The steamer ship <i>Akamai</i>. November 14, 1853 the arrival of the 106-foot long, 114-ton American sidewheeler steamer S.B. Wheeler, under GUS ELLIS; renamed Akamai, the first ship owned by the Hawai'ian Steam Navigation Co. Built in Maine, shipped in parts around Cape Horn and reassembled in Benicia California. The small side wheeler seemed unsuited to the rough channel passages, though, and was better employed as a tug for sailing ships at Honolulu from 1854 to 1857. Her first regular run was between Honolulu and Kaua‘i, with stops at Nawiliwili and Hanalei.
credited to R. J. Baker Collection
Page 7 of Hawaiian Kingdom 1854-1874, twenty critical years, by Ralph Simpson Kuykendall <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom2&amp;l=en">http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kingdom2&amp;l=en</a>