"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked,
in which you can walk with love and reverence"
Thoreau
in which you can walk with love and reverence"
Thoreau
A L O H A
Forward into Hawaii's Past!
Ye photographs may be viewed by "clicking" upon them
These are Ballast Stones carried by sailing vessels here to Honolulu. Once they loaded with sandalwood,the ballast wasn't needed
and so remained here.
Photo: display at the Missionary Houses Museum.
What must it have been like to sail to Hawai‘i
with the first missionaries?
The ancient Kapu ("taboo") system and the temple idols had only recently been overthrown by the Hawaiians themselves.
When royal men & women dined together without apparent harm it was the end of the old ways.
Then the brig Thaddeus arrived from Massachusetts carrying the first missionaries into this extraordinary cultural/spiritual void.
Change swept the islands like a slow-motion hurricane.
On October 23, 1819, when the Brig Thaddeus left Boston carrying 19 Protestant missionaries bound for the Sandwich Islands with 4 Hawaiians, 3 of whom had been educated at the Cornwall School, little did they know that they would change the history of the Islands in profound ways.
En route to the Hawai‘i, a day-by-day journal
was kept of the voyage.
Entries vary from the mundane
to events of great hardship and danger.
A hundred and ninety years later, you can follow their
six month voyage by going online to
This blog was created by the Mission Houses Museum, which owns the journal, in conjunction with a new exhibit titled “Coming to Hawai‘i: A Trunk Show,” which opens in January 2010.
“We want people to become engaged in the day-to-day challenges the missionaries faced during their long and perilous voyage. Most of the missionaries were quite young—in their early twenties—newly married and full of optimism and hope for their plan to bring Christianity and Western education to the Hawaiian people. It required a great deal of courage to commit themselves to going to such a far away, unknown place, not knowing if they would ever return to their New England homeland.”
Elizabeth Nosek, Senior Curator, Mission Houses Museum, Honolulu
“We want people to become engaged in the day-to-day challenges the missionaries faced during their long and perilous voyage. Most of the missionaries were quite young—in their early twenties—newly married and full of optimism and hope for their plan to bring Christianity and Western education to the Hawaiian people. It required a great deal of courage to commit themselves to going to such a far away, unknown place, not knowing if they would ever return to their New England homeland.”
Elizabeth Nosek, Senior Curator, Mission Houses Museum, Honolulu
See you there!
ALOHA Friends, cloudia
What an interesting way of presenting history. I might just follow this for a while. Just think of what other journals of could be presented in this way! Captain Cook or Charles Darwin?
ReplyDeletethe tiny plant is so cute..
ReplyDeleteI love that sturdy little plant pushings its way up through the stone cloudia. Also those ballast stones are very interesting - had not heard of that.
ReplyDeleteAlways love the history you present. those ballast stones are remarkable, and I never would have guess what they are if you hadn't said!
ReplyDeleteI love to see plants growing in places where they shouldn't. It always gives me hope for life
ReplyDeleteThat is such a hopeful little plant. And thanks for the link to The Thaddeus Journal.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting history lesson Cloudia, thankyou. x
ReplyDeleteCool post! I liked the pictures of the plant and the ballast.
ReplyDeleteCloudia -- how close to the shore are the ballast stones? Did some sober sailor haul them up?
ReplyDeleteDrumMajor
Pieces of ballast one will love to carry through life.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful week for you!
Enjoyed the history and loved the Thoreau quote!! Have a happy week, cher! :)
ReplyDeleteYour opening quote and photo made me smile. It's great to see greenery and life where you least expect it.
ReplyDeletexo
The missionaries came with such lofty goals but ended up also causing misery for the Hawaiian people who were not prepared for all their childhood illnesses.
ReplyDeleteI really love that first photo
ReplyDeletethe never failing hope of nature :)
Those ballast stones are interesting. I sometimes wondered how that kind of stuff worked. Thanks for clearing up the mystery.
ReplyDeleteAlways always always I learn something new and fascinating here ... Aloha, my sister!
ReplyDeleteThanks Friends!
ReplyDelete