February the 14th is mostly known as Valentine’s Day, but it has a significance in maritime history far removed from romantic exploits – other, of course, than the romanticism of sailing the seas…..!
In 1813, it was the day when the first-ever United States Naval warship rounded the legendary Cape Horn and entered the Pacific Ocean. This was the frigate Essex, commanded by Capt. David Porter, and that was thirty-five years after Valentine’s Day in 1778 when the legendary Paul Jones, he of the US Navy during the Revolutionary War or ‘the American War of Independence’ against Britain, however, you wish to view it, took the first-ever salute to the Stars and Stripes flag of the United States in a European country. That took place at Quiberon when the French supported the States in their war against the British in America ….. He was in command of the US-flagged sloop-of-war, the Ranger, in which he had raided British waters, captured several merchant ships and caused chaos for the Royal Navy which sought, but failed to catch him in the Irish Sea.
On another Valentine’s Day, in 1840, officers from the USS Vincennes, a 703-ton Boston-class sloop-of-war, then at peace, were exploring the Antarctic and officers from it made the first landing on a piece of floating ice.
Those were all sailing ships of the time and, sails needing masts to fly them aloft, a problem in that regard would lead to a tragedy on yet another Valentine’s Day, particularly noted in maritime history for the killing of maritime legend Captain James Cook, the great navigator, on February 14, 1779.
Cook led three voyages charting areas of the globe for Great Britain. On his third and what proved to be, final voyage, he got to the Islands of Hawaii, which he had first sighted over a year before he was killed there…….. After being around there for over a year, the natives who had first welcomed his expedition got tired of the British as the British did of the natives… As the two ships of the expedition – HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery eventually headed for home, gales damaged the mainmast of the Resolution so badly that it could fly enough sail and it had to return to Kealakekua Bay in the Hawaii Islands…..
What happened then is described by an officer in the ship’s official log:
“Our return to this bay was as disagreeable to us as it was to the inhabitants, for we were tired of each other. They had been oppressed and were weary of our alliance...It was evident from the looks of the natives as well as every other appearance that our friendship was now at an end…”
While the Resolution was anchored in the Bay, the Hawaiians had allegedly begun stealing from the foreigners. One of the ship’s two longboats were stolen. To try to obtain its return, Cook and his men attempted to kidnap the Chief of Hawaii. That was a bad decision.
The Chief, given to understand he was being invited to the ship headed off with Cook and his men, his sons following. But his wife was more perceptive of the British and suspected otherwise that he was being abducted… A confrontation followed in which crowds of natives faced Cook and his men. When the Chief refused to go further down the beach to a ship’s boarding boat, Cook and his men aimed their guns at the natives. With the flat of his sword, Cook struck Chief Kana-ina who then grappled with him and struck the navigator on the head with a shark-toothed club he was carrying.
Cook fell to the sand. A melee developed, and Cook was fatally stabbed. His sailors and marines opened fire on the natives. Four marines were killed, others injured as they retreated to their landing boat to get back to the Resolution. Natives were also killed, thought to include the Island’s Chief.
A photo of the painting ‘Death of Captain Cook’ is described as being by an eyewitness, John Webber
A young officer on watch duty aboard the Resolution, that Valentine’s Day in the Hawaii islands was William Bligh who would become Captain of HMS Bounty and also a major part of maritime history. He claimed to have seen Cook's dead body dragged up the beach to a hill where it was torn to pieces by the natives.
As Captain, Bligh had a reputation for a volatile temper, often clashing with fellow officers and crewmen. On April 28, 1789, near Tahiti, the crew of the Bounty mutinied against him.
A 1790 aquatint by Robert Dodd envisages the Bounty mutineers setting William Bligh and 18 supporters adrift via Wikipaedia
