Russian Fort Elizabeth
Kauai, Hawaii, USA

Russians may have landed on what is today Alaska as early as 1648, and small expeditions of Russian fur traders were regularly sailing back & forth across the Bering Strait by the 1740's. Between 1733 and 1867 Russian settlements existed in modern California and Alaska, as well as at two ports in Hawai'i. Russian America pretty much consisted of Alaska, though tendrils of Russianosity reached through much of the Pacific.

The Bering, an RAC ship carrying a valuable cargo of furs, ran aground on the island of Kauai in 1815. The Bering's captain made arrangements with Kaumualii (1778-1824), the King of the island of Kauai, to protect the ship and cargo until the RAC could return to collect the cargo, whereupon Kaumualii would get to keep the (wrecked and likely useless) ship. Kaumualii naturally absconded with the ship and cargo, and the RAC began discussing the merits of a punitive expedition to get it's cargo back, in addition to killing lots of people.

Kaumualii personally raised an RAC flag over Kauai, proclaiming eternal fealty to the Russian-American Company, or Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825), or to whomever Mr. Schäffer might suggest was worthy of proclaiming fealty. Kaumualii signed a treaty that promised 500 local soldiers to the RAC should they wish to invade and take over the rest of the Hawaiian Islands, and went so far as to suggest that Hawaii might serve as a Russian "protectorate." Sugarplum visions of Russian conquest, with himself, dressed as an Admiral, galloping at the head of the charge on an armored flaming voodoo elephant, danced behind Schäffer's eyes.

Kaumualii also assigned 300 laborers to Schäffer, who utilized these willing hands and backs to build three forts on Kauai: Fort Alexander (named of course for the Tsar) and Fort Barclay-de-Tolly (named for Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818), a Russian general and Minister of War during Napoleon (1769-1821)'s invasion of 1812) were two small earthen forts, but the jewel in Schäffer's dreamily potential Hawaiian crown was Fort Elizabeth.

Yes sir, Schäffer had successfully laid the groundwork for the Imperial Russian ownership of Hawaii! As some of us may have foreseen, however, King Kaumualii's enthusiasm for Russian intervention in the region was slightly less than genuine...and the royal shenanigans of Hawaii were no less convoluted and nefarious than those of Europe. Bent on obtaining Hawaii for himself, Kaumualii would have cheerfully signed any manner of treaty with anyone who might help him achieve his goal. While he had completely convinced Schäffer that Russia and the RAC would benefit vastly from this arrangement, Tsar Alexander, fortunately, did not have his head up his own posterior.

Once the Tsar finally learned of Schäffer's Hawaiian scheme in mid-1817, he wasted no time in admonishing the Russian-American Company, and Schäffer, after a few fruitless attempts to stand his ground amidst increasingly hostile Hawaiians and a number of Americans, who had an interest in seeing the Russians on their way, was retrieved from Hawaii, relieved of his job with the RAC and sent back to Germany.

Humehume was no pantywaist. He had spent several years in the United States, where he had served in the US Marine Corps during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). Humehume was wounded in the battle betwixt the USS Wasp and HMS Reindeer in the English Channel in June of 1814, and in 1820 was returning home in the hope of claiming his father's throne and increasing that kingdom's domain.

But not for long! Humehume evaded capture for a few weeks, but was eventually captured, his life spared, and exiled to Honolulu (Hawaii's Siberia), where he was reunited with his family. "Exiled" to one of the most gorgeous and hospitable places on earth with his wife and child! Such torture!

Many, many thanks to Jacob Bogle and his Fortress Earth project, through which I discovered Russian Fort Elizabeth!