Spirits of Darkness primeval,Spirits of Light,To Kane, the eternal,To Kanaloa, the eternal,To Hoomeha, the eternal,To all my ancestors from eternity,To Ku-huluhulumanu, the eternal,That you may banish the darkness,that we may enter the light.To me, give divine power,Give intelligence,Give great success.Climb to the wooded mountains,to the mountain ridges,Gather all the birds,Bring them to my gumto beContinue reading “The Rulers of The Heavens”
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The Boys in the Fifth
In 1943 I was born into a world at war. My father, an American infantry captain, was in New Guinea with General Robert Eichelberger’s Eighth Army. Eichelberger later disclosed that his marching orders from General MacArthur had been to clear New Guinea of the enemy or not return. Both he and my father survived, butContinue reading “The Boys in the Fifth”
COMDESRON-50
It was lunchtime with the Admiral, at his winter home in Hilo. My mother made macaroni and cheese, his favorite meal. She had a not-so-secret recipe; she added milk to the noodles, put a heavy layer of cheddar over everything, then baked it. I took my portion first, the rest was his. There would beContinue reading “COMDESRON-50”
The Search for Amelia Earhart: Nikumaroro
When it became apparent, on July 2, 1937, that the plane carrying Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan was lost and would not be landing at Howland Island as planned, the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, which had been dispatched to Howland to assist Earhart, contacted US Navy headquarters in Honolulu and requested assistance with a search.Continue reading “The Search for Amelia Earhart: Nikumaroro”
The Search for Amelia Earhart: Howland
There had been rain in the night, like thunder on the aged tin roof. Not the usual Hilo rain, this deluge reminded the Admiral of the furious squalls in the Line Islands south of Hawaii, at Howland, where he had spent that never to be forgotten July a lifetime ago, before the War, when heContinue reading “The Search for Amelia Earhart: Howland”
Gone To The Sandwich Islands part 2
Tracking my Macy forebears was easy. But the clues relating to my native ancestry were all in another language, my mother’s language, the one she used when she and her nurse Alice Kaleikau had lunch together at our home in Hilo. It was miko if the poi was a bit on the sour side, andContinue reading “Gone To The Sandwich Islands part 2”
Gone To The Sandwich Islands part 1
The 1890 edition of the two-volume Macy family genealogy devoted but a single line to my great- great grandfather: Benjamin Baxter Macy, born Nantucket 1842: gone to the Sandwich islands. Gone, at age 19, on an eighteen thousand mile sea voyage, first to Rio, around Cape Horn to Valparaiso, then northwest into the Pacific, neverContinue reading “Gone To The Sandwich Islands part 1”
The Silver Ship part 2
The Kilauea Hou offloaded two lifeboats; the first contained a dozen patients; the second, RLS and two nuns who were arriving for the first time. One of the nuns was in tears. As he put it later in a letter to his wife, Stevenson recalled his golden rule: when one is ashamed to speak, thatContinue reading “The Silver Ship part 2”
The Silver Ship part 1
“The Silver Ship, my King—that was her name in the bright islands whence your fathers came— The Silver Ship, at rest from winds and tides, Below your palace in your harbor rides:” (from To Kalakaua, by RLS) It was late January, 1889, when the yacht Casco, with Robert Louis Stevenson and family aboard, finally madeContinue reading “The Silver Ship part 1”
Kaiulani’s Crystals part 4
Fresh from three long years before the mast on the whaling ship Peruvian, George M. Robertson landed in Honolulu in 1844. He was 23, and had no interest, after seeing Oahu, in returning to St. Johns, New Brunswick, with his ship. He began to study law and the Hawaiian language, and within a short timeContinue reading “Kaiulani’s Crystals part 4”
The Ruler of the Heavens 