Product Description
by Wendell Lewis Thoene (Author)
This is a novel with a historical basis. The origins of which are my great grandfather's story. Wilhelm Otto Ludwig von Thoene was born in North Germany in the mid 19th century and upon viewing a German recruitment poster in his high school senior year he enlisted along with a number of his friends. They played in a German navy ship's band and when the ship found itself in Honolulu they became involved with and eventually became a part of an existing German community and decided to desert their ship and remain in Honolulu. My great grandfather and his friends were soon recruited into the Hawaii Guard a German militia in the islands in which he was a sergeant. The Hawaii Guard became involved with the mandatory transport of leper victims to the Molokai leper colony that was under the care and management of Father Damien. Later, they were involved in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. The fictional story is about six young men graduating from a military high school in Germany that enlist in the German Navy and find themselves posted on an Austrian man of war frigate SMS Donau on a global expedition in 1868. The six young men were under orders to accompany a German army captain on the ship whose destination is the Kingdom of Hawaii and his name is Heinrich Berger who was invited by King Kamehameha V by way of the German Kaiser Wilhelm to compose music pieces as well as to conduct the Royal Hawaiian Band. The ship is severely damaged in a typhoon after departing Japan for Honolulu, Hawaii in late 1869. As a consequence the ship was delayed for repairs in the Hawaiian Kingdom for several months whereby said youths become spellbound by "paradise." While in Honolulu, they meet a number of influential Germans that had already established two German communities in the Kingdom with one of them on the island of Oahu and the other on the island of Kauai. Because of their extensive military training they are invited into the Hawaii Guard under the command of Captain Charles Zeiler, Jr. They all agree to accept the positions offered with the Hawaii Guard and desert their ship with the consequences being death by hanging should they ever return to their native land. The directive from their benefactors, Mr. Heinrich Hackfeld and Mr. Claus Spreckles, is to support the monarchy, however as the story progresses they become more and more torn in their support for those that gave them the opportunity to live in paradise and others that were determined to put an end to it and make it a Territory of the United States of America. Over the thirty year period from 1868 through 1898 they find themselves in the midst of an immense struggle. Trying to do what's right on behalf of the monarchy of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and at the same time getting caught up in a wave of ever increasing pressure to at first compromise, and finally to change their perspective and capitulate to what becomes the inevitable outcome of secession and annexation as the Far East becomes increasingly important to America and more and more Americans pour into the Kingdom of Hawaii to support the American gravy train that eventually spans two thirds of the globe.
