The REST Of The Story

The REST Of The Story was Originally Posted on March 9, 2013 by lavarock

I used to listen to Paul Harvey and loved his “Rest of the Story” items. Forgive me if I channel a bit of Paul.

Hawaii was a sovereign nation with a King. In 1778 Captain Cook, the explorer came to the islands, having been in the southern hemisphere up until then. His ships went past Oahu and Kauai and islanders came out to meet him and trade. Having already been to Tahiti, he could communicate with Hawaiians as the languages were similar. The islanders came to the boats in outriggers and swam. No one had left the ship.

It is thought that Cook might have been a god. He was not of the same ethnic background that the islanders had ever seen. He spoke in a language similar to islanders and came during the makahiki time.

Later it came to be that Cook and his ships left, encountered a storm and returned. The islanders were leery of him now and after a scuffle, he was killed. A monument to him exists on the far side of the bay, called appropriately the Captain Cook Monument.

So with that all said and done, Captain Cook had the first ship of Europeans that ever landed in Kingdom of Hawaii. Captain Cook has had books and movies written about him, yet he was not the first to set foot here. But Cook is not the one this story is about.

When he reached Kealakekua bay that first time, the sailing master was sent ashore to see how deep the bay was. That sailing master was the first European to actually set foot on Hawaiian soil.

Oh that sailing master also had a book written about him, he also got a movie or two about his life. You know him, you have read the story I’m sure because later he got his own ship. He became a captain of a British ship that sailed to some of the same places as he did with Captain Cook.

In 1790 some of his crew left his ship and settled on an island in the Southern Pacific. Their descendents live there still. The island became famous for those settlers, those that left the ship to settle on Pitcairn Island, left their captain behind, that captain, the first man to set foot in what has become Hawaii, that captain of the HMS Bounty, Captain Bligh!

As Paul Harvey used to say “Now you know the REST of the story”!

My friend KonaBob has a video piece showing the bay and I thought I would pass that along.