The Falls of Clyde, the historic ship impounded by the state, did not get a lift across the ocean to its birth town in Scotland over the summer, after all.
As the holiday season commences, the four-masted, iron-hulled ship originally built in Port Glasgow, Scotland, continues to sit in limbo at Pier 7 near the Aloha Tower Marketplace as a Scottish-based group works determinedly to secure funds for its return.
David O’Neill, director of Save Falls of Clyde International, said the deal he announced last year with Offshore Heavy Transport (O.H.T.) of Oslo, Norway, to transport the 266-foot-long ship back to Scotland fell through over the summer. But he said a new deal has been negotiated with a Dutch heavy lift operator and that this time there is a signed contract.
“After many months of negotiation, a deal has
finally (been) agreed (upon) between this group and Sevenstar Yacht Transfer, to collect the ‘Falls of Clyde,’” O’Neill posted Nov. 3 on the Save Falls of Clyde International group on Facebook.
O’Neill said the Falls of Clyde will be loaded on Sevenstar’s Yacht Express the first week of February and would make stops in San Diego, Costa Rica, Florida and New York on its way back to Scotland. Its anticipated return date to Scotland is April.
Scottish media, including The National, a daily newspaper based in Glasgow, featured a front-page story with the headline “She’s coming home: iconic ship returns to Scotland.”
The state Department of Transportation, however, said Friday that it had not yet received a copy of the executed contract, and declined to comment until seeing it. The historic ship was
impounded by the state Harbors Division in August 2016.
Although the Scottish-based group is working to save the ship, it remains registered to the local nonprofit Friends of Falls of Clyde.
Bruce McEwan, president of the Friends of Falls of Clyde, said O’Neill has accomplished a lot, and he is confident the transport will happen this time.
“I’m as confident as I can be,” said McEwan.
“I know there’s been a lot of publicity in Scotland and the U.K. I’ve been getting a lot of congratulatory emails from the U.K. Everything seems to be coming together as it should. … It’s just a matter of dotting the final i’s and crossing the final t’s, if there are any.”
The newly formed group, Save Falls of Clyde International, stepped in in December to save the ship, which was destined to be scrapped.
O’Neill, a history enthusiast, put out a call for help via Facebook and LinkedIn and traveled to Honolulu to meet with the state Harbors Division. At that time, O’Neill announced that O.H.T. was transporting the Falls of Clyde from Honolulu back to Scotland between July and September.
After the O.H.T. deal fell through, Save Falls of Clyde International in September launched an Indiegogo campaign,
aiming to raise 550,000 pounds, or about $700,000 to bring it back to Scotland and restore it. As of mid-November the campaign had raised only about $3,400.
The group has since launched another campaign offering commercial sponsorship opportunities of the Falls of Clyde as it journeys from Honolulu back to Scotland. Sponsors can have their logos on the ship’s sails or along the side of the ship.
“There will be a series of opportunities for audiences around the world to watch this spectacle on TV, through local events from the departure in Hawaii to Costa Rica, Panama and the U.S. mainland and Europe as she makes her way home,” he said in a news release.
At each port, O’Neill said, visitors would be able to board the lift ship and view the Falls of Clyde. He is also aiming to set a Guinness world record for the world’s largest escort flotilla for the fleet he expects would welcome the Falls of Clyde on the River Clyde.
In Scotland he is working to have the Falls of Clyde docked in Greenock, close to where it was originally built. He envisions restoring it to its full glory, sailing the seas as a carbon-free vessel used for education and sail adventures.
Originally built by Russell &Co. in Port Glasgow in 1878, the Falls of Clyde is believed to be the last surviving ship of a fleet named after Scottish waterfalls. It departed from Scotland in 1879 for its maiden voyage to Karachi, Pakistan, and became part of Matson’s fleet before being converted into an oil tanker.
At Honolulu Harbor the ship became a museum and hosted weddings, funerals, parties, military re-enlistment ceremonies and even a dramatic re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party. It was also available for school tours. Under state impoundment, however, it is no longer open to the public.
McEwan, who remains optimistic, said once the ship is transported back to Scotland, ownership will be transferred from the Honolulu-based Friends of Falls of Clyde to the Scottish-based Save Falls of Clyde International.
