Falls of Clyde (credit: nationalhistoricships.org)
The history of electricity and electromagnetism spans from ancient observations of static to the 19th-century unification of forces. Key milestones include Ørsted's 1820 discovery of electromagnetism, Faraday's induction (1831), and Maxwell’s 1865 equations unifying light and electromagnetism, enabling modern motors and generator.
Here is where the problem comes in how the electricity or power is generated and so far the most common way is to generate heat and convert it to power and then electricity which in turn can run a ship, a city, a factory or your computer. The heat is generated by burning something and here enters the oil industry as it is far easier to fill up and use an oil tank than say a coal or log box, at least in smaller applications. But lets stick to oil:
- 4000 BC - 3000 BC: Early civilizations in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) used bitumen found in seeps for construction mortar, waterproofing boats, and, in Egypt, for mummification.
- Ancient China (c. 4th Century BC - AD 347): Petroleum was used for lighting and heating. By 347 AD, the Chinese drilled wells up to 800 feet deep using bamboo poles to extract oil for evaporating brine to create salt.
- Classical Age & Middle Ages: Persians used naphtha in warfare; Europeans utilized surface seeps for medicinal purposes and early illumination.
- 1700s: While whale oil was rising as a primary lighting source, surface-seep oil was still used locally.
- The Birth of the Modern Oil Industry 1840's-1850's: James Young in Scotland and Abraham Gesner developed refining techniques to create paraffin and kerosene from coal and shale, providing a cheaper alternative to whale oil.
- 1859: Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, sparking the first oil rush.
- 1876 Nikolaus Otto invented his combustion engine.
- Early 1900s: The advent of the internal combustion engine and World War I cemented oil's status as a critical strategic military asset, shifting power from coal to oil.
Looking at above not many think how oil and fuel was transported before the advent and beginning of internal combustion engine when ships only had started to get steam engines propelled by coal and steam turbines and then later they changed to oil powered engines with steam turbines and finally the oil burning motor with gear box came onboard. These needed filling and when cars and other applications for oil became popular the demand for oil rose and so there had to be ways to distribute oil.
The first tanker was actually built pre-1870s: Oil was transported in wooden casks or barrels loaded into the hulls of sailing ships, like Falls of Clyde. Then the first tankers were invented: To reduce costs, early tankers were developed to hold oil directly in their hulls. The first successful iron-hulled steamer, Zoroaster, was built in 1878 for the Swedish Nobel brothers to transport oil from Baku to Astrakhan, but they had issues that were solved by British engineer Henry F. Swan by 1886 when Gluckauf was built.
Anyway, the tanker rally was only in its infancy and a lot of the oil was distributed in drums so how else would they be transported than loading them onto sailing ships as general cargo in drums or case oil as it was termed back then. It was also a Swede that in 1898 procured a sailing ship to ship wares from Hawaii to US and back, then in early 1907 he modified the ship to carry up to 750.000 gallons of oil and this went on until 1920 when he transported sugar and molasses to the mainland and brought back kerosene on the return. This ship was the Scottish built Falls of Clyde.
Falls of Clyde is a tragic tall ship story that sort of fell through my radar although I saw it happening at times in media. I was under the impression that she would be returned to Scotland and refurbished. Then after all noise and empty promises the State of Hawaii had enough and so she was scuttled in Oct 2025 despite the best intentions by the activists.
She was a survivor of the last of her kind (her seven sisters were either lost in wartime or at sea) and, much like the people of Scotland she is hardy, strong and able to weather the worst of storms but not the tooth of time. She was close to scuttling before but was eventually saved by the famous American 'boatologist', Karl Kortum & his colleague Capt. Fred Klebingat in the 1960's (+ many others).
After all she was the last of the sail powered tankers left in the world, she had been in the same trade as Lawhill and many others before the advent of motorized tankers. In her day the fuel was shipped in drums and loaded as such. Lawhill met her demise in Mozambique in 1959, she shipped case oil from 1900-1911 for the future Esso until sold. Many old tall ships were also derigged and converted to oil hulks like e.g. the famous HMS Warrior that was from 1929 functioning for 50 years as a fuel depot in Wales, also Falls of Clyde was one in Alaska from 1921-1959.
The Friends of Falls of Clyde also drew similarities with another tall ship, albeit not a tanker, in much worse condition that was rescued from Tasmania and restored in Sydney, Australia. Namely, the barque James Craig, another old timer built in 1874 as Clan Macleod from Scotland. Her rescue has also been attributed to Karl Kortum. She did also transport case oil from US to Australia.
The last owners of Falls of Clyde was owned by "Friends of Falls of Clyde" (FOC) but then the "Save Falls of Clyde International" (FOCI) group, led by David O'Neill since 2015, tried to secure ownership but they failed in getting sponsorship it seems..
As a result of this in 2016 Hawaiian Department of Transport (HDOT) evicted the Falls of Clyde and after that she stayed 'illegally' at her berth. "HDOT Harbors Division has supported the Friends of Falls of Clyde by not charging any rent or fees for the use of Pier 7 since April 2009.
On May 16, 2016, HDOT Harbors Division sent the Friends of Falls of Clyde a written 30-day advance notice of termination for its gratis (no rent) revocable permit for the berth at Pier 7; the permit terminated on June 15, 2016, and the Friends of Falls of Clyde were required to remove all its property from the premises, including its vessel by July 16, 2016.
On August 13, 2016, as the Falls of Clyde remained moored illegally, HDOT Harbors Division posted and personally served a notice of impoundment of the Falls of Clyde."
In Dec 2018 In December 2018, the vessel began taking on water in the stern. A hole was discovered in the stern ballast tank causing it to flood. The hole was patched.
FOCI group wanted to return the ship to Scotland but in Jan 2019 they had to cancel the ship lift with Sevenstar yacht transport to Scotland because of not having sponsorship (to foot the bill?). In early January 2019 the vessel began to list heavily to port. A hole was found on the port side, which began flooding the vessel. The hole was patched.
Later in January, HDOT observed the vessel beginning to sink. Further inspection revealed the vessel taking on water. HDOT received an emergency procurement to pump the water from the vessel and make repairs. Multiple holes and cracks in the hull were patched.
After this debacle the HDOT probably had enough and published a notice of auction of sale in 7th Feb 2019 outlining the scope of work and requested bids from potential parties by the 28th of the same month. No bids came apart from a letter with 25cents taped to it.
In June 2020 Greenock Telegraph wrote that FOCI announced having received backing in Scotland from a major offshore energy company. In 2021 covid happened and again they had to "push back plans", (=sponsors disappeared?).
Then in March 2022 it all looked good for FOCI but just a bit later their contract was cancelled in May 2022 due to "failure to meet conditions", probably again lack of sponsorship (=money?). Then going onwards there was a survey in 2023 condemning her and the pier she was moored at and so she was delisted from the US National Historical Landmark (NHL) database.
As she was delisted then the State of Hawaii was free to look for a contractor to scuttle her and so the 4.9mil USD contract was awarded to Shipwright LLC on 14th July 2025. In the end by 15 Oct 2025 HDOT published a notice telling that the vessel has been sank offshore some 25 nautical miles south of Oahu in 3800 meters depth! The event garnered international attention with BBC reporting. The contract awarded to the towing company must have been one of their best ever for the few hours it took to prepare her taking out to sea, then tow her out and sink her.
To be fair, reading the survey report, she was not in a very good condition at all and it appears she had been neglected already for some time by her previous custodians at Bishop museum/ FOC and also they had let her be ransacked where she laid alongside. But neither was Great Britain in very good condition when she was salvaged, and she didn't even float, so I guess the FOCI should've been given a shot at it provided they get the funding, but alas, time ran out. Reading the article from Mr Delgado himself (see further below) it looks like she was very much on her last legs structure wise.
When the Falls of Clyde was scuttled and netizens cried online in forums and berated their government as well as the romantics who wanted to keep her but had nothing to give. In the end of the day, like with SS United States, it boils down to the question if the exhibit can make money to sustain herself. With The Big U, she had been laid up since 1960's, and had multiple experts look at her but not able to make plans to make her a profitable venue until Okaloosa County bought her with the intention to scuttle her as a reef for divers, sadly the Falls of Clyde can't be visited with normal dive gear at 3800m depth.
With Falls of Clyde she had been earlier rescued and restored but in her case the caretakers had seemingly not put any effort in her maintenance or did not have the expertise to care for her. When the old salts went into pension or passed away there was very little expertise and know-how left where needed. One can't keep old tonnage afloat with only singing kumbayah on her deck. It is also very costly to maintain anything floating and as such she had fallen into disrepair until it was too late to do only maintenance or her funds were misappropriated.
She most likely would have required total rebuilding like James Craig, it became quite evident from the 2023 survey that she was beyond saving by only maintenance/ repairs. This and the absence of any serious actors to preserve her, the demise of Falls of Clyde was obvious and now she rests on the seabed for deep water fish to enjoy. She was not scrapped so the structure will still live on for some years under water. Below are a few articles and opinionated comments made on how the events have unfolded.
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Public vitriol
"Anonymous1 - People should look at the history of the ship instead of why it was eventually scuttled. Decades of neglect by the owners, lack of public interest, and how it was originally set to be scuttled almost 60 years ago. Let's not be critical now about something that if people wanted to save that they should have stepped up decades ago and not now when there was nothing but a near empty and rotting shell left.
Anonymous2 - bingo! It sucks diddly when a historic ship meets its end. But besides money, if there’s no viable business, preservation and maintenance plan plus the follow on action, that’s it! It’s curtains.
Anonymous1 - also in the late 90s and early 2000s large amounts of historic pieces were stolen or sold as the owners of the ship had no security in place. Also yes its a piece of Hawaii history but its not a destination item people are going specifically to see." (credit: FB FOCI forum)
"BM: Heartbreaking. I remember walking her decks. Between this and SSUS it’s been a difficult year for maritime history.
BM: At least SSUS is going to be a dive site. FoC is being sunk in very deep water, like they don't want anyone to ever find something. Its like HDOTH is hiding something.
Why spend $4M to have someone scuttle the ship in deep water when they could have been paid to have the ship taken back to Scotland and restored?
WC: Wait they spent 4m to scuttle her?! That’s insane, like you said that could have gone a long way to taking her back to Scotland. Both Warrior and Great Britain were in similar shape before restoration.
BM: Yep, apparently $4.7M. What on earth were they trying to hide aboard that ship that was worth more than $4.7M? Utter insanity.
Yep it would have cost much more than $4.7M to restore her, but the goal was to do it where she was built, build other local infrastructure there, and employ local people to do the work. Still, that sort of $ would have gone a LONG way to get the ball rolling.
Such a complete waste of $ and history.
BM: Yep, over $4M to have her towed out to deep water and sunk.
WTAF?
Will, Karl Kortum, the doyon of maritime museum men was instrumental in saving Falls. Fred Klebingat who sailed her was instrumental in helping Karl establish the maritime museum in San Francisco. Legendary Bay Area native, Jack Dickerhoff, led the restoration of her rigging. John Ewald left Balclutha to manage Falls, and when the Bishop Museum needed help with a survey and emergency repairs before her centennial they flew me and Rocky Harris to Hawaii to do the work. There is a deep connection…
SH: Also Capt. Matson and Matson Navigation.
CK: If you want to save ships, you need money. If you want to save buildings and artifacts, you need money. Pretty much, if you want to save anything material, you need money. The trick is to find fundraisers, endowments, etc., stash the monies away and restore the ship(s) from the interest not the principal. Another trick is to keep management small and your workforce fast and efficient. Efficiency, that's the key. I've seen too many ships, boats, museums fail...seeing the Falls towed out to be thrown away is unpardonable. Scrape Honolulu(minus any Navy parts) off and into the sea alongside the Falls.
CK: Falls Of Clyde International had that. They had a plan, they had a heavy lift transport to haul FoC back to where she was built. HDOT wouldn't release the ship. They fought tooth and nail to see FoC sunk rather than let her go home to be restored. This is what I don't understand. Why? What did they have to hide?
There was no reason for this travesty other than political gain, but what gain that would be is anyone's guess.
WC: The Governor spent over $4million to scuttle her. The Harbor Department would not allow us to tow her out of the harbor to load aboard a heavy lift ship, yet they allowed her to be towed out and deliberately sunk, bastards!
SH: Exactly. The whole deal reeks of something bigger, but what that is, I don't know. Their actions make zero sense. If they really wanted it gone, they would have let it be towed out to the heavy lift ship, and been done with it. Their continued blockade of doing anything positive with the ship makes no sense. It was more than wanting the ship out of there, it was "We want it 100% dead and gone, forever." This is what I don't get. This is what makes no sense. FoC International had their stuff together, they paid the $ (that was never returned after HDOT decided they couldn't have the ship.)
All I know that a piece of history was lost, and for what gain?
WC: The question is; Who's political gain? and for what? Who were the people determined to destroy her and what does that do for them, WHAT DO THEY REPRESENT??
SH: Exactly. $4M to have it removed, yet when FoCI won the bid to take her, and paid the $, they kept the $ and acted in poor faith, keeping the boat.
What are they trying to hide that was worth $4M of the public's $? It wasn't that they didn't care, its that they wanted it dead and gone, never to return. Why would they do that other than there was something they needed to hide and sinking the ship was the only way. I don't get it." (credit: San Francisco Maritime and Coastal History Club on FB)
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News on Falls of Clyde prompts me to bring her story back …
She was launched December 12, 1878 by shipbuilders Russell & Co at Port Glasgow, Scotland; the four-masted, full-rigged ship Falls of Clyde became part of the Falls Line fleet – all of which were named after Scottish waterfalls.
Falls of Clyde has a wrought-iron hull with a net tonnage of 1,748 tons and has a registered length of 266-feet, with a 40-foot beam and a 23.5-foot depth of hold.
She was rated the highest rating the maritime insurance firm could provide (Lloyd’s of London.)
Used for trade between Britain and India, the ship was under the British flag and journeyed into the Pacific, stopping at Australia, New Zealand, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Falls of Clyde made 10 voyages to American ports while under the British flag. Sailing to San Francisco and Portland for wheat, she also made one voyage to New York. The voyages to San Francisco were particularly important, for they involved the ship in one of the United States and Britain’s most significant maritime trades, the California grain trade.
She was later sold to Captain William Matson in 1898 with plans to be used for the lucrative sugar trade between Hawaiʻi and the continent. However, according to US law, Falls of Clyde needed American registry to trade between American ports, a right denied to foreign-built and registered vessels.
“The four masted iron ship Falls of Clyde (under the command of Captain Matson,) floating the Hawaiian flag, the Oceanic Steamship Company’s pennant and her own signal letters, came into the harbor at 10 o’clock this morning. … “
“The Falls of Clyde brings about 1,000 tons or general merchandise, a large part of which is machinery for the Honolulu plantation. She also brings 40 mules and 8 horses for the plantation and a stallion for W. G. Irwin & Co.” (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1899)
“She is the first four masted Iron ship with yards on each mast that ever came into this harbor flying the Hawaiian flag. Her authority for flying this flag is a temporary register Issued to her by Hawaiian Consul General Wilder at San Francisco.” (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1899)
A special provision was added to the 1900 ‘Organic Act;’ Section 98 of the Act states: “That all vessels carrying Hawaiian registers on the twelfth day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, and which were owned bona fide by citizens of the United States, or the citizens of Hawaii …”
“… together with the following-named vessels claiming Hawaiian register, Star of France, Euterpe, Star of Russia, Falls of Clyde, and Wilscott, shall be entitled to be registered as American vessels, with the benefits and privileges appertaining thereto, and …”
“…the coasting trade between the islands aforesaid and any other portion of the United States, shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of law applicable to such trade between any two great coasting districts.”
Converted to US registry, Falls of Clyde then was involved in the Hawaiian transpacific sugar trade for Matson Navigation Co. She carried people, too.
Her cargo hold was not limited to the sugar plantation business; just as modern Matson ships bring in assorted cargo that fill a variety of shelves across the islands, the Falls of Clyde supplied the Islands with various goods that filled the needs of the past.
Here’s a brief summary of an early manifest: “The ship Falls of Clyde sailed yesterday for Hilo with an assorted cargo valued at $23,599 and including the following: 95 bbls flour, 41 ctls wheat, 914 ctls barley, 231 bales hay, 18,521 lbs bran, 12 ctls corn, 75,000 lbs rice, 12 tons salt, 6492 gals wine, 900 lbs lard, 25 cs canned goods, 189,947 lbs fertilizer, 114,174 ft lumber, 38,000 lbs cement, 4200 lbs tobacco, 550 gals distillate, 65 cs gasoline, 150 cs coal oil, 101 cs assorted oils, 100 bxs soap, 1 cs arms and ammunition, 15 pkgs agricultural implements, 3 pkgs machinery, 3 rolls leather, 50 sks coal, 75 pkgs wagon material, 10 pkgs millwork, 6 cs matches, 25 bales paper, 85 kegs white lead, 20 cs paints, 6 pkgs dry goods, 4 pkgs bicycles and parts, 3 bales twine, 1 cs shoes, 30 mules.” (San Francisco Call, February 19, 1905)
The four-masted vessel, originally rigged as a ship, was down-rigged to a bark; in addition, Matson modified and built a large wooden deckhouse forward and a charthouse on the poop deck.
She carried sugar from Hilo to San Francisco until 1906 when the Associated Oil Company (a group of 45 independent oil producers in which Matson had an interest) bought the ship and in 1907 Falls of Clyde was once again modified when she was converted into a sailing oil tanker.
Associated Oil added 10-tanks within the hull, a boiler room and a pump room with a carrying capacity close to 750,000-gallons. She also carried molasses from Hilo to San Francisco over the next 13 years.
In 1921, she was sold to the General Petroleum Corporation who, after dismasting, then used her as a floating petroleum barge in Ketchikan, Alaska.
General Petroleum reorganized as Socony-Vacuum (now Mobil Oil) in 1959 and developed new shore facilities at Ketchikan. No longer needed, Falls of Clyde was again sold and towed to Seattle, and laid up.
After several attempts to save the ship of the fate of being scuttled as a breakwater, a group of civic and historic-minded folks in Hawaiʻi, aided by funds from the Matson Navigation Co. and other donations (spearheaded by the Friends of Falls of Clyde,) purchased and returned the ship to Honolulu in 1963.
With lots of voluntary help she was restored, remasted and rerigged and, under management of Bishop Museum, in 1970 she was opened to the public at Pier 5.
Damaged by Hurricane Iwa in 1982, she was moved to Pier 7, and over the course of a few years she was restored and became the centerpiece of the Hawaiʻi Maritime Center, moored at Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor.
Maintaining any boat is expensive, particularly one that dates to the late-1800s.
The Friends of Falls of Clyde mobilized and rallied, again, and on September 25, the Museum’s Board of Directors approved the sale to the Friends, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the Falls of Clyde. (The Friends took ownership of the Falls of Clyde from Bishop Museum on September 30, 2008.)
“The ship Falls of Clyde (FOC) was placed on the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places (HRHP) and the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1973. It was designated a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1989 because of its exceptional national significance as the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat in the world.” (HHF)
On June 28, 2023 the State of Hawai‘i Department of Transportation announced that it will seek to remove the Falls of Clyde from the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. The Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board recently met to address an application to delist the Falls of Clyde.
Historic Hawai‘i Foundation testified, “If the Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board concurs with HDOT’s finding and subsequently takes action to remove the ship from the state register of historic places, only one of its five designations would be affected.”
“Removing the listing from the Hawai‘i Register would have no effect on the national designations, which are governed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. FOC would still be listed on the National Register and as a National Historic Landmark.” (HHF)
Let’s remember the bottom line … Falls of Clyde is the world’s only surviving four-masted, full-rigged ship and is the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat. (Lots of information and images from NPS, Historic Hawaiʻi and Friends of Falls of Clyde.)
Physical things help us see things. Losing the last means we no longer ‘see’ her to remember her.
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Honolulu Weekly, 29 Oct - 4 Nov, 2008
Thing Falls apart
Why did Bishop Museum do so little to preserve Falls of Clyde? Good question.
Generations of island residents have come to consider the four-masted schooner Falls of Clyde as much a permanent part of the waterfront as Aloha Tower itself. The National Park Service seemed to agree, designating the ship a National Historic Monument in 1989. And so, while the Falls has struggled to find proper financing over the years, few were prepared for Bishop Museum’s dramatic announcement last year that plans were in the works for Falls of Clyde to be scuttled. Christopher Pala explores just how things went so wrong, and asks whether the museum ,as it has claimed, truly did everything it could to preserve a beloved local —and international—landmark.
By: Christopher Pala
The management of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum has long claimed that it has bent over backward to maintain and repair the Falls of Clyde, the 266- foot square rigger that was once the flagship of Hawai‘i’s merchant marine, spending far more money than it should have to preserve this last vestige of the island’s maritime glory, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. As late as April 2007, a museum vice-president, Blair Collis, said in a press release, “With its history so closely linked to the history of Honolulu Harbor, it’s important that we protect and preserve the Falls of Clyde at Hawai‘i Maritime Center for future generations of Hawai‘i’s children.”
But an examination of documents and financial records connected to the Hawai‘i Maritime Center, which the museum acquired in 1994, reveal a different picture, corroborated by sources inside the museum:
• For most of that period, the museum spent little more on the Falls than the few tens of thousands of dollars produced by a $500,000 endowment set up in 1994 by the late Robert J. Pfeiffer, then chairman of the Alexander & Baldwin holding company.
• The museum failed to perform minimal maintenance on the ship, such as installing zinc anodes that would have stopped hull corrosion at a cost of only a few thousand dollars a year.
• The work that was done did more damage than good to the ship, according to two ship surveyors, one hired to assist the museum in determining the ship’s fate.
• The museum consistently misrepresented the source of the first $300,000 grant as coming from the Save America’s Treasures Fund, when in fact it came from another, much laxer part of the National Park Service.
• The museum’s campaign to give the ship away raised eyebrows in the historical maritime community because it seemed designed to achieve just the opposite.
• From April of last year, the museum appeared intent on having the ship sunk off Honolulu and avoiding giving it to a group called the Friends of the Falls of Clyde, which wanted to save it and try to eventually raise enough money to restore it and keep it as a floating museum. The Friends were eventually able to buy the boat on September 25 for a symbolic $1, but not before the museum had destroyed the ship’s steel rigging, raising the future cost of restoration.
No hands on deck
In 1968, after Lani Booth, the heir to a family fortune, bequeathed the Bishop Museum $1 million, its director, Roland Force, persuaded a reluctant museum board of directors to acquire the Falls from a group called the Falls of Clyde Maritime Museum, headed by Honolulu Advertiser columnist Bob Krauss, and spend a quarter of the donation on it. The Falls had served as a floating fuel dock in Alaska from 1922 to 1958. In 1963, its owners decided to sink it and turn it into a breakwater in Canada. At the last minute, a group of enthusiasts in Hawai‘i led by Krauss brought it back to Honolulu and, over the next two decades, had her restored, except that she never received sails.
In the early ‘80s, the Bishop handed the Falls to the Hawai‘i Maritime Museum, since renamed Hawai‘i Maritime Center. But the center “never put in enough resources to make it viable,” said C. Dudley Pratt, then chairman of Hawaiian Electric Industries and a member of the boards of both the center and the museum. “And the state didn’t support us at all.”
The center board members contributed “very little money and a lot of talk,” Pratt said. When the center became unable to pay its mortgage, the museum for the second time acquired the center and the ship.
Pratt described the museum’s management as “strictly a stepchild operation” and resigned in protest from the Bishop board when the museum dissolved the Maritime Center board. “They get things and they don’t care for them, it’s appalling,” he said. Robert Potter, a retired University of Hawai‘i professor who started working as a volunteer on the ship in 1991, agreed with Platt’s assessment, saying “The museum was just ignoring it. I’m sure they could of found lots of volunteers if they’d looked for them in an organized way, but they never did.”
An examination of the center’s tax records over the past decade show that its average revenue was in the order of $700,000 a year, of which perhaps a third went to its employees, who on average numbered four. Several sources familiar with the budget said the museum usually spent only about $50,000 a year on the ship — much of it interest from a fund set up in 1994 by Pfeiffer, the former head of A&B, which owns Matson Navigation, according to Collis, the Bishop official (it was Captain William Matson, a Swede, who in 1899 bought the Falls and based her in Honolulu, where she was turned into a tanker, carrying molasses to California and returning with kerosene until 1922).
A quest for booty
In November 2001, the office of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye announced the fiscal year’s earmarks, which included $300,000 for the Falls of Clyde. The appropriation was matched by Robert Pfeiffer, providing for a total of $600,000 for the ship’s preservation. “This appropriation for the Save America’s Treasures budget would be used by the Bishop Museum to preserve the Falls of Clyde,” a statement read.
The grant earmarked by Inouye, in fact, went through another part of the Interior Department budget called the National Recreation and Preservation Account, which entails much looser supervision – from Honolulu, not Washington – of how the money is spent. Also, Save America’s Treasures grants entail an obligation to care for the object of the grant for at least 50 years, while the other fund does not, according to Hampton Tucker, Chief of the Historic Preservation Grants Division of the National Park Service, who administers the Save America’s Treasures grants.
Tucker said he had no idea why the museum had never sought help from his fund. “I would encourage the new owners to apply for a grant,” said Tucker. “They are for up to $700,000 and must be matched by private contributions.”
In 2002, the museum commissioned Dorian Travers, who had worked on the ship years earlier as a deckhand, to design a work plan around the grant. He presented it in March 2003 and a summary of it was forwarded to the National Park Service and accepted.
In early 2007, a group of fans of the Falls paid for the hiring of Joseph Lombardi, a Massachusetts ship surveyor experienced in historic ships, to examine the Falls and list what repairs it needed.
What he found, he said, was a ship that had degraded more in the previous 20 years than any he had ever surveyed. This led that group of fans, led by Clifford Laughton, to withdraw. In addition, he said, only part of the preservation plan had been carried out. The plan called for spending $346,604 for sand-blasting the interior of the hull, and the rest, a total of $271,243, for repairing the rigging ($144,100), improving the mooring system ($13,673), fixing the leaking deck ($30,000) and buying a cathodic protection system—a more complex way than simple zinc anodes to stop corrosion of the hull through electrolysis ($4,070).
Lombardi and Travers, the author of the plan, agreed in interviews that in fact, the only part of the plan that was done was the sandblasting. There was no evidence that the $271,243 for the rest of the work was ever spent for the purpose for which is was sought – except for the anti-corrosion equipment, which was bought, never maintained and promptly stopped working, and routine maintenance and repair, which the grants were not supposed to pay for. Gary “Skip” Naftel, a Honolulu ship surveyor who became the vice president of the Friends of the Falls of Clyde, the ship’s new owners, concurred.
Lombardi called the sandblasting work “an abomination” and said it had done more damage than good. He had it stopped as soon as he soon as he arrived. “Sandblasting of an iron hull should never be done!” wrote Olaf Engvig, author of Viking to Victorian, Exploring the Use of Iron in Shipbuilding, in an e-mail. “It will carry away the “soft” iron as well. Black spots of slag in a ships plate will be identified as rust and make any sandblaster continue until he has worked his way through the plate leaving a hole. He will conclude the plate was bad, when, in fact, it was not. To sandblast an iron built ship means ruining good material.”
Lombardi said he was unable to understand why at least part of the $600,000 grant was not spent on dry-docking it. “You normally dry-dock a ship like this every five years, and this one hadn’t been dry-docked in 20,” he said.
An examination of the Maritime Center’s tax records bear out Lombardi and Travers’ claim: the only item that appears is the sandblasting, for $345,732, paid to Consolidated Painting LLC, over three years ending in June 2007, at which point the museum wrote to the National Park Service and declared the work accomplished. Consolidated Painting’s owner, Joseph Ferrara, confirmed the amount but denied that his company's work had damaged the hull.
The museum's final report to the National Park Service mentions the preservation plan, but it details only the sandblasting and minor routine maintenance. It states that "other items that were repaired included the rigging and top and upper masts," but gives no further details of a project that was to have cost $144,100.
The Honolulu staff of the National Park Service, which administered the grant, declined to comment. Holly Bundock, a spokeswoman in Washington, said that since there was no Park Service requirement that this grant be matched, the service was satisfied as long as its own $300,000 was spent as specified, even though the original budget submitted to the Park Service was for $600,000.
Mutiny
In an interview, Collis, now the Bishop's chief operating officer, was asked why the museum didn't spend the full amount of the grants and where the money was in fact spent. He strongly denied that all the money wasn't spent, calling such a suggestion "laughable."
At first he suggested that the government grant earmarked by Inouye "was a matching grant, so we put up our own money, it wasn't like it paid for the sandblasting job."
When it was pointed out that the museum's own press releases said that the matching was done by Pfeiffer, not the museum, he denied that Pfeiffer had made that grant and said that the museum only had access to the interest from the 1994 endowment that Pfeiffer had made for the Falls. "That creates income of $30,000 a year, we can't touch the principal," he said.
Collis went on to assert that Ferrara, the owner of the company that did the sandblasting, "tells me he spent close to $1 million on that project, but we only paid him around $600,000." Ferrara denied telling Collis this, saying that while he did lose some money on that job, it was because Collis took too long to make key decisions.
Collis insisted throughout the interview that the grant had gone through the Save America's Treasures office, as does its own press releases, available online, although the cooperative agreement between the park service and the museum makes it clear the park service staff are in Honolulu, not Washington, where the Save America's Treasures grant is located.
He said he had no explanation of why the corrosion control equipment was never maintained.
Requests for interviews with Elizabeth Tatar, which the National Park service lists as the museum's person in charge of executing the grant, and with museum president Tim Johns were refused.
The museum also drew criticism for announcing this year that the ship would be sunk if a buyer willing to spend in excess of $30 million could not be found by this past summer.
"I was completely disgusted by this approach, and so was everyone I talked to," said Peter Stanford, president emeritus of the National Maritime Historical Society and vice president and co-founder of the World Ship Trust, in a telephone interview from New York. "The $30 million was far above what would be needed to make her safe and able to take visitors," he said. "I've never heard of such a thing happening like this. Normally it takes a couple of years to find an appropriate new owner."
The Friends, led by Bruce McEwan, vice president of Young Brothers, and Naftel, the surveyor, coalesced after the museum announced its intention to scuttle the ship, trying to prevent the sinking while scrambling to raise money, incorporate as a non-profit and get insurance for the ship.
As late as September 25, the day the Bishop board voted to accept the Friends' proposal to buy the Falls for a symbolic dollar, Collis, in an e-mail to McEwan, said the written commitment the Friends had obtained from the Marisco dry-dock in Wai'anae was insufficiently hard. "This has to be addressed immediately as per the requirement of the agreement or I suspect the board will not vote in favor of transferring the ship," Collis wrote.
Still, that evening, the board voted to accept the offer, but the hostility between the two groups was palpable on the day of the handover ceremony.
After the signing of the papers, the handing over of a dollar bill and the launch of a "Million Quarters Campaign" modeled on Bob Krauss' "Million Penny Campaign" for the Falls, Johns, the museum president, smilingly took the lectern to announce he was making a personal contribution to the campaign.
The amount? $100.
'It was an insult," growled Naftel.
*****
The Sea History 187 magazine no 187/2024 carried a long article from Mr James P. Delgado explaining the situation of Falls of Clyde after the survey in 2023 and the public outcry in the maritime circles and the reasons for delisting her that led to her scuttling.
Cover
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Falls of Clyde under sail off Oahu, ca 1917
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Falls of Clyde at the dock in Honolulu in 2023. In a hull survey conducted by marine surveyor Joseph Lombardi in March 2023, he noted that "the rudder (severely rusted away in its own right) is held to the vessel by the crosshead at the rudder post and one set of pintles and gudgeons on the hull; it is in imminent danger of falling away from the vessel."
The Fall of the Falls of Clyde
by James P. Delgado
Whether it's a classic account by an author such as Basil Lubbock, Harold Underhill, Alan Villiers, or Jim Gibbs, or the increasingly rare spectacle of one of these ships in harbor, the majestic and yet industrial nature of historic vessels stirs the soul of all of us who love ships. Falls of Clyde is one of my favorite historic ships, a rare survivor of the large, multi-masted iron and steel sailing ships that epitomized the end of deep-sea sail and the struggle by shipowners to adapt to an increasingly global economy and the shipment of the bulk cargoes in direct competition with steam.
I have been privileged to play a small, but-I thought consequential role in ensuring the preservation of Falls of Clyde, as I was able to with other ships, but I now find myself documenting the sad decline and working to save what components we can at what feels like the inevitable end for the ship. Much has been said, online and in private discussions, about its plight over the past few decades. Having been pulled into middle of the discussion - and the problem - I've learned much, and so I share these observations and facts about what has transpired and what is likely to happen. I'll cut to the chase at the
start; if this article had a movie soundtrack, it would be the sea chantey "Leave Her, Johnny" ....For the voyage is done and the winds don't blow ....
Falls of Clyde was built in 1878 at Glasgow, Scotland, during a shipbuilding boom inspired, in part, by increased trade with the United States. 'The ship made several voyages to American ports, notably San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, while under the British flag.
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An estimated 10,000 people showed up to witness the arrival of Falls of Clyde in Honolulu in October 1963. The ship had last been used as an oil barge but was retired from that duty in 1959. It was laid up in Seattle until supporters rallied support in Hawaii and arranged a tow across the North Pacific by the US Navy tug Moctobi (ATF-105). Restoration commenced in earnest in the spring of 1968.
It carried bulk freight, as did many British sailers of its time, such as Balclutha, Wavertree, and Elissa. Falls of Clyde was sold to American owners in 1898 and gained American registry by a special act of Congress in 1900. Henceforth the vessel was involved in the nationally important Hawaiian transpacific sugar trade for Capt. William Matson's Matson Navigation Co., reasons that the vessel was saved from a shipping firm of international scope and significance that remains in business today.
Falls of Clyde, the ninth vessel acquired by Matson, is the oldest surviving member of the Matson fleet. After 1907, Falls of Clyde entered another significant maritime trade, transporting petroleum as a sailing oil tanker. Specifically modified for the petroleum trade as a bulk cargo carrier, it is the last sailing oil tanker left in the world.
It is also the last surviving iron-hulled four-masted sailing ship. It was for those reasons that the vessel was saved from destruction by history-minded maritime preservationists Fred Klebingat and Karl Kortum after its time had run out as a floating fuel barge in Alaska, and the dismasted hulk was towed to a temporary home in Seattle.
Saved at the last moment by sympathetic interests in Hawaii, Falls of Clyde was brought then to Honolulu, where money, sweat, and tears were poured into the ship to save and then restore it. In the hands of the Bishop Museum and moored on the waterfront next to the iconic Aloha Tower, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. I first saw the ship, after hearing much about it from Karl Kortum, when I was working on the archaeological study of the USS Arizona wreck site at Pearl Harbor.
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Restored and open to the public as a museum ship in Honolulu, 1998.
At the same time, working with the maritime preservation community, with an appropriation from Congress and in tandem with our partners at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Maritime Initiative (a program I then headed, now the National Park Service's Maritime Heritage Program) was conducting an inventory of the nation's historic ships, shipwrecks, lighthouses, and other maritime sites, and selecting assets for study as potential National Historic Landmarks (NHL), the "cream of the crop" of America's historic properties. Ships were vastly underrepresented on this list, and our program worked to correct that. Between 1987 and 1991 we completed the inventory, which involved personal inspection and detailed studies of more than three hundred vessels, and selected roughly half of them for study to see if they met the exacting standards for National Historic Landmarks. I personally, or with Kevin Foster and Candace Clifford, completed a third of them, with others done by Kevin, Ralph Eshelman, Nick Dean, and others. That involved visits in drydocks, during restorations and reconstruction, sailing, steaming, motoring. We got to know these vessels as best we could through tours and discussions with those who worked on them, who were their stewards and their interpreters.
I personally conducted the study of Falls of Clyde, having done the same for other historic sailing vessels: Balclutha, Elissa, Adventuress, American Eagle, Bowdoin, Christeen, Ernestina, Governor Stone, Isaac H. Evans, J. & E. Riggin, La Merced, and Lewis R. French.
(This list does not include tugs, lightships, fireboats, destroyers, battleships, aircraft carriers, and others I did the studies for.) 'There were also dozens of those that we studied that did not meet the rigid standard for being a Landmark, but which were listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
I mention this not to boast of what I or the team did, but to set the record straight to those who are claiming that my recent subsequent reevaluation of Falls of Clyde, which has led to the withdrawal of that status, was done by those with no knowledge, appreciation, or love of Falls of Clyde or other ships.
Our assessment in 1988-1989 found that Falls of Clyde retained integrity of design, materials, and workmanship, all critical aspects of being determined eligible or listed in the National Register and key to NHL designation. Following this, it was designated a National Historic Landmark because of its exceptional national significance as the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat, not only in the United States, but also in the world.
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(above left) Pumps cannot keep up with the water coming in from the hull and from leaks in the deck above; her tanks and the hold are in a constant state of flooding, This photo was taken in March
2023. (left) Spars stored on the weather deck.
That historic significance is unchanged, but the condition and the surviving aspects of Falls of Clyde that convey that significance have been lost to either decay or removal.
The ship is now a partially flooded, heavily corroded vessel with structural failure and a substantial loss of historical and architectural integrity. I regularly visited Falls of Clyde in the years following the designation as a National Historic Landmark, and my office budget paid for the initial documentation of Falls of Clyde for the Histaric American Engineering Record (HAER) when the National Park Service (NPS) reactivated the long-dormant program to perpetually preserve the documentation of the nation's most historic ships at the Library of Congress. I watched with dismay, despite the efforts of devoted supporters, donors, and the ship's custodians, as Falls of Clyde deteriorated, was damaged by storms, and reached a crisis point two decades ago.
In 2005, the status of the ship was noted by the National Historic Landmark Program as threatened due to corrosion of the hull and resultant leaking that weakened the hull's integrity. 'The vessel has further deteriorated substantially in the nineteen years since then. The State of Hawaii commissioned the most recent survey (March 2023), which was undertaken by Joseph Lombardi, AMS (Accredited Marine Surveyor) of Ocean Technical Services, LLC.
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(above) Corrosion has opened holes that have accelerated further corrosion in the ship's interior spaces. (below) Falls of Clyde at her berth in Honolulu, 2023.
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(above) Severe rust and corrosion hove destroyed the pipes and historic oil-pumping system. (below) The view from her HABS/HAER survey in 1989; forward pump room looking aft at oil tank bulkhead; from left to right are the fire and bilge pump (left background), ballast pump, and cargo oil pump.
Lombardi has more than four decades of professional experience, including surveys of National Historic
Landmark/National Register-listed historic vessels, among them past surveys of Falls of Clyde. 'This survey, building on that experience and familiarity with the ship, notes that "the scope of the material condition of the vessel in her present unsafe situation dictates the need for a complete reassessment to find the alternative for the disposal of the vessel."
I went on board Falls of Clyde to assess it not long after that. I spent a day walking through every accessible space and compartment. There is a strong risk of the ship sinking. 'The survey found that it is progressively leaking and if there is a loss of power, the failure of the pumps that are keeping Falls of
Clyde afloat would lead to catastrophic flooding.
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Falls of Clyde's historic figurehead on its way to its new home in a local tiki bar.
There are multiple failures in the lower and upper hull due to holes, rivets and patches from previous repairs that are failing, and the loss of structural and watertight integrity in all the bulkheads and tanks. 'The bow, the lower masts, and the main (weather) deck are also structurally compromised. In some cases, hull plating is now held in place to the frames with C-clamps. The loss of the ship's inherent structural integrity will complicate, if not preclude, the ability of a salvor to raise it without risk of substantial hull failure.
If it transitions from a leaking hulk to a wreck, raising the vessel might require raising it in pieces, effectively "scrapping" it in place. It is likely that Falls of Clyde would not survive afloat in the event of a major weather event; perhaps it might not even be capable of a tow. The iron hull is so corroded that I was reminded of Balclutha pre-restoration, when a floating log punctured the hull near the bow, and I, as a younger NPS diver, applied a wet-steel patch to that hole below the waterline.
'The loss of the vessel is irreversible and extremely unfortunate, if not tragic. Falls of Clyde is a unique surviving sailing craft, and its historic significance is clear; however, the vessel has already lost most of the qualities or aspects of integrity that convey its significance, criteria that led to its listing in the National Register and its designation as a National Historic Landmark. This is not- nor should it be - confused with structural integrity, which the ship also now lacks.
The historic oil-pumping system is rusted to the point where its piping no longer exists, and the pumps themselves are falling apart; the tanks are missing structure. Essentially, only the ghost of the system that made the ship a sailing tanker remains. The mast steps are rusted and the lower masts are no longer rigged; in order to walk on the weather deck, you must walk on the iron spars that cover it, as otherwise you would fall through the rotten wooden decking. The rain enters freely from above, as the sea also seeps through an iron hull that has the appearance of hard-packed, crusted sawdust in some places and flaking scabs in others.
Except for the lower masts, the rig has been dismantled in its entirety. 'The bowsprit is gone; the stem and stern-posts are rotted and failing. Scraps of the rudder remain tenuously in place. During my visit, I was on site to witness the figurehead hauled off roughly by movers as the Friends of the Falls of Clyde had sold it to a local tiki bar.
Deckhouses and the aft cabin stand open to weather, filled with rotting furniture and papers; only the galley retains its interpretive displays and artifacts, inexplicably left behind. Some still carry the catalog numbers of the Bishop Museum, including one of the handmade rigging tools of Jack Dickerhoff, whose work to re-rig the nation's historic ships was a key aspect of the early years of maritime preservation in America, and to whom we owe so much. If readers detect a tone of outrage, it pales in comparison to my sorrow.
These observations are offered to paint an accurate picture of what Falls of Clyde's condition is now. Is it irreversible? To summarize Villiers's famous observations: ships, in time, become wrecks or replicas. Today, Falls of Clyde could be characterized as a (barely) floating wreck; to save it means a near complete rebuild, which, if I read the Scottish proposals for the ship correctly, is what they propose to do in order to return it to sailing condition.
That essentially preserves the name- not a hull, not the decks, not the masts and spars, not the now vanishing oil tanker systems, not the rotted joinery and ship's fittings.
With the evidence firmly before it, the State Historic Preservation Office held a public meeting, following every step of the law and regulations, and provided advance notice via certified mail to all parties with an interest, including the Friends of Falls of Clyde. After reviewing the facts, the advisory board voted to remove it from Hawaii's Register of Historic Places, and the State Historic Preservation Officer also requested that the NPS delist it from the National Register of Historic Places.
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After serving notice, the NPS delisted Falls of Clyde at the start of February 2024. The notices have been sent out for the next step, which is a recommendation to the secretary of the interior to withdraw the ship's National Historic Landmark status because the loss of integrity that led to the National Register listing is an essential element in NHL designation. If a vessel doesn't meet the National Register criteria anymore, by law it cannot be a National Historic Landmark.
Is Falls of Clyde the only NHL studied, nominated, and designated Landmark to be delisted? No, and I have noted with sorrow that the steam schooner Wapama, the fireboat Deluge, the carrier USS Cabot, the steamer Ste. Claire, USS Inaugural, and others are now delisted. In some cases, the official delisting occurred years after they were lost, like the long-scrapped Wapama and Cabet, the sunken Inaugural, and the partially scrapped and flooded Deluge. The NPS Maritime Heritage Program is no longer an independent office, nor does it have a director, and in a syster with thousands of longer in effect: the Bishop transferred landmarks, the loss of integrity or the complete lass of a landmark does not always reach ears in Washington. When it does, however, delisting and withdrawal of designation does happen.
What happens next? An environmental assessment has been completed, and a request for proposals is being issued to seek bids from qualified parties to remove Falls of Clyde from Honolulu harbor. That could include placing it in a barge and taking it back to Scotland, if the bonds and conditions for safe removal can be met, which was not the case the last time this was considered. It may be removed for disposal at sea, but hazardous materials removal, stripping of environmentally harmful materials, including that which could snag and harm marine mammals, would need to happen first. 'The condition of the hull is such that the Coast Guard will require a full resurvey to determine if it could safely be towed the more than twenty miles offshore to the designated sea disposal site for ships. It could also be broken up ashore at a facility or, if too unstable to move, carefully dismantled where it now lies in its tenuous berth. It all depends on what the bidders can safely offer that meets the conditions of the environmental assessment.
Is there any good news for the maritime preservation community? Yes. When the at sea disposal of Falls of Clyde was set to happen a decade ago, a Programmatic Memorandum of Agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bishop Museum (then the owner of record), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Hawaii Historic Preservation Division set out a series of actions to mitigate the loss. 'That agreement is no longer in effect: the Bishop transferred its ownership to the Friends of the Falls of Clyde years ago, the EPA is no longer an active part of the next steps, and the ship is no longer listed in the National Register. However, the Hawaii Department of Transportation, Harbors, stepped into the gap to take the steps outlined in that memorandum.
Late last year, we completed the HAER documentation for Falls of Clyde. It has now been completely documented for the Library of Congress, adding to the collection of archived historic plans, new drawings, and photographs (now over a hundred) of the ship and its features, albeit some of them are as ruinous as an ancient city in decay. 'The entire vessel, inside and out, was documented with LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging), as has been done with other ships of late, so that Fells of Clyde will have one of the more extensive records in the HAER collection, which continues to grow in close partnership with the Council of American Maritime Museums and its member institutions. 'There is a detailed list of all remaining artifacts, as well as key features (such as the original windlass and the patent steering apparatus) that the RFP will request that the successful bidder will remove, if it can be done safely, for offer to any qualified Falls of Clyde, despite some emotional museum or heritage organization.
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In closing, as noted, this is indeed a sad occasion but it is not unique. There are other historic vessels, including National Historic Landmarks, that are in peril. Take stock of this and of the price of complacency. As we all sat back, Falls of Clyde deteriorated over many years. While this is not a time to
point fingers at who did or did not do what, it was clearly more than a local friends group could handle when a major museum could not. It has been a risk in an active harbor and hazardous to board for some time. 'The Harbors Department is doing what it is legally required to do. It has done much for Falls of Clyde, despite some emotional statements that would seek to blame government when it is a larger failure by society. Or, perhaps, society made a choice. I wish Glasgow had taken the ship back in 1959.
James Delgado is no stranger to the maritime preservation and museum world. As the founding director of the National Park Service's Maritime Heritage Program, then known as the National Maritime Initiative, he oversaw the first national inventory of America's historic ships, shipwrecks, lighthouses, and life-saving stations, as well as the establishment of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Historic Vessel Documentation and for historic ship restoration; the National Register bulletins for nominating historic ships, shipwrecks, lighthouses and other aids to navigation; and the "Maritime Heritage of the United States" National Historic Landmark study for large preserved historic vessels. He personally conducted a number of the NHL studies and authored or co-authored the reports. Delgado was also a founding member of the National Maritime Alliance. He was the author of the Falls of Clyde NHL study, and most recently the study that recommended delisting the ship from the National Register and withdrawing its NHL status.
*****
Sea History magazine no 188, Autumn 2024
Memories of the Falls of Clyde
From the editor: We received this letter from Indrek Lepson, who worked under Jack Dickerhoff, the master rigger who supervised the restoration of Fall of Clyde's rig in the 1970s. Dickerhoff is the one who brought the rig of Balclutha back to life in the 1950s, and, despite failing health, went out to Hawaii to do the same for the Falls of Clyde, the last iron-hulled, four-masted, full-rigged sailing ship in the world. Indrek tells us that he carried a camera with him at all times and shot thousands of photographs, many of which ended up in his personal scrapbooks, which are now in the collection of the National Maritime Historical Society at its headquarters in Peekskill, New York. Indrek's memories of Jack Dickerhoff have resurfaced with the ongoing reporting of the ship's demise. His letter has been edited for length, but we will follow up in a future issue with more on his story and more on those photographs.
I was pleased to see that the Falls of brilliant and would have been the best Clyde was featured in the recent issue of Sea History and saddened to read about her deteriorated condition. James Delgado did a fine job describing her situation, albeit some information was lacking, or perhaps got lost along the way. I worked with Jack Dickerhoff restore her rig after her initial restoration and have a good many personal
memories and thousands of photographs of this time under Jack's tutelage. Jack was my friend, confidant, and mentor. I probably know more about him than any person extant. Sir William Lithgow, grandson of the owner of the Glasgow shipyard that built the ship, provided the top hamper, from the small iron cleats to the steel yards and mast sections and Oregon pine wooden spars, a boxcar full of stern tubes, tapered pine "lops" and fittings, all manufactured from the original ship's plans.
I toiled on her for some eight years and have never worked so hard and hurt so much at the end of the day, hanging from a gantline in a bosun's chair under the burning hot tropical sun, sweat pouring into my eyes, wrangling rigging and yards into place - and couldn't wait to do it again the next day, and the day after that.
The main salon was resplendent in the best that craftsmanship could produce. I worked more than two months restoring it. The paneling, overhead, and skylight were covered in greasy pray grime from the years the ship was used as an oil barge. I stripped everything, a messy job at that, especially the overhead. The walls were Birdseye maple trimmed with teak and birch. Jack Dickerhoff and his wife joined the ship about two years after I did and stayed at a motel in Waikiki, from where I picked him up every day and returned after work, had a beer or a glass of Metaxa and jawed a bit. Jack was a master rigger, the last of his breed. He was brilliant and would have been the best in any field, whether a physician, or a physicist, or a rigger. He rigged the notable historic ships Balclutha and Star of India and numerous others.
Due to gangrene, his right leg had been amputated four inches below the knee, and he had an artificial limb that gave him a peculiar gait but was of no hindrance on or off the ship. One day there was some kind of a problem getting the main yard in place. He asked to be sent aloft and was hoisted up in a bosun's chair. Jack was gruff, but patient, teaching us how to splice, worm, parcel, and serve, and how to put on seizings when setting up the rigging. He had enough tools to keep three rigging panes going simultaneously at the three rigging vises on turntables welded to the deck.
By this time, Jack was dying of colon cancer. He had trained us to the point that, during his absences, work on the ship continued. It was akin to the conductor being gone but the orchestra continuing to perform. He was getting weaker and became wheelchair bound, but he still had the resolve and drive to finish the task.
Falls of Clyde's figurehead was carved in England by wood sculptor Jack Whitehead, who carved figureheads for numerous historic ships and the replica of the Golden Hinde. She was a big lady, eight feet tall and weighing more than a ton. The medallion and chain around her neck were gold-leafed. Delgado's comment about the sale of the figurehead to a local tiki bar was true, but context tells a more positive story. For a donation to the Friends of the Falls of Clyde, the figurehead was acquired by the owner of a bar who collects, so as to preserve, Hawaii's historical artifacts. It was in poor shape, having been left to the ravages of the elements, and I imagine that, after repairs and a fresh coat of paint, it will
be on display at his establishment to share the story of its role in Hawaii's maritime history.
Capt. Jim Kleinschmidt was in charge of the ship. The ship was drydocked, I believe, around 1977 or '78, I don't quite remember exactly. She was cleaned and painted; the rudder was pretty deteriorated by then. She had a donkey engine that ran the windlass, pumps, and the donkey winch, which was used for heavy lifting. Jim had the boiler cut into pieces and removed as scrap and replaced with a diesel donkey,
as we called it, and ran anything with air pressure that previously had used steam.
Society is not to blame for the loss of the ship. Neither is the government, whether state or national. I lay the blame on the Bishop Museum. I don't know what took place in the boardroom and what decisions were made about the plan for the ship's future, but the end-result is that much of the funds that were made available for her were used elsewhere.
There had been no real maintenance on her for years. Eventually, she was closed off to visitors. Having become a derelict and thus a white elephant to the museum, the decision was made to dispose of her.
Todd Ripping Co. in Port Townsend, Washington, was contracted to cut her down. I saw a video of his crew cutting and sawing, and lowering parts of her to the deck. It was like watching a swarm of ants dissecting a beetle, and it went through me like a knife. It hurt to see that what we had created with over a decade of dedicated labor, the crown jewel of Hawaii, turned into rubble. It was all for naught. The dock next to her was strewn with the cut-down rigging, like a big platter of spaghetti, and the sawn lengths of the wooden spars. At one time or another, I had my hands on everything that was piled up on that dock. I wept at the scene in that video, and I tear up even now as I write this. It was all for naught. Falls of Clyde is now a sad, stripped-down rusting hulk, waiting for her fate. Like the dodo and the white rhino, the likes of her is now extinct. It didn't need to be.
Aloha, Fall of Clyde, I knew you well and loved you. The song has ended, but the melody lingers on.
Indrek Lepson
Louisburg, North Carolina
******
Key Figures in the Effort to Save the Ship
Several individuals led high-profile campaigns to save and relocate it:
David O’Neill: The director of the Scotland-based group Save Falls of Clyde-International (FOCI). He spent years negotiating with the Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) to transport the vessel back to Glasgow for restoration.
Bruce McEwan: The president of the Friends of Falls of Clyde (FFOC), the non-profit group that held ownership of the ship in Hawaii and worked alongside international campaigners to prevent its destruction.
Capt.Fred Klebingat and Karl Kortum:
Historical figures who originally "saved" the ship in 1963 when it was first scheduled to be sunk as a breakwater; they raised the funds to have it towed from Seattle to Honolulu to become a museum.
Final Voyage Details
Date of Sinking: 15 October 2025.
Location: Approximately 12 to 25 miles south of Oahu, Hawaii.
Method: The ship was towed out of Honolulu Harbor by a state-awarded contractor (Shipwright LLC) and scuttled to serve as an artificial reef (editor: at 3800m depth?).
The vessel was built in 1878 and was the last surviving ship of its kind—an iron-hulled, four-masted, full-rigged ship—and the only remaining sail-driven oil tanker in the world.
The Falls of Clyde was a historic four-masted, iron-hulled sailing ship built in 1878. For over 145 years, she served as a cargo ship, a passenger vessel, and the world's only surviving sail-driven oil tanker before being scuttled off the coast of Hawaii in October 2025.
Her career can be broken down into four distinct "voyage eras":
1. The British Merchant Era (1878–1898)
During this period, she served as a "tramp" cargo ship, meaning she didn't follow a set schedule but went wherever cargo was needed.
Early Career Construction: Built by Russell & Co. in Port Glasgow, Scotland, she was the first of nine "Falls Line" ships named after Scottish waterfalls.
Global Trade: Originally a full-rigged cargo ship, she spent her first 21 years in the India trade, carrying general cargo like jute, cement, and salt. She was known as a fast vessel, capable of reaching 15 knots.
Maiden Voyage (1879): Sailed from Glasgow to Karachi (modern-day Pakistan).
Indian Ocean Trade: Spent her first six years primarily trading between the UK and British India.
Global Circumnavigations: She circumnavigated the globe four times, visiting ports like Calcutta, Bombay, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Melbourne.
2. The Matson / Hawaiian Sugar Era (1898–1907)
After being sold to William Matson, the ship became a regular fixture in the Pacific.
The Hilo-San Francisco Run: She completed over 60 round-trip voyages between Hawaii and California.
Cargo: Carried general merchandise west to Hawaii and raw sugar east to San Francisco.
Speed: She was renowned for her speed, often averaging just 17 days for the crossing each way.
Matson & The Oil Era, Passenger & Sugar Trade: In 1898, she was sold to Captain William Matson, who brought her to Hawaii. She was re-rigged as a bark to reduce crew costs and used to transport sugar from Hilo to San Francisco, along with a small number of passengers.
The World's Only Sailing Tanker: In 1907, the Associated Oil Co. converted her into a bulk oil tanker with ten large steel tanks. In this role, she carried kerosene to Hawaii and returned with molasses for cattle feed.
3. The Oil Tanker Era (1907–1922)
Converted into a sailing tanker, she continued her transpacific routes for the Associated Oil Co.
Routine: She typically made 5 to 9 round trips per year between California and Hawaii.
Dual Cargo: Delivered kerosene to the islands and returned with molasses (used for cattle feed) in the same tanks after they were cleaned.
European Voyage (1920): One of her final long-distance sails was from San Francisco to Kolding, Denmark, followed by a run from Texas back to Denmark.
Retirement & Preservation (1922–2008) Alaska Fuel Depot: From 1922 to 1959, her masts were cut down, and she served as a floating fuel storage barge in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Saving the Ship: In 1963, she was scheduled to be sunk as a breakwater in Vancouver. Maritime enthusiasts Karl Kortum and Fred Klebingat raised enough money—partially through donations from Hawaiian schoolchildren—to save her and have her towed to Honolulu.
Museum Era: She opened as a museum ship in Honolulu Harbor in 1968 and was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1989.
4. Final Towed Voyages (1922–2025)
In her later years, the ship no longer sailed under her own power:1922: Towed from Mexico through the
Panama Canal to Alaska to become a fuel barge.
1963: Towed from Seattle to Honolulu by the USS Mactobi to begin her life as a museum.
2025: Towed from Honolulu Harbor to a site 25 miles offshore
Deterioration & Scuttling, neglect & decay: Damage from Hurricane Iwa (1982) and a lack of maintenance led to severe structural decay. By 2008, ownership passed from the Bishop Museum to the non-profit Friends of Falls of Clyde (FFOC).
Repatriation Attempts: Multiple campaigns, most notably by Save Falls of Clyde International (FOCI), attempted to transport the ship back to Scotland for restoration. These plans ultimately failed due to a lack of funding and permit cancellations by the Hawaii Department of Transportation.
Final Fate: After being delisted from historic registers in 2024, the ship was deemed a safety hazard. On 15 October 2025, she was towed 25 miles offshore and scuttled to become an artificial reef at 3800 meters depth.
Bishop Museum Archives in Honolulu and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park contain most of her original data and paraphernalia. University of California archives has plenty of material of Falls of Clyde but naturally only available in situ as I suppose the records/ papers have not been digitized.
*****
Pictures, most of these have been posted to the FOCI Facebook page without credits. I can recognize some of these from HDOT and the various survey reports.
Some links to the Falls of Clyde story and various bits of info:
San Francisco Maritime museum post by Brandon Tachco, an excerpt of the Sea Letter #78 from 2019 outlining the drama of the failure of all the FOC groups and museums
Glenlee tall ship museum, goodbye to FOC
Jay Sea archeology, museum ships series, Falls of Clyde. Very thorough post of her history
Tank plan of Falls of Clyde (credit: Jay Sea)
Wikipedia entry of the ship
Museum ships entry for Falls of Clyde
Youtube presentation of FOC
General characteristics
Name: Falls of Clyde
Port of registry:
1879: Glasgow, Britain
1898: Honolulu, Hawaii
1907: San Francisco, USA
1968: Honolulu, USA
Builder: Russell & Co, Port Glasgow
Yard number: 17
Launched: 12th December 1878
Completed: 13th February 1879
IMO no: 8640313
Fate: Scuttled on 15th October 2025
Type: Iron-hulled sailing ship
Tonnages: 1807 GT, 1741 NT
Length: 81.1 m
Beam: 12.2 m
Depth: 7.2 m
Sail plan: 4-masted full-rig
Figurehead: a maiden
1898: Honolulu, Hawaii
1907: San Francisco, USA
1968: Honolulu, USA
Builder: Russell & Co, Port Glasgow
Yard number: 17
Launched: 12th December 1878
Completed: 13th February 1879
IMO no: 8640313
Fate: Scuttled on 15th October 2025
Type: Iron-hulled sailing ship
Tonnages: 1807 GT, 1741 NT
Length: 81.1 m
Beam: 12.2 m
Depth: 7.2 m
Sail plan: 4-masted full-rig
Figurehead: a maiden
*****
Literature
There is also one book of the vessel published in 2005, but it will set you back a couple of hundred USD so I did not go for it, "Falls of Clyde: 324 Voyages Under Sail" by Bob Krauss, published by the Bishop Museum Press. As such I have relied on newspaper online clippings and resources from the interwebs in this post.
The Goodreads references the book as follows:
"The Falls of Clyde at the Hawaii Maritime Center is an integral part of Hawai'i maritime history. The 125-year-old vessel is the only surviving full-rigged, four-masted ship in the world; the only surviving sail-driven oil tanker; and the only surviving original member of the Matson fleet. Through the eyes of the sailors and passengers, The Indestructible Square-Rigger Falls of Clyde: 324 Voyages Under Sail takes us along on the ship's voyages as she circles the globe and calls at every continent in the world.
About the Author
Bob Krauss is an "old Pacific hand," the dean of journalists in Hawai'i, and the author of 15 books about the Islands. Through his column in The Honolulu Advertiser, he spearheaded the drive that saved the Falls of Clyde in 1963. He was a founder of the Hawaii Maritime Center, of which Falls of Clyde is a museum ship, in 1982. When he writes about the Falls of Clyde, it is from 40 years of association and friendship with her former first mate and historian, the late Captain Fred Klebingat."
*****
I've included some info on the Falls Line and the sisters of Falls of Clyde, lot of falling about here:
The Falls Line's ships were distinguished by all being named after Scottish river falls, they were originally operated by Wright, Breakenridge & Co.
Falls of Clyde, built in 1878.
Falls of Bruar, built in 1879.
Falls of Dee, built in 1882, sold in 1901 and renamed Teie in 1910
Falls of Afton, built in 1882.
Falls of Foyers, built in 1883.
Falls of Earn, built in 1884.
Falls of Halladale, built in 1886.
Falls of Garry, built in 1886, sold as a wreck in 1898 and repaired, then resold in 1904.
There was also another sailing vessel that was only ever operated by Wright, Graham & Co. Falls of Ettrick, built in 1894. All were similar four-masted, iron-hulled, sailing vessels, and all were built by Russell & Co. Most were full-rigged ships, but three of the vessels were rigged as barques, namely: Falls of Halladale, Falls of Garry, and Falls of Ettrick.
Falls of Ettrick, was also converted to the oil trade and apparently not a sister but still a 'Falls' ship. Unfortunately all of them met their demise in a watery grave and never made it to the breakers yard.
"Falls of Ettrick", wrecked at Thwart-the-Way, Sunda Strait, on voyage from Panaroekan to Delaway. Photo taken by an 3rd engineer of a KPM steam vessel, passing by.
Falls of Ettrick
Report of total loss of Falls of Ettrick (credit: LRfoundation)
Falls of Bruar, in 2nd September 1887 on voyage Hamburg to Calcutta with salt, thrown on her beam ends in a gale, foundered off Smith's Knoll with the lost of 24 crew.
Falls of Bruar, credit: State Library of South Australia
Falls of Dee, captured on 28th May 1917 on passage South Georgia for Liverpool with whale oil. Sunk with explosives by UC-45 about 60 miles south of Fastnet. No casualties.
Falls of Dee, credit: State Library of Victoria, Australia
Falls of Afton, sunk on 20th Feb 1917 on voyage from Buenos Aires to Rotterdam with a cargo of linseed by the German submarine UC-17 about 8 miles SW of Wolf Rock in the English Channel. (source: LB/o.i)
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Falls of Afton, credit: Wikipedia
Falls of Foyers, on 16th Jan 1899 she foundered after striking a rock off Heligoland on a passage Junin (Peru) to Hamburg with 2800 tons of nitrate in bags, 26 crew.
Falls of Foyers, credit: State Library of South Australia
Falls of Earn, on 1st July 1891 she was stranded due to fouled anchor & sank at Acheen Head, Sumatra, on voyage from Penarth to Acheen/Olehleh, Sumatra.
Falls of Earn, credit: State Library of South Australia
Falls of Halladale is maybe sadly best known for her spectacular demise in a shipwreck near Peterborough, Victoria, Australia. On 14th November 1908, she sailed in dense fog on the rocks and was a spectacle for the locals until she gradually broke down. After the accident the Master was found in court having been careless in navigation and was fined + got his license suspended for for 6 months.
Falls of Halladale (credit: Wikipedia)
Falls of Garry, credit: State Library of South Australia
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