Lahaina

Lahaina lies on the sheltered western coast of Maui, looking across the channel towards Lānaʻi. Long before foreign ships arrived, it was a residence of Hawaiian chiefs and a centre of political life. Kamehameha I later made Lahaina a royal residence after bringing Maui under his authority.

The first American whaling ships arrived in 1819, and Lahaina became a port where crews took on supplies. Under Kamehameha’s successors Liholiho and Kauikeaouli, it served as a capital of the Hawaiian kingdom from 1820. By 1824 a hundred ships a year visited the port, bringing trade as well as crowds of sailors to the sheltered roadstead. Missionaries arrived in 1823, while the growing presence of sailors and merchants added new tensions to the town’s life.