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Introduction
Ordained in 1857, John Sheepshanks left England in 1859 to minister to congregations in British Columbia, the region experiencing a rapid rise in population following the discovery of gold in 1858, and secured the post if Rector of New Westminster,
He travelled extensively across the United States, visiting San Franciso, Virginia City, Salt Lake City, and Washington, where he unsuccessfully attempted to gain approval to visit the Confederacy, then at war with the Union.
Throughout his travels Sheepshanks was fascinated with local wildlife and geography, and observed and lamented the decline of indigenous cultures, a concern that was evident when he visited Hawaii in 1866..

He returned to New Westminster from England in early 1866, but in hearing of his parents' ill-heath, Sheepshanks immediately made arrangements to sail for home.
However, the time of his departure the family situation had improved markedly so he determined on a more leisurely voyage, beginning with an invitation from the Bishop of Honolulu to visit him in the Sandwich Islands.

Sailing aboard the Bernice, he landed at Honolulu, and was immediately impressed by the Hawaiians' aquatic skills, observing a group of men, actually a band of criminals from the local gaol, leaping from a height of sixty feet into a pool known as Karpena.
He later travelled to Maui by steamer, and then on a small trading schooner to Hawaii, visiting the active volcano, Kilauea.
At Hilo Bay Sheepshanks observed ﬁfty or sixty of the youths swim nearly a mile out to sea, where:
the outermost wave would catch perhaps twenty of them at the same time, and they would come on in a row, riding upon the crest of the billow, driven towards the land with marvellous velocity, guiding their surf-board with the utmost skill, enveloped in the spray, and shrieking out their triumphant delight.
He also reported that the most skilful will not infrequently kneel, and sometimes, I was told, stand upright upon their boards in their swift career; but this I did not see.
Similarly, Sheepshanks appears to have been informed that the most noted place in the islands for the practice of this sport is Lahaina, in Maui.
He returned to Oahu and, on at least two occasions, rode to Waikiki,.a village containing the favourite summer residence of the king.
Apparently there was no swell at Waikiki on these visits and he sailed for China on the Ethan Allen in May, 1866.

Hilo Bay
Containing a number of quality surf breaks, in ancient times Hilo's reputation was surpassed only by Waikiki.
On the East coast of the large island of Hawaii, the bay is open to North and South swells, the topography steering tsunamis from earthquakes in active areas such as Chile and the Aleutian Islands; Hilo currently and hosts the Pacific Tsunami Museum.
These fabled breaks are long gone, the first breakwater enclosing the bay was begun in 1908, extended in 1911, and completed in 1929.

Wikipedia: Sheepshanks, John, Bishop. of Norwich, 1834-1912.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sheepshanks_(bishop)

Wikipedia: Aspinwall.
Historical name of Colón, Panama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colón,_Panama#History

Frontispiece

REV. JOHN SHEEPSHANKS, Frazer River, 1860.

BISHOP 0F NORWICH, 1908.

(Photo Maull & Fox, London.)

Page 145

February, 1866, found him again on the high seas, and again with his face set in the direction of the West Indies.
He left England behind him, thrilling with the loss of the s.s. London, whose lamentable story had just been made known.
Amidst the Babel of bewildered men, women, and children who had joined the emigrant ship at Southampton were a body of Cornish miners.
To make their closer acquaintance, as well as for economy's sake, Mr. Sheepshanks took his berth in the steerage.
...
The Atlantic crossed, they entered the home of summer and the sun, and cast anchor in Port Royal, the port of Jamaica.

Page 148

Once more he arrived at Aspinwall, and once more crossed the wonderful railway through the luxuriant vegetation of the isthmus. On the other side he received - not for the ﬁrst time in his experience - an illustration of the American consideration towards ministers of religion.
He was presented with a ﬁrst-class ticket, though entitled by his fare to a berth in the steerage only.
After touching at one or two ports in Mexico, he arrived in San Francisco, to be received with “ the cordiality and hospitality usual among the best class of Americans.”

Page 150

SPRING and summer passed away in routine work; with the autumn came bad news from home.
The father of Mr. Sheepshanks had been stricken with paralysis; his mother was inﬁrm : there was a need of the eldest son by their side.
As for the work in New Westminster, it seemed for the time being to have come to a standstill.

Page 155

BEFORE the spring was over there came happier intelligence from the parsonage at Coventry.
Mr. Sheepshanks, the elder, was recovering; a younger son was already on his way home.
So it was determined that, before setting out for England, an invitation from the Bishop of Honolulu to visit him in the Sandwich Islands should be accepted.
Mr. Sheepshanks took his passage for Honolulu in what was described as “the ﬁne A1 clipper Bernice.”

Page 157

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

It was from the durance of the Bernice that he landed at last, to be welcomed by the Bishop and his clergy.
Of the land upon which he had now set foot he has written—
“The rock of which the hills is composed is exclusively volcanic, and indeed is nothing more than lava in its various

Page 158

stages.
Upon the south side of the island, the side that we were approaching, the hills, sloping down towards the sea, terminate in a ﬂat of several square miles in extent ; a stream, in summer a mere brook, but in the rainy season an impetuous torrent, rushing down from the heights through the Nuaanu valley bears along with it soil and sand, and pushes out the land into the shallow water, and upon the small plain thus formed, and close upon the water’s edge, the town of Honolulu is situated.”

Mr. Sheepshanks was comfortably lodged in St. Albans College, an institution formed by the Anglican Mission for the education of foreign and native boys.
It was situate in a corner of the town, so near the sea that the air was ﬁlled with a continuous sound of distant breakers on the shore.
It was in the sea the people found their principal pastime, swimming unspeakany well, after the fashion of Polynesian islanders.

“On the ﬁrst day of my arrival, when walking in company with one of the clergy to pay my respects to the Bishop, we came upon a party of Hawaiians disporting themselves in Karpena, as the pool is called ; and certainly their skill in performing every kind of trick in the water surprised me greatly.
On one side of the pool a perpendicular rock, fully sixty feet high, rises abruptly above the water, and their favourite diversion was to climb to the summit for the pleasure of the leap."

“They did not, however, take a ‘ header,’ as an Englishman would if he ventured to take such a lofty plunge, but, taking a run at the summit of the cliff and leaping over the rocky ledge, they alighted upon the water below in a sitting posture.
I had never previously seen a plunge from so great a height, and at ﬁrst my heart came into my mouth

Page 159

at what seemed so hazardous, but I was soon reassured by the ease of the men.
What surprised me was their coolness in mid-air; they gave a loud ‘whoop‘ of delight as they descended, and their features seemed to be on the laugh even as the water closed over them.
The others, who were basking in a state of nudity upon the bank, or paddling about in the water like amphibious creatures, uttered a light-hearted scream each time and grinned and showed their teeth with merriment.
They seemed to be enjoying themselves extremely, and I was somewhat surprised at learning that they were a band of criminals from the gaol.”

It was no doubt startling to ﬁnd convicts taking their play like children and toiling cheerfully in the sun.
But they are treated with forbearance, if not indulgence, in the Sandwich Islands, where, with a people incorriginy idle, convict labour is of the greatest value.
The visitor soon became enamoured of these islands and lukewarm seas.
A good swimmer, he often yielded himself to the seduction of time and place, ﬁnding, in a pool down the valley where pandanus trees garnished the margin of the brook, and prickly pear, together with the blue and white blossoms of the convolvulus, grew in the clefts of the mountain-side or sprang from the summit of the rock, his favourite bathing-place.

Page 173

The village of Hilo, to which their course was directed, showed itself at the head of a deep bay.
A coral reef formed a natural harbour, and within its shelter lay a small ﬂeet of whalers, taking in stone to ballast them for their summer voyage to the Arctic seas

Page 201

Before leaving Hilo, Mr. Sheepshanks saw an exhibition of surf-swimming, one of the characteristic sports of the islands.
"One evening I saw ﬁfty or sixty of the youths of the island strip themselves of their scanty clothing upon the beach, and swim out to sea in company.
Each one took with him his surf-board, a narrow plank, from ﬁve to ten feet in length, made of some light wood, generally of the
willi-willi."

“For the distance of nearly a mile out to sea the water was covered with breakers that foam over the coral reef below, and come rolling grandly in a strong wind towards the shore.
As each breaker came upon him, every youth would dive below it, and again swim on, taking his surf-board with him until he reached the open sea.
Then each

Page 202

one mounted his plank, lying upon it on his chest, and guiding it by the motion of his hands.
Thus they ﬂoated towards the shore.
The outermost wave would catch perhaps twenty of them at the same time, and they would come on in a row, riding upon the crest of the billow, driven towards the land with marvellous velocity, guiding their surf-board with the utmost skill, enveloped in the spray, and shrieking out their triumphant delight."

"If any one, through a comparative want of skill, were upset, it was astonishing to see the readiness with which he would dive, still retaining his plank, and reappearing, ride on again upon the succeeding wave. It is, I believe, very discreditable to quit hold of the surf-board.
Thus again and again was the feat repeated.
It seemed dangerous, but in truth is not so to these expert swimmers.
The most skilful will not infrequently kneel, and sometimes, I was told, stand upright upon their boards in their swift career; but this I did not see.
The most noted place in the islands for the practice of this sport is Lahaina, in Maui."

Page 203

SOON after his return to Honolulu, Mr. Sheepshanks joined in an excursion to the windward side of Oahu,

Page 205

On another occasion he went with some companions on a riding expedition to Waikiki, a village containing the favourite summer residence of the king.
“Near this spot there are the remains of one of the great heathen temples, in which the natives formerly offered their

Page 206

idolatrous worship.
A temple (heiau luakini) was in shape a parallelogram, between perhaps two and three hundred feet in length, and one hundred feet in width, of stone walls open towards the sky."

Page 210

“It proved to be the Ethan Allen, so called from an old hero of the American war of independence, of whom all Iknow is this, that he once summoned a British force to surrender ‘in the name of the Great Jehovah and the American Republic,’ a summons which, I believe, was promptly obeyed.
It turned out that she was an excellent vessel, reputed a fast sailer and well commanded, so that here was just the opportunity that I was seeking.
I bade good-bye to all my kind friends.
I rode down to Waikiki, a quiet spot near the ocean, where, looking over the deep blue waters, one could see the stately ‘ships go sailing on,' to bid adieu to an English family who had shown me much kind hospitality.”
...
On a certain bright day of May, 1866, he drew out of port and bore with a fair wind for Canton.

Duthie, David Wallace (editor):
A Bishop in the Rough
An account of the life and travels of the
Rt. Rev. John Sheepshanks.
Bishop of Norwich,
compiled and edited from his journals.
With a preface by the Lord Bishop of Norwich
Dutton, New York, 1909..

Hathi Trust
https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.319510021724507

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