November 21- Day Two At Sea

Seas still rolling and the sea foam come up almost as high as our deck, Can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to try to keep the windows clean. Glad it isn’t my job.

Yummy breakfast came right on time and the day began. Samuel, our butler, Nelma and Aldred, our cabin stewards are always so very cheerful, thorough and fast.

We went to the morning lecture given by Paula Smith, a Brit with lots of degrees and a wide variety of interests. She and her husband live in England but own a house in New Zealand so she can study her special interest- the Maori people.

Her subject this morning was a history of the Hawaiian Islands. Her maps did a great job of showing how very connected and significant Polynesia and its people were to the surrounding islands. In the 13^th and 14^th century Tahitians came to Hawaii in double hulled canoes carrying pigs, dogs, chickens, taro, sweet potatoes, coconut, bananas and  sugarcane to aid in the settlement of the islands. By 1450 the population of the islands was about 250,000. At that time all contact stopped and no one seems to really know why except perhaps they had all the people they needed to create a sustainable life together.

The people adhered to animalistic beliefs- being in time with the gods of nature.

Paoo, a powerful priest, arrived and he believed that people were too lax in their beliefs. He introduced human sacrifice into the culture- Kapu. He forbade commoners from eating the same food or walking on the same ground as the royals. Women couldn’t eat pork or pineapple. There were lots of rules made by the men in power for no apparent reason.

About that time the king divided the islands into two areas and gave them to his sons. Naturally they fought each other because each one wanted it all.  Kamehameha took over as ruler and set up his court in Honolulu. He united the islands into a single kingdom in 1810.

On January 18, 1778 British Captain James Cook and his crew attempting to discover the Northwest Passage between Alaska and Asia encountered the islands and named them for his friend The Earl of Sandwich- the Sandwich Islands. The expedition described the people as healthy and handsome, but they brought with them diseases which almost wiped out the population. By 1832 only 130,000 people remained on the islands.

In May 1819 Prince Liholiho became King Kamehameha II. Under pressure from his co-regent and stepmother, Kaʻahumanu, he abolished the kapu system that had ruled life in the islands. He signaled this revolutionary change by sitting down to eat with Kaʻahumanu and other women of chiefly rank, an act forbidden under the old system—see ʻAi Noa. Kekuaokalani, a cousin who thought he was to share power with Liholiho, organized supporters of the kapu system, but his forces were defeated by Kaʻahumanu and Liholiho in December 1819 at the battle of Kuamoʻo.

Next on the scene were Christian missionaries who ingratiated themselves with the royal family. They introduced no trade on Sundays and began to make sweeping changing in the ways the people of the islands lived, married, and functioned together.

The whalers who periodically landed on the shores were not happy with these moralistic changes and in the 1800’s preferred to land in Maui to avoid the harsh judgmental approach of the missionaries.  By 18

After much struggle between natives, Protestants and Roman Catholics, In 1839 Captain Laplace of the French frigate Artémise sailed to Hawaii. Under the threat of war, King Kamehameha III signed the Edict of Toleration on July 17, 1839 and paid $20,000 in compensation for the deportation of the priests and the incarceration and torture of converts, agreeing to Laplace's demands. The kingdom proclaimed:

That the Catholic worship be declared free, throughout all the dominions subject to the king of the Sandwich Islands; the members of this religious faith shall enjoy in them the privileges granted to Protestants.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu returned and Kamehameha III donated land for them to build a church as reparation.

In August 1849, French admiral Louis Tromelin arrived in Honolulu Harbor with his ships La Poursuivante and Gassendi. De Tromelin made ten demands to King Kamehameha III on August 22, mainly that full religious rights be given to Catholics (Catholics still enjoyed only partial religious rights). On August 25 the demands had not been met. After a second warning, French troops overwhelmed the skeleton force and captured Honolulu Fort, spiked the coastal guns and destroyed all other weapons they found (mainly muskets and ammunition). They raided government and other property in Honolulu, causing $100,000 in damages. After the raids the invasion force withdrew to the fort. De Tromelin eventually recalled his men and left Hawaii on September 5.

On February 10, 1843, Lord George Paulet on the Royal Navy warship HMS Carysfort entered Honolulu Harbor and demanded that King Kamehameha III cede the Hawaiian Islands to the British Crown. Under the guns of the frigate, Kamehameha stepped down under protest. Kamehameha III surrendered to Paulet on February 25, 1843. He began to Anglicize the names of streets and collect taxes.

Where are you, chiefs, people, and commons from my ancestors, and people from foreign lands?'

Hear ye! I make known to you that I am in perplexity by reason of difficulties into which I have been brought without cause, therefore I have given away the life of our land. Hear ye! but my rule over you, my people, and your privileges will continue, for I have hope that the life of the land will be restored when my conduct is justified.

Done at Honolulu, Oahu, this 25th day of February, 1843.

Kamehameha III.

Gerrit P. Judd, a missionary who had become the Minister of Finance, secretly sent envoys to the United States, France and Britain, to protest Paulet's actions.

The protest was forwarded to Rear Admiral Richard Darton Thomas, Paulet's commanding officer, who arrived at Honolulu harbor on July 26, 1843 on HMS Dublin. At the command of Queen Victoria, Thomas repudiated Paulet's actions, and on July 31, 1843, restored the Hawaiian government. In his restoration speech, Kamehameha declared "Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono", the motto of the future State of Hawaii translated as "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness."

Dynastic rule by the Kamehameha family ended in 1872 with the death of Kamehameha V. After the short reign of Lunalilo, the House of Kalākaua came to the throne. These transitions were by election of candidates of noble birth. Princess Ka'iulani tried very hard to prevent her country from becoming part of the United States.

King Kamehameha I

American Protestant missionaries settled in Hawaiʻi at the beginning of the 19th century and quickly gained influence and wealth. They prohibited local traditions they disliked, like the hula or surfboarding. Reverend Amos Starr Cooke, who arrived in 1837, set up a school to educate the future monarchs. When one of his pupils rose to the throne, Cooke was appointed unofficial adviser to the king in 1843 and from this position devised a land reform that allowed foreigners to purchase land from locals in order to plant sugarcane. Cooke and other missionaries became big landowners and sugar producers, and got control of the economy.

The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 between the Kingdom of Hawaii (explicitly acknowledged as a sovereign nation) and the United States allowed for duty-free importation of Hawaiian sugar into the United States beginning in 1876. This further promoted plantation agriculture, which was in the hands of foreign Whites. Hawai'i ceded Pearl Harbor, including Ford Island, together with its shoreline and four to five miles of land adjacent to the shore, free of cost to the U.S.[7] The U. S. demanded this area based on an 1873 report commissioned by the U. S. Secretary of War. Native Hawaiians protested the treaty on the streets until the revolt was suffocated by U.S. Marines.

The treaty also included duty-free importation of rice, which was by this time becoming a major crop in the abandoned taro patches in the wetter parts of the islands. This led to an influx of immigrants from Asia (first Chinese, and later Japanese) needed to support the escalating sugar industry and provided the impetus for expansion of rice cultivation. Water needed for growing sugarcane resulted in extensive water works to divert streams from the wet windward slopes to the dry lowlands.

In the late 19th century the dominant White minority overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom and founded a brief Republic that was finally annexed by the United States.

In 1887 members of the American white minority, which held most of the important government positions by that time, founded the Reform Party (also known as the Missionary Party) and an armed militia, the Honolulu Rifles. That same year, the Honolulu Rifles and a group of cabinet officials and advisors to King David Kalākaua seized the royal palace and forced the king to promulgate what is known as the Bayonet Constitution. The impetus was the frustration of the Reform Party with growing debts, the King's spending habits and general governance. It was specifically triggered by a failed attempt by Kalākaua to create a Polynesian Federation and accusations of an opium bribery scandal.[note 1][9] The 1887 constitution stripped the monarchy of much of its authority, imposed significant income and property requirements for voting, and completely disenfranchised all Asians. Three fourths of the votes were assigned to whites, which included all American residents thanks to a special rule from the U.S. State Department.

King David- last king of Hawaii

Native Hawaiians felt the 1887 constitution was imposed by a the foreign population because of the king's refusal to renew the Reciprocity Treaty. The treaty now included an amendment to permit the US Navy to establish a permanent naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oʻahu. According to bills submitted by the King, foreign policy would include an alliance with Japan and supported other countries suffering from colonialism. Many Native Hawaiians opposed a US military presence in their country.

A plot by Princess Liliʻuokalani was exposed to overthrow King David Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii,  in a military coup in 1888. In 1889, a rebellion of Native Hawaiians led by Colonel Robert Wilcox attempted to replace the unpopular Bayonet Constitution and stormed ʻIolani Palace. The rebellion, known as the Wilcox rebellions, was crushed by the Honolulu Rifles.

When Kalākaua died in 1891 during a visit to San Francisco, his sister Liliʻuokalani ascended the throne. Queen Liliʻuokalani called her brother's reign "a golden age materially for Hawaii".

According to Queen Liliʻuokalani, immediately upon ascending the throne, she received petitions from two-thirds of her subjects and the major Native Hawaiian political party in parliament, Hui Kalaiʻaina, asking her to proclaim a new constitution. Liliʻuokalani drafted a new constitution that would restore the monarchy's authority and the suffrage requirements of the 1887 constitution.

In response to Liliʻuokalani's suspected actions, a group of European and American residents formed a Committee of Safety on January 14, 1893. After a meeting of supporters, the Committee committed itself to removing the Queen and annexation to the United States.

United States Government Minister John L. Stevens summoned a company of uniformed US Marines from the USS Boston and two companies of US sailors to land and take up positions at the US Legation, Consulate and Arion Hall on the afternoon of January 16, 1893. The Committee of Safety had claimed an "imminent threat to American lives and property".

The Provisional Government of Hawaii was established, led by Sanford Dole, to manage the Hawaiian islands between the overthrow and expected annexation, supported by the Honolulu Rifles White militia group.

Under this pressure, Liliʻuokalani abdicated her throne. The Queen's statement yielding authority, on January 17, 1893, pleaded for justice:

“I Liliʻuokalani, by the Grace of God and under the Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the Constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom.

That I yield to the superior force of the United States of America whose Minister Plenipotentiary, His Excellency John L. Stevens, has caused United States troops to be landed at Honolulu and declared that he would support the Provisional Government.

Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.”

The Provisional Government sent members of the Missionary Party to Washington to negotiate the annexation treaty, which was signed on February 14, 1893. President Benjamin Harrison, who had just lost the presidential elections, promptly submitted it to the Senate for ratification but then an envoy from the deposed Queen arrived in Washington and made the case that the dethroning and annexation were illegal. Senators opposed the ratification of the treaty and president-elect Grover Cleveland commissioned an investigation into the events of the overthrow that was conducted by former Congressman James Henderson Blount. The Blount Report was completed on July 17, 1893 and concluded that "United States diplomatic and military representatives had abused their authority and were responsible for the change in government." In the meantime the Leper War on Kauaʻi was suppressed by Provisional Government troops.

Minister Stevens was recalled, and the commander of military forces in Hawaii was forced to resign. Cleveland stated "Substantial wrong has thus been done which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the injured people requires we should endeavor to repair the monarchy." Cleveland further stated in his 1893 State of the Union Address and that, "Upon the facts developed it seemed to me the only honorable course for our Government to pursue was to undo the wrong that had been done by those representing us and to restore as far as practicable the status existing at the time of our forcible intervention." Submitting the matter to Congress on December 18, 1893, after provisional President Sanford Dole refused to reinstate the Queen on Cleveland's command, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under chairman John Morgan continued investigation into the matter.

On February 26, 1894, the Morgan Report was submitted, contradicting the Blount Report and finding Stevens and the US troops "not guilty" of any involvement in the overthrow. The report asserted that, "The complaint by Liliʻuokalani in the protest that she sent to the President of the United States and dated the 18th day of January, is not, in the opinion of the committee, well founded in fact or in justice." After submission of the Morgan Report, Cleveland ended any efforts to reinstate the monarchy, and commenced diplomatic relations with the new government. He rebuffed further entreaties from the Queen to intervene.

Sanford B. Dole was the first and only President of the Republic of Hawaii and was first governor of the U.S. Territory of Hawaii.

Fears grew among the Hawaiian Whites of a US intervention to restore the legitimate kingdom. A Constitutional Convention began on May 30, 1894 and the Republic of Hawaii was declared on July 4, 1894, American Independence Day, under the presidency of Sanford Dole.

In the 1895 Counter-Revolution, a group led by Colonel Robert Nowlein, Minister Joseph Nawahi, members of the Royal Household Guards and later Robert Wilcox, attempted to overthrow the Republic. The leaders including Liliʻuokalani were captured, convicted, and imprisoned.

So the history of Hawaii has been rocky at best with all sorts of intervention from the US government and leaders. Sounds like politics have not changed through the centuries.

In the afternoon Jim went to a lecture by Dr. Sobey about the tectonic plate theory of “Where Did Hawaii Come From?” Techtonic plate theory was discovered in the 20^th century. The plates are dynamic, in motion all the time. As they move, they either move away from each other or collide. Moving away causes magma to rise and create new earth crust. Two plates are separating in Iceland and we have actually stood in the rift being created.

The plates that are colliding have two possible outcomes: one is that mountains are pushed up, sometimes individual mountains, sometimes mountain ranges. The other motion is that one plate rides over another. The part of the plate that is pushed down, eventually gets near the earth core and begins to melt into magma. Ultimately the magma rises and causes a volcano- think the “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Rim. Think island creation!

However, Hawaii was formed in a different volcano way. Around the earth there are “hot spots” where magma is constantly pushing up, forming volcanoes. The “hot spots” do not move with the plates, so as time goes by, the plates move and new volcano islands are formed. This is why the Hawaiian islands are in a straight line. According to Dr. Sobey, Moon Rocks National Park was formed by a hot spot, the plate moved and now we have Yellowstone National Park.

The other 20^th century discovery was the finding of very hot water geysers deep in the ocean. Prior theory was that life on earth cannot exist without photosynthesis (light). But life was discovered at these underwater geysers, where there is no light. These organisms exist using the dissolved minerals in the geysers. These discoveries changed how we think about how life began on earth and how the continents are formed. Was an interesting lecture!

The Regent Block Party was last evening. The bell rings at 6:00 and folks gather in the hallway to meet their neighbors. An impressive array of staff and officers dash by while wine is sipped and food is tasted. We met a charming couple who are dancers in from the entertainment troupe. There is a couple from Amsterdam just up the hall and people from Pennsylvania next door.

We went to the Italian restaurant Sette Mari and sat with a most interesting couple from Denver- Jo and Jim. They are the only other people we have ever met who did what we did when going to Germany in the ‘60’s with the military…..they also shipped a Volkswagon to Germany because it was the car they owned.  We had a great time comparing notes about life in the military in Europe way back then.