Description: Upon a bold lava-strewn headland, a mile or so distant from the spot where Captain Cook fell, at an elevation of some 500 feet above sea level, is to be seen a small cairn of lava boulders. On the cairn stands a roughly hewn pole, some 8 feet above the top of the stones, bearing a small board upon which is affixed a copper plate. The cairn is set within a wall of the same material.
History: Erected by Captain Lord Byron, of HMS Blonde, in 1825, on the spot where Cook’s body was buried.
On 15th July 1825 Andrew Bloxam, Lord Byron and two others from the ship climbed the hill to the place where Cook’s body was prepared for burial, they laid stones to form the base of a monument to his memory, and fixed a large post in the middle. On top of this was nailed a plate with the inscription (below) on it.
In 1928 the original post and plate were still in place, when the Captain Cook Sesquicentennial Commission had the plate polished, encased in concrete and again raised.
This site was the place where the arii (chiefs) were prepared for burial.
Inscription: On a copper plate:
In Memory
of
Captn James Cook R.N.
Who discovered These Islands
in
The Year of Our Lord
1778
This humble Monument is erected
by his fellow Countrymen
in the Year of our Lord
1825
GPS Coordinates: 20.025618, -155.821781
Heritage Listing: National Historic site, Hawaii
References:
Cook’s Log, page 112, vol.4, no.3 (1981)
Cook’s Log, page 1174, vol.18, no.3 (1995)
Cook’s Log, page 30, vol.34, no.2 (2011)
Cook’s Log, page 28, vol.36, no.3 (2013)
Website: https://www.nps.gov/puhe/planyourvisit/index.htm