Steve Priske's Battle of the Red Mouth Cannon c.1791

Following Captain James Cook's discovery of the Hawaiian Islands (Sandwich Islands) in 1778, European 'mercenaries'  and their modern weaponry quickly made their way to a tropical paradise already at war.

In the summer of 1791 a huge sea battle was fought off the shores of the big island of Hawaii. The kings of Oahu, Maui and Kauai launched a fleet of war canoes with swivel guns mounted to their bows and the help of a few musket armed foreigner's. King Kamehameha of Hawaii won the day, although had it not been for the help of the schooner Fair American and her cannon he might have lost the battle and his life in the shark infested waters. The battle became known as the Battle of the Red Mouth Cannon.

Inspired by Herb Kawainui Kane's painting of this battle I have just completed a pair of scratch built models of the 60 foot long catamaran's used by both sides in this infamous battle.  King Kamehameha had over 700 Peleleu cats built, each averaging 60 feet long, with European (square) cut sails, and a swivel cannon mounted to the bow.  His opponents fought with the more traditional rigged twin hulled canoes, 50 foot long, 'crab claw' sail and bow mounted cannon. Just imagine the sight it must have been for those Europeans witnessing pre-historic ships fighting with 18th Century weapons!

It takes me about 250 hours to complete each model. The hulls are carved out of Oregon Myrtle wood, as are the bulwarks, deck planks, sideboards, masts, spars and paddles. The sails are real canvas colored to match Herb Kane's paintings of these ships. I mounted the models to Myrtle wood bases selected to give the feel of the ship being at sea.   There are over 600 rope lashing points required to put together each ship, the arched wooden cross beams being the toughest part to get right.