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[187] chapter 19 Lahaina and Honolulu A winding glass around we’ll pass— We’re finished with our whaling. —from a variant of “Blow, Ye Winds,” whaling song1 It was the height of the spring recruiting season at Lahaina when Melville’s ship arrived. Fourteen whalers lay in the roadstead on April 27, and another cast anchor during the day. The Midas of New Bedford, now on a new voyage under a new master and making ready to sail, the William Lee of Newport , and the Mary of Edgartown were all familiar ships to Melville, who had seen them during his voyage in the Acushnet. Three crafts from Captain Coleman’s Nantucket were there too—the Young Hero, the Harvest, and the Walter Scott. Other whalers in port were two barques named Pantheon, one from Fall River and one from New Bedford, the Newark of Stonington, and a group of New Bedford blubber-hunters, the Liverpool, the Nimrod, the New Bedford, the Callao, and the Kutusoff. Before sunset the Julian of New Bedford put in and on the following day the Condor from the same port came to anchor. Melville had probably never before seen so many whaleships at one time. During his three-week stay at Lahaina, thirty-two vessels of the fishery visited the roadstead, and approximately eight hundred whaling men had shore leave in the town.2 Coopering the oil, repairing ship, and bringing provisions on board kept the men of the Charles and Henry busy for the first few days in port. After the work slacked off, Captain Coleman paid a visit on May 2, 1843, to John B. Stetson,the United States vice–commercial agent on the island.He took with him John Wallace, Joseph Whiting, and Herman Melville.Wallace, who had become ill during the cruise, was discharged as a destitute seaman with the usual three-months’ wages put up for his keep.3 Melville and Whiting were discharged too and paid their share in the oil taken during the previous six months.4 They had apparently shipped for the cruise only, and their agreements with the ship were ended.What Melville’s reasons were for stopping at the Sandwich Islands we can only guess.Perhaps he saw no further economic gain in working for a ship so beset with hard luck. He may have had visions of high adventure such as he had experienced at Nukahiva,Tahiti,and Eimeo. [188]   Herman Melville’s Whaling Years Or Captain Coleman may have chosen not to renew his contract. Whatever Melville’s plans might have been, he did not at the time wish to continue a career in the fishery, for he could have secured a berth aboard one of the several whale ships in port. As things turned out, with his discharge from the Charles and Henry Melville ended once and for all his years as a whaleman. “More order reigns here than in any other town of the same size I have seen in Polynesia,”Lieutenant Charles Wilkes wrote of Lahaina after a visit in 1841.5 In recent years Lahaina had gained ascendancy over Honolulu as a favorite port of call for whaling captains visiting the Sandwich Islands,and for good reason.6 There were no heavy anchorage charges or towing fees, provisions were plentiful, and the prevailing blue laws and absence of grog shops militated against riotous conduct by sailors on shore leave.7 The Reverend Samuel C. Damon, a missionary from Honolulu who spent two Sundays at Lahaina when Melville was there, found the conduct of visiting whalemen most gratifying.8 The whaling fleet was in and perforce on good behavior. With a limited amount of money in his pockets, Melville was now his own man, free to wander at will about the town. There was not a great deal to see or do.The grass houses in which lived some three thousand inhabitants of Lahaina were mostly on one main street stretching along the beach for a distance of about three quarters of a mile.9 Principal objects for the sightseer were the half-finished coral palace of the king, the quadrangular fort where errant seamen were imprisoned, and two places of worship, the native church and the small seamen’s bethel. On the side of a mountain that rose 6,130 feet behind the town one could see the missionary seminary of Lahainaluna two miles away, where native sons of Maui were educated to become teachers in the local...

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