Its main disadvantage is the lack of harbours - Honolulu and Pearl Harbor are the only ones in the archipelago; but under the River and Harbour Act of 1905 examinations and surveys were made to improve Hilo Bay on the island of Hawaii.
Missionary effort was particularly fruitful in Hilo, where Titus Coan (1801-1882), sent out in 1835 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, worked in repeated revivals, induced most of his church members to give up tobacco even, and received prior to 1880 more than 12,000 members into a church which became self-supporting and sent missions to the Gilbert Islands and the Marquesas.
In 1823 Keopuolani, the king's mother, was baptized; and on a single Sunday in 1838 Coan baptized 1705 converts at Hilo.
The trip also includes daylong stops in the city of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, the whaling village of Lahaina of the island of Maui, the state capital, Honolulu, and the culturally diverse island of Kauai.
Cruisers will be able to tour Hilo, Honolulu and Lahaina during the two-month long voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
