by Peter T. Young, Images Of Old Hawaii
On November 16, 1836, in High Chief ‘Aikanaka’s compound of many grass structures for cooking, eating, gathering, and retainers’ quarters was one larger hut in which lay Keohokalole, awaiting the birth of her second born. The first child had died at birth.
The great prophetess and High Chiefess Liliha had said it would be a man child, and he would live. “From this child, the bones of our ancestors will have life.” She also said that he would see the demise of the Kamehamehas.
The child about to be born was promised in hānai to Liliha. ʻAikanaka thought Liliha was the perfect hānai for his daughters’ child.
Liliha was particularly pleased with this hānai. She and her husband, Boki, had no sons. Liliha had two daughters; Abigail and Jane Louea. But she had seen great things in her prophesies for the child who was soon to be her hānai.
The chanters began their mele. The child’s ancestry was extolled: His mother was descended from Keawe-a-Heulu and his father was the grandson of Kame‘eiamoku. The two had been trusted warriors and close advisors to Kamehameha l.
The child was born - news traveled quickly, and suddenly the compound was crowded with people, rejoicing, singing, dancing. Kīna’u had come to name the child. It was her privilege.
Children were named by notable historical events, which would date their birth. Kīna’u decreed; Kalakaua, “Battle Day.” History and the ancients give the complete name as Laamea Kamanakapuu Mahinulani Nalolaekalani Lumia-Lani Kalakaua.
Liliha came to collect her hānai child. Then Kīna’u stepped between her and the child. “The child is to go to Ha‘aheo” she decreed. Liliha protested bitterly but knew she could not win, for Kīna’u’s word was law in this matter.
The tiny Kalakaua was wrapped in kapa and taken by his hānai mother, Ha‘aheo, to the royal grounds, followed by the entourage of Kïna‘u.
Kalakaua was given to a kahu [a wet nurse] to be fed and nurtured. His warm infancy was, however, short-lived, for Ha‘aheo died a year later and Kinimaka, her husband, took the baby to live in Lahaina.
However, he lived only a short time on the palace grounds there - as Kinimaka’s high chief linage was less than his late wife’s. Kinimaka moved to a frame house on the outskirts of Lahaina. Within the year he married a Tahitian woman, Pai, who welcomed Kalakaua with love and tenderness.
When Kalakaua was nearly four, his biological mother, who served on the King’s privy council with one of the most powerful woman in Hawaii, Konia, the granddaughter of Kamehameha l, appealed to her to have Kalakaua sent to the High Chiefs’ Children’s School in Honolulu.
Kalakaua was admitted to the school, but not before he was baptized and given the name “David.” Hence, David Kalakaua. In 1839, when Kalakaua entered the school, the three throne-aligned princes were also attending: Moses, twelve; Lot, ten; and Alexander Liholiho, nine.
After Kalakaua left the High Chiefs’ School, he attended the George Beckwith Royal School. At the age of fourteen, Kalakaua returned to his blood father, Kapa‘akea.
In 1853, at the age of seventeen, Kalakaua began his study of Law under Charles Coffin Harris. Enchanted by the young man, Harris took him into his home to live. It was Kalakaua’s years with Harris that formulated his legalistic oratory.
In 1855, life changed considerably for this young man. Kamehameha III died on December 15, 1854, and after a period of mourning, Alexander Liholiho became King as Kamehameha IV.
Kalakaua was attracted to Julia Kapiolani; she was educated in both English and Hawaiian and spoke only Hawaiian and was thoroughly Hawaiian oriented. She was described as lovely, shy and gracious.
Julia Kapiolani was of high chiefly background; she was born December 31, 1834, in Hilo, Hawaii, of High Chief Kūhiō and High Chiefess Kinoiki. She was named in honor of the first High Chiefess to defy the Goddess Pele.
From her early teens she was under the custody of Kamehameha III and had been a member of the court. In 1852, when she was eighteen, she married Benet Namakeha, thirty years her senior. They had both gone on a missionary expedition to Micronesia.
A year later they returned to the court of Kamehameha IV. Shortly after her arrival in Hawaii, Kapiolani become widowed, and her path constantly crossed Kalakaua’s.
On December 8, 1863, Kalakaua’s romance with Julia Kapiolani crystallized, and they were married in a quiet, secret ceremony by an Episcopal minister.
By the 1870s, Kalakaua was beginning to feel the pressure of poverty. The Kalakaua family did not have the riches of the Kamehamehas. Kalakaua’s government salaries were low and his talent for making money was negligible.
But as Queen Emma wrote that with Kalakaua’s “faults we must give him credit for great ambition -- he has faltered but keeps on trying. He is not idle, he has stumbled and blundered before the public till actually he really has gained courage amongst the and speak out and write boldly.”
Emma’s reference to Kalakaua’s faults, faltering, stumbling, and blundering referred to Kalakaua’s disastrous tenure as postmaster and his engagement in newspaper work. Along with his political duties, Kalakaua’s dreams and interests were with the arts and in writing.
In the early-1870s, with a young wife to support, Kalakaua reached for a means to support himself beyond his salaries as chamberlain, attorney (he passed the bar in 1871), and as clerk in the Land Office.
He became an inventor. Remembering the wonderful ships he had visited years before, he turned his attention to naval defense. He wrote Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil on Sept 19, 1872 for funds to build a torpedo-proof vessel. (Kelley)
“‘I flatter myself,’ Kalakaua wrote, ‘among the inventors of instruments of naval warfare to have invented a submarine torpedo for the destruction of an enemy vessel advancing on a hostile coast ...’ and went on to cite its versatility, practicality and effectiveness.”
“‘The important feature of the invention is the direct action of destruction and the sure annihilation of anything crossing its way . . . I may safely assert that there is nothing afloat (with) the thickness of iron armor and carrying a plate of three to four inches thick at the ships bottom, save the invention proposed by me, and submitted to the British Government ...’”
“Kalakaua tried to cover all possibilities for funding, it seems, and submitted a request for patronage to Queen Victoria as well. ‘I have refrained from sending a model, as it would be liable to miscarriage.’ Kalakaua did, however, send detailed drawings of his proposed vessel …”
“‘I am, Sire, with the most profound respects,’ Kalakaua closed the letter, ‘your Imperial Majesty’s most obedient and humble Servant. David Kalakaua, chief of staff and aide camp to His Majesty the King of Hawaii. Knight Companion to the Order of Kamehameha I, Knight Commander of the Order of His Imperial Majesty Francis Joseph of Austria.”
“Either the emperor of Brazil was also suffering from a general flatness of the purse or his fancy was not captured by Kalakaua’s flowery descriptions and entreaty because Kalakaua’s Torpedo Proof Vessel and Torpedo apparently never did get off the drawing board.”
“Kalakaua also tried his hand at designing a sort of semi-submerged, steam-propelled ship battering ram, a ‘Fish Ram’ …. It was shaped like a fish with the steam emitting from the half of the tail which protruded above the water. The battering ram was the elongated snout of the fish, and a compass was inset just where the fish’s eye would be.”
“His most practical invention [was] a bottle cap, much like the plastic caps that you can pick up today …. The cap has a loop which fits around the neck of an opened bottle.”
“The cap is attached to the loop and fits snugly over the mouth of the bottle. Kalakaua designed his ‘improved bottle (stopper) cover’ Nov. 16. 1872, at Kaalaa.” (Brown, Star Bulletin)
Kalakaua reigned as King of the Islands from February 12, 1874 until his death in San Francisco, California, on January 20, 1891.