Anger as historic Clyde ship towed out to sea and sunk in Hawaii

The towing and intentional sinking of a historic Clydebuilt sailing ship off the coast of Hawaii has sparked outrage from maritime conservation groups.

Built in 1878, Falls of Clyde had been docked in Honolulu as a museum ship since the 1960s but was in poor repair.

Honolulu Port Board approved On Wednesday, it pulled the ship into deep water about 25 miles off shore and then sank.

The news was met with anger and dismay by campaigners who spent more than a decade trying to return the ship to its birthplace and rebuild it.

Falls of Clyde was built by Port Glasgow shipbuilder Russell & Co. in the late 19th century. It was the first of a series of eight iron-hulled ships built by.

The ship spent many years carrying various cargoes to the Far East and Australasia before moving to Hawaii.

In the early 20th century she was fitted with steel tanks and converted into a tanker to transport paraffin to the islands. It was later converted into a floating fuel tank before being purchased by a museum in Honolulu.

However, the ship was badly damaged by a hurricane in the 1980s, the museum’s maritime section was closed, and it was left to slowly decay over the years.

Enthusiasts in Scotland have tried for a decade to bring the ship home for restoration, but have been unable to reach an agreement with the port board, which wants to redevelop the dock to which the ship is docked.

The operation to extract the ship began at dawn Wednesday and the ship sank about 25 miles south of the harbor, the Hawaii Department of Transportation said.

It was stated that the ship’s name, wheel and bell were preserved, along with other works to be exhibited.

The destruction of the historic ship was widely criticized by maritime conservation groups in both the UK and the US.

Friends of Falls of Clyde, a group of supporters in Hawaii, described it this way: “a day that will end in disgrace”.

“It is almost unthinkable that this situation would have been allowed to happen,” the group said on social media.

The group held a farewell ceremony with bagpipers on Tuesday after learning that the ship would be sunk the next morning.

Charity Tall Ship Glenlee, which looks after another Clydebuilt sailing ship docked next to Glasgow’s Riverside Museum, said it was “deeply saddened”.

David O’Neill based in Scotland Save the Falls of Clyde campaignHe said officials in Hawaii were “horrified” by their behavior but resigned to letting the ship meet such a fate after years of fruitless negotiations.

He first became involved in efforts to save the ship in 2015, when someone in Hawaii alerted him to the ship’s condition and appealed on social media, saying, “Old Scottish lady needs to be taken home.”

A Norwegian firm that operates heavy cargo ships offered to transport the Falls of Clyde to Scotland free of charge, but the campaign soon became embroiled in a row with the port board over insurance costs and other terms.

Earlier this year, Mr O’Neill said an American firm won a contract to move the ship out of port and also offered to transport it to Scotland free of charge.

“They didn’t want to sink the ship; they had a conscience and respected their maritime heritage,” he said.

However, the agreement between the company and the port authority fell through and the contract instead went to another company that carried out the sinking of the ship.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation has been contacted for comment.

Mr O’Neill said he had watched a video showing the final moments of Falls of Clyde.

“In a truly elegant and striking appearance for a 147-year-old ship, it was pulled out of the harbor without any assistance, without the need for any pumps,” he said.

“She was still above water, and to us that was an indication that she was truly Clydebuilt.”

He said he found watching the ship sink “quite disturbing”.

“It comes down the stern, like in the movie Titanic, and most of the ship comes out of the water.”

The businessman is now concentrating his efforts on bringing home the Type 21 frigate HMS Ambuscade, a Clydebuilt ship from a different era.

The battleship was built for the Royal Navy at the Yarrow shipyard in Glasgow in the 1970s and took part in the Falklands War.

It was later sold to the Pakistan Navy and served there until it was decommissioned two years ago.

Mr O’Neill said he secured the frigate free of charge after making a “cheeky request” It was given to the Pakistani government, which is working on plans to return it to Clyde to become a museum ship.