Claus Spreckels

Claus Spreckels, who built a sugar empire in California and in the Hawaiian Kingdom, died over half a century ago. Much of what has been written about his Hawaiian career makes him out to be a scoundrel. Beyond question he was a man of consequence in the islands. How much consequence? And for good or evil? These are the questions at the heart of this book.

Spreckels became a card-playing crony and financial backer of Hawaii's last king, the merry David Kalakaua, who reigned from 1874 to 1891. He formed an alliance with that monarch's "evil angel," Premier Walter Murray Gibson. For a time, the unlikely Kalakaua-Gibson-Spreckels triumvirate controlled the kingdom. Later, after the overthrow of King Kalakaua's sister, Queen Liliuokalani, who reigned from 1891 to 1893, Spreckels attempted to put her back on the throne. In Hawaii his reputation for rascality lives on. In many ways, as the following pages will show, the reputation was well earned. But his contributions to the development of the island kingdom remain largely unsung. This book tries to throw some light on these.