Kewalo Basin’s rich history resonates with Ward Village

At one time the family of Curtis and Victoria Ward owned the land that included Kewalo Basin and the fishery that extended out to sea.

Ownership changed in 1913, when the Hawaii territorial government purchased the fishery for the paltry sum of $1,800 under threat of condemnation.

Now, Ward Village has retaken the harbor with a 35-year lease and has big plans for it.

“This area in pre-contact times (in ancient times) sustained life through fishing,” says Race Randle, Ward Village vice president of development.

“Kewalo” literally means “the calling,” as in an echo, according to Mary K. Pukui.

An artesian spring on the Ward Estate, where the Blaisdell Center is today, played an important role in the creation of the basin, Randle says. The spring created a pond on the Ward Estate, and water from it streamed to the ocean through an auwai, or ditch.

“The fresh water flowed into Kewalo and cut a slot in the barrier reef, allowing safe passage for boats in and out,” Randle continues. “This area was a landing site for sailing vessels in pre-contact times. It evolved into a harbor.

“Hawaiian legend talks about a father and son who landed at Kewalo and taught sustainable fishing techniques and systems.”

“That history really inspired us,” Randle says. “Kewalo was one of those key locations, like Honolulu Harbor, where sailing canoes could come in and out.

“At Ward Village we thought it would be great to connect this place back to that history, and back to its importance in fishing and navigation.

“So last year in September, we took over the management of Kewalo Harbor. Kewalo is a fantastic place today, and we see it as becoming Honolulu’s gathering place on the ocean.”

Sampan central

A hundred years ago Kewalo Basin was the center of Hawaii’s sampan industry. Sampans were Hawaii’s unique tuna fishing boats and were once a common sight in island waters.

Sampan is a Chinese word. “Sam” means three and “pan” means boards or planks, and describes their construction. They were a narrow version of the flat-bottomed Chinese junk.

Michael Shapiro, writing in Hana Hou! magazine, called them “an impressive piece of nautical engineering; stable even in high seas, fast and easy to drive, cheap to repair and comfortable for the crew who would sleep under an awning above deck.”

The first sampans, around 1900, had sails, but in 1905 motors were added. The design was tailored to Hawaii’s rough water channels.

More than 400 sampans operated around Oahu in the 1940s, making fishing Hawaii’s third-largest industry. Sugar and pineapple were first and second.

Shapiro said they used live bait, a small anchovy called nehu, to chum the water, causing a feeding frenzy among the aku.

“Standing barefoot on the deck of the heaving boat, with no safety harness or life vest to impede their movements, fishermen dipped lines with a single baitless hook into the water,” he said.

“Within seconds an aku would take the hook, and with a combination of physical strength and good timing, the fisherman would jerk it up, flick it over his shoulder and onto the deck, and drop his line back in the water.”

A skilled fisherman might catch three to five fish a minute, and a single aku boat might haul in 40,000 pounds of fish in one day.

One of my readers, Douglas Miki, told me that “in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, the Japanese fishing sampan fleet filled Kewalo Basin. I used to take my kids down at night to watch the boats unload their aku catch at the old Hawaiian Tuna Packers fish processing plant at Kewalo after being at sea for one to two weeks at a time.”

“By the 1980s the Kewalo sampan fleet had dwindled down to just four or five boats, and a few years ago the last — the Kula Kai— was unable to be repaired and was scuttled.

“Today nothing remains of this storied fishery and the early Japanese who pioneered this type of hand-fishing,” Miki says.

Film clips of men with old-fashioned bamboo fishing poles from sampans can be seen at Uncle’s Fish Market & Grill at Pier 38.

Uncle’s is not named for a particular person, but for all our uncles who fished back then.

The uncles, says founder Bruce Johnson, “were hard to get to know, tenacious, humble, a bit of kolohe — they can be rascals, but very honorable. They’re my heroes and they’re of all nationalities.”

‘Monster’ catch

In more recent times Kewalo Basin has been the center of Hawaii’s chartered sports-fishing industry.

The largest marlin ever caught with a rod and line was from the Coreene C, a 48-foot Hawaiian sampan fishing boat out of Kewalo Basin in 1970.

Capt. Cornelius Choy, daughter Gail Choy-Kaleiki and vacationers Mike Wachtier, Pat Morello, Charles Lewis and their wives took turns battling the 1,805-pound fish. Forty-five years later the record still stands.

A replica of “Choy’s Monster” was recently erected facing Ala Moana Boulevard.

Back in the day

Many of my readers, I’m sure, remember Fisherman’s Wharf, the Spencecliff restaurant, which opened in 1952. Previously it had been Felix’s Florintine Garden in the 1940s.

Also of note at Kewalo is a statute of St. Marianne Cope, who came here with six sisters of St. Francis to help St. Damien and those in the kingdom with leprosy. The site is not far from where they first served, at the Kaka‘ako Branch Hospital.

‘Our kuleana’

“Kewalo harbor has that rich history, and we want to tell it,” Randle concludes. “It is about fishing and needs to be about fishing going forward. It must have the feeling of a fishing village.

“It should have fishing supplies, things you’d take out on a fishing charter or day trip, fuel, food and easy parking. Little things like that will make it more fun to do what Kewalo is known for.

“When we saw something not well taken care of, that needed improvement, and we had the ability to make those improvements, it became our kuleana to take it on.

“We offered (to) the state to lease the harbor and make those improvements to the docks and to the piers, to make it a better place for the boaters.”

“We spruced up landscaping,” Randle added, “made sure the facilities are well maintained and open, and worked with the boaters to find ways to increase the visibility and accessibility of the harbor to locals and visitors.”

So, next time you’re in the area, check out what’s happening at Kewalo Basin.

Bob Sigall, author of the Companies We Keep books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.