Encounter 37 · 37 of 42 · 16 March 1978
He paddled anyway
In March 1978 the voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa capsized in the Kaiwi Channel. Eddie Aikau took a surfboard toward Lānaʻi. The crew was later found. He was not.
Kaiwi Channel, Hawaiʻi · place approximate
The water has no lesson ready.
Kaiwi Channel, Hawaiʻiending not yet
What they knew
- The canoe was inverted in high swell.
- Eddie Aikau, thirty-two, was a North Shore lifeguard. People already said he would go when others would not. That reputation is contemporaneous. The bumper sticker is not.
- Lānaʻi was somewhere in the weather. A cream-white surfboard, a lifejacket, and flares were on the canoe.
What they could not know
- Whether a surfboard could fetch help before the crew failed.
- Whether staying with the hull was the wiser move.
- Who, if anyone, a passing aircraft would see.
The situation
The 1976 Hōkūleʻa voyage to Tahiti is another story in this Guide: a successful recovery of wayfinding. On 16 March 1978 the canoe set out again. In the Kaiwi Channel, between Oʻahu and Molokaʻi, high swell and gale-force winds capsized her. The crew clung to the inverted hull.
- 01Inverted hull, Kaiwi ChannelCrew clinging. Swell. Gale.
- 02A board toward LānaʻiAbout 10 a.m. Lifejacket. Flares. One man.
- 03LānaʻiNot reached, or reached with nobody there. The last sighting is not a clean line.
- 04*Cape Corwin*Remaining crew recovered 17 March. The canoe towed. The search continues without him.
1978
The channel
A canoe is inverted. A lifeguard takes a board toward land because other people are on the hull.
Later
The sticker
Eddie Would GoLater bumper-sticker and contest culture. Not a caption spoken on the water.
The sticker is not collapsed backward onto the swell. Courage that night was a paddle, not a slogan.
Love may make a next move possible. It does not purchase the ending.
What was at stake
Twelve lives on a hull, and one life on a board. Love is not a guarantee that the arithmetic works.
The next move
About 10 a.m. the next morning Aikau paddled toward Lānaʻi. A Hawaiian Airlines pilot later spotted the canoe. On 17 March the Coast Guard cutter Cape Corwin recovered the remaining crew. Searches did not find him.
What they had
- A hull
- A cream-white board
- A lifeguard’s habit
- Flares that aircraft did not at first see
What didn’t work
The 1978 crossing as planned. The paddle as rescue of himself.
What happened
He died. The phrase “Eddie Would Go” is later culture (a bumper sticker, a contest) and must not be moved backward onto the channel as if it had been a caption that night. The 1976 voyage still happened. This night is not its price, and not its moral.
What do we call a rescue that does not bring the rescuer home?
Private. No one else will see it.