A Somber Goodbye in Honolulu

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The state Department of Transportation says the removal of the Falls of Clyde from Honolulu Harbor could happen this week depending on the weather.

The mournful sounds of bagpipes for a historic ship at Pier 7 near Aloha Tower that will soon be sunk.

Friends of Falls of Clyde president Bruce McEwan, 79, performed a birthday tradition to honor the 146-year-old Falls of Clyde said to be the last four-masted, iron-hull sailing ship in the world.

“I’d take whiskey and spray it out on the mast,” he said and then spit out a bit of whiskey from a flask.

In Honolulu Harbor since 2008 and impounded in 2016 after the Friends of Falls of Clyde tried unsuccessfully to save it. DOT will have it taken out 12 miles out to sea and then sunk.

“I do have Scottish blood and ancestry and the Scots are known to be stubborn. Even though we were fighting a bureacracy, we had to keep fighting,” said McEwan.

“It’ll have to be a deep sense of sadness,” he added.

He says it’ll be scuttled early in the morning so that’s why they quickly organized a goodbye ceremony.

“Just kind of gutted very sad. It’s been very sudden that we had until November which is what DOT Harbors initially said,” said Susan Yamamoto, Falls of Clyde supporter.

Friends of Falls of Clyde says it learned that artifacts like a bell from the ship have been preserved and they hope it can be displayed at Aloha Tower so its commercial maritime history in Hawaii can be remembered.

“The Falls of Clyde did many things a lot of things all over the world, but one of the things it did in Hawaii was transport sugar between here and California,” said Don Froning, board member, Friends of Falls of Clyde.

“It’s emotional. We are really sad that a better plan couldn’t come to fruition,” he added.

The Star of Honolulu which is right next to the ship is scheduled to move to Pier 10 on Tuesday night and that’s why the Friends of Falls of Clyde thinks the movement of the the historic ship will happen sometime soon.