Falls of Clyde

Incredibly, a very rare large 130 year old sailing ship has been under threat in the 21st Century!

The immediate threat has now been averted. Read the remarkable story of how this ship has been saved from destruction by the efforts of a group of concerned people in Hawaii and others from all over the world. The story starts from the bottom and progresses to the top.

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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.

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 institution 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 her 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 re-named 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. “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. It was matched by a donation by Pfeiffer.

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.

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The Falls of Clyde was transferred from the Bishop Museum
to the Friends of the Falls of Clyde on Tuesday 30 September 2008

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Thanks to everyone who provided support. Of course, the ship has a long way to go before she is out of trouble. But it is certainly an important first step!
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Tomorrow is the big day!!

The 25th is the day that the Bishop Museum Board will decide whether to give the Falls of Clyde a chance for a future or whether to destroy a 130 year old US National Historic Landmark.

The outlook for the Falls of Clyde appears to be improving, though nothing is certain till the Board meeting.

Bruce McEwan president of the Friends of the Falls of Clyde stated "At the meeting on September 22nd, it was agreed that Bishop Museum would allow the ship to stay at the current berth until she goes to drydock without charge or any change in the lease agreement between Bishop and DOT Harbors Division.

"We have provided Bishop Museum with one of three documents they want by the September 25th Board meeting. I’m working with our insurance broker to get the second one and am waiting for a confirmation of drydock letter from Marisco...

'We are still hoping for the transfer on September 29th...

I am sure that many of you who have been reading the posts on the Falls of Clyde will join me in wishing the Friends of the Falls of Clyde every success for this important day.

The tally for the petition is now over 600.

I will keep you all updated as and when more news comes to hand.

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Dear All

One week to go before the Board of the Bishop Museum meet on the 25 September to decide the fate of the Falls of Clyde.

The President of the Friends of the Falls of Clyde is due to meet with the principals of Bishop Museum on 18 September at 3 p.m. to hopefully finalize an agreement of sale.

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, as well as the Chairman of the World Ship Trust, Lord Greenway are reported to have expressed considerable interest and serious concerns at the proposed destruction of the vessel.

There has been a strong response to the petition at:
http://oahure.com/FallsOfClyde/petition.php

Mahalo (thank you) to all who have signed it. The tally of 305 on 5 Sept was as follows:

USA 142
Australia 97
UK 30 including 4 from Scotland
The Netherlands 6
Canada 4
Belgium 4
Singapore 2
Denmark 1
Sweden 1
New Zealand 1
South Africa 1
Finland 1
Nevis 1
West Indies 1
Switzerland 1

For those of you that have not yet taken the opportunity to sign, it is not too late to make a difference. For others, don't forget that you might have friends or family that might like to help.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the concerns of people around the world, the US Coast Guard have declared the following Temporary Final Rule to facilitate the scuttling of the Falls of Clyde should negotiations fall through:

Grim, isn't it! Lets cross fingers that Friends of the Falls of Clyde meet with the success they trying so hard to achieve!

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FALLS OF CLYDE GIVEN AN 11TH HOUR STAY OF EXECUTION!!!

Dear all

The president of the Friends of the Falls of Clyde (FFOC) Bruce McEwan reported that the meeting held between representatives of the FFOC and the Bishop Museum on Wednesday 3 September had gone well. The FFOC presented how they intended to meet with the specified criteria set by the Bishop Museum including insurance. The Bishop Museum undertook to provide the FFOC with the document that would be used to convey the ownership subject to the FFOC meeting all their terms.

Mr McEwan said "We are encouraged that we were well received by the CEO (Timothy Johns) and COO of Bishop Museum, but they made it clear that the final decision to transfer ownership rests with their Board of Directors, which is scheduled to meet on 25 September.

"We still have work to do, but we are optimistic at this time that we will be successful.

"We will need approval from the Bishop Board and the State Harbors Division to leave the ship at its current berth until we have drydock availability later this year.

The outcome of this meeting, while very positive, does not yet guarantee that the Falls of Clyde would not be scuttled in the near future.

Please keep watching what is happening to the Falls of Clyde, spreading the word to your friends and others about her plight, and of course encouraging people to sign the petition. It is important that when making their decision on the 25th, the board of the Bishop Museum have a full appreciation of how much the ship is valued by people in Hawaii, the USA and the rest of the world.

The petition web address is at: http://oahure.com/FallsOfClyde/petition.php

By the way, I noticed in a post on another forum that there was a comment that the Bishop Museum is no longer taking donations for the ship. For those who might be interested in donating to save the Falls of Clyde: the Save the Falls of Clyde webpage at: http://www.savethefallsofclyde.com/page2.htm states:

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Dear All

The Friends of the Falls of Clyde have a meeting scheduled with the President of the Bishop Museum for Wednesday Sept. 3rd.

I interpret that to mean that the Falls of Clyde will not be scuttled on Monday prior to such a meeting. So at the very least, everyone who has expressed an opinion to save the ship should be pleased that there is an 11th hour stay of execution.

However, may I suggest that you keep up the pressure because agreement has not been reached and ownership has not been transferred. Even if the Bishop Museum decides to pass on the ship to new owners, there are still questions regarding the artefacts from the ship, private trust funds set aside for the ship, and restitution for any vandalism that may have occurred (institutional or otherwise).

So please don't forget to sign the petition on http://oahure.com/FallsOfClyde/petition.php and tell others who might be similarly concerned.

Best regards
Mori

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Honolulu Star-Bulletin Friday, August 29, 2008

Group organizing effort to save Falls of Clyde

A rush to register as a nonprofit organization precedes a proposal for preservation

The group, which calls itself the Friends of Falls of Clyde, plans to present documents and a detailed plan to the Bishop Museum to preserve and restore the 130-year-old ship docked at Honolulu Harbor's Pier 7. Bruce McEwan, president of the group, plans to contact Timothy Johns, president and chief executive officer of the Bishop Museum, sometime next week to schedule a meeting.

Despite the Monday deadline the Bishop Museum set for groups and individuals to submit a formal preservation and restoration plan, Johns said they are willing to meet with the group, which has shown a deep interest in saving the ship.

Another local group that had expressed interest has backed out. Museum officials are also "increasingly uncertain" of an Australian man who had expressed interest to save the vessel, since he failed to provide documents and a detailed plan to preserve the ship.

The Friends of Falls of Clyde also said they would keep the ship in Hawaii for preservation work.

"Our preference would be to keep it in Hawaii if we have a choice," said Johns. The group has been meeting weekly for more than a month to brainstorm on attaining ownership of the vessel.

McEwan said it was necessary to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax-exempt organization to ensure potential donors as well as public and private groups of their legitimacy and intentions. "There's nobody else who has the ability to step in and who has a plan," McEwan said.

He obtained a liability insurance quote of $32,000 a year for the vessel and commitment from Marisco Ltd. to dry-dock the vessel at Barbers Point at an affordable cost. The group estimated preservation work to cost $1 million to $2 million.

"We understand that it will be a major challenge," said McEwan, also chieftain of the Caledonian Society of Hawaii.

A marine surveyor hired by the Bishop Museum estimated that it would cost more than $32 million to restore the ship.

McEwan said there is national interest to save the ship. So far, about 500 people signed their online petition to save the vessel and for Bishop Museum to explore all options before scuttling the vessel.

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The latest word on the Falls of Clyde saga is that there are concerns that the Bishop Museum may not have been following due process in its plans to scuttle the Falls of Clyde. Apparently the proposed action is
subject to what is called a Section 106 review. However, nothing will happen unless the spotlight is squarely shone on the US government to be proactive in their involvement.

The Falls of Clyde Group have launched a petition that can be viewed at:

http://www.savethefallsofclyde.com/FOCpetition.htm

The petition provides a relatively straight-forward method for you as concerned persons to express your views. Signing the petition will help provide a concentrated expression of public disapproval.

Also, the Bishop Museum has had discussions with an Australian regarding the possibility of acquiring the ship. While this could provide a safety net should attempts to preserve the ship in Hawaii fail, the negotiations are still far from finding agreement, and the ship still remains at threat.

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[TEMPORARY] Recission of EPA Region 9's conditional concurrence for ocean disposal of FALLS OF CLYDE

This is a very significant development. I originally wrote to the National Parks and Wildlife Service about the ship. I have seen correspondence that indicates that they are currently unconcerned about the destruction of this National Historic Monument. It sounds like it might be well worthwhile for others to express their concerns regarding the proposed scuttling of the Falls of Clyde as this very critical time. I suggest you write to the National Parks Service via the National Register email address nr_info@nps.gov. The more people object, the more likely they may intervene.

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The immediate threat has been averted. Bishop Museum has now back-tracked (TEMPORARILY!). The new date that they have set for scuttling the Falls of Clyde is 1st Sept 2008, a stay of execution for a month. Thank you to those who added their voices to help persuade Bishop Museum to think again.

While this is good news in that there is some more time for action, the local group still needs support wherever it might be available. So please keep thinking about and exploring options for how we can secure the ship's future.
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Thursday 31 July 2008

I received the following message today from Chris Woolaway:

...just got word that the Bishop Museum has stuck with their original time table the FALLS is scheduled to be sunk on Tuesday Aug. 5. which was not what we heard at Monday's meeting from Blair.

It looks like the situation is getting desperate. If you don't want to see this lovely old ship destroyed forever, write to Tim Johns President of the Bishop Museum at museum@bishopmuseum.org. Also write to one or more of the various people listed below.

It would be a terrible thing if the ship was scuttled before the local group who are trying to save her get a chance to become established. The following is a summary of their meeting only just last Monday

"The report of the Friends of the Falls of Clyde meeting that was held on 28 July focussed on the immediate issue of what would have to be done to save the ship. It was reported that, while the Bishop Museum was willing to see another party take over the vessel, they would only delay their plans to scuttle the vessel for a limited period, thought to possibly be till mid August. It was noted that the next Museum Board meeting of the Bishop Museum is to be held in about three weeks. It was imperative that the Board be presented with some sort of fleshed out preservation plan with a realistic budget, but taking into account generous offers of support through donations or 'at cost' provision of goods and services. There would need to be a non-profit organization to take responsibility of the ship from Bishop Museum, and this could also be discussed at the Board meeting. With this in mind, other items that were discussed at the Friends of Falls of Clyde meeting included potential groups that might take the vessel on, planning for project coordination, a project office, matters pertaining to purchase of the vessel (including fundraising, insurance, berthing, existing documenttion), securing of the vessel, short term restoration goals, partnerships with other organizations, A disturbing development was news that representatives of the San Diego Maritime Museum and Mystic Seaport Museum would be coming out to view the rigging fittings from Falls of Clyde for their own use. Their best guess was that as things currently stand, the ship had a one in five chance of being saved. The next meeting is scheduled for 4 August"

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There are powerful entrepenurial lobby groups keen to establish dive wrecks that will attrack dive tourists. Their plans provide an easy option for cash-strapped owners and governments. If you believe that sailing ships are worth preserving for future generations, then write or email:

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There are viable alternatives to destroying a museum ship in need of repair as is being proposed by the Bernice C. Bishop Museum for the historic 130 year old 4 masted ship Falls of Clyde. See the web page:

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A letter published by the Honolulu Star Bulletin 1st July 2008 and responses on their blog can be viewed at:

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FALLS OF CLYDE FACES BLEAK FUTURE
Jill Byus Radke, Development Manager
Historic Hawaii Foundation

This week Bishop Museum’s contractors will begin to remove the
rigging from the Falls of Clyde. Despite several news reports, this
is not an indicator that the ship is being restored. After years of
struggling to keep the Falls of Clyde afloat, the Bishop Museum
issued a call for a new benefactor who can provide the resources
necessary to save the National Historic Landmark. Should a
benefactor not be located by the end of this June, the Falls will
either sink at its berth or be towed and sunk. While the museum
works to find another owner or supporter for the ship, it will
engage in several near-term actions, which are required for either
taking the ship to dry dock for repairs or for ultimate disposal.

And Web reference here:
http://www.historichawaii.org/Historic_Sites/Falls_of_Clyde/Falls_of_Clyde.html

My response has been to nominate the ship for the 2008 Hawaii's Most Endangered Places (nominations due 25 July 2008) at the following website:

The following is what I wrote on the nomination. Perhaps you too would like to express your concerns by nominating the Falls of Clyde as one of Hawaii's Most Endangered Places.

Dear Sir or Madam

I am writing to the US National Parks Service to express my concern that an important historic artifact of international significance is apparently under threat of being destroyed. The Falls of Clyde at Honolulu is one of the very few remaining nineteenth century square-riggers, the only remaining example of a four masted ship afloat, the only remaining example of a sailing oil tanker and the only remaining big sailing ship to have been registered in Hawaii. The Falls of Clyde should be treasured, not threatened. Thanks to the foresight, dedication and effort of many people in years past, the Falls of Clyde has survived relatively intact. As a person who was closely involved in restoring the James Craig in Sydney that had been a tidal wreck for 40 years, I believe that comparatively the Falls of Clyde is still a very viable restoration proposition. Those who originally had the foresight to save the ship and restore her deserve better than apathy from a current generation that would let her go without a struggle.

The barque James Craig took 28 years to restore. The project would never have succeeded had we given up each time we ran out of money. I can recall many occasions when work ground to a standstill for lack of funds. Of course, at such points, the project was always at greatest risk. The key strategy to deal with this is to ensure that the ship during restoration remains sufficiently independent of its supporting infrastructure that it can ride out the lows. This was done by placing the James Craig on a pontoon dock, a large barge. In this position for 14 years she was independent of dockyards, land-owners, etc. She could be moved from place to place as the need arose and worked on at a quick pace or a slow pace depending upon the state of funds. In the toughest times, she was effectively kept in cold storage. The approach was so successful that the James Craig's pontoon dock is currently being used to restore another ship, the steamer John Oxley.

Rather than considering whether to scuttle the Falls of Clyde, effort might be better spent finding a large barge or pontoon or even having one built as we did with James Craig. Once the Falls of Clyde is docked on the pontoon dock, that will give a buffer against rash action and allow a slower more paced and probably more economic approach to the restoration. With this in mind, I request that the US National Parks Service step in to save what is a national and international icon by providing the funding needed to raise the ship onto suitable barge or floating dock structure.

I was the designer of the floating dock used to restore the James Craig. Please feel free to contact me should you wish to find out more about the approach we used.

Yours sincerely

Mori Flapan
Naval Architect

SOS for the Falls of Clyde -
Honolulu Magazine - May 2008 - Hawaii

The Bishop Museum says it may have to sink this historical vessel.

Meanwhile, there’s a month left. If you happen to be a billionaire with a thing for old ships, call Johns now at 848-4142.

Falls of Clyde - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Falls of Clyde National Historic Landmark Nomination

Sailing Ships: "Falls of Clyde" (1878)

Name:Falls of Clyde
Later names {also Sail or Rego or Fishing No}:<UNKNOWN>
Material:Iron
Rig:4mst S   Rig changes & identification codes: B5555b B5555c 4mstBk '00* B555.c 3mstSrBarge b25
Type:Cargo/Tanker/Barge/Museum   Propulsion: Sail
Designer:<UNKNOWN>
Year built:1878/12   Yard or Job No: 17
Builder:Russell &Co
Where built:Port Glasgow, UK
Engines:<UNKNOWN or N/A>
Boilers/Gearing:<UNKNOWN or N/A><UNKNOWN or N/A>
Official Number:80436    IMO Number: 0
Dimensions (ft)—Length: 266.10001 Breadth: 40 Depth: 23.5
Volumetric ‘tonnage’ measurements (1 ton = 100 cubic ft):
Gross:1807 Underdeck: 1688   Net: 1741
Decks:1Dk 2trB   Deck Erections: Pb23'(/Hd) Hc ?Ha? Fa34'
Number of funnels &location:<UNKNOWN or N/A> Number of bulkheads: 1
Tanks, etc:10" Cargo Tks &db '07   Freeboard: 5' 2"
Stem:<UNKNOWN>   Figurehead: <UNKNOWN>   Stern: <UNKNOWN>
PORTS and owners:GLASGOW'78b80 Wright &Breakenridge: b85b90 Ship Falls of Clyde Co (Lim) (Wright &Breakenridge): b98 Ship Falls of Clyde Co (Lim) (Wright, Graham &Co): HONOLULU'98 W.Matson: SAN FRANCISCOb02 Matson Nav.Co (W.Matson,mgr): '06b09b19 Associated Oil Co:**'19 Geo.W.McNear: '22b25b27 General Petroleum Corp: b31(L31) General Petroleum Corp of California: KETCHIKAN,ALASKA'27 W.E.Mitchell (barge): SEATTLEb46 General Petroleum Co of California: b49 Secony-Vacuum: '59b63 William Mitchell: '63 Hawaiian owners:'68 Bishop Museum
Fate/Status— Year: 2001 Type: Stationary Details: Converted to oil barge 1922. Museum ship Honolulu since 1968.
History and details:Sister-Falls of Bruar. Lnched 12/12. Not lucky but quite fast, 327nm/24hrs, a handy ship. 1878-98 Calcutta trade. FB 5' 1" by L90. 1892 Calcutta-San Francisco 155dys. FB 5' 1½" by L98. 1899/01/20 arrived at Honolulu under Hawaiian flag. 1899-1906 San Francisco-Hilo trade, general cargo outbound, sugar homebound, also carried some passengers. Charthouse & additional deckhouse added by Matson. 1809g/1748n FB 5'1½" O/N u121138 by L02. 1907 converted to sailing tanker 10 tanks. 1907-16 oil trade between Gaviota near Santa Barbara &Honolulu, 17crew. 1913 collided with inter-island steamer, lost figurehead, replaced. 1916 transferred to oil/molasses trade between San Franicisco &Honolulu. Honolulu-San Francisco 11dys c1916. (post?) WW1 made 2 vyges to Europe with oil. 1921-22 chartered. 1921 Buenos Aires-San Francisco, last vyge under sail. 1922 hulked, converted to barge. 1922-1957+ floating oil barge and filling station at Ketchikan, Alaska. 1957 figurehead in Seattle museum. 1959 towed from Ketchikan to Seattle. 1959 Karl Kortum & Fred Klebingat attempted to raise interest in preservation, Long Beach showed interest for a period. 1963 purchased for preservation using funds raised by population of Hawaii, towed to Honolulu by US Navy with assistance from Matson Shipping Co. 1983 displayed at Pier 5 Honolulu Harbour.

Fur says '00 Matson:'06 Assoc.Oil:'07 Gen Petr.Lub difs. *Bro1 sys 4mstBk '98.
References (see http://www.boatregister.net/RANZS_References.htm): Aam1^1983/4:Ash^49:L80,85,90,98,02,09,14,19,25,31,46:Fur(A):NMM1:Gib2(P,A):Lub1:
MVUS31:Gib1(P):Bro1(P):Bru:Vil3:Sta2:Dya1(P):Lub8:Sm112/98(P):Mln7(P):
ADW^57(P):Sle27(P)
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Thing Falls apart