A CRUISE TO HAWAII a long time ago

With this week's Sepia Saturday subject being ships I couldn't resist posting some images about what it once meant to take a cruise to an exotic location in the 1930s. Several of these images were posted in 2009.

The Matson Navigation Company is credited with introducing mass tourism to Hawaii with the opening of the historic Moana Hotel (now known as the Moana Surfrider Hotel) and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki on the island of Oahu.

William Matson (1849–1917) was the founder of the Matson Navigation Company. He was born in Lysekil in Västra Götaland County, Sweden, and orphaned during childhood. He arrived in San Francisco after a trip around Cape Horn in 1867. Working aboard the Spreckels family yacht, he struck up a friendship with tycoon Claus Spreckels, who financed many of Matson's new ships. In 1882 the three masted schooner Emma Claudina ran to the Hawaiian Islands. The enterprise began in the carrying of merchandise, especially of plantation stores, to the islands and returning with cargoes of sugar. This led to gradually expanding interests at both ends of the line. Increased commerce brought a corresponding interest in Hawaii as a tourist attraction. This interest in Hawaiʻi as a tourist destination soon prompted the construction of the Moana Hotel in 1901. More steamships continued to join the fleet. When Captain Matson died in 1917, the Matson fleet comprised 14 of the largest, fastest and most modern ships in the Pacific passenger-freight service.

The decade from thee mid-'20s to mid-'30s marked a significant period of Matson expansion. In 1925, the company established Matson Terminals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, to perform stevedoring and terminal services for its fleet. With increasing passenger traffic to Hawaiʻi, Matson built a world-class luxury liner, the S.S. Malolo, in 1927. At the time, the Malolo was the fastest ship in the Pacific, cruising at 22 knots. Its success led to the construction of the luxury liners Mariposa, Monterey and Lurline between 1930 and 1932. Matson's famed "white ships" were instrumental in the development of tourism in Hawaii. In addition, beginning in 1927, with the construction of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Matson's Waikiki hotels provided tourists with luxury accommodations both ashore and afloat. To generate excitement and allure for Hawaii as a world-class tourist destination, Matson developed an ambitious and enduring advertising campaign that involved the creative efforts of famous photographers such as Edward Steichen and Anton Bruehl. In addition, Matson commissioned artists to design memorable keepsake menus for the voyages, as well as during their stay at the Royal Hawaiian.[1] For a brief period following WW II, Matson operated a luxurious airline using DC-4 aircraft between the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. The airline ultimately ceased operations because of political pressure from Pan American World Airways, which resulted in inability to obtain federal government scheduled operating authority. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

As a child my family sailed to Hawaii, our second time, on the Matsonia. It was on that ship that I met the little girl who was to become my life long friend. We have wonderful memories of running around the ship together getting into all sorts of trouble. It was a grand adventure for a child. Imagine what it was like for adult women in the 1930s.



I don't know when this photo was taken of the Royal Hawaiian and Moana hotels. When I moved to Hawaii the Royal Hawaiian and the Moana, the hotel on the right, were still standouts in Waikiki. Now you can barely see them. I'm saddened for what Waikiki became, but glad I got to see it before the palm trees gave way to cement. Once upon a time the grounds of the Royal stretched to Kalakaua Ave. and were a magical place to visit. Not much left of it anymore.

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I have an album of photos that belonged to a woman named Jean who took a trip from San Francisco to Hawaii aboard the S. S. Manoa back in the late 20s or early 30s. She probably stayed at one of the Matson hotels. What an adventure she had far from her everyday life.

Go Jean, go! Shake it baby, shake it! Kick up your heels and let your hair down. Go native and feel the lahala mat beneath your bare feet. Catch the scent of a plumeria as the tradewinds blow by. What happens in Hawaii stays in Hawaii...except for the gossip the whole way home aboard ship. 

Here we have another snapshot of Jean on her Hawaiian adventure. Ukulele's were very popular at the beginning of the last century so maybe she already knew how to play before her exotic vacation. I sure wish she'd taken the opportunity to go a bit more native in her clothing. She should have kicked off her shoes and gone a little wild and left the pearls at home. But casual Hawaiian clothing for tourists was still a few decades away. Think Aloha shirts and brightly printed muu muus. Let her hair down, put a flower behind her ear, a brightly colored dress, and bare feet, and the folks back home would have thought she'd gone absolutely pagan.

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I don't know who these fellows are, but I'm suspicious they were drivers for either the Royal Hawaiian or the Moana. Tourists could get a package deal by going on the Matson ship to Hawaii and then staying at one of Matson's hotels. I'm imagining it was the job of these fellows to drive the visitors to various spots on the island and bring them back happy and exhausted each evening to a nice meal at the hotel and the setting sun.

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And nothing said Hawaii to a Mainlander more back in the 1930s than Bing Crosby with his faux Hawaiian songs. These old songs and old clips for me are as much ephemera as the printed piece. I know technically they're not, but they're all part of times long ago now all but forgotten. They put the people in the photos in some sort of context and it gives me a moment to step-back-in-time and experience that world.

Jean must bid adieu to her Hawaiian adventure and head back to San Francisco to her real life. Did she throw her lei overboard hoping it would reach the shores guaranteeing her return to the islands? We'll never know. She had at least four and a half days of seaside pleasure before sailing back into the Golden Gate. There's a very good possibility that she did not sale beneath the Golden Gate Bridge because it might not yet have been built.

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And here are two ladies that are not from Jean's album. I'm guessing this was taken as they left Honolulu aboard a Matson liner, most likely in the 1930s. Festooned with leis, you can see the remnants of the streamers that had been handed out to everyone to throw from the ship to those left behind on the dock next to the Aloha Tower. I can tell you it was a grand sight to see and even more fun to do. Many times during the years I lived on Oahu we went to the dock to welcome new military families or to say goodbye to those that were leaving. My best friend and I would gather up streamers into a big pile and cover ourselves with them. Wonderful memories.

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And a final glimpse of Waikiki and Diamond Head long before the developers had a chance to destroy it. True, much of Waikiki was a swamp, but it seems these days it's just a swamp of another kind.


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