What happens
The Pacific Story traces how Hawaii became a melting pot of peoples after Captain Cook's arrival. In 1820, King Liholiho's advisors are wary of a company of American missionaries, but the king allows them to land and establish a mission at Kailua and Honolulu. Later, the whaling industry brings commerce and disease to the islands, and the sugar industry, from 1835 onward, brings laborers from China, Japan and elsewhere. The native Hawaiian population shrinks sharply, and Hawaii is annexed by the United States in 1898. The program then turns to the pineapple industry and the mixing of races in the islands today. The episode is narrated in the program's documentary style, with dramatized scenes and expert commentary.
The Hawaiian Islands, from 1820 through the early twentieth century, including Kailua, Honolulu, Lahaina, and Wahiawa
Characters: King Liholiho, Johannes, Reverend Hiram Bingham, Reverend Thurston, Captain Cogswell, Mr. Martin, Mr. Wharton, Mr. Laird
Listen for: The missionaries' arrival in 1820, the rise of whaling and sugar, and the decline of the native Hawaiian population
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.