Whaling in Hawai‘i

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands.  

At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area. 

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands.

Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

Whalers’ aversion to the traditional Hawaiian diet of fish and poi spurred new trends in farming and ranching.  The sailors wanted fresh vegetables and the native Hawaiians turned the temperate uplands into vast truck farms.

There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar.  Hawaiians began growing a wider variety of crops to supply the ships.

In Hawaiʻi, 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 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. 

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.

In 1859, an oil well was discovered and developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

Although Hawai‘i’s commercial whaling is gone today, the humpback whales continue to visit the islands. 

In the summer, humpbacks are found in high latitude feeding grounds in Gulf of Alaska in the Pacific where they spend the majority of the time feeding and building up blubber that they live off of in the winter.

From December to late-May, the humpback whales migrate to calving grounds in Hawaiian waters.

Humpback whales are the favorite of whale watchers, as they frequently perform aerial displays, such as breaching (jumping out of the water), or slap the surface with their pectoral fins, tails or heads.

The humpback whale is on the endangered species list, but efforts to protect them have increased their overall population.

In 1992, Congress created the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary to protect humpback whales and their habitat in Hawai‘i.  The sanctuary constitutes one of the world's most important humpback whale habitats.

The image is a portion of an Engraving at Lahainaluna image(Courtesy of Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives,) overlooking Lāhainā from Lahainaluna in 1838.  Note the many ships at anchor outside of Lāhainā - a center for the whaling industry in Hawaiʻi.

In addition, I have posted other images related to whaling in Hawaiʻi in a folder of like name in the images section of my Facebook page.  (I tried to pick images that illustrate the whaling ships in ports - for some, if you look closely, you'll see the masts of ships at anchor at the various ports.)

http://www.facebook.com/peter.t.young.hawaii

Sandalwood (ʻIliahi)

There are discussions and proposed legislation on ‘Iliahi in the legislature this year.  Here is a summary of some of the reasons on how we got to where we are with Sandalwood.

Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism.  Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.

Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick of the Lady Washington, when he instructed sailors to collect cargo of sandalwood.  From that point on, it became a source of wealth in the islands, until it’s supply was ultimately exhausted.

Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item.

Sandalwood trade was a turning point in Hawai‘i, especially related to its economic structure.  It moved Hawai‘i from a self-sufficient economy to a commercial economy.  This started a series of other economic and export activities across the islands.

In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits.  As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition. 

Kamehameha used Western cannons and guns to great advantage in his unification of the Islands and also acquired Western-style ships, buying the brig Columbia for a price of two ship loads of sandalwood in 1817.

Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood.  Kamehameha I rigidly maintained control of the trade until his death in 1819, at which time his son, Liholiho, took over control.

When Kamehameha I died, although Liholiho (his son and successor) should have inherited all of Kamehameha's lands, the chiefs also wanted the revenue from the sandalwood.

Chiefs persuaded the king to give them an in on the royal sandalwood monopoly; trade continued at an accelerated rate, following Kamehameha’s death. 

In America, the Panic of 1819 (the first financial crisis in the United States) made it difficult for traders to obtain sandalwood for the China trade.

However, because the Hawaiian chiefs had become enamored of items of foreign manufacture, the islands provided an open market for goods like rum, clothing, cloth, furnishings and a host of other things.  Foreign traders shipped these goods to the islands, exchanging them for sandalwood, which continued to be in demand in China.

It was Hawaii’s first source of revenue and major debt.  Credit secured by payment in sandalwood saddled the Hawaiian Chiefs and the Islands’ struggling economy.

In 1826, the kingdom of Hawaiʻi enacted its first written law - a sandalwood tax.  Every man was ordered to deliver to the government 66 pounds of sandalwood, or pay four Spanish dollars, by September 1, 1827.  Every woman older than 13 was obligated to make a 12-by-6-foot kapa cloth.  The taxes were collected to reduce the staggering debt.

The common people were displaced from their agricultural and fishing duties and all labor was diverted to harvesting sandalwood.  This period saw two major famines as ʻiliahi was over-harvested to the point of commercial extinction in Hawaiʻi forests. 

Unfortunately, the harvesting of the trees was not sustainably managed (they cut whatever they could, they didn’t replant) and over-harvesting of ‘iliahi took place.

By 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed.  Hawaiian forests were exhausted and sandalwood from India and other areas in the Pacific drove down the price in China and made the Hawaiian trade unprofitable.

Once reported as growing on landscape scales, today, there are only remnant patches of ‘iliahi.  Two places where it can still be relatively easily seen are on ‘Aiea Loop Trail in O‘ahu and an exclosure adjacent to the Kula State Forest access road on the way to Polipoli State Park.

It would be great if areas in Hawai‘i could be restored in sandalwood forests, to return this important legacy.