By Captain J.E. Lacouture

L a h a in a - T h e W h a lin g C a p ita l O f T h e P a c i f i c

by Captain J. E. Lacouture

IN THE YEAR 1791 the first American whalers rounded Cape Horn into the Pacific, and found good whaling grounds off the coast of Chile. Several years later the "off-shore" grounds, 1700 miles west of Peru, were discovered. As the whales in these grounds soon thinned out, whaleships ventured further afield.

In the fall of 1819, the first whaling ships reached the Hawaiian Islands. These were the Equator, of Nantucket, under Captain Elisha Folger, and the Balaena, of New Bedford, under Captain Edmund Gardner. Soon after arriving, a boat from the Balaena killed a whale off Kealakekua Bay, which provided her with 110 barrels of whale oil. Within a year of the arrival of the first whalers three other important events occurred which would profoundly affect the history of the Hawaiian Islands. In the spring of 1819 their great king, Kamehameha I, who had united all the islands under one leadership for the first time, had died. Following his death the "kapu" religious restrictions, which governed all phases of Hawaiian life, were abolished. About the time of Kamehameha's death, Captain Jonathan Winship, master of a ship in the candlewood trade with China, returning from Japan reported great schools of sperm whales in Japanese waters. Finally in March of 1820, the first shipload of New England Christian Missionaries, under the leadership of Hiram Bingham, arrived in the Hawaiian Islands on the American brig Thaddeus. Acting on Captain Winship's report of large schools of whales in Japanese waters, Captain Joseph Allen, "the Nantucket wonder," ventured far into the northwestern Pacific on his ship Maro. His was the first American whaler to cross the middle of the Pacific. In the Sea of Japan he came across the greatest concentration of sperm whales that had ever been seen. In no time every last barrel on the Maro was filled with whale oil and Captain Allen started triumphantly for home, stopping in Honolulu in 1820 for rest and recreation for his crew and reprovisioning for his ship. While there he confided his find to fellow New Englander, Hiram Bingham, head of the missionaries, who had just arrived. Captain Allen listened to Bingham's plans to Christianize the Hawaiians and provided Bingham generous financial support.

With the discovery of these new whaling areas off Japan, and with Japanese ports closed to foreign vessels, the Hawaiian Islands were the nearest ports to this new whaling domain. Soon also additional rich whaling areas were discovered off the northwestern coast of North America, in the Okhotsk, Asadir and Bering Seas and in the waters north of the Bering Straits.

LAHAINA —WHALING CAPITAL 17 By 1822, 60 whaling ships were stopping at the Hawaiian Island ports. For the next 15 years about 150 whaling ships per year were using these ports. From 1840 to 1860, when Pacific whaling was at its peak period, an average of over 400 whaling ships per year were stopping at Hawaiian ports. The year 1846 was the top year with 596 arrivals, 429 of which stopped at Lahaina and 167 at Honolulu. The vast majority of these whaling ships were American from Nantucket, New Bedford, Edgartown, Sag Harbor and New London. Almost all the other whalers were British. The great whaling bonanza in the northern Pacific Ocean lasted until about 1870, during which period over 300,000 whales were killed. However, the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 from which it was possible to make kerosene to replace whale oil in the lamps of the world signalled the beginning of the end of the Hawaiian whaling industry. This ending was accelerated by the Civil War. During the course of the war forty New England whaling ships were sunk to effect a barrier blockade of Charleston Harbor and at least fifty more were sunk in the Pacific by the Confederate privateers Shenandoah and Alabama. In fact, Captain James Waddell on the Shenandoah kept on sinking and burning whaling ships in the Bering Sea (11 in one day) for some time after Lee had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. By this time also most Pacific whaling areas had been seriously depleted of whales with the exception of the hunting grounds north of the Bering Straits. In 1871 the whaling fleet fishing this area stayed too long in these waters. As a result, 33 ships were caught and crushed in the ice. Miraculously the crews of over 1200 men all escaped across the ice without casualties. This calamity practically ended New England whaling in the northern Pacific, using Hawaiian ports. The final coup de grace occurred in 1876 when 13 whaling ships were again destroyed in the Bering ice fields, this time with the loss of over 50 lives.

At the time New England whaling ships started using Hawaiian ports for logistic and recreational purposes, Lahaina was the royal capital of the Hawaiian Islands. King Kamehameha I had established Lahaina as his capital in 1802. Lahaina remained the royal capital until 1845 when King Kamehameha III transferred the capital to Honolulu. In 1840 Lahaina was a town of about 3,000 people mostly living in grass shacks on a single street strung for two miles along the waterfront. Initially Lahaina was second in popularity to Honolulu as an anchorage and port of call for New England whaling ships. This was due mainlv to Honolulu's protected harbor and its better facilities for stocking, refitting and repairing the visiting ships. However, as anchorage and pilot fees went up much faster at Honolulu, (no pilot was required at Lahaina since anchorage was in a protected roadstead) and, as Lahaina's restocking, provisioning and refitting facilities improved, Lahaina became the most popular port of call for the whaling ships. Another factor that contributed considerably to Lahaina's popularity

18 HISTORIC NANTUCKET with the whaling ships was the fact that Irish white potatoes (brought in originally by whaler captains and grown in abundance at Kula on Maui) were available to the ships at Lahaina and not at Honolulu. Yankee crews were never satisfied with substitutes for white potatoes such as yams, sweet potatoes, taro and breadfruit. In 1803 a New England whaleship of 2,000 barrels capacity needed two years to fill its holds with casks of whale oil and to make the long voyage to and from the Pacific whaling grounds. By 1844 whales were scarcer, distances longer and the average whaling cruise lasted three or four years. During this time most whaling ships called twice a year at Hawaiian ports. These periods of call at Hawaii were from March through April before sailing for the northern whaling areas and from October through November before sailing south to the equatorial whaling grounds. During these visitation periods it was a common sight to see over 100 whaling ships at a time anchored at the Lahaina Roadstead. During their in-port periods at Lahaina and Honolulu it was only natural for the crews of the whaling ships to carouse and rampage and seek the company of the willing Hawaiian maidens after the long, hard, dangerous periods at sea. This brought them into direct conflict with the missionaries who, of course, were opposed to the sailors' shore-leave vices. In reality, some of the whaling ships' captains sympathized with the work of the missionaries and assisted them in many ways. They brought them supplies and tidings from home as well as additional families of missionaries. Some tried hard to control and influence the behavior of their crews while in Hawaiian ports. The two most serious confrontations in Lahaina between the whalers and the missionaries occurred after Reverend Richards, in charge of the mission at Lahaina, persuaded the local chiefs in 1823 to put a taboo on Hawaiian women fraternizing with whaling ship crews. The first occurred in 1825 when the crew of the whaler Daniel appeared at Richards' home and threatened the life of Richards and his family unless he obtained the repeal of the taboo within 24 hours. At the expiration of the 24 hours they reappeared at Richards' home in an ugly mood. Richards, however, stood firm and suddenly a group of Hawaiians armed with stones and clubs appeared and dispersed the threatening crew of the Daniel. In 1827 the British whaleship John Palmer went even further in venting their anger and bombarded Richards' home and other parts of Lahaina, again to no avail. In addition to being the royal capital of the Hawaiian Islands, Lahaina was also the cradle of Hawaiian democracy and the educational and cultural center of the Hawaiian people. In 1840 King Kamehameha III granted his people their first constitution which established an upper house or senate of royal members and a lower house of people's representatives. In September 1831 the Reverend Lorin Andrews opened Lahainaluna High School in the hills above Lahaina for the express purpose of training Hawaiian men as school teachers and assistant pastors. In its first class of 25

1£ pupils nearly all were married. Included in this class was David Malo, then 38 years old, who would become Hawaii's famous historian and teacher. At the time of its opening Lahainaluna was the only school west of the Rocky Mountains, was the first teachers' training school, and was one of the first ten public high schools in America. Another first for Lahainaluna occurred when it began printing the first newspaper published west of the Rockies in 1834 using the old printing press brought over on the Thaddeus. In early gold rush days Californians preferred sending their sons to Lahainaluna rather than risk sending them on the dangerous Indian-infested cross country route east to the prestigious eastern preparatory schools. During its days as whaling capital of the Pacific several whaling ship visits should be of interest to those interested in Nantucket history. In 1823 King Liholiho (Kamehameha II) and his Queen Kamanalu accepted a Rritish invitation to visit London and sailed aboard the Rritish whaleship L'Aigle whose master was Valentine Starbuck - sure to be related to the Nantucket Starbuck whaling skippers. Also in 1823, on the Nantucket whaler Foster, future author John L. Melvin visited Lahaina. He later wrote "A Narrative of a Voyage Round the World commenced 1816 and ended 1824." On 26 April 1843 Herman Melville, later to write "Moby Dick" among other well known books, arrived at Lahaina aboard the Nantucket whaler Charles and Henry, owned by Charles and Henry Coffin of Nantucket. Two years earlier Melville had signed aboard the New Bedford whaler Acushnet but had deserted in the Marquesas because of the harsh conditions on the Acushnet. From there he had signed on an Australian whaler where conditions were even worse and was off-loaded in Tahiti - jailed for participating in a planned mutiny that never was attempted. In November of 1842 he signed on the Charles and Henry specifically to work his passage to Lahaina. With the collapse of the whaling industry and the movement of the Hawaiian Islands' capital to Honolulu, Lahaina reverted to a quiet and historic Hawaiian village, blending the beauty and charm of old Hawaii with the serenity and graciousness of a New England town. To a great extent the town of Lahaina has resisted as has Nantucket the mad rush to turn itself into another Waikiki or Atlantic City. Lahaina has endeavoured to retain many of its historical buildings. In these endeavors the whale and its whaling heritage, along with its royal heritage as Hawaii's first capital, have become the central themes of Lahaina's restoration efforts. Geography plays an important part in Lahaina's emphasizing its whaling heritage, since the sheltered ocean area west of Lahaina between Maui, Lanai and Molokai is the principal breeding area of the humpback whales in the Pacific. It is, therefore, possible during the winter and spring months of the year to run daily whale-watching cruises from Lahaina to watch the antics and cavorting of these wonderful creatures. For those unable to take these whale-watching tours, the larger hotels often bring in lecturers from the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology or from

The Brig Carthaginian

LAHAINA — WHALING CAPITAL

21 the Oceanographic Institute to give illustrated presentations of whales in their natural environment, accompanied by sound recordings of the humpbacks communicating and singing to one another. Over a decade ago one of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation's main projects was the acquisition of a whaling ship to be moored at a centrally located pier. After a world-wide search the Foundation acquired the schooner Komet in Germany, sailed her back to Lahaina and, after much hard work, vision and dedication, converted her to an authentically restored brig resembling the New England whaling ships that used to call at Lahaina. Now rechristened the brig Carthaginian, she is the proud centerpiece of Lahaina's whaling legacy. In addition to recreating the physical dimensions and atmosphere of life on a whaler, videotape movies on whales and whaling are shown on board continuously during visiting hours. Whaling-oriented decor including pictures of famous whaling ships and their activities, ship models, tools of the trade, murals, pictures and information plaques on the various kinds of whales are found in many of Lahaina's shops, bars and restaurants. The authentic whaling decor of the colorful old Plantation Inn featured in such films as "Twilight of the Gods" and "Devil at Four O'Clock" is a good example of Lahaina's efforts to recreate its whaling past.

Possibly the most impressive attempt to depict Lahaina's historic era of whales and whaling is the "Whaler's Village Museum" with all displays outside arranged in a very attractive shopping village complex. Lahaina also called in the firm of Edward Carson Beall and associates to design and create the outdoor museum. When completed, it will consist of 65 large two-sided (six feet by eight feet approximately) glass display cases located throughout the shopping village complex plus a suspended huge sperm whale skeleton and a well preserved authentically equipped 19th century whaleboat. These displays are arranged in a "sequence which will provide the observer with a brief knowledge of whale species and distribution and then carry him through the construction of whaling ships, setting out on a voyage, life aboard the whaling ship, the whale hunt, the kill, the processing of the whale and finally a series of stories and graphics depicting whale mythology and legend."

Note on Author of this Article

Capt. John E. Lacouture, U. S. N. (Ret.) was born in Boston, Mass., Aug. 18, 1917. He graduated from the Roxbury Latin School in 1935, and from the Naval Academy in 1940. He served on the old aircraft carrier Saratoga, prior to proceeding to the destroyer Blue as gunnery officer, and participated in all early actions of World War II in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal, where the Blue was sunk. He returned to flight training after which he served as executive officer of a fighter squadron before