Honouliuli Ewa Traditional Cultural Properties: The British Royal Navy's HMS Blonde And Her Contribution To Hawaii's History And Culture

The British Royal Navy's HMS Blonde And Her Contribution To Hawaii's History And Culture

By John Bond, Kanehili Cultural Hui

This painting, HMS Blonde, 1825, hangs at Washington Place,

the historic home of Queen Lili'uokalani

Hawaiian royal cloak in Bishop Museum from 1825 HMS Blonde expedition to Oahu.

The survey team on the HMS Blonde was the first to identify and record for historic record the ancient Hawaiian trails that became known as the 1825 Malden Trails. The survey crew landed near the ancient 1000 year old community of Honouliuli where many other natural features, flora and fauna were recorded including the native Pueo owl, today a very endangered species on the island of Oahu.

Hawaii’s flag was flown at half mast in 1824 upon the arrival at Honolulu Harbor of the British Royal Navy frigate Blonde, which had come from England with the bodies of King Kamehameha II (Kalaninui ‘Iolani Liholiho) and Queen Kamāmalu [Kamāmalunuiomano], who had died there of measles.

Charles Robert Malden (9 August 1797 – 23 May 1855), was a nineteenth-century British naval officer, surveyor and educator. He served for one and a half years as Surveyor of the frigate HMS Blonde during a voyage (1824–26) to and from the Hawaiian Islands (then known as the "Sandwich islands"). In Hawaii he surveyed harbors which, he noted, were "said not to exist by Captains Cook and Vancouver." On the return voyage he discovered and explored uninhabited Malden Island in the central Pacific on 30 July 1825. He is especially noted in Oahu history for his survey and mapping of what became known as the 1825 Malden Trails.

HMS Blonde artist Robert Dampier made several important paintings on the voyage as well as painting the frigate at sea which today hangs in Washington Place, the historic home of Queen Lili'uokalani.

Andrew Bloxam, (1801—1878)—English scientist who arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1825 as the naturalist of the Blonde, which was under the command of Lord Byron (1789—1858); his journal was published as Diary of Andrew Bloxam, the Naturalist of the “Blonde” (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Special Publication No. 10, 1925).

Byron, George Anson (Lord) (1749—1858)—Cousin of the famous poet; joined the Royal Navy in 1800; captain of the 46-gunfrigate H.M.S. Blonde, sent to the Hawaiian Islands to bring the bodies of King Kamehameha II (Kalaninui ‘Iolani Liholiho) and Queen Kamāmalu [Kamāmalunuiomano] back from London, arriving back in the Hawaiian Islands on May 3, 1825; attended a meeting of chiefs on June 6, 1825 and suggested they adopt the trial-by-jury method, which they did; brought a projector and slides to the Hawaiian Islands and used them to produce Hawaii’s first magic-lantern show; the ship’s artist on the Blonde was Robert Dampier (1800—1874); a bay near Hilo (at Waiākea) was called Byron’s Bay in his honor, and a spot on the summit area of Kīlauea Volcano, beneath the Volcano House Hotel, and separating Kīlauea Iki Crater from Kīlauea Crater, became known as Byron’s Ledge; Lord Byron published his accounts in Voyage of H.M.S. “Blonde” to the Sandwich Islands, 1824-25 (London: John Murray, 1826).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Blonde_(1819)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Malden

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Byron,_7th_Baron_Byron

Voyage of H.M.S. Blonde to the Sandwich islands, in the years 1824-1825

https://archive.org/details/voyagehmsblonde00bloxgoog

Voyage of H. M. S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands, in the Year 1824-1825

By George Anson Lord Byron