, struck oil.” Signaled success of the world’s first oil well and set off the world’s first oil book. The Drake well with a depth of 9½ feet, pumped 3 barrels a day. (AP Photo)

Drake_Well

Titusville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania 1871

Drake_Well-Park-sign

Welcome_to_Titusville-WC