Falls of Clyde (ship)

This article is about the full-rigged ship Falls of Clyde. For the Scottish waterfalls and wildlife reserve, see Falls of Clyde (waterfalls).

Falls of Clyde

Falls of Clyde at Honolulu Harbor
History
United States
Name	Falls of Clyde
Builder	Russell and Company in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland
Launched	1878
Homeport	Honolulu, Hawaii
Identification	IMO number: 8640313
Status	Museum ship
General characteristics
Type	Windjammer
Tonnage	1807 gross; 1741 net
Masts:	4
Configuration:	Fully rigged ship
Figurehead:	Maiden
Length	280 ft (85.3 m)
Beam	40 ft (12.2 m)
Draft	21 ft (6.4 m)
Falls of Clyde (Four-masted Oil Tanker)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Pier 7, Honolulu Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii
Coordinates	21°18′20.5″N 157°51′54″W
Built	1888
Architect	William Lithgow
NRHP reference No.	73000659
Added to NRHP	1973

History

Falls of Clyde was built in 1878 by Russell and Company in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, launched as the first of nine iron-hulled four-masted ships for Wright and Breakenridge's Falls Line. 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. 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.

Museum ship and controversy

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.

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

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.

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. 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. $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. In each year since 2008, the Foundation has hoped to get her into drydock but has not succeeded as of 2015. In June 2016 Harbors Division of the Hawaii Department of Transportation revoked the permit for her to moor at Pier 7, citing safety and security risks to port users. The Foundation has challenged the Harbors Division's assessment of the ship.

Restoration and repatriation efforts

In August 2016 a group based in Glasgow,Scotland - run by David O'Neilll - 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.

Yet, since 2016, despite difficulties with the Hawaiian Harbours department and FFOC, FOCI have built relationships and work closely with several businesses, state organisations and entities including the US coastguard (USCG), the Hawaii state historic preservation division (HSHP) and the Environmental protection agency (EPA) to name a few; ensuring the FOC is not scuttled and giving her a chance at another lease of life.

From 2016 until now, the Hawaiian Harbours department have continually threatened and pressed for unrealistic removal dates and wreck removal bonds with threats to scuttle the FOC if they did not comply in the time allotted. Despite this , FOCI managed to quickly create a plan and had confirmed and booked several lift ships.

First Attempt

After lengthy discussions with Oceon Heavy Transportation (OHT) from Oslo, OHT had agreed to come and pick the Falls of Clyde up with a smaller lift ship that could fit into the harbour in June 2017. They would pick up the ship with no deposit required, and had agreed the funds could be raised with their support after she was home safe. The lift ship date was moved to November 2017 by OHT due to scheduling conflicts, and FOCI updated the Hawaiian authorities of this change. Furthermore, OHT’s engineer arrived in Hawaii on November 2017 to inspect the FOC and he was satisfied she was safe to lift and put on the lift ship with no complications. However, in November 2017, OHT arrived in Honolulu with a bigger lift ship, which unfortunately would not fit into the harbour and the FOC could not be towed out to sea as she was not structurally strong enough for the open ocean meaning FOCI had to abandon this lift ship attempt. At this point FOCI made the difficult decision to abandon the effort and that OHT would not be providing the lift ship contract and sought another company willing to take the contract on.

Second Attempt

This attempt had highlighted several problems that had to be addressed and FOCI arranged another lift with another Dutch lift ship company – Sevenstar – scheduled for February 2019. Sevenstar had agreed to take the FOC on-board a lift ship that was passing by Hawaii and she would share space with several other yachts going to other destinations. They had asked for a deposit of £750,000 and a total cost of £1.7 million. They had examined FOCI's marketing strategy and were confident they could raise the money needed through their sponsorship program; they quickly got to work ensuring this program and associated materials was ready for the lift ship.

Sharing the lift vessel wasn’t ideal but due pressure from the Hawaiian Harbours authorities, FOCI had to move quickly and made the decision to use Sevenstar. Furthermore, Sevenstar had also asked that the ship’s hull was cleaned of any native flora and fauna and that a full structural survey of her condition be completed. FOCI were confident that, now they had a concrete date for the lift ship, they could raise the money needed.

Unfortunately, FOCI quickly ran into problems as they had asked FFOC to complete several tasks (including cleaning FOC’s hull of any native crustations and marine growt and completing the structural survey on her condition as per Sevenstar’s request). Despite continued assurances that these tasks would be completed and that there were funds available to do so, they never delivered on those commitments.

Sevenstar were due to leave Australia in January 2019 and FOCI had to make a decision whether to go ahead with the contract. They made the decision to cancel the contract due to the problems noted above and distanced themselves from FFOC – breaking off contact and any relationship with FFOC at this point. Despite their assurances that they made the right call and that this was no fault of FOCI, the relationship quickly broke down with the Hawaiian Harbours department as it was already strained and this was seen as ‘another failure’ in their eyes. They impounded her in January 2019 with the view to auctioning her to the highest bidder.

Auction Attempt

The Hawaiian Harbors Department attempted to auction the ship in April 2019. FOCI had made the decision not to bid on her, as the department had placed unreasonable and unattainable restrictions on the vessel including a wreck removal bond of $1.5 million to secure the ship, and a guarantee that she would be removed within 30 days. These conditions were unattainable for several reasons:

• It would be impossible to arrange a lift ship within 30 days.
• The $1.5 million bond on top of the bid for her removal was unreasonable. As she could not be towed out to sea, repairs would have to be made first with an estimated $1-2 million just to repair her which would take several months to complete.
• The estimated scrap value alone would be in the region of $250,000 meaning anybody who wanted her for scrap would be highly unlikely to bid.

Unsurprisingly, there were no serious bids made for her disposal. The Hawaiian Harbours department seemed disinterested in any kind of relationship with FOCI, and any attempts at communicating or correspondence to them were mainly ignored. Save Falls of Clyde – International felt that this was due to miscommunication driven by the FFOC group, and since April 2019, they have managed to clear up several misconceptions with the Hawaiian Harbors Department (one being that the entities are the same). The group is now communicating with the Hawaiian Harbours department and state officials about the fate of the ship.

Here and now

Hawaiian Harbors have now filed for a ‘Disposal’ notice to the state department for historic artefacts. As the ship has been in Hawaii for over 50 years, she is now considered to be of cultural and historic importance and Chow of DOT Harbours has advised FOCI that the easiest way to take control of the FOC is to bid as part of the 'disposal' process. FOCI intents to bid and has advised DOT harbours accordingly.

Their proposal is simple. They want to remove the FOC and repurpose her in a way that protects her heritage but also offers a future that will support the marine environment and serve future generations of communities around the world. It appears that the state department for historic artefacts as well as the United States Coast Guard (USCG) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are not happy that ‘disposal’ is the only course of action. The coast guard has final sign off on the entire process and the understanding is that they are not happy for an unnecessary and dangerous step to be taken when there is an option to remove her safely is on the table.

The biggest fear is that the ship sinks in the narrow channel entrance or founders just outside the harbour; blocking Honolulu harbour for at least 6-12 months while a salvage operation takes place.

FOCI have also been working with the support of the U.S. National Historic Maritime Society, seeking support from their National Park Service for their plans to repatriate her to Scotland. The ship is a registered National Historic Landmark. In Honolulu, Foss Marine, The Honolulu Pilots Association and others are offering their services and staff to support the operation.

FOCI currently have an agreement in place with another lift ship company (Roll Dock) to take the FOC home in June 2020. However, due to the coronavirus outbreak this is unlikely and will be pushed back to September 2020.

In Scotland they have been, and are currently in, discussions with Inverclyde Council, Scotgov, Peel Ports, Strathclyde University, Caledonian University, Clyde Marine, Malin Group, Cleanships, Scottish Maritime Museum, Historic Environment Scotland, A.B.P., Glasgow Chambers of Commerce, North Ayrshire Council, Radio Clyde, The Clutha Trust, Crossroads and many others, all to prepare for her arrival on the Clyde.

Full details of the proposal can be found here where a full overview of the project can be found.

Uses in popular culture

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

Further reading

• 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, NY: Putnam. ISBN 0399119574. OCLC 833913258.
• Klebingat, Fred K (1972). Falls of Clyde. Menlo Park, Calif.: Oceans Magazine Co. OCLC 224258149.

External links

• Hawai`i Maritime Center
• Maritime Heritage Program Information for the Falls of Clyde
• Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
• Falls of Clyde on HawaiiWeb
• Friends of Falls of Clyde website
• 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