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 The Smithsonian Institution in Washington is moving to the
Kauai Museum some 1,250 lots of artifacts from the shipwreck
which experts say open a window into cultural change in the
archipelago from its period of westernization.
The objects from the collection will be put on show for the
public in the coming weeks.
The royal yacht sank in Kauai's Hanalei Bay in 1824 and left
objects ranging from a conk horn to grindstones buried under
sand, until Smithsonian curator Paul F. Johnston led a team that
recovered them in numerous dives between 1995 and 2000.
The artifacts demonstrate how Hawaii was undergoing social
change under the leadership of King Kamehameha II, who owned the
yacht, Johnston said.
For instance, there were Hawaiian weapons such as "canoe
breakers," which were rocks that had been attached to a rope,
along with Western objects of warfare such as musket balls.
There also were stones from a Hawaiian bowling game called Ulu
Maika, along with a checker from a Western checkerboard,
Johnston said.
Remnants of the ship itself mostly washed away over the decades.
It was built in Massachusetts in 1816 as America's first
ocean-going yacht, under the name "Cleopatra's Barge."
Kamehameha bought it in 1820 with about a million pounds of
sandalwood, Johnston said.
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Johnston, curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American
History, said he had held onto the artifacts until now because he
was writing a book about the shipwreck.
"What was really interesting for me is this was a time of cultures
in contrast and transition," Johnston said.
After coming to power in 1819, King Kamehameha II abolished a
Hawaiian taboo system and admitted Christian missionaries, which
further accelerated cultural change, Johnston said.
Charles "Chucky Boy" Chock, a native Hawaiian who is a consultant
with the Kauai Museum, said his team is combing through four crates
of the artifacts from the Smithsonian, including items such as glass
bottles and kuku, which are batton-like instruments used to beat out
bark.
Another two to three crates are due to be shipped to complete the
collection.
"It was brought home where it should be, Hawaii," Chock said.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel
Wallis)
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