100 Years Ago – Captain Solomon Keonaona

From the 1 April 1920 issue of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, an article regarding the quick action taken by Captain Solomon Keonaona of the Young Brothers tug Huki-huki to save a US Navy coal barge:

Previously, Captain Keonaona had made the news at the beginning of December 1919 when he was in command of the Young Brothers tug Helen.

The tug had been towing a Hawaiian Dredging Co. barge out to sea from Honolulu Harbor when she lost engine power and ran aground in shallow water off Sand Island. The barge with one crewman on board also ran aground further out on the reef.

After donning lifebelts, Captain Keonaona and his crew member, David Waiola, swam to shore.

Keonaona and his assistant went to Pier 12, got a small rowboat belonging to Young Brothers, rowed it to Sand Island, lifted it from the water of the harbor and put it aboard the powder magazine railway, which runs across the island. At the railway’s end they dragged to boat to the beach line, launched it and after a hard fight managed to reach the scow, the surf nearly swamping the tiny rowboat. Calling to the Japanese [crewman], they got him off the barge and brought him ashore. (“Heroic Rescue Is Effected at Harbor’s Mouth.” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 4 December 1919.)

Captain Keonaona must have been quite a character. Another Honolulu Star-Bulletin article (“Sharkless Shark Hunt Is ‘The Bunk’”) from 22 July 1919 describes him as a “talented helmsman who opens soda water bottles with his teeth.”