Naval action from Hawaii to the Siege of Sebastopol

Maidstone’s Crimean War cannon was captured at the The Siege of Sebastopol in 1854. Every time Stephen Pearce, from Maidstone, walks past it, he is reminded of his great-greatgrandfather, Joseph Whately, who took part

Joseph Whately was born in Wiltshire, in 1824. At 18, he joined the 15th Company of the Royal Marine Artillery and a year later found himself on board HMS Carysfort, under Lord George Paulet.

They sailed to California, where Robert Charlton the British Consul to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) complained to Paulet that his land on the islands had been denied to him by the native king, Kamehameha III.

Paulet sailed his 26-gun frigate to Honolulu where in a classic example of “gunboat diplomacy” he told Kamehameha that he would flatten the capital if the King did not yield to his orders.

Young Whately was among the 240 British sailors and marines who then occupied the islands for the next five months.

The situation was resolved when Admiral Thomas, Commander of the Royal Navy Pacific Fleet arrived in Honolulu and realised that Paulet had over-reacted. He restored king and government on July 31, 1843, and this date is now celebrated as a public holiday. There is still a Union flag incorporated in the flag of Hawaii.

Three years later, Whately transferred to HMS Tribune, which on the outbreak of the Crimean War, became part of a combined French and British fleet tasked with blockading the Russian port of St Petersburg.

It was a profitable venture for Whately. As well as receiving the Baltic Medal, he was given a share of the prize money from the six Russian merchant ships they captured.

Tribune was then ordered to the Black Sea, in time for the bombardment of Sebastopol on October 17, 1854.

Whately survived the conflict, but like dozens of other crew was struck down by dysentery.