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About the Port of Honolulu (Cruise Port Information)
The Island of Oahu is distinguished by three of the State's nine commercial harbors - Barbers Point, Kewalo Basin and Honolulu Harbor. Barbers Point Harbor, on the leeward, westerly side of the island, is in the vicinity of the developing city of Kapolei, while Kewalo Basin and Honolulu Harbor are located on the leeward, south shore, in the only well-sheltered area available for commercial purposes.
Honolulu Harbor is the largest and most singularly important of Oahu's and the State's commercial harbors. Its success as a world-renowned port is responsible for the evolution of an ancient Hawaiian village into the State's capitol city. This city takes its name from the harbor and together, they support the island's 884,000 residents, the heart of the State's business and commercial operations, and the main tourist center.
The city of Honolulu's central business district and government offices grew around Honolulu Harbor and Kewalo Basin. This area, from the Ala Moana Shopping Center swinging around to the Sand Island industrial district, is typically dominated by intensive harbor and waterfront activities. It is characterized by Kewalo Basin's fishing, excursion and dinner cruise vessel facilities, Honolulu Harbor's cargo and passenger terminals, bunkering facilities, marine repair docks, vessel moorings and lay berths, the Aloha Tower Marketplace, the central business district and the Kakaako, Iwilei, Kapalama and Sand Island industrial complexes, A network of highways connects this waterfront area with all of the outlying urban areas.
Honolulu Harbor bears an awesome responsibility as the State's port-of-entry for nearly all imported goods - a figurative umbilical cord sustaining Hawaii's modem life. The harbor facilities supporting this responsibility are complex and myriad and make it difficult to envision the harbor's simple beginnings.
The harbor was created by freshwater flows from Nuuanu Valley which inhibited coral growth within a small, reefed basin and cut several channels through the surrounding reef. The main channel, which was the deepest, was flanked to the west by shallower outlets. Between these outflows, rose occasional spots of earth and coral - the beginnings of Sand Island.
Whether the first Hawaiians were from the Marquesas Islands or from Tahiti, it is generally agreed that the first settlers were Polynesian. While a village of these ancient Hawaiians farmed taro patches at the junction of Nuuanu and Pauoa streams, it seems that Waikiki's oceanfront was much preferred over Nuuanu's. The Hawaiian shallow-draft outrigger canoes did not require deep-water harbors or completely protected anchorage's. Foreigners, with their deep-draft vessels, found the best use for the port created by Nuuanu Stream. The influx of these foreign vessels and their trade soon caused a shift of population and the growth of the town around the port where ships lay at anchor.
The first Western use of the harbor occurred in 1794. At the time, the harbor channel was approximately 200 feet wide, three-quarters of a mile long, and about 30 feet deep. A small Hawaiian community was observed along the waterfront in today's downtown area, as were fishponds to the west from Nuuanu Stream to Keehi Lagoon. The Hawaiians referred to the harbor as "Ke Awa 0 Kou" or "the harbor of Kou." In 1796, the harbor was named "Fair Haven," which was later translated into Hawaiian as "Honolulu."
Honolulu Harbor was discovered when fur traders plied the seas. The islands were so situated that they were a popular and convenient port-of-call for ships engaged in the Pacific trade. Hawaii provided a good source of supplies, an ideal place to rest and an excellent winter haven for the fur ships. Because fur traders called at the port of Honolulu so regularly, the neighboring Hawaiian village grew and changed and Honolulu Harbor began its manifest destiny as the Crossroads of the Pacific.
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