Naihekukui

For the chief orator and councilor, see Naihe.
Naihe Kukui Kapihe
Admiral of the Kingdom of Hawaii
On the 1819 voyage of Louis de Freycinet
DiedFebruary 8, 1825
Valparaíso, Chile
Burial
at sea
SpouseI-Kapeʻekukai Iʻahuʻula
IssueKalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili
FatherHanakahi
MotherPiʻipiʻi

Naihe-Kukui Kapihe (died 1825), known as "Captain Jack" or "Jack the Pilot" to visitors, served as Honolulu harbor master and admiral of the royal fleet in the early Kingdom of Hawaii. His daughter would become a Queen consort.

Life

He was royal harbor pilot at Honolulu during the time of Kamehameha I, and was the commander of native fleet of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was known as "Captain Jack" by the non-Hawaiians visiting or living in Hawaii. His name was also sometimes spelled "Naihi-kukui" or "Naihi tutui".[1] Other times he is mentioned having the name "Kapihe".[2] He is recorded as guiding Russian Vasily Golovnin in 1818 and French explorers Louis de Freycinet and Camille de Roquefeuil in 1819.[3] Louis de Freycinet calls him in French "premier pilote Kéihé-Koukoui, surnommé Jack".[4]

His daughter Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili (c. 1817–1870) would marry King Kamehameha III and become Queen consort. Kalama was the King's pick for a bride, despite having others with better family connections available.[5] Naihe-kukui is often called a "chief of low rank", not to be confused with other people of that time with similar names.[2]

He accompanied Kamehameha II on his trip to London in 1823, and died in Valparaíso, Chile on their return with Lord Byron on February 8, 1825.[1]: 338  He was buried at sea.[6] He was known to be a skilled player at the game of English draughts (also called "Checkers") because it was similar to the Hawaiian game called Kōnane.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Stewart, Charles Samuel; Ellis, William (1828). Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands, During the Years 1823, 1824, and 1825 (1st ed.). London: H. Fisher, Son, and P. Jackson. p. 126.
  2. ^ a b William De Witt Alexander (1891). A brief history of the Hawaiian people. American Book Co.
  3. ^ Mary Ellen Birkett (2000). "Hawai'i in 1819: An Account by Camille de Roquefeuil". Hawaiian Journal of History. 34. Hawaii Historical Society: 69–92. hdl:10524/602.
  4. ^ Louis Claude de Saulses de Freycinet (1839). Voyage autour du monde entrepris par ordre du roi, exécuté sur les corvettes l'Uranie et la Physicienne pendant les années 1817-1818-1819-1820. Vol. 2, part 1. (French)
  5. ^ Hiram Bingham I (1855) [1848]. A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands (Third ed.). H.D. Goodwin. p. 428.
  6. ^ Baron George Anson Byron, Richard Rowland Bloxam (1826). Lady Maria Callcott (ed.). Voyage of H. M. S. Blonde to the Sandwich islands, in the years 1824-1825. J. Murray. p. 86.
  7. ^ James Macrae (1922). William Frederick Wilson (ed.). With Lord Byron at the Sandwich Islands in 1825: Being Extracts from the MS Diary of James Macrae, scottish botanist. W.F. Wilson. ISBN 978-0-554-60526-5.