HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

254

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009

H.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING THE STATE TO RECOGNIZE THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FALLS OF CLYDE AS A SAILING JEWEL OF HAWAII.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, the significance of sailing to the State of Hawai'i has been made apparent by those who have braved the high seas in the past; and

 

     WHEREAS, the earliest people who arrived in Hawai'i, supported by archaeological evidence, sailed on a double hulled canoe across the ocean; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the late 1770's Captain Cook sailed from Europe to Hawai'i, as did the missionaries in the early 1800's sailed from the Cape around the Horn; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Falls of Clyde built and launched from Port Glasgow, Scotland in 1878 and sailed the seas as a trade ship, its voyages taking it to Karachi, Australia, India, New Zealand, the British Isles, and California; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1899, Captain William Matson purchased the Falls of Clyde, and it became the first four-mast ship to fly the Hawaiian flag; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1900 a special Act of Congress allowed the ship to fly both the United States and Hawaiian Flags; and

 

     WHEREAS, from 1900, until 1907, the Falls of Clyde serviced the residents of Hawai'i by carrying sugar from Hilo to San Francisco and returning with goods for Hawaii residents; and

 

     WHEREAS, after being purchased by an oil company in 1907, the ship was refitted and continued its hard work as a bulk tanker and oil barge; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Falls of Clyde still continued to serve Hawaii for 13 years, hauling molasses from Hilo to San Francisco; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1963, the Falls of Clyde was rescued and returned to Hawaii with the help of Honolulu Advertiser's columnist Bob Kraus, the maritime community, Hawaii's school children, and the U.S. Navy; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Bishop Museum took over management and the Falls of Clyde was docked at Pier 5 in Honolulu Harbor and was then toured by tens of thousands of people; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Falls of Clyde was named a National Historic Monument by the National Parks Service in 1989; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 2008, the Friends of Falls of Clyde formed a nonprofit corporation to save the ship; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Falls of Clyde, with a wrought-iron hull and at 265 feet long and weighing more than 1,000 tons, is the only surviving fully rigged four-mast sailing ship remaining in the world; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that the Falls of Clyde is recognized as a historic jewel of Hawaii; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Falls of Clyde should always be treasured and protected by the State of Hawaii and its residents; and

 

                BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Chair of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Bishop Museum, and the Friends of the Falls of Clyde.

Report Title: 

Falls of Clyde; historic jewel of Hawaii