The Sandwich Islands and Death
Kendrick arrived in Honolulu (then called Fair Haven) on December 3, 1794. There were also two other British vessels: the Jackal under Captain William Brown and the Prince Lee Boo under a Captain Gordon.
This was coincidentally when a Kaeokulani, the chief of Kauai, invaded Oahu, meeting little resistance from his nephew Kalanikūpule. Brown sent eight men and a mate to aid Kalanikūpule's forces. Kendrick also probably sent some of his men to help the Hawaiian chief in what was later called the Battle of Kalauao. The muskets of the sailors drove Kaeo’s warriors into some hills that overshadowed Honolulu. They finally retreated into a little ravine. Kaeo tried to escape, but Brown’s men and Kenrick’s men saw his ʻahuʻula, his feather cloak, and fired at the enemy chief from their boats in the harbor to show his position to Kalanikūpule's men. The Oahu warriors killed Kaeo along with his wives and chiefs. The battle ended with Kalanikūpule as the victor.
At 10:00 the next morning, December 12, 1794, Kendrick’s brig fired a thirteen-gun salute, to which the Jackal answered with a salute back. One of the cannons was loaded with real grapeshot, though, and the shot smashed into the Washington, killing Captain Kenrick at his table on deck along with several other men. Kendrick’s body and the bodies of his dead men were taken ashore and buried on the beach in a hidden grove of palm trees. John Howel, Kendrick’s clerk, read the ship's prayer book for the captain’s funeral.
Read more about this topic: John Kendrick (American Sea Captain)
Famous quotes containing the words sandwich, islands and/or death:
“The river’s tent is broken; the last fingers of leaf
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Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I can only see death and more death, till we are black and swollen with death.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)