The contact era

Duperrey’s French corvette Coquille spends about ten days at Kosrae; Lesson describes the island and its paramount chief.

Lütke’s Russian sloop Senyavin arrives at Kosrae for a friendly stay of about three weeks.

Benjamin Morrell’s schooner Antarctic trades at Kosrae.

The John Bull logs ten desertions at Kosrae.

The whaling bark Australian takes on wood and water; about ten men desert.

Jules Dudoit’s bark Clementine visits Kosrae for tortoise shell and finds islanders friendly.

The brig Waverly is captured and its crew killed after its captain allegedly abducted a chief’s daughter, who drowned.

Captain and shore party of the schooner Honduras are killed at Kosrae; the ship escapes to Pohnpei.

Awane Sru II begins a reign (1835–1837) remembered as usurping and brutal toward Europeans.

Salik and six sons depose Sru II; Awane Lepalik I (“King George”), friendly to whalers, begins his reign.

Kosraeans take the British whaler Harriet, kill all crew and burn it at Okat.

Five whalers stop at Okat during the year, three in harbor at once.

Eugène Delessert visits Okat aboard the Minerva; two Englishmen come aboard.

The whaler Potomac lies at anchor at Kosrae for a month.

The Inez finds five ships in port and Kosraeans dying daily of an epidemic.

The whaler Herald finds seven ships offshore at Kosrae.

French corvette Bayonnaise visits; King George receives a uniform and brandy.

Americans Kirkland and Isaac Hussey settle at Lelu to trade with whalers.

A chief’s son tries to poison the Emily Morgan’s crew after hearing a warship might punish him.

The bark Eureka loads sandalwood, bêche-de-mer and turtle shell at Kosrae.

Rev. Benjamin Snow, Lydia Snow and Hawaiians Daniel and Doreka Opunui land from the schooner Caroline, founding Kosrae’s mission.

Snow begins formal church services with King Lepalik I’s support.

HMS Serpent (Hammet) investigates past attacks and notes syphilis among islanders.

Lepalik I tells Hammet he executed 14 men and 4 women over the Henrietta/Harriet attack.

The whaler Margaret Scott arrives with three smallpox cases aboard.

King George (Lepalik I) dies; Awane Sru III becomes king.

The whaler Belle lands the Pierson missionaries and stays months trading coconut oil.

Influenza kills 113 and sickens 88 of Kosrae’s 1,106 people.

Sru III dies and Awane Oa becomes king; renewed influenza cuts the population to 950 by October.

Awane Oa uncovers a plot by four whites and fourteen Rotumans, expels them, and bans permanent white settlement.

The English schooner Black Dog arrives carrying native women and rum.

Awane Lepalik II begins his reign (to 1863); a census finds 747 people.

The whaler Lexington wrecks on a Kosrae reef; some crew build a vessel and sail to Hong Kong.

Kosrae’s population falls to 748.

Snow reports little progress in morals or growth of the faith.

The Morning Star brings the first book printed in Kosraean.

With 20 church members and 100 hearers, Snow leaves Kosrae for the Marshalls, returning yearly.

Lepalik II dies a week after seizing church land; Awane Salik II, opposed to Christianity, succeeds (to 1874).

Returning missionaries win 50 new converts.

Kosrae’s church has 197 members; a stone church is dedicated during Morning Star II’s visit.

Kosrae’s population falls to 600.

Morning Star II is wrecked in a squall leaving Kosrae; passengers are rescued.

Chiefly titles drop to eight, and the king allows seven elected commoners to make laws.

USS Jamestown receives complaints against trader Ben Pease.

Godeffroy & Son opens a copra trading station on Kosrae.

Bully Hayes acquires the schooner Neva at Kosrae.

HMS Dido takes on provisions and coal at Kosrae.

A typhoon sinks Bully Hayes’s Leonora and two whalers in Utwe Harbor.

Salik II is deposed and Sru IV becomes Kosrae’s first elected king; population stands at 397.

Morning Star III reports Kosrae’s population at 400.

The Capelle Company begins operating on Kosrae; Snow suffers a stroke and returns to Maine.

A Hernsheim company ship lands a trader on Kosrae.

Kosrae’s chief signs a lease for a mission training-school site; Dr. E. M. Pease opens the Mwot school (Habele: 1882).

Under pressure from the German ship Franziska, Kosrae’s chiefs sign Hernsheim’s copra-indemnity agreement, a 133,000 lb claim.

Kosrae’s population falls below 200 and only five chiefly titles remain (Hezel: about 300 c.1890).

German consul aboard SMS Habicht backs Hernsheim’s copra claim, ruling against Kosraeans.

The ABCFM General Mission Meeting is held on Kosrae during Morning Star III’s visit.

King Sru V abolishes formal class distinctions.

Japanese warship Ryūjō calls, the first documented Japanese ship contact with a Micronesian island.

SMS Albatros hoists the German flag over Kosrae, with Kubary as interpreter.