Captain Cook Monument

Across the water of Kealakekua Bay stands a white obelisk marking the spot where the explorer James Cook met his end. Cook, the British navigator who first charted these islands for Europe, sailed into this bay in January of seventeen seventy-nine during the Hawaiian festival of Makahiki, honoring the god Lono. His timing led many Hawaiians to receive him with great ceremony.

Weeks later, after a damaged mast forced his ships to return unexpectedly, the welcome had cooled. On February fourteenth, seventeen seventy-nine, Cook tried to take the ruling chief Kalaniopuu hostage to recover a stolen boat. In the violent clash that followed on the shore, Cook was killed, along with four of his marines and a number of Hawaiians. The twenty-seven foot monument was raised here in eighteen seventy-four by his countrymen, on land that is technically British soil.