King Kamehameha Statue - The Statue That Sank

Photo: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Historic Downtown Honolulu Walk, a free self-guided tour.

The gilded figure facing the palace is Kamehameha the Great, the chief who brought the islands under one rule by 1810 and founded the kingdom whose story you are walking through. Spear in one hand and the other held out in welcome, he wears a feather cloak and helmet and the sash of a high chief.

The statue has a story of its own. Boston sculptor Thomas Gould made it in Italy, and it was cast in Paris in 1880. The ship carrying it to Hawaii sank near the Falkland Islands, so a second casting was ordered with the insurance money. That copy is the one in front of you, put in place in 1883. Then the original turned up, salvaged by Falkland islanders, and it now stands in Kapaau, near Kamehameha's birthplace on the Big Island.

The face is a European artist's idealized image, since no portrait of the king survives from his youth. Come on Kamehameha Day, June 11, to see the statue draped in long fresh lei.

Getting here: Walk a few steps toward King Street; the statue stands on its pedestal in front of Aliiolani Hale.

Did you know?: Hawaii sent a third version of this statue to the U.S. Capitol in Washington in 1969, where it stands in the Capitol Visitor Center.

Photo op: Stand on the palace side of King Street and frame the statue with the clock tower of Aliiolani Hale rising behind it.

More on Wikipedia: Statues of Kamehameha I · Kamehameha I · Thomas Ridgeway Gould

King Kamehameha Statue - The Statue That Sank

Stops on this tour