Falls of Clyde (Four-Masted Oil Tanker)

Falls of Clyde (Four-Masted Oil Tanker)

Honolulu, HI

Designated an NHL: April 11, 1989

Designation withdrawn: December 13, 2024

Falls of Clyde was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 as the world’s only surviving four-masted fully-rigged ship. Built in Glasgow, Scotland in 1878, Falls of Clyde made several trading voyages to western US 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. Falls of Clyde is the oldest surviving vessel from the Matson fleet.

After 1907, Falls of Clyde was modified as a sailing oil tanker for the maritime petroleum trade, making multiple voyages every year between California and Hawai‘i. The period of national significance ended in 1922 when the vessel was converted for use as a fuel barge in Ketchikan, Alaska. At the time of NHL designation, Falls of Clyde possessed exceptional national significance as the oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat in the world.

At the time of NHL designation, Falls of Clyde had recently undergone restoration and retained a high level of integrity of design, materials, and workmanship, as represented by the hull, rigging, fittings, equipment, machinery, and furnishings. The ship deteriorated over the ensuing years; and in 2005, the NHL Program was alerted to the loss of hull integrity from corrosion that was causing leaking. Since then, the ship’s condition has continued to decline, resulting in structural failures and substantial loss of historic and architectural integrity. Currently berthed at Pier 7 in Honolulu Harbor, the ship is partially flooded and heavily corroded, with many of the features that qualified it for designation now severely deteriorated, structurally compromised, or missing.

In May 2023, maritime historian James P. Delgado, author of the original NHL nomination, prepared a report recommending the vessel’s delisting from the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and withdrawal of NHL designation due to substantial loss of integrity. On November 17, 2023, the Hawai‘i Historic Places Review Board evaluated the petition and determined that Falls of Clyde had ceased to meet the criteria for listing in the NRHP. In a letter to the National Park Service on December 14, 2023, the Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation Officer concurred with the Review Board’s finding, stating that Falls of Clyde “has lost sufficient integrity and ceases to meet the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places or to be considered a National Historic Landmark.” Falls of Clyde was removed from the NRHP on February 1, 2024.

Falls of Clyde docked at Honolulu Harbor, February 2024

NPS/Melia Lane-Kamahele

The severely deteriorated vessel is at imminent risk of sinking and poses a safety and environmental hazard. Efforts to preserve the ship since 2008 have been unsuccessful.

The April 11, 1989, Landmark designation of Falls of Clyde was withdrawn on December 13, 2024, because it had ceased to meet the criteria for designation.