Concrete No. 5

‘Ship traps’ describes a phenomenon where northern and southern swells, strong channel currents, strong consistent trade winds and fringing reefs force unsuspecting vessels into areas of harm – resulting in concentrated shipwrecks.  The north shore of the Island of Lānaʻi, locally referred to as “Shipwreck Beach,” is the best example of this phenomenon.  Here, the channel acts as a funnel, depositing material directly onto Shipwreck Beach.

A constant reminder of Shipwreck Beach is the last one – from the US Navy, YOGN-42.    Contrary to some of the reports on this vessel, it is neither a WWII Liberty ship nor was it even a motorized vessel.  The ship sitting on the reef at Shipwreck Beach is actually a non-self-propelled Navy gasoline barge.  YOGN-42 survived the war, but was stricken from the active register in 1949 and abandoned on Shipwreck Beach sometime after that.

Click HERE for the full post and more images.

Gledstanes

Mokupāpapa (literally, flat island) is the name given to Kure Atoll by officials of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 19th century.  (Papahānaumokuākea) It is approximately 1,200-miles northwestward of Honolulu and 56-miles west of Midway Islands. The International Date Line lies approximately 100-miles to the west.

Kure Atoll is the most northwestern island in the Hawaiian chain and occupies a singular position at the “Darwin Point:” the northern extent of coral reef development, beyond which coral growth cannot keep pace with the rate of geological subsidence. Kure’s coral is still growing slightly faster than the island is subsiding.

“The Island in Lat. 28 degrees 23’ N and Long. 178 degrees 30’ W … is about three miles in circumference.  It is composed of broken coral and shells and is covered near the shore with low bushes.  In the season it abounds with sea birds and at times there is a considerable number of hair seals (monk seals.)”

“There is always an abundance of fish and in a great variety. The highest part of the island is not more than ten feet above the level of the sea.  The only fresh water is what drains through the sand after the heavy rains.  From the specimens of dead shells lying about the beach, there appears to be a great variety of shells.”  (Captain Brown, Hawaiian Gazette, September 21, 1886)

Kure Atoll was found in 1823 by Captain Benjamin Morrell, Jr. of the schooner Tartar, who claimed Kure to have an abundance of sea turtles and sea elephants. In 1827, the Russian ship Moller, under Captain Stanikowitch re-discovered the atoll; he named it "Cure Island" to honor a Russian navigator.  (cordell-org)  It is more generally known as ‘Kure’ today.

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.

One such ship, the British whaler Gledstanes, under the command of Captain JR Brown, was crossing these waters and just before midnight on June 9, 1837, the Gledstanes struck the reef on Kure Atoll (only one of the crew was lost, he having jumped overboard in a state of intoxication.)

The Captain and rest of the crew launched three ships’ boats and made landfall on ‘Ocean Island’ (now known as Green Island.)  The following day, crew returned to the vessel and, after cutting away the masts, were able to salvage some provisions. The next day the wreck broke apart in the heavy surf.  (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 29, 1838)

The crew established a makeshift camp on the island and passed their time picking up pieces of the wreckage that had been washed over the reef and into the lagoon with the intention of constructing a vessel from the salvage.

After assembling axes and adzes, necessary for building the craft, from whale spades and augers and chisels from lances, using the salvaged material, the keel of a 38-foot boat was laid two weeks after the loss of Gledstanes.

Within several months, the vessel was completed and determined to be seaworthy; it was named ‘Deliverance.’ Captain Brown and eight others set sail for the Main Hawaiian Islands, while the rest of the crew remained on the island.

While en route, Deliverance encountered the American ship Timoleon, who supplied them with much needed provisions. Deliverance arrived at Honolulu sometime in November, 1837, while the remaining crew on the island was rescued several months later.

Researchers discovered evidence of the Gledstanes wreckage in 2008.  The site consists of mainly large heavy artifacts scattered over a 200-foot section of the reef at depths ranging from 6 to 20-feet.

Artifacts include four large anchors, what appear to be two cannons, a try pot (a cauldron for rendering whale oil,) a pile of anchor chain, approximately 50-pig iron ballast bars and copper fasteners of various sizes.

Some of the artifacts are extremely eroded, suggesting that they are affected by scouring due to wave and current activities. The distribution of the site suggests that the vessel hit the fringing reef and broke up, leaving artifacts resting on the reef top and cuts in the reef.

Unlike all other islands and atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Kure Atoll is the only land area owned by the state of Hawaiʻi – all of the other Northwestern Islands are owned by the US government.

While I was at DLNR, we created Refuge rules that established “a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“

This started a process where several others followed with similar protective measures.  The BLNR unanimously adopted the State’s Refuge rules, President George W Bush declared it a Marine National Monument and UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site.

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is administered jointly by three co-trustees - the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior and the State of Hawaiʻi – and is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, encompassing nearly 140,000-square miles of the Pacific Ocean.  (Lots of information and images here are from a summary on the Monument website.)

The image shows an anchor from the Gledstanes wreckage (NOAA.)   In addition, I have included other related images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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© 2013 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Lighting Strikes Twice - Two Brothers Shipwreck

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.

In the early 19th century, whaling voyages often took two years or more.

George Pollard was captain of the Essex, a Nantucket whaling vessel that sank in 1821 after being rammed by a sperm whale in the South Pacific.

The Essex's epic tale inspired Herman Melville's classic novel "Moby-Dick;" however, the author isn't believed to have used Pollard as the basis for the book's notorious Captain Ahab.

After the tragedy of the Essex, Captain George Pollard and other survivors endured a 95-day journey in small boats that resulted in sickness, starvation, and, ultimately, cannibalism. However, this dramatic experience was not the final chapter in Pollard's career as a whaling captain.

Despite the Essex tragedy, Pollard was offered another captaincy soon after, this time of the Two Brothers; before departing, Pollard had said he believed "lightning never strikes in the same place twice."

Such was not the case.

The Two Brothers set sail for the Pacific, leaving Nantucket on November 26, 1821. By winter 1822, the ship had rounded the tip of South America. The crew was on its way to newly discovered whaling grounds near Japan; she made her way around Cape Horn, then up the west coast of South America.

On the night of February 11, 1823, the Two Brothers hit a shallow reef at French Frigate Shoals (nearly six hundred miles northwest of Honolulu in what is now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.)

The ship broke apart in the heavy surf.   Stunned by the disaster and by his horrible misfortune, Captain Pollard was reluctant to abandon the ship. The crew pleaded with their captain to get into the small boats, to which they clung for survival throughout the night.

The entire crew of Two Brothers was rescued by an accompanying ship, the Martha, and they headed back to Oʻahu.

In 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists made an exciting discovery at French Frigate Shoals. Following over three weeks of successful survey in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the team began to explore for new shipwreck sites at French Frigate Shoals using tow board surveys in an area near a historic anchorage.

Within minutes of the first tow, the divers spotted a large anchor in approximately 15-feet of water. The age and size of this anchor gave the impression that it was not simply left as a mooring in an anchorage.

After snorkeling around in the area, the team came across the first clue that this site was more than a lone anchor: a blubber pot set into a hole in the reef top. This discovery initiated a larger survey of the area, and soon two more was found.

At the time, researchers did not know the identity of the find.  Three whaling ships, all American vessels, have been reported lost at French Frigate Shoals: the South Seaman, wrecked in 1859; the Daniel Wood, wrecked in 1867; and the Two Brothers.

It wasn't until May of 2010 when a small team was able to return to the site that maritime archaeologists began to believe they were indeed looking at the scattered remains of the Two Brothers.

During the 2010 inspection, the team uncovered more tools of whaling on the seafloor, including four more whaling harpoon tips (for a total of five), four whaling lances, ceramics, glass, and a sounding lead (among dozens of other artifacts) all dating to an 1820s time period.

The preponderance of evidence suggested to the team that they were looking at the Two Brothers, the only American whaler lost at French Frigate Shoals in the 1820s.

Pollard gave up whaling, though he was just in his mid-30s, and returned to Nantucket, Mass., where he became a night watchman - a position of considerably lower status in the whaling town than captain.

This and other American whaling ships lost in Papahānaumokuākea are the material remains of a time when America possessed over 700 whaling vessels and over one fifth of the United States whaling fleet may have been composed of Pacific Islanders.

The whaling shipwreck sites in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands help tell this part of Hawaiian and Pacific history, and remind us about the way that this remote part of the United States is connected with small communities in New England half way around the world.

The image shows divers and the anchor from the Two Brothers; info and images from NOAA and National Geographic.  In addition, I put other images and maps in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook page.

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

© 2012 Hoʻokuleana LLC