Hagenmeister

1806 to 1809

Lisiansky called the Neva the best ship he had ever sailed in. She stayed only a few weeks at Kronstadt for overhauling after Lisiansky's return, then was placed under the command of Lieutenant Hagenmeister for another voyage to Sitka. It is assumed that she left Kronstadt in 1806 on her second voyage, the same year she was brought back by Lisiansky. She arrived at Sitka in September 1807.

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Baranov, the manager of the Russian American Company, had been faced with the very serious problem of providing food for his colony, which at times had been on the point of starvation. There were two possibilities for relieving the situation. One was to obtain food from California with his own ships, the other was to establish some regular communication with the Hawaiian Islands. Baranov instructed Hagenmeister in 1808 to sail the Neva to Hawaii to establish a Russian settlement in the islands and, on the way, to search for any islands between Japan and Hawaii.

When the Neva arrived in Honolulu on January 27, 1809, King Kamehameha went out in a double canoe to greet the ship. He was given a handsome scarlet cloak, edged and ornamented with ermine, as a present from the governor of the Aleutian Islands. Hagenmeister then visited Kauai, where he found that King Kaumualii approved of the Russians settling in Kauai and hoped they would help defend him against King Kamehameha. After a few months, Hagenmeister returned to Alaska in the Neva and presented Baranov with an adverse report on the advisability of a Russian settlement in the Hawaiian Islands.