First leg of Kaimiloa’s cruise 

FIRST LEG OF KAIMILOA’S CRUISE YIELDS MANY VALUED TROPHIES FOR BISHOP MUSEUM COLLECTION

THE HONOLULU STAR BULLETIN    FEBRUARY 8, 1925

Kellum Party Visits Little Known Atolls of “Line” Region and “Down Under”; Ancient Ruins Add to Knowledge of Prehistoric Polynesia; Beautiful Yacht Is Welcome Caller at Strange Ports Which Ships Seldom Find

By LORIN TARR GILL

     In the accompanying article Dr. Stanley C. Ball, curator of collections of the Bishop Museum, has set down some of the incidents in the recent cruise of the Kaimiloa which has ended, for the time being, at Tahiti, in the far south seas.  Dr. Ball returned to Honolulu via San Francisco on Wednesday morning:

    The Kaimiloa sailed from Hilo for the far South Seas on November 19 and according to Dr. Ball’s running account of the voyage---- “After an uneventful trip of seven days from Hilo the Kaimiloa sighted Fanning Island’s fringe of coconut trees at dawn on November 26.  Sailing past the Whalers’ Anchorage off the Pacific Cable Board’s station, she headed for the passage to English Harbor.

    Already observers at the settlement had discovered the ship and we soon saw a launch put off from shore.  When it drew near enough so that the exhaust of the motor was audible the bronzed face of the pilot, Hugh Greig, could be seen studying the ship to make out what manner of craft she might be.  As was learned later, she was taken for a lumber schooner. 

This was a reasonable diagnosis for before her transformation by her owner M. R. Kellum, she had carried many a cargo lumber under the name Luzon.

    In driving the Kaimiloa against a four knot current in the tortuous channel Captain Bahr showed that he had already learned the qualities of his ship.  Soon her anchors were dropped in the protected waters of the lagoon within 100 yards of the copra settlement. Major and Mrs. Burn-Calendar, immediately came aboard to welcome the visitors while a score of Gilbertese natives eyed them from the shore.

ALL HANDS ASHORE

    “A launch sent to the cable station soon returned with the quarantine officer and deputy commissioner who ruled favorably on passengers and ship.  After the voyage from Hilo all hands were glad to set foot ashore.

    “Ten delightful days were spent at Fanning.  While a squad of Gilbertese from the copra company helped to scrape and paint the Kaimiloa the passengers  made the most of their opportunities to fish, to study their first Pacific coral island, the making of copra, and the people themselves. The six members of the Bishop Museum party who sailed as guests  of Mr. and Mrs. Kellum added to collections secured there on

previous visits and studied especially the ancient stone ruins left by some band of Polynesians long before the first days of the white man’s acquaintance with the island.

    “The days were enlivened by such episodes as the capture of a giant black ray whose wing-like fins extended nine feet from tip to tip.  This fish harpooned square in the center of the back by M. R. Kellum, Jr. probably belongs to the species Manta Hamilton.  Parts of the head and fins, together with photographs, were preserved for further study.  On another occasion the fishermen were reminded of bygone days by the passage of a large school of whales judged to contain 100 animals.

THANKSGIVING CELEBRATED

    “At the delicious Thanksgiving dinner served on board several people from the settlement and cable station were invited guests. The hospitality of these people and their associates was greatly appreciated.

    “At the turn of the tide on December 6 the pilot once more came aboard to guide the Kaimiloa out to sea.  At 11 o’clock she was skirting the southern shore under full power, headed for the next destination, Christmas Island.

    “But touch with the attractions of Fanning had not been lost ---almost simultaneously the lines of Dr. Wells and M .R. Kellum, Jr. were the center of attention of all hands on the deck ends and certainly of some eager individuals at the baited ends. At the expense of much energy and palm skin two handsome ahi were hauled aboard.

    “The long line of Christmas Island’s coconut trees appeared soon after breakfast on December 8,  proclaiming the approach to the island kingdom of Father Rougier.  It was not long before his full-bearded young nephew had landed some of the visitors at the door of the owner’s cottage at Paris, the little settlement south of the western entrance to the lagoon.  His welcome was hearty and arrangements were soon made whereby the Museum party might collect desired specimens and study the vestiges of human habitations for which the earlier observations of the U.S.S. Whippoorwill expedition had aroused enthusiasm.  The success with which these investigations met during the following nine days was largely made possible through the kindness and generous assistance of Father Rougier, Mr. Coulon, and Mr. Pugeault, his managers. Not only was it a great advantage in covering the  enormous territory to have the use of the Ford trucks, but it was a novel change after life onboard ship.

    The Kaimiloa arrived at Christmas at 10:10 a.m., making the voyage of 180 miles from Fanning in one day , 22 hours and 18 minutes.

    Christmas is, topographically, most interesting.  On the windward side, which lies to the east, is a long shallow inlet with a dangerous coast line studded with jagged, projecting rocks. A strong current flows into that “Bay of Wrecks” and the tide waters ebb and flow over crumbling fragments of vessels which sailed the Pacific in the early

part of the nineteenth century.  The latest disaster seems to have been that of the steam-ship Acon which it is believed came to grief there about 1908.

    There are about 300 salt lakes on the island, most of which have been mapped by Father Rougier.  A few more of them were properly christened before the Kaimiloa left these shores as one was named after each member of the party aboard the yacht. In one of the lakes there are immense schools of awa, the voyagers declare, and then the fish die they go into a pickle and float on the surface belly upwards!

    Father Rougier is well known throughout the south Pacific.  He practically owns Christmas Island as he has a 90 year lease .

    A copra plantation which consists, at present of about 300,000 trees but which, it is said, could support several million, is worked by about 15 Tahitians under the direction of the ex-priest. The natives are exceedingly friendly and are good workers, each making about 400 pounds of copra a day.  In time, the visitors say, Christmas may be an immensely wealthy island.

ROADSTEAD BUSY

    “During the visit of the Kaimiloa the roadstead of Christmas Island became unusually busy.  The two- masted schooner yacht Malaya dropped anchor beside the Kellum ship having put in at Christmas on her way west from the Galapagos to mend tattered sails.  Soon afterward Father Rougier’s own schooner, the Roy Somers, added her business like lines to the scene. She had been nearly a month on her voyage from San Francisco.  Wireless messages received from the island added to the sense of association with the outside world.  If more were needed the loud-speaker each evening brought forth on board the Kaimiloa orchestra music originating in such distant places as the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco! “As if not to be outdone by the reefs at Fanning the waters of Christmas Island, as the Kaimiloa sailed away from anchorage at 2:10 p.m., December 17, yielded an enormous pair of ono which previously hooked to  the same lines which previously hooked the ahi.  At many an ensuing dinner thick slices of these silvery-barred monarchs, by virtue of the splendid refrigerating plant were served.

    “Great was the joy of  those on board the ship when it was learned that the Kellums had decided to run for Tahiti instead of Samoa, as had earlier suggested.  An added pleasure on the voyage was the presence of Father Rougier, his nephew, and Miss Pugeault. The former has an attractive home in Tahiti to which he was returning after several months spent on his plantation at Christmas Island.  His experience and knowledge of that island were invaluable to the museum in planning work to done there.

NEPTUNE DULY HONORED

    “Of course the crossing of that imaginary line, the equator, was an occasion worth celebrating.  Father Neptune and his merry band of servants boarded the bows of the Kaimiloa about 1 o’clock of the afternoon of December 18 and so many were the green hands requiring proper initiation that two hours were none too long a period for the ceremony.  It was surprising how many patients were in need of surgical operations.  Some underwent an extraction of an eye---at least the onion exhibited at the end of the giant corkscrew was of suggestive appearance and could fetch a tear--- not to mention its several coats.  Others were suffering from infected teeth and for nearly all the doctor prescribed a tonic which may have contained soapsuds, bitters, glue, hair oil and other ingredients better imagined than tasted.

    “But the main and most painful operation was the shave performed in the free clinic maintained by the doctor and the transmogrified first officer.  The latter with a paint pail full of starch paste, first lathered each patient with a paperhanger’s brush.  Then the doctor wielded the two foot wooden razor manufactured for the occasion by Johnny the Carpenter.  Even the laddies whose hair had been bobbed were deemed fair subjects for this tonsorial art.

    “Then just to satisfy the victim’s mind as.............next, two surly pirates tipped him or her backwards into a canvas tank full of sea water to rinse.  That was the last act ---except washing ones clothes and drying them in the rigging like any real sailor.  But no two people could agree as to the color of the equator!  Someone suggested a rainbow.

LITTLE CHANGE IN CENTURY

    The engines had been started at 7:15 on the morning of the 19th and--- “In the twilight of December 20 the Kaimiloa moored to the buoy at Malden Island after taking aboard the pilot Pita Bob.  The next morning all hands went ashore through the surf to view the island which had been discovered in 1825 by the men of the Blonde. Aside from the operations of the guano diggers it appeared practically as at that time.  If one disregarded the sturdy modern warehouses and cottages and scattered heaps of phosphate rock he could imagine himself living 100 years ago in the past with the officers of the Blonde.

    “The chief desire of the Museum party was to study the great numberof stone ruins which early visitors had recorded.  They were found to be more numerous than anticipated so with the combined efforts of all hands the two days available were sufficient only for the measuring, sketching, and photographing of the best preserved structures.  No excavating was possible.  It was stimulating to the imagination to stand before one of the larger temples and follow out to the seashore over piles of weather-beaten coral the paths of limestone slabs used by a people long forgotten.

TEMPLES DISCOVERED

    “The largest of those temples is almost exactly 100 feet long and 50 feet wide.  Its outer boundary is composed of curbstone-like blocks of limestone cut from the reef and sat edgewise on the ground.  Their tops rise to the height of 18 inches.  The enclosure thus formed is filled with rough pieces of coral apparently gathered along the shore. Upon this platform a second wall of similar limestone slabs was erected and likewise filled with coral.  Its area is about two-thirds that of the first.  Crowning this is the remains of a rectangular stone box about eight feet long, four feet wide, and three feet high, which may have been the sarcophagus of a chief.  Since the day; of the Blonde this box has partially collapsed, only three of its large coral slabs remaining upright.

    “At a distance of 200 yards stands a similar temple of just half the size, while smaller ones built on the plan were found at the opposite side of the island. Hundreds of house-sites marked by curbings of coral lie grouped as in  villages about the rim of this treeless island, and between them are cemeteries thickly dotted with graves of all sizes.  Like the temples and house sites these graves have boundaries made of blocks of coral.  The only ornaments are seashells, distributed over the surface.  To the observer, judging from the sizes, it seems as though the greater number of graves were prepared for children.  While at Fanning the burial ceremony for a Gilbertese baby had been witnessed so that one standing among these forgotten graves in Malden could easily imagine the similar scenes which had been enacted there in centuries past.  The visible portions of that modern and those ancient graves was nearly identical.

FEW BIRDS LEFT

    “Not only have the human dwellers of Malden become extinct, but the birds which once laid down the enormous deposits of guano also have been sadly  diminished.  Only half a hundred  boobies represent the large birds which must once have had such a major share in the guano-making. While there still about 65,000 sooty terns nesting in two colonies, the latest occupy an infinitesimal area beside that once occupied.  If we accept the estimate or the naturalist of the Blonde, the number of sea birds living at Malden 100 years ago was immensely larger than at present.

    “Insects, spiders, centipedes, lizards, fishes and plants in small samples were taken for the museum.  Malden, with its 17 inches of rainfall annually, is truly a barren island.

    “On the afternoon of December 22 the ship left the harbor which no vessel had entered since Pita Bob and his five native Rarotongans arrived eight months before.  They had plenty of food and water but no contact with the world.  Now that most of the guano has been stripped from the island, it may not be long before a boat will remove even this handful of the last immigrants to Malden.  Then will the birds, perhaps take up anew the task of repopulating the ancient rookeries, for the fishes upon which they feed still swim the seas in countless numbers.

CHRISTMAS AT PENRYHN

    “Little did the 400 natives of Penryhn Island expect visitors on Christmas Eve, abut that is what happened.”  The yacht made the 348 miles in one day, 23 hours and 32 minutes.  “In the mid-afternoon of December 24, looking out from their village of Omoka, they described a four-masted schooner rounding the northwestern point of the atoll.   At once a race was on to determine which of several small sailboats should be the first to reach the strange ship and after a sail across the lagoon and through the channel in the reef , the pilot boat with Commissioner Wilson drew alongside.

    “Immediately a dozen men, for the world like Hawaiians, swarmed upon the decks of the Kaimiloa.  They could readily understand the Hawaiian language too.

    “The Penrhyn atoll is strikingly beautiful.  On the whole, as a result of the abundant rainfall, it appears more luxuriant than Fanning and Christmas.  Coconut trees grow in luxuriant  profusion upon all the islets capable of supporting trees.  On the lee shores, both of lagoon and sea, bands of tournefortia, pandanus, seaveola, and tahuo add variety to the view.  Penrhyn is twelve miles long and seven miles wide with a land ring broken into more than a dozen islets.  As one sails along the outer shore the view across the lagoon is one of rare charm.

In effect the whole atoll seems to revolve as the coconuts on the far side disappear behind the islet in the foreground.

ALL THE “FIXIN’S”

    “Penryhn  responded appropriately with a Christmas tree for the salon of the Kaimiloa--not a spruce or even a pine, but one known to the natives as “toa” or ironwood.  It was tough, with thick clusters of small dark green leaves.  When lighted with electric candles and the customary tinsel no one would have questioned that it belonged to the species “Christmas Tree.” At least not young Jim and Pinky Kellum when they burst upon it the morning of  December 25, 1924. Long will they remember that Christmas at Penryhn Island. Remarkable presents and socks full of this, that and the other found their way from secret hiding places.

    The dinner in the evening was a triumph for Big Ralph’s efforts in the galley.  The ice box was conjured to yield its choicest turkeys, celery and vegetables; all the “fixin’s”  were on the table even to the plum pudding.

LEG--

    “In the two days that followed, much data concerning the natives was gathered. All now wear clothing which they purchase from the two trading companies.  The customary medium of exchange is either copra or pearls.  The natives own the atoll.  Anything which they can produce upon it or wrest from its wasters belongs to any man who is sufficiently energetic to go and get it.  All rules have their exceptions, it is said; the one just stated has this—that if a man finds an unusually choice pearl his wife is apt to appropriate it. But all is for the best.  She is the natural trader and can drive a better bargain with the pearl buyers than her spouse.

PLENTY OF FISH

     “Pastor Seth Rabui, an immigrant from Manahiki, has an enthusiastic congregation at the large modern church on Sundays. The natives love to sing.  Those of  the visitors who attended the service on Christmas morning were delighted with the group singing.

    “Small land shells were abundant under coconut husks and fallenleaves.  Blue-tailed lizards flashed from one pole of trash to the next with remarkable precision.  Clouds of mosquitoes assailed anyone who entered the moist coconut forests. A few noddy terns, love birds, and man-o’-war birds were in evidence--otherwise the land fauna was inconspicuous.

    “Pools along the reef yielded several hundred brightly colored fishes as well as the usual quota of crabs, shrimps, and sea urchins. But the crop of sea shells was disappointingly meager.

    ‘On the morning of Sunday, December 28, the Kaimiloa departed from the Penrhyn lagoon, taking advantage of a falling tide to pass through the narrow channel in the reef.  This lagoon, it should be emphasized, constitutes one of the best harbors in the Pacific.  It has a broad expanse of deep water, well protected from any but the severest hurricanes.

TAHITI LANDFALL

    “The voyage toward Tahiti was speeded by a propitious northwest wind.  During one of the squalls, helped by her engines, the Kaimiloa attained a speed exceeding 14 knots an hour, the best made during the trip. Passing well to the northward of the leeward Society Islands, Bora Bora, Tahaa, Raiatea and Huahine, the only evidence of their proximity was an occasional tern or shearwater which had flown far to seek fish.

    “At 3 o’clock on the morning of January 1, 1925 the steady eye of the Point Venus light  northeast of Papeete was plainly visible. Shortly afterward the low line of lights bordering on the shore of Papeete harbor began to appear at the base of a dark bulk which was interpreted as the island of Tahiti.  The Kaimiloa, without waiting for a pilot,

brought the range lights into line and at 4:30 sailed through the Natural break in the reef and came to anchor in the placid waters of the harbor.

    PAPEETE AT LAST

“The first leg of the cruise was finished and the Kaimiloa had behaved nobly under all conditions of weather and currents encountered.

To be sure the voyage had been a calm one.  Only a few rain squalls had broken an otherwise period of fair weather.

    “As the spreading dawn revealed the towering slopes of Tahiti’s famed green mountains, those who witnessed the sight from the decks of the Kaimiloa appreciated its glory as a fitting close of a most comfortable and interesting trip.  The imagination, in tracing the course from Hawaii through the Fanning group to Malden and Penrhyn, saw other crafts in the form of long outrigger or double canoes plying their pioneer paths from island to island in centuries past. There were no comfortable berths and marvellous refrigeration plants aboard those boats---but the Kaimiloa party had seen the evidence that some, at least of these courageous voyagers had established their culture upon the isolated atolls of Polynesia.

    “‘Thus, through the interest and generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Kellum, valuable additions to the knowledge of those people and the environments in which they lived have been recorded.”

Not in the article

    “As Papeete was a point from which various interesting islands could be reached by means of local vessels it seemed best, after conferring wit Mr. and Mrs. Kellum, for the museum party to scatter and through their generosity, smaller groups were enabled to work in various locations.  Dr. Ball and Rogers returned to Honolulu via San Francisco.

Emory and Sperry visited the islands of the Society group.  Emory making a side trip to the Tuamotus, and the Wilders spent some time in the former archipelagos, planning to return to Honolulu after visiting Rarotonga and New Zealand, British Samoa, Fiji, and other interesting places.

    “ To continue the narrative:

    “Father Rougier and his party went ashore.  In the meanwhile arrangements had been made for a car for four of our party.

    “The houses of the natives are quite interesting--;most of them being made of bamboo with braided coconut leaves for roofs.  As you pass along the road you notice lovely bright colored spreads on the beds---red, yellow, orange, green, or any other color. 

HOMEWARD BOUND

    The Kaimiloa left Moorea at 5:10 A.M. On March 1.  Then she went on to the Tuamotus, sailing close to the barren island of Ahi and arriving at Rahiroa on March 2, having covered 202 miles in one day, seven hours and 55 minutes.  She left there on March 8 at 5:00 p.m. arriving at Manihi at 11:10 a.m. on March 9.  There was no anchorage and leaving Manihi at 11:50 that night, the yacht arrived at Takaroa on March 10 at 10:30 a. m.  She left there at 6 o’clock in the evening and, running 103 miles on the 11th under strong headwinds, made 126 miles on the 12th.

    The Kaimiloa arrived at ? Bay, Uapon Island in the Marquesas at 10:55 p.m. on March 13, having completed 410 miles in three days, four hours, and 55 minutes. She left there on the 14th, stopping at Hakahutau at 9:40 a. m. and left at 12:25 arriving at Taiohae Bay an the island of  Nukuhiva    at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. She sailed from there at 9 p. m. on March 18 and arrived on the 19th at Taahuku Bay, Hivaa, at 1:12 p.m.  Leaving that place on March 22 6:30 a. m. the Kaimiloa stopped at Vai-Tahu Bay on the island of Tauata where the party spent the day, leaving at 9 p. m. and arriving at Typee Bay, Nukahiva at 8:10 a. m.

    Typee was left behind on the homeward run on March 24 and the first days run   was 117 miles.  Squalls hit the vessel on March 26 and the run was 180: engines were stopped at 8 a. m. on the 27th and the run was 188: on the 28th, crossing the equator at 9 a.m. it was 118: on the 29th it was 142: with rough weather on the 30th with a strong northeast wind it was 182.  That was the last day of the trades.

    The run on March 31 was 188: on April 1, 188: on April 2, 188: on the third 218: on the fourth, 194: and Hawaii was sighted at 9:20 in the morning.  The engine  s were started off Diamond Head and the Kaimiloa arrived at Honolulu at 10:22 on April 5