[HI-FOOTSTEPS] Hi-Statewide Co. Bios (Matson)

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Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Matson, William October 18, 1849 - October 11, 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr orr at hawaii.com October 5, 2009, 7:59 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Published by The Honolulu Star Bulletin, Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

WILLIAM MATSON, Builder of Industries.  In all the colorful story of the rise 
of American commerce and industry on the Pacific, no more romantic chapter is 
to be found than that dealing with the achievements of the late Captain 
William Matson, the poor Swedish sailor boy who became a pioneer and a power 
in the California oil industry and under whose name is operated one of the 
finest and largest fleets of steamers flying the American flag.
  Born at Lysekil, Sweden, Oct. 18, 1849, William Matson early felt the urge 
bred into him by generations of Norse ancestors and at the age of ten went to 
sea. When 14 he had his first glimpse of America, at New York, and a few years 
later made the voyage which determined the entire course of his life, to San 
Francisco around Cape Horn.
  At 21, Matson the sailor had become Captain William Matson, the master 
mariner, in command of a schooner operating on San Francisco Bay. For some 
years he was engaged in the coastwise traffic between San Francisco and Puget 
Sound ports.
  In the late 70’s and early 80’s the Hawaiian sugar industry began to assume 
a place of importance in Pacific commerce and Captain Matson conceived the 
idea of establishing a transportation service between the islands and San 
Francisco. He laid his plans before San Francisco capitalists, obtained their 
support and in 1882 acquired the 200-ton schooner Emma Claudine, the nucleus 
of the Matson Navigation Co. of today, with its fleet of fifteen passenger and 
freight steamers soon to be augmented by the “Malolo,” a $7,000,000 liner, one 
of the finest vessels of the American merchant marine, and now under 
construction for the Honolulu-San Francisco run.
  The Emma Claudine went into service between Hilo and San Francisco, business 
increased and other sailing vessels were added, the Lurline, Falls of Clyde, 
Harvester, Santiago and others. In 1901 Captain Matson’s shipping interests 
were incorporated under the present name, Matson Navigation Co.
  Another great development came the following year, in 1902, when, to meet 
the demands of a constantly expanding business, Captain Matson acquired his 
first steamer for the Hawaiian service, the Enterprise, which he immediately 
converted into an oil burner. It is a significant fact that Captain Matson was 
one of the first ship owners to appreciate the advantages of fuel oil and that 
he was also the first Pacific operator to equip his ships with radio 
telegraphy.
  In 1906 the Spanish steamer Gadiatano was purchased, renamed the Hilonian 
and added to the Matson line, and the following year Honolulu instead of Hilo, 
was made the Hawaiian terminal port of the company.
  The first steamer to be built by the Matson Navigation Co. was the Lurline, 
which went into service in 1908. This ship was named for Captain Matson’s 
daughter, Lurline Matson, now Mrs. William P. Roth, wife of the vice-president 
and general manager of the Matson company.
  In rapid succession came other steamers, the Wilhelmina, Hyades, Matsonia, 
Manoa and Maui. And then, in 1917, came America’s entry into the World War and 
Captain Matson, American by adoption and a genuine patriot, offered his fleet 
to the United States government. The Maui, Matsonia and Wilhelmina made 
splendid records as troop transports on the Atlantic.
  In 1923 the Matson Building, one of the largest in San Francisco, was 
completed, housing the main office of the Matson Navigation Co. and the 
mainland branches of a number of Hawaiian corporations.
  During the upbuilding of his shipping interests, Captain Matson found time 
to become a factor in another great industry, the development of California’s 
oil resources. Not only was he a pioneer in the use of fuel oil at sea, but he 
was also instrumental in securing the substitution of oil for coal on the 
sugar plantations of Hawaii.
  Captain Matson entered the oil business as a producer in 1901, the year the 
Matson Navigation Co. was incorporated, when he organized the Western Union 
Oil Co. and built the Santa Maria-Gaviota pipe line, the first in California 
from wells to sea coast. In 1903 he built another pipe line, from the Coalinga 
fields to Monterey, and put five oil tankers into service to make deliveries 
to oil stations which he established at various Pacific Coast points, as far 
north as Nome, Alaska.
  In later years he engaged in various oil development enterprises and on 
April 30, 1910, Captain Matson amalgamated all of his oil interests in the 
Honolulu Consolidated Oil Co., now one of the largest producers in California, 
and in which Honolulu capital is largely represented.
  At the height of his successful career as a business organizer and 
industrial builder, Captain Matson died on Oct. 11, 1917, but his name will 
long endure, perpetuated by the monuments which he himself created in a life 
of constructive achievement.


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