"The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World" Roll 4, Section 39/44

[ The Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World is viewed from right to left ]

While the Big Island of Hawaii offered certain amenities to whalers, the important seaports of the group included Honolulu on Oahu, and Lahaina on Maui. Lahaina is our next port of call where Russell visited in 1843. Between July and December of that year, 139 American whaling vessels made port in Lahaina including the Kutusoff, Clifford Wayne, John and Edward, and Gratitude, all of which Russell would paint as commissioned ship portraits once he returned to New Bedford. Russell certainly witnessed the very scene that he’s drawn while onboard the Kutusoff. Features of interest in this view of Lahaina include (at center) a two-story structure built in the 1830s for King Kamehameha III as a quiet residence outside of the town. The U.S. State Department leased it in 1844 and operated a Seamen’s Hospital there.

As far as the appearance of Lahaina, by the 1840s, much of the traditional architecture of Hawaii was being replaced by Western styles; note, for instance, the number of windows shown in the houses. Native huts, called hale made of pili grass were windowless. Also visible on the left side is the two-story coral-stone dwelling with verandahs built for the American missionary Charles Stewart by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions around 1828. On the hill behind the Stewart house is the Lahainaluna Seminary.