It was a serious practical loss and Cook felt obliged to take retaliatory action. He went ashore with three boats to 'invite' King Kalei'opu'u aboard 'Resolution' until the stolen boat was returned, a practice he had successfully adopted in such cases in Tahiti. The king initially agreed but members of his retinue tried to persuade him not to go, fearing for his life. By the time Cook's party reached the water's edge in Kealakekua Bay, it was surrounded by a large, hostile crowd. With news that a local chieftain had been killed in an incident with Cook's men across the bay, the Hawaiians attacked. Cook was knifed in the shoulder and clubbed on the back of the head. The episode was a tragedy of cross-purposes and mismanagement, with deaths and regret on both sides. Peace was restored by the diplomacy of Cook's successor in command, Lieutenant Charles Clerke, and Cook's remains were returned for burial at sea in the bay.

Regardless of the actual details, Cook's achievements and death were immortalised in the decades that followed. The heroic yet suffering Cook and the idealised 'savage' who murders him are both revealed as noble in Zoffany's moment of classical tragedy.