page_title: Ford Island
section_title: Kamehamehas and 18th-century settlers
hierarchical_section_title: Ford Island / History / Kamehamehas and 18th-century settlers
caption_attribution_description: English: This map of Moku’ume’ume was compiled from maps dated 1873‐1915
context_page_description: Ford Island is an islet in the center of Pearl Harbor, Oahu, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. It has been known as Rabbit Island, Marín's Island, and Little Goats Island, and its native Hawaiian name is Mokuʻumeʻume. The island had an area of 334 acres when it was surveyed in 1825, which was increased during the 1930s to 441 acres with fill dredged out of Pearl Harbor by the United States Navy to accommodate battleships.
  It was the site of an ancient Hawaiian fertility ritual, which was stopped by Christian missionaries during the 1830s. The island was given by Kamehameha I to Spanish deserter Francisco de Paula Marín, and later returned to the monarchy. After the island was bought at auction by James Isaac Dowsett and sold to Caroline Jackson, it became the property of Dr. Seth Porter Ford by marriage and was renamed Ford Island. After Ford's death, his son sold the island to the John Papa ʻĪʻī estate and it was converted into a sugarcane plantation.
  In 1916, part of Ford Island was sold to the U.S. Army for use by an aviation division in Hawaii, and by 1939 it was taken over by the U.S. Navy as a station for battleship and submarine maintenance.
context_section_description: Although no historical records provide an exact date, researchers at the Hawaiian Historical Society believe that the island was given to Francisco de Paula Marín on February 9, 1818, and later named after him for his assistance in providing weapons used by Kamehameha I to conquer the island of Oʻahu. However, Marín wrote in an 1809 journal entry that he was given the island and its adjacent fishing waters as early as 1791.  He used the land to raise sheep, hogs, goats and rabbits as provisions for ships,  and grew plants and vegetables which he had imported.
  In 1825, Admiral George Byron, the 7th Baron Byron arrived, commanding HMS Blonde, to return the remains of Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu after their deaths in England of Measles. While on Oahu, he would map the Pearl River (known today as Pearl Harbor). The ship's naturalist, Andrew Bloxam, spent time on Ford Island hunting rabbits and wild ducks; its surveyor, Lieutenant Charles Robert Malden, called it Rabbits Island. In 1826, Hiram Paulding became the first American naval officer to visit the island. Marín's ownership claim to the island was cloudy; Hawaiians generally refused to recognize land ownership by foreigners. Kamehameha II believed that the island had been loaned to Marín and by the 1850s the island was split between Kamehameha IV—who purchased 214 acres (87 ha)—and High Chiefess Kekauōnohi, granddaughter of Kamehameha I, who was awarded 147 acres (59 ha) in the Great Māhele.  On August 28, 1865, the island was bought at public auction for $1,040 by James I. Dowsett, who sold it to Caroline Jackson for $1 on December 28.
  Dr. Seth Porter Ford arrived in 1851 from Boston, and practiced medicine at the U.S. Seamen's Hospital. Ford married Caroline Jackson in June 1866, taking control of the island and changing its name from Marín Island to Ford Island. When Ford died in 1866, it was transferred to his son, Seth Porter Ford, Jr.  The island was managed by Sanford B. Dole on behalf of Ford's minor children until Ford, Jr. came of age and sold the island in 1891 to the John Papa ʻĪʻī land trust.
caption: Map of Mokuʻumeʻume, compiled from maps dated 1873 to 1915
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