Category Archives: Shipwreck

The sinking of the Hiram Bingham, 1909.

Posted on by
Reply

THE GASOLINE SCHOONER HAS SUNK.

Vague news has been received in Boston from Sydney [Kikane] simply explaining that the schooner Hiram Bingham was smashed and sunk in the deep along with the death of its captain, the Rev. A. C. Walkup with the ship. As for where the ship was smashed and sunk and the reason for it was not fully explained. This here below was published in the newspaper the San Francisco Call of the 27th of August [p. 13]:

“The missionary schooner Hiram Bingham, word of whose loss was received at Boston in a cablegram from Sydney, was built at Anderson’s shipyard near Hunters point and sailed from here November 10, 1908, on its maiden voyage. The message conveying the news of the loss of the vessel also told of the death of Captain Alfred C. Walkup, the mariner-missionary who commanded the gospel ship.

“Captain Walkup superintended the construction of the vessel and when he sailed from here took with him his son and daughter. The boy and girl, who were born in the Gilbert Islands, came home by way of Australia and are now in this country attending college.

“No details have been learned of the loss of the vessel, which was last reported March 2r5 at Ocean Island [Banaba].

“The Hiram Bingham was built by the American board of foreign missions for work among the Gilbert islanders and cost $7,000. The vessel was 63 feet long and was equipped with a 45 horsepower gasoline engine.”

In fall of the past year, the ship docked in Honolulu on its way to the islands of Kilibati. Its captain was welcomed with great care by the missionaries here, and before it set sail for the islands of the South, a prayer assembly was held at the pier of the Alameda.

That schooner the Hiram Bingham was the second schooner by that name built for the Mission in the Southern seas; it was built to take the place of the first vessel that rotted because it was put to use for so long. [The next two lines are set in the wrong order] It was named the Hiram Bingham in honor of Rev. Hiram Bingham the pioneer missionary teacher who lived for a long time in the islands of Kiribati.

When it stopped here, also aboard were copies of the Bible which was translated into the Kiribati language by Rev. Hiram, and that was the ballast used to sail here.

(Kuokoa, 9/10/1909, p. 7)

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XLVI, Helu 37, Aoao 7. Sepatemaba 10, 1909.
Advertisement

More coverage of the shipwreck of the U. S. S. Saginaw, 1870.

Posted on by
Reply

Loss of the U. S. S. Saginaw.

By the schooners Jenny and Waiola from Kauai on Saturday, we learn of the wreck, on Ocean Island, about 1,100 miles northwest of Honolulu, of the U. S. S. Saginaw, Capt. Sicard. She left this port in October last, and after touching at Midway Island,—(that unfortunately unsuccessful attempt to make a coaling depot for the China steamers)—proceeded to Ocean Island, some 70 miles further to the westward. There, by some mistake in the reckoning, she ran on the coral reef, and has become a total loss but few valuables being saved. On the 15th of November, 18 days after the wrecking, Lieut. Talbot,—a young promising officer,—and four seamen, volunteers, started for these islands, in an open boat, of course on short provisions. Continue reading →

Shipwreck reported by David Kaukaha, 1870.

Posted on by
Reply

Sad News!

On the 19th of December, a skiff from a warship landed in Kalihi Kai, with five men on board, but four of them had died, and one was alive. Their names:

Lieut J. G. Talbot,
Peter Francis (quarter master)
William Halford (boatswain)
John Andrews (diver)
James Muir (diver)

These people were from the American warship Saginaw; this ship is familiar to those of Honolulu. Wm. Halford is the only survivor of them, and the others are all dead. Only two bodies are salvaged, the bodies of Lieutenant Talbot and James Miur, and the others are not. Continue reading →

News from Lanai, 1918.

Posted on by
Reply

NEWS FROM THE LAND OF TRICKSTERS OF KAULULAAU, LANAI.

Mr. Solomon Hanohano:—On the night of the 4th of December, there landed a skiff of castaways at Kanaele; five haole and four Chinese.

Their ship left San Francisco filled with goods for Manila, and this steamship encountered a storm and the water came in the cargo doors; there was nothing they could do, and the captain and his sailors and the engineers waited until the ship sank and they got on the skiffs. Continue reading →

Phew! 1862.

Posted on by
Reply

[Found under: “NA MEA HOU O HAWAII NEI.”]

Saved from Death.—In the afternoon of Tuesday, the 12th of March, while Hokulele, the double-masted ship carrying salt was in the sea outside of Waianae, water was seen coming in from the side, and in a very short time, the ship was about to sink; Continue reading →

Hurricane, 1892.

Posted on by
Reply

Ship Sunk at Sea.

One Skiff Landed at Puna.

One Skiff Lost at Sea.

Hilo, September 26, 1892.

Aloha oe: The three-masted ship W. H. Campbell, captain E. E. Havener, left Port Townsend on the 5th of August, 1892, sailing for Queenstown with 1,400,000 feet of lumber. On the 26th of August, they were caught in a Hurricane [makani ino], from the south east at latitude 14 north, longitude 120 west, and in three hours was filled with water; Continue reading →

Cannons from the Haaheo o Hawaii wreck, 1857.

Posted on by
Reply

Wreck of the “Pride of Hawaii.”

In the year 1824, the yacht of Kamehameha II, called “Ka Haaheo o Hawaii,” formerly the “Cleopatra’s Barge,” was wrecked at Waioli, in the Bay of Hanalei, Kauai. An unsuccessful attempt was made by the chiefs to haul her up on to the shore, but her masts broke off and she rolled back outside the reef, where she was abandoned and lost. We learn from a correspondent of the Hae Hawaii that two of her guns, of which she was provided with four, have been found by divers and brought ashore, together with some of her iron and copper work. What would appear strange in the account of Mr. Hunchback—for that is the name of the Hae‘s correspondent—is the statement that these guns are not in the last bit the worse for their thirty-three year’s submersion, but that, after removing the outside deposite of shells, &c., they were found bright and sound. They are stamped with the date of their manufacture, 1813.

(Polynesian, 5/23/1857, p. 5)

Polynesian_5_23_1857_5.png

The Polynesian, Volume XIV, Number 3, Page 5. May 23, 1857.

Mary Mahiai, the original story, in English, 1901.

Posted on by
4

ROMANTIC HISTORY OF MARY MAHIAI

PROBABLY the most interesting woman in all Hawaii is the white-haired old wahine of four-score and ten, or thereabouts, who answers to the name of Mary Mahiai.

Last week an intricate land case came up in Judge Gear’s court and Mary Mahiai was summoned to appear as a witness, her testimony being relied upon to establish the validity of certain patents to extensive and valuable lands, the ancient boundaries of which were in dispute.

The old lady scorned the services of the interpreter on the witness stand and proceeded with her own story in good English astonishing the court and silencing the lawyers as, with Hawaiian freedom of gesture and animated features, she related the details of a most remarkable career.

It developed that she was born on the Island of Kauai before the coming of the first missionary, the arrival of Rev. Hiram Bingham being distinctly within her memory; at the age of seven years, little Mahiai, whose name (meaning “Working in the taro”) had been given her by her mother, went out in a rowboat with her uncle and five other men, starting for Molokai, to “go look see.” A storm came up and the boat was driven out of sight of land, its occupants having no food or drink with them, and suffering terribly from the pangs of hunger and thirst: for ten days and nights they drifted, becoming crazed and unable to cry out, and at last, when all hopes had been abandoned, and it was certain that the frail boat would go to pieces before the end of another day, a sail appeared upon the horizon and the faint outcries and feeble signals of the seven unfortunates attracted the attention of a sailor on board the ship, which was a sailing vessel bound for China. The six men and the little girl were taken on board and treated kindly. When the little girl was able to be about she was given the task of taking care of the captain’s little daughter, and the men were put to work on the ship; the vessel put in at Ladrone Islands, and by their own desire, the five men who had set out with little Mahiai and her uncle, were put ashore. It was afterwards learned that they were eaten by cannibals. Continue reading →