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Half Way Around The World
Norwegians in Hawaii by Jon Satrum
On a sunny hot Hawaiian day in February my wife Carolyn and I were at McGregor's Point on the south coast of Maui overlooking the ocean. Standing next to us were Sons of Norway members: International Secretary Torre Petterson, his wife Gerry; and Audun Davik retired Norwegian from Oahu who is also a member of Friends of the Bautastein. With us as well were Nina Fasi, Consul of the Royal Norwegian Consulate from Honolulu, 19 people from Nordmanns Forbundet (The Norse Federation) who traveled half way around the world to be here this day, and 20 people of Norwegian heritage from Oahu and Maui.
We were all there to celebrate the immigration of Norwegians to Maui and to witness the dedication of a new memorial stone (bautastein) commemorating that event.
A month earlier, unaware of any Norwegian connection with Hawaii, I was talking with Mariann Erlenbach of Leif Erikson #5-097 at Bethesda Home. Our lodges had joined together to provide an afternoon of good food, song, and dancing for residents of the home. Mariann had learned I was traveling to Maui and told me about Norwegian immigration there, as well as about the new bautasetin project. That was the start of a fascinating journey into the history of Norwegians on Maui.
125 years earlier to the day, the bark (the type of sailing ship on which my ancestors sailed to America from Trondheim in 1865), Beta, dropped anchor here at McGregor's Point and approximately 400 Scandinavians, mostly Norwegians from Drammen, started their new life. In May another ship, Musca would arrive from Drammen. Like many long sailings in those days, not everyone survived the voyage. Twenty-four of the Norwegians on the Beta, including 9 children, died en route. Seven babies were born.
Like many of our ancestors they left Norway looking for a better life. But they were unprepared for and unhappy with the circumstances at their destination. Reality didn't match what they were told by fellow Norwegian, Christian L'Orange. L'Orange, Norwegian sea captain, owner of a sugar plantation, and an immigration official of the Hawaiian Kingdom was sent to Norway by Castle and Cook Company to recruit laborers to work in the sugar cane fields. L'Orange recruited 629 Norwegians with approximately 400 sailing on the Beta. When he couldn't get enough farmers, he recruited any available person including artisans and industrial workers.
After a long difficult voyage across the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, through the dangerous Strait of Magellan at the tip of South America and half way across the Pacific Ocean they arrived at Ma'alaea Bay on February 14, 1881. A desert scene with a bleak mountain backdrop greeted them followed by an impersonal assignment to the plantation where they
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would work (some felt they were being treated like cattle or slaves). While individual families were kept together, older relatives might be assigned to a different plantation.
The workers had signed a 3-year labor contract to work at the plantations and were told they would be working in a land of perpetual "Norwegian summer" with abundant fruits and other food. Their contract stated they would work 10 hours every day and when asked do more some refused and were imprisoned.
Adding to their discontent was the fact that the Norwegian version of the contract they had signed differed in some respects from the English version the plantation owners were given. Also, the foremen expected laborers to do just what they were told and put up with mistreatment, including beatings. As we might expect, the Norwegians objected. They became so vocal that a sympathetic newspaper on the mainland started carrying stories about their treatment (which was probably not any different than that of any of the other workers). Sentiment in Norway became so intense that Parliament was forced to send a Norwegian representative to the islands to investigate.
The island view was different. There were several articles in newspapers about the Norwegians' dissatisfaction. While some accounts about the Norwegians were positive, many of the articles in local newspapers were negative. The most common theme was that the Norwegians saw themselves as "too good for the position of plantation workers". Some Norwegians bought their way out of their contracts and dissatisfied workers would sometimes violate their contract and just leave the island. "The Norwegians do not seem to be a very satisfactory kind of laborer; these sudden departures are becoming too frequent" wrote one newspaper.
Eventually only about 100 Norwegians stayed in the islands. The remainder immigrated primarily to the U.S. mainland.
With humpback whales and their young surfacing in Ma'alaea Bay in the background, we learned more about the original bautastein erected 25 years earlier to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Norwegians arriving on Maui. Today, the original monument has been moved to a more stable/secure location and a new plaque created to replace the original that had deteriorated and been abused by vandals.
After a traditional Hawaiian blessing by the minister of the Keawala'i Congregational Church, Rev. Kealahou C. Alika, assisted by Patty Mazingo, the group attended a celebration banquet. Patty, with help and support from her husband, Steve, and son Evan led the project to restore the bautastein. At the banquet we learned more about the restoration project. The speeches included The Nordmanns Forbundet presenting a gift to Patty and the presentation and reading of a declaration from Linda Lingle, the governor of Hawaii, making this week Scan See HALF-WAY (Continued on page 5)
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