One summer, long ago, when Kaua‘i’s teller of Hawaiian tales Eric Knudsen (1872-1957) was still a boy, his mother, Anne Sinclair Knudsen of Waiawa, Kaua‘i, decided to visit her mother, Eliza Sinclair, at her home in Kiekie, Ni‘ihau.
Mrs. Knudsen then arranged with Kapahe, the Hawaiian captain of the Ni‘ihau whaleboat, to convey herself, Eric, and their nurse, Makea, and others to Ki‘i Landing, Ni‘ihau.
At dawn a few days later at an old landing on the shore just south of Kekaha called Pupu Pakai, Eric heard Kapahe holler, “On board, everyone!”
And, they were on their way.
Not long after, they came upon another whaleboat, loaded to the gunwale with Hawaiian men, women, and children from Waimea, also making way to Ni‘ihau.
Its captain requested, and Mrs. Knudsen granted permission, for the two whaleboats to accompany each other to Ni‘ihau.
What at first had been only brisk sea breezes, soon became gales that stirred the sea in the Kaulakahi Channel into great waves that crashed upon the whaleboats.
Eric saw a huge wave suddenly swamp the neighboring whaleboat, casting its crew and passengers overboard into rough seas.
One was a little girl.
Eric’s mother, upon seeing the girl alone in the sea, cried out to the girl’s mother, who was treading water near the swamped whaleboat.
“Save your child! There she is! Save her!”
But, the mother’s shouted reply was utterly irresponsible as far as Mrs. Knudsen was concerned: “Oh, never mind her. She’s all right. She won’t sink!”
Happily though, when Eric and his mother next observed the girl through the trough of a large wave, the girl’s mother was holding her in the foam beside their whaleboat.
Mrs. Knudsen breathed a sigh of relief.
The Hawaiians succeeded in bailing out their whaleboat, and the girl and her mother were pulled safely aboard along with others.
The little girl smiled and waved to Eric, while mother bundled her into an old coat.
And, before long, the winds subsided and the seas calmed and the remainder of their voyage to Ni‘ihau was without mishap.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
