Yesterday I took a small group of my friends on a ride around Nuuanu to capture images of all of the known cannons situated around the valley.
This one's the most obvious sitting in Walker Park. What was once Honolulu Fort, Kekuanohu in 1816 until 1857. Which I will go into more depth on in future posts. If this cannon had anything to do with the fort, I have no idea.
Funny how it's aimed directly at Aloha Tower.
These four are located in Oahu Cemetery. They memorialize members of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Union Army Veterans of the Civil War.
Finally we're back at John Young's grave site inside of The Royal Mausoleum. Although, these seem to be very well done cement posts set up to look like cannons.
Great pics. It's fascinating to wonder whether any of these cannons were involved in the Nuuanu battle.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Hawaiian cannons, I'm interested in the whereabouts of King Kamehameha's first cannon, Lopaka, which he dragged up to Wailuku and shot up into Iao Valley in 1790. It was reported by a group of Russians who visited Kamehameha at his Kailua residence that he had many cannons set up on the beach. Perhaps one of those was the cannon called Lopaka. There are a few cannons in on display in Lahaina, one of which may be Lopaka, but they are all pretty large & from what I understand Lopaka was a small cannon. There's a Wikipedia pic of a cannon in front of the Bailey Museum in Wailuku that the photographer claims he was told was found out in Iao Valley. I asked them about it once when I was there and they said No, it's merely a cannon that would have been similar to that used in the battle. So the search continues... :)