Russians arrived in Hawaii in 1804 on ships associated with the
Russian-American Fur Trading Company stationed at what is now Sitka, Alaska, to
obtain fruit, vegetables and meat.
During this timeframe, Hawai‘i served as an important provisioning site
for traders, whalers and others crossing the Pacific.
On O‘ahu, in 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives
permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor.
But, instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer
(1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.
They built their blockhouse near the harbor, against the ancient heiau
of Pākākā and close to the King’s complex.
There are reports that the Russians used stones from Pākākā in
building their facility.
As a side note, Pākākā was the site of Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i’s
negotiations relinquishing power to Kamehameha I, instead of going to war, and
pledged allegiance to Kamehameha, a few years earlier in 1810.
When Kamehameha discovered the Russians were building a fort (rather
than storehouses) and had raised the Russian flag, he sent several chiefs,
along with John Young (his advisor,) to remove the Russians from Oʻahu by
force, if necessary.
The Russian personnel judiciously chose to sail for Kaua‘i instead of
risking bloodshed. On Kaua‘i, there they
were given land by Kaua‘i’s King Kaumuali‘i; the Russian Fort Elizabeth was
built soon after on Kaua‘i.
The partially built blockhouse at Honolulu was finished by Hawaiians
under the direction of John Young and mounted guns protected the fort.
Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or
otherwise undesirable ships out. But, it
was also used to keep things in (it also served as a prison.)
By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets all of various
calibers (6, 8, 12 and probably a few 32 pounders.) Fort Kekuanohu literally means ‘the back of
the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’ because of the rising guns on the
walls. In 1838 there were 52 guns
reported.
The fort protected Honolulu Harbor and also housed a number of
administrative functions, including many years of service as Honolulu’s police
headquarters. The first courts of the
islands were held here until a new courthouse was built in 1853, adjacent to
the fort.
Barracks, Officers' quarters, the Governor's House, prison cells, a
guardhouse and several powder magazines were inside the 340-by-300-foot long,
12-foot high and 20-foot thick walls.
The main entrance faced mauka, up Fort Street.
The fort’s massive 12-foot walls were torn apart and the fort
dismantled in 1857 and used to fill the harbor to accommodate an expanding
downtown.
Fort Street is one of the oldest streets in Honolulu and is named after
this fort. Today, the site of the old
fort is the open space called Walker Park, a small park at the corner of Queen
and Fort streets (also fronting Ala Moana/Nimitz.)
The image is a drawing by Choris in 1816, looking into Honolulu Harbor
(it is the walled complex in the center of the image.) (I have also placed several other images of
Fort Kekuanohu (Fort Honolulu) in a folder of like name in the Photos section
on my Facebook page.)
No comments:
Post a Comment