| The Palmyra Gazette |
| Welcome to: PalmyraGazette.org Created by: Michael E. Murray January 2008 Enjoy your visit! |
seemed to float in an undulating band on the fantastic green
water. Their tousle-headed palms leaned over at a thousand
playful angles, as if watching the birds and crabs that busily
hunted fish below. A million palm fronds chatted softly in the
breeze; ink-black squalls rode in from the east and curtained
first one islet, then another, in a sheet of soft gray. The
raindrops were as big as Jersey mosquitoes.
This was a living world, where Johnston had been only a
bleaching skeleton.
“God, what a place!” Barney marveled. Then he shook
himself free of the spell and worked his way toward the two
northwest islands, where the first camp would be.
Palmyra, like Johnson, drifted into American possession by
way of enterprising King Kamehameha IV, whose fishermen
seized everything in the Pacific they could reach. The island
had been discovered and claimed by Captain Sawle of the
American ship Palymra in 1802, then had passed briefly into
the hands of the British, who did not want it. In 1903 the
Territory of Hawaii adopted a model land law, under which a
title to unclaimed land could be established by anybody who
would register for it. A certain Judge Cooper of Honolulu
signed up for all Palmyra’s (114) fifty-two islands in 1912, and
later sold fifty of them to a couple by the name of Fullard-Leo,
who proposed to develop a copra business from the coconut
palms there. In the early ‘twenties the Fullard-Leos sent a
Dr. and Mrs. Menge to Palmyra, with a man named Edward
Benner to assist them. The doctor built a shack on the
northwest islet, naming the bit of land for himself, and its
neighbor, Idella, for his wife. The Menges and Benner had a
fearful time walking their stuff ashore from the sampan in
which they had come, and more trouble still when the sampan
broke loose and blew away in a storm. The three were
marooned on the island for fourteen months, living on crabs
and coconuts. By the time a passing ship rescued them, they
had had enough, and the copra business was never renewed.
During prohibition the owners made no objection when
Australian shippers used their little atoll to transfer hooch to
native Hawaiian rumrunners sneaking out of Honolulu.
Palmyra was recommended so strongly by the Hepburn Board
as a scouting base to protect the Canal that a reconnoitering
expedition was sent there in 1938. The Navy immediately
directed Bruns, the District Public Works Officer, to set about
buying the place from the Fullard-Leo family, even though
their price was very high. But Charlie Weeber , who was an
authority on Hawaiian law, heard of the impending deal and
persuaded Commander Bruns to go slow. He wasn’t sure the
owners had a clear title to the land. Bruns’ office soon
unearthed the fact that only the fishing and copra rights had
been granted to Judge Cooper by the Territorial Government,
whereupon the U.S. Attorney in Honolulu brought the Fullard-
Leos into court, contending that the United States still owned
the islands. The Government won and the Navy immediately
took jurisdiction.
But the owners appealed, and the case is still unsettled today.
* (115) Meanwhile, PNAB and the Navy have
water. Their tousle-headed palms leaned over at a thousand
playful angles, as if watching the birds and crabs that busily
hunted fish below. A million palm fronds chatted softly in the
breeze; ink-black squalls rode in from the east and curtained
first one islet, then another, in a sheet of soft gray. The
raindrops were as big as Jersey mosquitoes.
This was a living world, where Johnston had been only a
bleaching skeleton.
“God, what a place!” Barney marveled. Then he shook
himself free of the spell and worked his way toward the two
northwest islands, where the first camp would be.
Palmyra, like Johnson, drifted into American possession by
way of enterprising King Kamehameha IV, whose fishermen
seized everything in the Pacific they could reach. The island
had been discovered and claimed by Captain Sawle of the
American ship Palymra in 1802, then had passed briefly into
the hands of the British, who did not want it. In 1903 the
Territory of Hawaii adopted a model land law, under which a
title to unclaimed land could be established by anybody who
would register for it. A certain Judge Cooper of Honolulu
signed up for all Palmyra’s (114) fifty-two islands in 1912, and
later sold fifty of them to a couple by the name of Fullard-Leo,
who proposed to develop a copra business from the coconut
palms there. In the early ‘twenties the Fullard-Leos sent a
Dr. and Mrs. Menge to Palmyra, with a man named Edward
Benner to assist them. The doctor built a shack on the
northwest islet, naming the bit of land for himself, and its
neighbor, Idella, for his wife. The Menges and Benner had a
fearful time walking their stuff ashore from the sampan in
which they had come, and more trouble still when the sampan
broke loose and blew away in a storm. The three were
marooned on the island for fourteen months, living on crabs
and coconuts. By the time a passing ship rescued them, they
had had enough, and the copra business was never renewed.
During prohibition the owners made no objection when
Australian shippers used their little atoll to transfer hooch to
native Hawaiian rumrunners sneaking out of Honolulu.
Palmyra was recommended so strongly by the Hepburn Board
as a scouting base to protect the Canal that a reconnoitering
expedition was sent there in 1938. The Navy immediately
directed Bruns, the District Public Works Officer, to set about
buying the place from the Fullard-Leo family, even though
their price was very high. But Charlie Weeber , who was an
authority on Hawaiian law, heard of the impending deal and
persuaded Commander Bruns to go slow. He wasn’t sure the
owners had a clear title to the land. Bruns’ office soon
unearthed the fact that only the fishing and copra rights had
been granted to Judge Cooper by the Territorial Government,
whereupon the U.S. Attorney in Honolulu brought the Fullard-
Leos into court, contending that the United States still owned
the islands. The Government won and the Navy immediately
took jurisdiction.
But the owners appealed, and the case is still unsettled today.
* (115) Meanwhile, PNAB and the Navy have
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Page 4
Paradise Island
| Looking Out the Channel |
* The issue of ownership was settled in favor of the Fullard-Leo's years latter.
'40s Clamshell Bucket Crane and WWll Dump Truck.
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