Falls of Clyde (ship)

Falls of Clyde was built in 1878 by Russell and Company in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland. She was launched as the first of nine iron-hulled four-masted ships for Wright and Breakenridge's Falls Line.[3] She was named after the Falls of Clyde, a group of waterfalls on the River Clyde, and built to the highest standard for general worldwide trade, Lloyd's Register A-1. Her maiden voyage took her to Karachi, now in Pakistan, and her first six years were spent engaged in the India trade. She then became a tramp pursuing general cargo such as lumber, jute, cement, and wheat from ports in Australia, California, India, New Zealand, and the British Isles.

After twenty-one years as a British merchantman, Falls of Clyde was purchased for US$25,000 by Captain William Matson of the Matson Navigation Company, taken to Honolulu in 1899, and registered under the Hawaiian flag. When the Republic of Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1900, it took a special act of the United States Congress to secure the foreign-built ship the right to sail as an American flag vessel.

To economize on crew, Matson rigged Falls of Clyde down as a barque, replacing the five yards on her (jigger) mast with two more easily managed fore-and-aft sails. At the same time, he added a deckhouse, charthouse, and rearranged the after quarters to accommodate paying passengers. From 1899 to 1907, she made over sixty voyages between Hilo, Hawaii, and San Francisco, California, carrying general merchandise west, sugar east, and passengers both ways. She developed a reputation as a handy, fast, and commodious vessel, averaging 17 days each way on her voyages.

In 1907, the Associated Oil Company (later Tidewater Oil) bought Falls of Clyde and converted her to a bulk oil tanker with a capacity of 19,000 barrels (3,000 m³). Ten large steel tanks were built into her hull, and a pump room, boiler and generator fitted forward of an oil-tight bulkhead.[3] In this configuration she brought kerosene to Hawaii and returned to California with molasses for cattle feed.

Falls of Clyde

In 1927, she was sold to the General Petroleum Company, her masts cut down, and converted into a floating fuel depot in Alaska. In 1959 she was purchased by William Mitchell, who towed her to Seattle, Washington, intending to sell her to a preservation group. Mitchell's plan fell through and subsequent efforts by Karl Kortum, director of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, and Fred Klebingat, who had sailed in her as chief mate in 1915, to place her in Long Beach, California, or Los Angeles, California, were similarly disappointed.

In 1963, the bank holding the mortgage on Falls of Clyde decided to sell her to be sunk as part of a breakwater at Vancouver, British Columbia. Kortum and Klebingat aroused interest in the ship in Hawaii, and within days of the scheduled scuttling raised funds to buy the ship. At the end of October 1963, Falls of Clyde was taken under tow bound for Honolulu.

Falls of Clyde (detail of the prow)

Looking forward along the deck

Falls of Clyde was given to the Bishop Museum and opened to the public in 1968. In 1970 the grandson of original 19th century designer William Lithgow was engaged to assist in her restoration as a full-rigged ship. Support came from Sir William Lithgow, the shipbuilder and industrialist, whose Port Glasgow shipyard donated new steel masts, and topgallants, jib and spanker booms of Oregon pine.[3]

In 1973 the ship was entered into the National Register of Historic Places,[4] and declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1989.[4][5]

The ship is now in poor condition. Causes of the deterioration of the ship are multiple. The ship has not been dry docked for a long time. Sandblasting arguably damaged the ship. Preventive maintenance was not performed, although it would have been relatively inexpensive. In fact, her long-time owner, the Bishop Museum, "has been accused of incompetence and dishonesty" for raising $600,000 to preserve the ship but then spending only about half that, and for other decisions on how the money that was spent.[6][7]

In 2008, the Bishop Museum announced plans to sink her by the end of the year unless private funds were raised for an endowment for her perpetual care.[8] In September 2008 the Bishop Museum was persuaded to transfer ownership to the non-profit group Friends of Falls of Clyde, which intends to restore her. However, many artifacts and fixtures had been given away, taken, or otherwise disappeared on the assumption that the ship was to be scuttled.[9][10] $350,000 was obtained from the Robert J. Pfeiffer Foundation, but hoped-for federal funds under the "Save America's Treasures" program or other programs did not come through.[11] In each year since 2008,[12] the Foundation has hoped to get her into drydock but has not succeeded as of 2015.[13] In June 2016 Harbors Division of the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) revoked the permit for her to moor at Pier 7, citing safety and security risks to port users.[14] An earlier attempt by HDOT to auction off the ship in early 2019 turned up no legitimate bids.

In July 2021 HDOT solicited bids for removal of the ship from Honolulu Harbor, and received two proposals in response. The Foundation has challenged the Harbors Division's assessment of the ship, and says they never gave up ownership rights.[15]

In August 2016 a group based in Glasgow, Scotland launched the Save Falls of Clyde – International (FOCI) Campaign, with a view to have her returned to Scotland where she was originally built. Initially, they answered a call for help from the charity known as the ‘Friends of the Falls of Clyde’ (FFOC) who owned and wanted to save the FOC from being scuttled by the Hawaiian Harbours Department. They quickly put together a plan to get her back to Scotland attempting to work with the Hawaiian Harbours department and building and executing a plan.[16]

In November 2021 HDOT accepted a bid from FOCI to transport the ship to either Greenock or Glasgow where it will be restored and returned to sea.[17]

• The ship appears as a filming location in Magnum, P.I., Season 2, Episodes 5 and 6, "Memories are Forever" (November 5, 1981)[18] and Season 6, Episode 10, "Blood and Honor" (November 21, 1985).[19]

• Gibbs, Jim (1987). Pacific square-riggers: pictorial history of the great windships of yesteryear. West Chester, PA: Schiffer Pub. p. 110. ISBN 0887401066. OCLC 17480667.
• Heine, William C (1977). Historic ships of the world. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0399119574. OCLC 833913258.
• Klebingat, Fred K (1972). Falls of Clyde. Menlo Park, CA: Oceans Magazine Co. OCLC 224258149.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to IMO 8640313.

• Hawai`i Maritime Center
• Maritime Heritage Program Information for the Falls of Clyde Archived 2004-08-03 at the Wayback Machine
• Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
• Falls of Clyde on HawaiiWeb
• Friends of Falls of Clyde website
• Falls of Clyde International Ltd
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. HI-7, "Ship Falls of Clyde, Hawaii Maritime Center, Pier 7, Honolulu, Honolulu County, HI", 23 photos, 2 color transparencies, 15 measured drawings, 3 data pages, 4 photo caption pages