Our last sea day this leg, or is it? Overnight we made a massive turn of around 150 degrees. Instead of heading back to the north-east, we are now heading south-west and straight for Honolulu. The first announcement of the morning from the captain suggests we may not be able to dock in Honolulu on schedule, and that we may not make it until Monday. This announcement sends a lot of people into a spin. Monday is the final day of this cruise for about 90% of passengers, with only 300 of us booked on the back-to-back through to Sydney. So the vast majority of people need to disembark and fly back to Canada or somewhere else in the continental United States.
I wonder why Hawaii is a US state. The short answer is that it wasn’t always, and how it got there is a more complicated story than the brochures let on. Polynesian voyagers settled the islands, and in 1810 Kamehameha I united them into a single kingdom, which was recognised internationally, traded with the United States, and kept its own diplomatic legation in Washington. American missionaries and sugar planters arrived through the nineteenth century, and the 1875 Reciprocity Treaty, which let Hawaiian sugar into the US, tied the two economies tightly together. In January 1893 a committee of businessmen, most of them American or of American descent, deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani, backed by US Marines landed from the USS Boston. An inquiry ordered by President Cleveland found the overthrow illegal, but the provisional government held on, and in 1898 Congress annexed the islands by joint resolution rather than by treaty.
Hawaii became a US territory in 1900 and the 50th state on 21 August 1959, after roughly 94% of voters backed statehood. That vote was on joining the union, not on the overthrow or annexation that came before it. In 1993 the US Congress formally apologised for the part its agents and citizens played in the overthrow, and the sovereignty movement that grew out of that history is still active in the islands today. The strategic value of a mid-Pacific naval base at Pearl Harbor has never been far from the story either.
After pondering Hawaii’s history, my thoughts turn to Hurricane Nolo after the captains announcement. Our plans may well be interrupted. We have a Pearl Harbor tour booked, which we may now miss. I contact the operator to see if we can shift it to Monday.
We continue our day. We can’t control the weather, and Hurricane Nolo looms large. The captain’s message referenced very high winds as the reason for the delay and the possible port closure.
Firstly, we attend a fascinating analysis of James Cameron’s Titanic. Brent is not presenting today, instead his wife, Mary Amanda Fairchild graces the stage. Whereas Brent is the mad scientist, Mary is the academic.
Mary Amanda Fairchild is Celebrity’s destination historian, and her credentials on this subject are hard to argue with. She is a forensic musicologist and a member of the Titanic Society, and she was part of the group that travelled out to the wreck site for the 100th anniversary memorial in 2012. Today she turns her attention to James Cameron’s 1997 film, with a simple question for the audience: how much of it is true? Jack and Rose, of course, never existed, and neither did their romance, although there was a real J. Dawson among the more than 1,500 who died. Cameron built his fiction around real people and real events, and the parts he bent for the sake of the story are the interesting bit. The biggest is First Officer Murdoch, shown shooting two passengers and then himself. The historical record has him helping load and launch lifeboats, his nephew objected, and Fox sent a vice president to Murdoch’s home town of Dalbeattie in Scotland to apologise in person. Cameron later apologised on the DVD commentary too, though he pointed out that officers really did fire shots that night to enforce “women and children first.” He also got plenty right, including lifeboats launched well short of capacity and a ship that broke in two before it went down, both of which were later borne out by the wreck.
The set is the other half of the story, and the numbers are staggering. Cameron made a dozen dives to the real wreck before filming, and Harland and Wolff opened its archives to the crew, including blueprints thought lost. Fox built a whole new studio at Rosarito in Baja, Mexico, with a horizon tank of 17 million gallons giving 270 degrees of open ocean. Inside it sat a near full-scale Titanic, 775 feet long at roughly 90% of the real ship, with a stern hinged to rise from flat to 90 degrees in seconds, just as the real one did. Every prop had to be made from scratch, because the ship was brand new. Filming ran from July 1996 to March 1997, and the budget hit $200 million, the most expensive film ever made at that point. Executives panicked, and few expected it to make the money back.
It did, and then some. Titanic was the first film to pass a billion dollars, and it finished at around $2.2 billion worldwide, the highest-grossing film in history until Cameron’s own Avatar overtook it. It was nominated for 14 Academy Awards, tying All About Eve, and won 11, including Best Picture and Best Director, tying Ben-Hur. Not bad for a film that studio executives thought would sink its backers.
We then enjoy the lounge, lunch, and a double dose of trivia. Speaking of double doses, Mardi has two salads for lunch, a Bibb and a Cobb. I have soup and halibut. Jokingly, a few days ago, Mardi nicknamed me Halibut Head. A bit mean, but lovingly funny. Have you seen a halibut’s head? Anyway, I said if it was ever on the menu I’d try it, so I did. It’s a nice, light, white-fleshed, flaky fish. Quite delicious. Good call, Mardi!
Trivia isn’t as successful, or at least the first round isn’t. Name That Stage Show Theme, and we score 8 out of 20. We enjoyed a few stage shows while in New York, but didn’t recognise many of them. General knowledge trivia is better, and we score 14. The winning team scored 16, and there were six of them!
During the afternoon the captain gives us an update. Despite the high winds, Honolulu port is open, we will be able to dock, and we are planning to be alongside by 6am tomorrow. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.
We then opt for early drinks, dinner, and a quick visit to the casino. Dinner is hamachi, a lamb taco, roast mallard duck, and carbonara. We get our desserts to go as we head to the room.
The second NRL preliminary final is on tonight, Penrith against the Knights. I don’t know about most people, but I’m over the media’s love of the Penrith machine, or dynasty. Sport should never be dominated by one team, a bit like the AFL, where Brisbane have just won their third straight title. So I settle in as a Knights fan tonight. Katarina brings us a nightcap and popcorn for the game. So thoughtful.
History will show the Knights won 22 to 14. I’ve had a theory for a while that you can beat Penrith if you get in front. The hard part for sides over the last few years has been getting in front. Penrith play a boring, boa constrictor style of game. The Knights played free-form footy, and when they got in front Penrith panicked and looked listless and without answers, despite the Knights playing the entire second half with 12 players after Phoenix Crossland’s first-half send-off. That send-off came from the tackle that injured the teflon-coated Nathan Cleary, and the world erupted as the commentary team were almost in tears. League is a tough sport, perhaps the toughest, and injuries happen. The rugby league world has overreacted a little because it’s a Cleary. He had been carrying a broken right foot and perhaps shouldn’t have taken the field, but it was the other leg, his left ankle, that gave way in the tackle. During the game I text my brothers, we are all league fanatics. Like me, they are over the Penrith dynasty. The Knights now meet the Roosters in next Sunday’s grand final, and I had the Roosters as the smart money a few nights ago. But the Knights have been defying the odds, beating three team who were all tipped to win: the Rabbitohs, the Warriors snd tonight the Panthers.
After the game it’s time for bed. A big day tomorrow now that we are back on time.
