Hawaii’s Military History — Fort Honolulu

From the Cover: Hawaii’s Military History — Fort Honolulu By COL Arthur Tulak, Ed.D.

The oil on canvas painting on the cover of this issue of Commandery News is Paul Emmert’s 'View of Kekuanaohu, the Honolulu Fort - Interior', circa 1853, which provides a view of one of the fort, one early modern, western-style forts constructed in Hawaii. This article is focused on the history of the modern, Western-style forts constructed in Honolulu. The first Honolulu Fort was built in 1816 by the Russian-American Fur Trading Company, under the direction of German adventurer Georg Anton Schäffer (1779-1836). Much of what we know about forts in Hawaii is due to Historian Walter Judd wrote about forts and palaces through the entire monarchy period.1 In 1816, Honolulu was known as Kou, and the this fort was called Fort Kekuanohu.2

Russian great power competition.

In 1804 Russians explorers and traders arrived in the Hawaiian isles aboard ships in the service of the Russian-American Trading Company operating out of Fort Saint Michael, in what is now known as Old Sitka, Alaska.3 Russian explorer, Otto von Kotzebue began a scientific journey of exploration, sailing out of St. Petersburg on July 30, 1815 to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean and explore the less-known parts of Oceania. In November 1816 Kotzebue entered Kailua Bay (Island of Hawaii) aboard the Russian brig Rurik, gaining the attention of the Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii and Oahu.4 During this time, Kotzebue met with King Kaumualii, the last king of Kauai, and conspired with him to take over the islands that Kamehameha I controlled. The Russians built four forts on Kauai, which included one built at Waimea, the remains of which, are still visible today.5

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor. This project was under the direction of Mr. Schaffer who designed and oversaw the construction of a fort. According to Peter Young, “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 Oahu by force, if necessary.”6 Very little of this fort, erected on the grounds of what is today Walker Park (the site of the gate to the former Hackfeld Company) remains, however Fort Street in downtown Honolulu was so-named because the street led to the gate of the original fort.7

The Hawaiian Kingdom Rebuilds the Fort.

Soon after the Russians left, the Hawaiians built a new fort nearby out of coral blocks faced with adobe clay, also known as Fort at Honolulu, or Fort Kamehameha I, Ka'ahumanu, or Kapapu. John Adams Kuakini, governor of Oahu, rebuilt the fort, extending its walls to a height of 16 feet and a thickness of 12 feet. The fort depicted in the painting was rectangular in shape, enclosed about 2 acres and measuring 340 feet long and 300 feet wide.8 According to Honolulu Star Advertiser Reporter Bob Sigall, the fort was the largest structure in the islands at the time.9

The new Honolulu Fort was immediately south of the intersection of modern-day Fort Street Queen Street. Hawaiians gave the fort the nickname of Kekuanohu, which literally means ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’ because of the guns that protruded from the fort walls, and also called it Kepapu, “the gun wall.”10 The number and assortment of cannon employed at the fort grew by the process of accretion of guns “of various calibers from assorted foreign ships, and by 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets all (6, 8, 12 and probably a few 32 pounders).”11 In 1838 there were 52 guns reported, and this grew to 63 guns in 1846, when the fort had a garrison of 286 soldiers, and the water-facing fort wall looking into the harbor was rounded to deflect cannon balls.12 In 1846 there were 63 guns mounted, with 286 men in garrison. In 1849 there were 70 guns reported.13 The fort included enlisted barracks, Officers' quarters, the Governor's House, prison cells, a guardhouse and several powder magazines.14

Otto von Kotzebue

British Occupation.

On February 25, 1843, when it seemed that a war with France was likely, Lord George Paulet, Captain of the Royal Navy Frigate Carysfort, took over the fort under a provisional cession of the Hawaiian Kingdom to Great Britain.15 The Union Jack was flown over the Honolulu Fort, and across all the Hawaiian Isles, as British forces assumed responsibility for security for a period of five months. The provisional cession ended July 31, 1843, and the Hawaiian flag was again unfurled over the fort in a ceremony at which Admiral Richard Thomas of the Royal Navy declared that Queen Victoria acknowledged Kin Kamehameha III the legitimate King, and that Great Britain would treat as an “Independent Sovereign.”16

The French Navy Raid of 1849.

On August 12, 1849, French Admiral Louis-François-Marie-Nicolas Le Goarant de Tromelin arrived in Honolulu Harbor on the corvette Gassendi along with his flagship, the frigate La Poursuivante, where he met with the French Consul Guillaume Patrice Dillon, who presented the admiral with a list of complaints against the Hawaiian Kingdom and its treatment of French subjects, to include persecution of Catholics and the high tariffs on French brandy.17 Admiral de Tromelin was angered by these reports and worked with Dillon to compose ten demands to King Ka mehameha III, which were presented the king on August 22nd.18 Two days later on August 25, when the demands had not been met, and following a second warning to civilians of an impending military action, 140 French Marines with two field pieces, and scaling ladders were landed by boat to conduct a raid.19 The French marines captured an empty Honolulu Fort from the two men defending it, Governor of Oahu Mataio Kekuanaoa and Marshal of the Kingdom Warren Goodale, who did not resist, the fort having been evacuated before the French landed.20 The Marines then set to dismantling it and spiking its guns and throwing kegs of powder into the harbor and destroying any weapons they found (mainly muskets and ammunition), while the king and his cabinet Huddled inside the Palace, expecting worse to come. 21

On a Sunday morning, August 26, 1849, a broadside of the complaints and demands was posted extensively—against the laws of the Kingdom—on the walls of Honolulu. The circumstances were tense, as French warships were poised menacingly off shore. On the 25th, The raid of government buildings and general property in Honolulu, caused $100,000 in damages.22 After these raids, the invasion force withdrew to the fort, although reportedly, the French flag never flew over the fort.23 Admiral de Tromelin eventually recalled his men and left Hawaii on September 5th . 24

The Fort is Dismantled.

By 1850 hundreds of whaling vessels and ships trading in the California gold rush crowded the harbor, and the fort lost its importance, with All the guns had been sold off in 1853.25 The kingdom assessed that the fort was no longer necessary for defense, and it was torn down in 1857. More than 1,500 cubic yards of its coral blocks were used to used to construct a harbor breakwater.26 Today, only one of the original muzzle-loading cannons still remains in the city, embedded in the sidewalk in front of the Kamehameha V Post Office one block away from the fort site.27 This cannon is accompanied by another period cannon (which might also be from the fort), and the two stand “like sentries on either side of the sidewalk corner” and which were used as horse hitching posts.28

Captain, Lord George Paulet, Royal Navy.

Admiral de Tromelin, from a French postage stamp issued in 2013 for the Australasia and Antarctic Territories. https://www.elitereaders.com/ castaways-tromelin-island/

Endnotes:

1. Spencer Leineweber, April 2015, Ho‘okowa ‘Oiwi [To Maintain Indigenous Space]: Space, Culture and Change in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii”,

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University. https://openresearchrepository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/151087/2/b37327677_Leineweber_S.pdf 2. Pete Payette, 2014, American Forts Network American Forts West. https://www.northamericanforts.com/West/hi.html 3. National Park Service, Sitka National Historical Park “The Russians” https://www.nps.gov/sitk/learn/historyculture/the-russians.htm See also

Peter T Young, Ho‘okuleana , April 27, 2012, Fort Kekuanohu (Fort at Honolulu), http://totakeresponsibility.blogspot.com/2012/04/fortkekuanohu-fort-at-honolulu.html 4. Leineweber, op. cit. p. 112 5. Bob Sigall, October 30, 2016 “Honolulu Fort is Gone but the History Behind it Remains” Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sunday Magazine. https://