The ukulele is a small, four-stringed instrument that originated in the 1880s when Portuguese immigrants brought their machete and rajão instruments to Hawaii. Hawaiians adapted these designs into a new
The ukulele reached Hawaii on August 23, 1879. The British clipper ship SS Ravenscrag docked in Honolulu Harbor after a 12,000-mile, four-month voyage from Madeira, Portugal. It carried 419 immigrants,