Ninety-nine years ago today the U.S.S. California transited the channel entrance to Pearl Harbor and effectively opened the historic port to the world.  The ship that took center stage this morning is not to be confused with the battleship California, or BB-44 which found herself on Battleship Row in 1941.  This California was an armored-cruiser weighing in at about 14,000 tons and laden with 8, 6 and 3 inch guns.  Her entrance into Pearl Harbor was historic because she was the first large warship to enter the harbor following extensive dredging of the channel. 

Sanford Dole

On board the California on December 14, 1911 was the first and last President of the Republic of Hawaii Sanford Dole, and Queen Liliuokalani the last monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii.   Also along for the ride was the son of Sun Yat-Sen, whose father eventually lead the revolution in China which ended two-thousand years of imperial rule.  Sun Yat-Sen would be elected the first President of the Republic of China two weeks later on December 29.

Queen Liliuokalani

All of this resulted in an incredible juxtaposition of history in this famed haven on Oahu’s idyllic South shore.  Hawaii had undergone a great deal of turmoil in the years following Queen Liliuokalani’s ascension in 1891 and her subsequent attempts to restore control of the kingdom to the monarchy.  The Queen was overthrown in 1893 and in 1898 the new Republic of Hawaii was formally annexed as a territory of the United States.

The events that were occurring in the Far East, including the European colonization of coastal enclaves in China and South-East Asia and the genesis of the ascendancy of the Japanese Empire were important drivers that led to the United States growing interest in the Pacific region, and a recognition of the need for military facilities to provide American influence in the area. 

On the decks of the California that afternoon, all of those streams of history came together to open Pearl Harbor to the world.  None would fathom the importance of Hawaii’s place in the events that would soon set the world on fire.

Later in September of 1912 President Taft closed the harbor to all but American military traffic and Pearl Harbor's long legacy as America's central pacific bastion had begun.

USS California in Pearl Harbor.  December 14, 1911

A Nearly Historic Flight

On September 10, 1925 the submarine R-4 spotted an unusual site about 10 miles off the coast of Kauai. There, moving slowly through the Pacific waters was a PN-9 seaplane, with the canvas torn from its wings and rigged as sails. The sub captain hoped against hope that this was the aircraft that they had been searching for and ordered his signalman to contact the plane and ask for identification. The crew of the R-4 was relieved to receive the reply, “PN-9 No. 1 En route from San Francisco to Nawiliwili.”

On board the PN-9 No. 1 was Lt. Byron J. “Smike” Connell, Chief Aviation Pilot S.R. Pope, Aviation Pilot First Class William H. Bowlin, Chief Radioman Otis G. Stanz, and the aircraft’s commanding officer, Commander John Rodgers. These five men had left San Francisco Bay on August 31 in an attempt to become the first aircraft to fly non-stop to Hawaii. They ran out of gas about 450 miles shy of their destination and were forced to land on the afternoon of September 1. They spent the next 10 days at sea in their makeshift sailboat, while an extensive sea and air search was conducted.

The resourceful crew was fortunate to have Commander Rodgers in command. He had served as the first commanding officer of the Naval Air Station on Ford Island and was thoroughly familiar with the seas surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. At one point the crew could see the searchlights above Oahu, but Commander Rodgers was an expert navigator and determined that, based on the currents and wind directions, an attempt to head for Oahu would cause them to miss the island by 10 miles and sail off into the Northern Pacific which would be the end for them all. Instead, he correctly judged the elements and, led them away from Oahu to the position just off of Kauai where they were discovered.

After landfall on Kauai the entire crew boarded a ship and headed for Pearl Harbor where they were treated to a hero’s welcome on September 11.

The "New Navy" in Hawaii

Caught this image and reference on the Naval History and Heritage Command's Facebook page.  What was interesting to me was how many of these ships played important roles in the Navy's history in Hawaii.

The Boston arrived in Honolulu in August of 1892. In 1893 the crew was there to witness the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by local businessmen with ties to the United States who were opposed to Queen Lili’uokalani’s attempt to enforce a new constitution. Captain Wilste ordered troops ashore to protect American lives and interests and it could be argued that the presence of the landing party from an American warship emboldened the revolutionaries in their efforts to usurp the Hawaiian government. On January 17, 1893 the queen was deposed and the Republic of Hawaii was established.

The Chicago would arrive in Pearl Harbor in December of 1919 as flagship/tender of Submarine Division 14. The ship would serve in that capacity until 1923. It was in the early 1920s that the Pearl Harbor Sub Base was established with Commander Chester Nimitz serving as one of the first commanding officers and the one most instrumental in the construction of the base.

Finally the gunboat Petrel, which played an instrumental role in Admiral Dewey’s defeat of the Spanish fleet in Manila in 1898, became the first warship to enter the Pearl Harbor channel in 1905.