Cover: First lit on May I, 1913, the unique clamshell Fresnel lens of Kilauea Light was at the time the strongest light in the Pacific. Situated on the northern most tip of the inhabitable island chain, it once guided ships traveling from Asia, as well as the first trans-Pacific airplane flight. The last manned lighthouse, it became automated in 1974 and today it provides a visitor center for the Kilauea wildlife refuge.

The vast Pacific surrounds the Hawaiian Island chain, extending for thousands and thousands of miles, isolating these tiny specks of land, yet at the same time linking them to the rest of the world, and each other. Until very recent times the ocean was humanity's sole access to this splendid string of islands. As such, the maritime heritage of Hawai`i is a profound one, from the Polynesian voyagers sailing their outrigger canoes to today's cargo ships, fishermen, and recreational boaters, all of whom ply the waves, encountering the world's largest ocean on its terms.

The ocean has not only carried a multitude of people to Hawai`i, both as settlers and visitors, but has also transported innumerable goods to and from the Islands. The first Hawaiians came by sea and survived by the sea, using it for its bounty and as a mode of transportation about the islands. Today we remain dependent on the ocean, less so for its resources than for the 30,000 tons of cargo which arrive daily in ships' hulls. In addition, surfing, canoeing, and sailing remain favored activities, offering myriad recreational pleasures.

Over time the types of maritime endeavors have changed, from fishing, to sandalwood trade, to whaling, and then the export of sugar and other agricultural goods; however, the need to address the ocean has remained constant. For many centuries outrigger canoes satisfied these needs, serving as a vehicle for trans-oceanic, inter-island and intra-island transport.

Indeed, it was often easier to travel by canoe than by foot over the islands' hilly terrain. Following the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778, sailing ships became increasingly common objects in Hawaiian waters, with various ali'i acquiring their own ships. By 1810, King Kamehameha boasted a fleet of over thirty ships. However, Hawai`i's physical formation with its rocky, in many places sheer cliff, coastline was at odds with the larger ships. Only three natural, protected harbors, Kane'ohe Bay, Pearl Harbor and Honolulu existed in the entire island chain. Honolulu was favored as it was easier for ships to work up the leeward side of an island. Other harbors had to be developed in order to accommodate the new, larger vessels.

The age of sail reached its height during the whaling industry's peak years of 1845, when almost 600 whalers docked at Lahaina's roads and in Honolulu harbor. In addition to the two primary centers, Hilo and Koloa also received whaling ships, and smaller outports were established at such places as Kawaihae, Hanalei, and Kane'ohe for the shipping of provisions to the major ports of call. Outside Honolulu, few ports had wharves, and goods usually had to be lightered between ship and shore in small boats.

Steamship service commenced on an inter-island basis in 1844, offering relief from a dependence on the whims of the wind; however, it was not until after the signing of the 1876 reciprocity treaty and the ensuing sugar boom that this form of transportation would become established on a regular basis. Claus Spreckels' Oceanic Steamship Company, incorporated in 1881, and later William Matson's Matson Navigation Company, would control much of the shipping between Hawai`i and the west coast. In addition, steamships also successfully entered the inter-island trade, with the Wilder Steamship Line and Thomas Foster's Inter-island Steamship Navigation Company coming to the fore. Much of the inter-island business related to the transport of sugar and the provisioning of the Islands' far-flung plantation communities. By 1884 there were sixty sugar mills in operation in Hawai`i, and another twenty-eight plantations without mills. While some companies utilized overland transportation to move their sugar to ports at Hilo, Mahukona, and Kahului, over forty producers had no choice but to operate from their own private landings. This was especially true along the Hamakua coast where high cliffs and frequently rough seas made shipping especially treacherous.

Traveling at speeds of up to eight knots the steamships offered a dependable means of transport, for as Isabella Bird noted in IS73, the Kilauea was, "the only sure mode of reaching the windward islands (of Maui and Hawai`i from O'ahu) in less than one week." However, sailing vessels remained popular throughout the nineteenth century and their commercial use did not effectively come to an end until the first decade of the twentieth century, when gasoline powered vessels started to appear. After that time, sailing would be primarily a recreational activity. Inter-island steamship service ceased operations by 1952, the result of a combination of factors including the increased utilization of trucks for hauling products to and from major ports, the coming of age of inter-island airline travel, and the ascendancy of barges as a means of transporting goods between the islands. It is also during the post-war era that the Territory began to develop small boat harbors, with the aid of the Army Corps of Engineers. The initial harbors primarily improved upon mooring areas utilized by fishermen in protected bays and coves, such as Ma'alaea on Maui and the mouth of Anahola Stream in Hale`iwa, and were also adjacent to commercial harbor facilities such as at Port Allen and Kawaihae. The small boat harbors also came to address recreational and houseboat needs, such as at the Ala Wai.

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