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Maui History & Cultural Activities
Museums & Historical Landmarks
West Maui
Seaman's Hospital |
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History &
Information
On July 16, 1798, in Philadelphia, at that time the nation’s
capital, John Adams, second president of the United States,
signed into law the Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled
Seamen. This was the beginning of the Public Health Service
in the United States. A year later the Act was extended to
cover every officer and sailor in the U.S. Navy. By this
Act, twenty cents each month was deducted from the wages of
every merchant seaman. Unfortunately, it did not cover the
seamen aboard whaling ships who were paid a share of the
profits at the end of the voyage. Sick whalers in Lahaina
were left in the care of American consuls and either cared
for locally, shipped to hospitals in Honolulu or returned to
the United States.
Finally in 1843, the U.S. Marine Hospital was built. During
the following years the whaling industry peaked but faded by
the time of the Civil War. On Sept. 10, 1862, the doors of
the U.S. Seaman’s Hospital were officially closed. In 1864,
it was leased as a boarding school. The property was traded
in 1878 with the Bishop Estate, and in 1975, negotiations
were finalized with the Bishop Estate, and the Seaman’s
Hospital became the property of the Lahaina Restoration
Foundation.
Arrangements were made with restoration architects to
prepare measured drawings of the building and property for
the purpose of preservation and restoration of the Seaman’s
Hospital. Archaeological investigation was accomplished by a
team from Bernice P. Bishop museum.
With careful and meticulous work, the building and adjacent plantation
house were completely reconstructed in 1982 and continue to
be successfully leased.
The report of the restoration architects is titled
“Rendezvous in Lahaina” wherein they state, “While the
stones and mortar of an old building have an intrinsic value
and interest of their own, it is the many people who built
and used them that give them real historical importance. In
this respect, the Seaman’s Hospital has an unusually rich
heritage. And so, we present a number of “Historical
Vignettes” giving the stories of some of the fascinating
people whose lives for a while were interlinked with the
history of this building, and some of the events that we
think make this building one of the most interesting in all
of Hawaii.”
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Maui Info Source "For all your Maui Vacation, Maui Travel, Maui Information and Maui
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