Chill yarn 'bout the Kamehameha statues, mate - a tribute to King K. who united

Kamehameha I, the monarch who united the Hawaiian Islands way back in 1810, got himself some statues in his honor, mate. The first one, commissioned in 1878 and pitched outside Aliʻiolani Hale in Honolulu, was sculpted by the fellow Thomas Ridgeway Gould. This first statue, though, had a saltwater adventure and ended up swimming with the fishes. A second casting was made and put up in its place in 1883. The original statue, lost at sea, eventually turned up with some Falkland Islanders.

Capt Jervis bought it and had it repaired, my friend. It found its new home in Kohala, Kamehameha's own backyard, in 1883. When Hawaii became a state in 1969, they commissioned a third replica and unveiled it on the scene. We've got more of the king's folksy likenesses on the Big Island, in Hilo and Kapaau, and on Maui, at the Grand Wailea Resort & Spa. Another statue stood on the Las Vegas Strip, but it disappeared in January 2014. Come June 11, on Kamehameha Day, the folk share their aloha with the statues by ceremoniously draping them in fresh lei.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons