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Kady Pascual

Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"You can’t even tell them apart!"}]

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Stephanie Salmons

Government & Politics

Hawaii History

The 146-year-old Falls of Clyde has been docked at Honolulu Harbor for years. Soon, though, the ship will be sent to a final resting place far below the surface of the Pacific.

The state Department of Transportation this week announced that Shipwright LLC,  a Florida-based maritime technical consulting firm, was awarded a contract to remove the vessel from the harbor and dispose of it at a deep-water site at least 12 miles due south of Honolulu Harbor. The removal project will cost an estimated $4.9 million.

According to the July 14 announcement, Shipwright will begin removing debris on July 21, "and will restore the watertight integrity of the ship's division bulkheads." That work will be followed by "hull strength remediation" which will allow the vessel to be safely towed out of the harbor in the event of a storm or other emergency, the department continued.

More structural reinforcement work will take place from August through November, the DOT notes, and the vessel will be towed and disposed of in late November.

According to the DOT, Shipwright will seek the necessary approvals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard

Falls of Clyde is currently berthed at Pier 7 and was previously part of the now-closed Hawai‘i Maritime Center. That former facility belongs to the DOT and is currently vacant, a department spokesperson confirmed to Aloha State Daily.

The DOT notes that the Falls of Clyde was impounded in 2016 after its permit was revoked and the owner failed to remove it from the harbor.

[{"type":"text","text":"Why has it taken nearly a decade to dispose of the boat?"}]

Dre Kalili, deputy director for the DOT Harbors division, told ASD in an emailed response to questions that state laws governing the impoundment and disposal of vessels "require various steps, including the sale of the vessel at public auction."

"The extended timeline on the removal is attributed to time needed to follow the required procedures coupled with attempts to return the vessel to Scotland and previous unsuccessful efforts to award a contract for removal," she said.

This move comes a year after the DOT sought bids for the permanent removal of the ship, and called for bidders to recommend and determine the method and means of removal, the department noted.

The DOT also worked with a maritime archaeologist to catalog and remove historical items from the boat, which are now being stored in a secured facility.

Kalili says that among the artifacts that were removed and are now in storage are the 

, bell stand, running lights, wheel and name boards. Several other items were display pieces with historical value but not original to the ship, she noted.

Over the past decade, Kalili says that the department has impounded and removed at least 30 abandoned, derelict or inoperable vessels from commercial ports.

"Removal of these vessels reduces the risk the vessels pose to waterways, piers, wharves, and other port infrastructure if they sink or break loose from their lines," she says. "In the recent past, vessels have sunk in the port waterways and have obstructed or interrupted cargo vessel operations."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A brief history"}]

, the ship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1878 and made "several trading voyages to western U.S. ports before being sold to American owners in 1898."

"The vessel was subsequently involved in the Hawaiian transpacific sugar trade as part of Capt. William Matson’s Matson Navigation Co. fleet," the NPS noted. "Falls of Clyde is the oldest surviving vessel from the Matson fleet."

In the early 1900s, the ship was modified as a "sailing oil tanker for the maritime petroleum trade," and made multiple trips between California and Hawai‘i every year, the NPS says. In 1922, it was converted for use as a fuel barge in Ketchikan, Alaska. 

, towed it to Seattle, and tried to find a city that [would] adopt it.

and Hawai‘i philanthropists launched a grassroots effort to save the ship, raising $35,000," a timeline on the 

 notes. "By 1963, the ship was a fixture on the Honolulu waterfront, undergoing $3 million worth of restoration over 34 years."

When it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, the ship was the "

oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat in the world," according to the NPS. It was removed from the National Register of Historic Places and had its designation as a National Historic Landmark withdrawn in 2024.

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: The guest trap

Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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Hawai‘i Scene on Social: The guest trap

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Kady Pascual

Social Media Editor

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