I first learned of English shipwreck survivor and Honolulu shipyard owner James Robinson (1799-1876) from Kapahi resident Beatrice Kauilani Lemke-Newman, who informed me that Mr. Robinson was her great uncle, several generations removed.
James Robinson signed on board the whaler “Hermes” as ship’s carpenter in 1819 at London, England, and arrived in Honolulu in March 1820, two weeks prior to the arrival of the pioneer company of American Protestant missionaries who landed at Kailua, Hawai‘i, aboard the brig “Thaddeus,” on April 4, 1820.
Robinson thereafter served on whaling expeditions aboard the “Hermes” and its sister whaler “Pearl” until April 8, 1822, when the whalers embarked Honolulu for the Japan whaling grounds, with Robinson on board the “Hermes” as chief shipwright.
And, on April 26, 1822, while sailing through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, both whalers were shipwrecked almost simultaneously on Pearl and Hermes Reef (Holoikauaua Atoll).
Its castaways made land on one of the atoll’s islets, and under Robinson’s direction, they constructed the 30-ton schooner “Deliverance” from timber and supplies they’d salvaged in the lagoon.
On July 1, 1822, the British ship “Earl of Morby” was sighted and rescued most of the castaways, but Robinson and 11 others chose to remain behind and sail “Deliverance” to Honolulu, arriving 10 weeks later.
In Honolulu, Robinson and “Hermes” shipmate Bobby Lawrence sold “Deliverance” for $2,000, repaired schooners for a time, and in 1827 established a shipyard on Pakaka Point, Honolulu, with assistance from Kalanimoku and John Young.
Their business, James Robinson &Co., was the first shipyard established in Hawai‘i, and in the Pacific for that matter, and in time Robinson became a wealthy man.
He married Rebecca Kaikilani Prever in 1843 and they had eight children: Mark, Mary, Victoria, Bathsheba, Matilda, Annie, Lucy and John.
Son Mark became minister
of foreign affairs under
Queen Lili‘uokalani.
Daughter Victoria married Curtis Ward and resided at Old Plantation, their 100-acre Honolulu property.
Another daughter, Mary, was the wife of Thomas Foster, founder of the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company.
Foster Botanical Garden is today one of five public botanical gardens on O‘ahu.
