[ A WALKING TOUR ]
Last site on our tour is
one that could sail
to new siteLAST IN A SERIES
This is the only site on the tour that isn't nailed down. The metal-hulled oil clipper Falls of Clyde is moored at Pier 7, pride of place next to the wonderful Hawaii Maritime Center.
Yes, it's a ship, not a building. It could sail away to the far side of the world. Try that, I'olani Palace!
Holoholo sets sail
Sit down and rest those achin' dogs. This installment of Holoholo Honolulu conclude the yearlong Holoholo Hawaii project describing 50 sites on a tour of Downtown Honolulu.
with Falls of ClydeThe sites were chosen by a team of historians headed by the Historic Hawaii Foundation and representatives of the Mayor's office.
There are, or course, more than 50 sites of historical interest in downtown Honolulu. If you're curious about a site, drop us a line at: Holoholo Hawaii, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Today section, 7 Waterfront Plaza Suite 210, Honolulu, HI 96802.
We may do occasional Holoholo updates or additions in this section.
For those who missed the 50-site tour, visit our Web site at https://archives.starbulletin.com/
specials/holoholo for a 360-degree Quicktime virtual reality tour of each site in the project, which also commemorates Honolulu's bicentennial.Launched in 1878 from Scots shipyards, the iron-hulled, four-masted "clipper" was originally rigged as a ship, then a bark -- a spanker boom attached at one point to aid in nosing along coastlines -- and refitted with tanks to become a wind-powered oil tanker. (There's a certain irony in that!)
The original galley had a steam-powered donkey engine installed; the foc's'le became an icehouse. In the early part of the century, she was dismasted, including even the bowsprit, and became a floating gas station.
Thanks largely to a group of maritime historians, including newspaper columnist Bob Krauss, Falls of Clyde was restored in the 1970s, with newly created masts and spars by the same Russell and Co. shipyard on River Clyde that built her in the 19th century.
Falls of Clyde is 266 feet long, with a 40-foot beam, 23-foot draft and displacement of 1,807 tons. She's a "medium clipper," not as sleek as the Cutty Sark-style "tea clippers" but able to haul more and maneuver smartly. Falls of Clyde is no racer -- she's a working ship, an ocean-going truck, and represents the vast majority of ships that created the maritime industry as we know it today. Russell and Co. alone built more than 500 ships just like the Falls. They're all gone.
More importantly, she's the last one left. Falls of Clyde is the world's only surviving four-masted, full-rigged ship. Originally under British registry, she was the ninth vessel acquired by Matson Navigation Company for the Pacific sugar trade.
There was a law banning foreign-built ships from servicing American trade routes. When Matson bought her from the British in 1898, they hurriedly registered her under the flag of the Republic of Hawaii, hoping that when Hawaii was annexed by the United States, the Falls would be grandfathered into American registry. She was, and because of that crafty legal trickery, she survives today.
Because Falls of Clyde was largely stripped instead of being rebuilt, she maintains national significance because the integrity of her design, construction and workmanship details. That's why a ship became a national historic landmark.
Next time you walk past the Maritime Center, give the folks there a buck or two to keep her afloat for the next hundred years.
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Some clever political plotting led the Falls of Clyde to become the only foreign-built vessel to service American trade.
Sailors aboard the Falls of Clyde in 1916.
Above is Capt. Fred Klebingat in 1916, who was one of the people involved in preserving the vessel.
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Quicktime VR Panorama
Click on pictures to view panaromas
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Every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin Travel section, rediscover the charms of old Hawaii through a tour created by the Honolulu Historic Trail Committee and Historic Hawai'i Foundation and supported by the city's Office of Economic Development. The yearlong project commemorates Honolulu's bicentennial.
See Holoholo Honolulu for past articles.
