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San Francisco Examiner Newspaper-05 FEB 1914
Front page - Cable Flashes Miss
Matson's Betrothal Millionaire Father's Objections Stranded. Two pictures of
Miss Lurline Matson, Heiress to Millions, Whose Engagement to William Roth of
Honolulu Has Been Announced.
Article: Captain Matson Thundered "No!" Gets Beached and Couple Are Reunited.
The announcement of the engagement of Miss Lurline Matson, the daughter of
Captain William Matson of the Matson Navigation Company, and one of San
Francisco's most charming society girls, to William Roth of Honolulu, was
received by cable in this city yesterday.
Behind this message, which came from Captain and Mrs. Matson, who, with their
daughter, are in Honolulu, is as pretty a romance as ever came to a happy
conclusion in California, and last night the cables between this continent and
Hawaii flashed congratulations to Miss Matson and her fiance.
The romance of the beautiful San Francisco girl and the young Honolulu man has
led over rocky paths during the last year. It all but wrecked two lives. It
careened over two continents and the island posessions. All this because a
bluff sea veteran, master of ships and of millions, swore that his daughter
should not marry a comparatively penniless youth just making his start in the world.
Reception was brief. About a year ago young Roth, a broker in Honolulu, came
to San Francisco, walking on clounds and feeding on star dust. He had wooed
and won Miss Lurline, and all that was left was to obtain the consent of her
father. Ever since the time Roth called on Captain Matson in his office the
wags of San Francisco's exclusive set have been relating the incidents of the
reception and the subsequent ejection of the Honolulu suitor. The conference
was brief and most painful to young Roth. The details were kept from Miss
Matson, but she heard immediately about the general results.
There was only one thing Captain Matson overlooked. He did not consider what
effect the refusal would have on his daughter, the heiress to his millions. Ms
Matson was overcome. She had been known for several years as athletic, an
excellent horsewoman and a keen lover of out-of-doors sports. She lost
interest in all her favorite sports. Her health failed and last fall Mrs.
Matson took her heartbroken daughter to Europe, where they visited several
fashionable health resorts. Specialists were consulted, but the health of the
young woman did not improve till about six weeks ago, when she and her mother
received a message from Captain Matson telling them to come home, and he would
apply a new treatment for his daughter's illness.
Cure is Wonderful: After arriving in San Francisco about three weeks ago,
Captain and Mrs. Matson and Miss Lurline - the latter now practically
recovered form her strange malady - sailed on the new liner, Matsonia, to
Honolulu. It was the Matsonia's maiden trip, and Miss Matson enjoyed every
hour of the voyage. She was quite herself when the Matsonia moored in
Honolulu, and William Roth, again walking on clouds, met the steamer and the
members of the Matson family.
Captain Matson smiled in spite of himself and slapped young Roth on the back.
The wealthy ship owner admitted that he had been poor himself at one stage of
his career, had even sailed before the mast.
Matson History
How It All Began Matson Navigation Company's long association with Hawaii
began in 1882, when Captain William Matson sailed his three-masted schooner
Emma Claudina from San Francisco to Hilo, Hawaii, carrying 300 tons of food,
plantation supplies and general merchandise. That voyage launched a company
that has been involved in such diversified interests as oil exploration,
hotels and tourism, military service during two world wars and even briefly,
the airline business. Matson's primary interest throughout, however, has been
carrying freight between the Pacific Coast and Hawaii.
In 1887, Captain Matson sold the Emma Claudina and acquired the brigantine
Lurline, which more than doubled the former vessel's carrying capacity. As the
Matson fleet expanded, new vessels introduced some dramatic maritime
innovations. The bark Rhoderick Dhu was the first ship to have a cold storage
plant and electric lights. The first Matson steamship, the Enterprise, was the
first offshore ship in the Pacific to burn oil instead of coal.
Increased commerce brought a corresponding interest in Hawaii as a tourist
attraction. The second Lurline, with accommodations for 51 passengers, joined
the fleet in 1908. The 146-passenger ship S.S. Wilhelmina followed in 1910,
rivaling the finest passenger ships serving the Atlantic routes. More
steamships continued to join the fleet. When Captain Matson died in 1917 at
67, the Matson fleet comprised 14 of the largest, fastest and most modern
ships in the Pacific passenger-freight service.
When World War I broke out, most of the Matson fleet was requisitioned by the
government as troopships and military cargo carriers. Other Matson vessels
continued to serve Hawaii's needs throughout the war. After the war, Matson
ships reverted to civilian duty and the steamers SSs Manulani and Manukai were
added to the fleet - the largest freighters in the Pacific at that time.
The decade from the mid-20s to mid-30s marked a significant period of Matson
expansion. In 1925, the Company established Matson Terminals, Inc., a
wholly-owned subsidiary, to perform stevedoring and terminal services for its
fleet. With increasing passenger traffic to Hawaii, Matson added the S.S.
Malolo in 1927. The Malolo was the fastest ship in the Pacific, cruising at 22
knots. Its success led to the construction of the liners Mariposa, Monterey
and Lurline between 1930 and 1932.
To accommodate ship passengers in Hawaii, Matson acquired the Moana Hotel in
1926 and built the 400-room Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki Beach in 1927. The
luxury travel package of ships and hotels provided an immediate stimulus to
Hawaii tourism, quickly becoming one of the Islands' major industries.
Immediately after the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the passenger
liners Lurline, Matsonia, Mariposa and Monterey, and 33 Matson freighters were
called to military service. The four passenger liners completed a wartime
total of 119 voyages, covered 1 1/2 million miles and carried a total of
736,000 troops.
The post-war period for Matson was somewhat difficult. The expense of
restoration work proved to be very costly and necessitated the sale of the
Mariposa and Monterey, still in wartime gray. In 1948, the Lurline returned to
service after a $20 million reconversion. Two new Matson hotels were built on
Waikiki in the 1950s, the SurfRider in 1951 and the Princess Kaiulani in 1955.
In 1955, Matson undertook a $60 million shipbuilding program which produced
the South Pacific liners Mariposa and Monterey, and the rebuilt wartime
Monterey was renamed Matsonia and entered the Pacific Coast - Hawaii service.
In 1956, a research department was established and its first major assignment
was to develop the most modern, efficient and economical means of transporting
cargo to and from Hawaii. The result was Matson's freight containerization
program, which revolutionized Pacific cargo carrying. In 1958, several C-3
freighters were adapted to carry containers on deck. In July 1959, the S.S.
Hawaiian Citizen was converted into an all-container ship. In that same year,
the Company divested itself of all non-shipping assets, including the Matson
hotels, which were sold to Sheraton Corporation.
When the Hawaiian Citizen entered service in April 1960, with a capacity for
436 24-foot containers, it was the first all-container carrier in the Pacific
service. The fleet improvement program continued, with Matson freighters
converted to combination container and bulk sugar or to container and
automobile carriers.
Two "jumboized" C-4s, the SSs Hawaiian Queen and Hawaiian Monarch, joined the
fleet in late 1965 and early 1966. Each vessel was lengthened by adding a
110-foot midbody section. In the fall of 1967, Matson launched the first fully
containerized freight service between the Pacific Coast and the Far East.
A major ship construction program was undertaken in the late 1960s. When the
Hawaiian Enterprise (now named Manukai) entered service in March 1970, it
carried a record load of 1,165 containers and clipped more than a day from the
regular 5 1/2 day run from the mainland to Hawaii. Also in 1970, in line with
the decision to concentrate on its Pacific Coast-Hawaii freight service, the
Company sold its passenger vessels and suspended its Far East service.
With the focus sharpened, the Company concentrated its efforts on developing a
fleet of the finest containerships in the Pacific Coast - Hawaii service and
on modernizing and otherwise improving terminal operations. This effort
resulted in the construction of the vessels that comprise Matson's current
fleet, including the containerships Manulani, Manukai, Maui, Kauai, and the
ro-ro vessels Lurline and Matsonia. In 1985, two unique container barges, the
Haleakala and Mauna Loa, were introduced to Matson's Neighbor Island fleet.
Most recently, Matson acquired the ro-ro vessels Kaimoku and Kainalu and built
the ro-ro Neighbor Island barge, Waialeale. The newly built diesel-powered
containership MV R. J. Pfeiffer was added to the fleet in 1992. The R. J.
Pfeiffer is Matson's first long-haul diesel-powered ship and is equipped with
sophisticated automated systems. These features provide approximately
35-percent greater fuel efficiency and permit the ship to operate with a
smaller crew, making it the most efficient vessel in Matson's fleet.
In July 1994, Matson launched a Pacific Coast Service, which provides weekly
service between Los Angeles and the Pacific Northwest ports of Seattle and
Vancouver, B.C.
In February 1996, Matson and APL inaugurated a 10-year alliance agreement
which allowed both carriers to cost effectively serve their respective markets; for Matson, this involved the domestic trade of Guam Micronesia and
for APL, international ports in the Far East. The most prominent aspect of the
agreement for Matson involved the purchase of six APL container ships and
certain APL-owned assets in Guam for $164 million. The agreement was revised
in January 1998; for Matson, the primary benefit of the revised agreement
involved the establishment of a direct service from the U.S. Mainland to Guam,
reducing transit time from 13 to 10 days.
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