| Summary: | Built for trade between the UK and India, Falls of Clyde journeyed to Australia, the west coast, the Far East and beyond. In 1898, Hawaiian agents purchased Falls of Clyde on behalf of Captain William Matson and the next year the ship was modified by stripping off the yards from its jigger mast, and creating more passenger space fitted for the ship’s new role as freighter and passenger vessel in trans-Pacific trade. In 1905, Matson sold his interest in Falls of Clyde to the Associated Oil Co., of California, and Falls of Clyde began a conversion to a sailing oil tanker. Making numerous voyages between Southern California and Hawaii annually, Falls of Clyde continued as a sailing oil tanker until 1920 when the ship was sold to G. W. McNear. Sold again to General Petroleum Co. of San Francisco in 1921, the ship cleared harbor and spent a good part of 1921 and 1922 in Tampico, Mexico —where photograph 70a was taken. In 1922, Falls of Clyde was towed to San Pedro, unrigged, and converted into a floating fuel depot—whereupon the old ship was towed by the steamer Yorba Linda to Ketchikan, Alaska for nearly forty years of service as a service station for Ketchikan’s fishing fleet. Languishing in Seattle, Falls of Clyde became the object of vigorous efforts to preserve the ship. In 1963, some public-spirited Hawaiians and the Matson Co., colluded to purchase the vessel and it was restored in Honolulu under the aegis of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Turned over to another entity, the Hawaii Maritime Center, the ship is now (2008) being dismantled owing to lack of funds to maintain it. Shortly, it will cease to be unless something heroic happens. The rest of these photographs were mostly taken in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Ship Name:Falls of Clyde; Sailed: 1878; Type: Iron 4-masted, later bark; Built by: Glasgow, Scotland by Russell and Co.; Dimensions: 266.1' x 40' x 23.5'; Tonnage: 1807 tons.
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