Chasing Domes In Hawai'i, Part One: Setting the Stage for the Ukrainian Colony

To understand the how and why that a Ukrainian Colony on the Big Island was formed, it’s important to consider the very rapid transformation of Hawai'i after European contact. The first ship of Ukrainian workers in 1897 was just a mere 119 years after Captain Cook's arrival in the Islands.

Polynesian Settlement and European Contact

Hawai'i was first settled by incredibly sophisticated Polynesian seafarers from Tahiti sometime around 900-1000 AD, with possibly some earlier Polynesians reaching modern-day Hawai'i around 400 AD. For several centuries voyages were made between Hawaii and the Tahitian homeland as farming, settlements, wars, rival kingdoms, and eventual unity took place over 700 or so years.

Then, on January 18, 1778, land was sighted by Captain James Cook and his two ships HMS Discovery and HMS Resolution. Two days later on January 20th, the two ships anchored just off of Kauai’s south shore at the mouth of the Waimea River.

Disease, missionaries, and plantations quickly followed. Soon sugar plantations and cattle appeared across the Archipelago changing the landscape and demographics. Workers and settlers came from around the world and Hawai'i was rapidly changed.

And on January 17, 1893, just one day short of the 115th anniversary of Captain Cook’s arrival, Queen Lili’uokalani and the Kingdom of Hawai'i was overthrown by the United States.

The rest is history.

The Russian American Company

Just a mere few hundred yards away from Captain’s Cook landing site on Kauai stands the ruins of Fort Elizabeth which was built by the Russian American Company in 1817. And within the Fort was the Archipelago’s first Orthodox chapel. Two other forts existed on the north side of Kauai near Hanalei. The Russian American Company was a fur trading and colonizing force under the Tsar’s charter. It was formed in 1799 and essentially ceased to exist following the Alaska Purchase. This is the same group which established Fort Ross just north of San Francisco on the coast of Northern California.

Fort Elizabeth and the Waimea River, Kauai. This Fort is the location of the first Orthodox church in Hawai'i and likely in Polynesia. Photo attributed to Getty Images.

A Ukrainian Island?

The first Russian ship, Neva, under the Russian American Company, to circumnavigate the globe was under the command of Yuri Lysiansky, a native of the famed-Kozak town Nizhyn, Ukraine and son of an Orthodox priest. Nizhyn is roughly 70 miles notheast of Kyiv.

Yuri Lysiansky, above, and below is Lisianski Island. Both images are from Wikipedia.

In 1805 the Neva under Yuri Lysiansky’s command ran aground on shoals just over 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu. Near the shoals was a small 385 acre island which, today, is called Lisianski Island (Papa‘āpoho in Hawaiian) and is one of the ten or so Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Surrounding the Island are Neva Shoals.

The First Ukrainian Contract Workers Arrive

Ukrainian migration to North and South America was in full swing by the end of the 19th Century. Ukrainians first arrived in Brazil in the 1870s. Fr. Ivan Voliansky arrived in Shenandoah, PA in December of 1884 to establish the first Ukrainian Greek Catholic parish in the US. The first Ukrainians arrived in Canada in September of 1891. Surely word of the New World za okeanom spread quickly among the towns and villages of Galicia and beyond.

According to Michael Ewanchuk’s seminal book Hawaiian Ordeal: Ukrainian Contract Workers 1897 - 1910, the first group of Ukrainians signed contracts (what later turned out to be unjust and lead the workers into a sort of indentured servitude) in Bremen, Germany for work in Hawaii.

HF Glade. Image from thegardenisland.com. The HF Glade was a three-mast sailing ship in service from 1894 until 1901 when it presumably sank on a voyage leaving San Francisco.

A letter to Svoboda by Dmytro Pukhalsky that was published in May 1900 (Volume/Issue 19) relates that it was a four month journey around Cape Horn on the H.F. Glade. And this four month journey was under horrendous conditions. Daily rations were reported as black coffee and water for breakfast, half a liter (at best) of soup for lunch, and black tea with hard bread for dinner. A lot of the passengers’ heavier clothing and items were cast overboard before rounding the bitterly cold Cape. When the passengers would complain or ask for more rations, they would be flogged with a wet rope with 10 to 15 lashes. The victim would then be tied to the mast for several hours. After this, the German Captain would hit each cheek and say “that is your breakfast.”

Excerpt from Dmytro Pukhalsky's letter to Svoboda in May 1900.

The HF Glade finally arrived in Honolulu on July 25, 1897.

Honolulu Harbor in1897. Image from the Hawaii State Archives

Most of the Ukrainians on the manifest were single men: Holowaty, Chorny, Florkiv, Verbytsky, Pavlovsky, Kokhan, Yakymyshyn, Lakusta, Pundyk among many others.

Another view of the Honolulu Habor in 1897. Image from Hawai'i State Archives.

After a two day quarantine, the workers were either sent to the Big Island or stayed on O'ahu.

Also arriving on that ship were a few families, including Tymko (30), Kataryna (29), and Demko (5) Hoculak (also spelled Huculak in other places) from Kosiv.

Up Next: Part Two

Next in our series will be an in depth look at plantation life, the Hoculak (Huculak) family, and the 66 year priestly ministry of Fr. Huculak in Hawai'i.

Part Three will examine the curious case of Fr. Dronoff of Poltava in Hawai'i along with other Orthodox priests who served in the Islands.

Sugar plantation workers in Kaua'i. Some of the Ukrainian workers were sent to Kaua'i although the majority went to the Island of Hawai'i and others stayed in O'ahu. Image from Hawai'i State Archives.