Posted on: Thursday, November 1, 2001

Island Voices
Grand lady of the sea missing

By Lynn Cook
Honolulu-based freelance writer

She sat there waiting at Pier 19. This was not her usual spot. This wasn't Aloha Tower. Where were the 900 guests she usually welcomes? Where were the lei sellers? Where were the dancers and musicians from Blaine Kia's halau, entertaining the guests as they check in?

Missing from the gangway were Haunani Kaui and Kamanao Hattori, all decked out in their Hawaiian finery, greeting each guest with "Aloha," a lei and an invitation to enjoy seven days of pure Hawaiian entertainment. The Tihati entertainers didn't board to do their evening show. Something was wrong.

The 50-year-old lady who has sailed more than 1,000 voyages through the State of Hawai'i waited and watched as hundreds of talented staff hugged their "aloha" and lugged their belongings across the dock. She remembered the special people like Auntie Janie, who took close to 80 cruises.

All 900 guests became a real Hawaiian 'ohana as they gathered in the big Kama'aina Lounge to sing with the Beamer family, paint watercolors with Peggy Chun, learn a hula from Kapu Kinimaka Alquiza and her Kaua'i hula halau and listen to Island storytellers weave tales of the days when only voyaging canoes delivered the adventurers to faraway Pacific islands.

As hundreds of bags of bedding and supplies were unloaded and packed off to the neighboring warehouse, there was dread in her heart. She began to realize that the children from Ray Fonseca's Hilo halau would no longer board each week, dancing to delight her guests. The Maui crafters would have no shipboard home to demonstrate the art of lauhala weaving. The Neighbor Island ports will be empty of tour vans and shuttles. On "ship day," sad eyes will search the horizon and see only blue ocean.

The SS Independence, home to pure Hawaiian hospitality for 20 years, thinks of her sister ship, the SS Constitution. Rather than being sold for scrap or turned into a barge, the "Connie" committed "ship-aside," sinking empty 700 miles off the Big Island.

What a sad day for the cruise industry and for the thousands of guests who missed the opportunity to see the Islands from the deck of a grand lady.

Lynn Cook is a Honolulu-based freelance writer who coordinated the American Hawai'i Cruise's annual Hawaiian Heritage Cruise program honoring Aloha Festivals.