Matson, Inc., is an American

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

and navigation services company headquartered in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

, Hawaii. Founded in 1882, Matson, Inc.'s subsidiary Matson Navigation Company provides ocean shipping services across the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

to Hawaii, Alaska,

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

, Micronesia, the

Pacific islands The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of several ...

, China, and Japan.

History

William Matson William Matson (born Wilhelm Mattson) (October 18, 1849 in Lysekil – October 11, 1917) was a Swedish-born American shipping executive. He was the founder of Matson Navigation Company. Early life Wilhelm Matson said he was born on October 18, 1 ...

(1849–1917) founded Matson Navigation Company. He was born in

Lysekil Lysekil () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Lysekil Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 7,600 inhabitants in 2018. Situated on the south tip of Stångenäs peninsula at the mouth of Gullmarn fjord, it ...

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County () is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of S ...

, Sweden, and orphaned during childhood. He arrived in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

after a trip around

Cape Horn Cape Horn (, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the nor ...

in 1867. Working aboard the Dickel family yacht, he struck up a friendship with tycoon

Claus Spreckels Claus Spreckels (July 9, 1828 – December 26, 1908) was a German-born American industrialist in California and Hawaii, during the Kingdom of Hawaii, kingdom and Republic of Hawaii, republican periods of the islands' history. He founded or was i ...

, who financed many of Matson's new ships. In 1882, he sailed his three-masted schooner ''Emma Claudina'' into the

Hilo Bay Hilo Bay is a large bay located on the eastern coast of the island of Hawaii. Description The modern town of Hilo, Hawaii overlooks Hilo Bay, located at . North of the bay runs the Hamakua Coast on the slopes of Mauna Kea, and south of the bay ...

of the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii in the south to nort ...

. The enterprise began in the carrying of merchandise, especially of plantation stores, to the islands and returning with cargoes of sugar, later expanding interests at each end of the line. In 1924, Matson completed the Matson Building, designed by

Bliss BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C ...

and Faville, at 215 Market Street in San Francisco, and noted as "one of a series of Chicago School skyscrapers built during the 1910s and 1920s which give San Francisco its downtown character." It featured an observation tower and cupola at the northern corner of the building that enabled company executives to see its ships coming through the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

. The company later sold the building to

Pacific Gas and Electric Company The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...

, whose general office was next door at 245 Market. PG&E has incorporated the former Matson Building into its general office complex, keeping Matson-specific details such as elevator doors with detailed maps of Hawaii on them. For a brief period after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Matson operated an airline using

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960 ...

aircraft between the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. The airline ultimately ceased operations because of political pressure from

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

, which resulted in inability to obtain federal government scheduled operating authority. On December 1, 2011, Matson's then-parent company

Alexander & Baldwin Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last ...

announced that its board of directors approved a plan to split A&B and Matson into two separate companies. As part of the plan, Matson would leave

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, to become a

-based company. The two companies are now traded separately. In 2015, Matson, Inc., acquired

Horizon Lines Horizon Lines, Inc. was an American domestic ocean shipping and logistics company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the largest Jones Act-compliant maritime shipping and logistics company, and accounted for approximately 37 per ce ...

, formerly its main competitor in the United States domestic market, for $469 million. Hawaii State Archives image from Matson Lines 1900s

Joining two Aloha-class freighter sister ships delivered to Matson in 2018 and 2019; in November 2022, the company again contracted Philly Shipyard to build three new Jones Act compliant container ships at a cost of $1 billion.

Passenger ships

Primarily a conveyor of freight; from 1908 on, Matson introduced into service a number of passenger liners to capitalize on the burgeoning tourist trade. In 1926, following the death of its founder, John D. Spreckels whose father,

, had been Matson's earliest financier; Matson took over the

Oceanic Steamship Company John Diedrich Spreckels (August 16, 1853 – June 7, 1926) was an American businessman who founded a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego, California, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the son of German-American indu ...

(Spreckels Line), operating three trans-Pacific liners, including the ''SS Sonoma''. From the early 20th century through the 1970s, Matson liners sailed from the west coast ports of

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and points beyond, including a handful of South Pacific ports of call as well as

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Two of their earlier

cargo liner A cargo liner, also known as a passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman, is a type of merchant ship which carries general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the 19th century, and eventually gave way to conta ...

s, and , were the first passenger ships to place their engines aft. Among the "white ships of Matson" were ''

Malolo Malolo is a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, near Fiji. Malolo was used as a tribe name in Survivor: Ghost Island. Malolo Island is the largest of the Mamanuca Islands and is home to two villages. History Malolo was one of the locations ...

'' (rechristened ''Matsonia''), '' Lurline'', '' Mariposa'', and ''

Monterey Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census. The city was fou ...

''. With the advent and expansion of routine air travel between the mainland and the islands, Matson's passenger service was greatly diminished, and the liners were eventually retired from trans-Pacific service and virtually gone by the end of the 1970s.

Hotels

In 1925, Matson acquired a controlling interest in the historic Moana Hotel on Waikiki on the island of

Oahu Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northwe ...

. They constructed the nearby

Royal Hawaiian Hotel The Royal Hawaiian Hotel is a beachfront luxury hotel located in Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. It is part of The Luxury Collection brand of Marriott International. One of the first hotels established in Waikiki, the Royal ...

in 1927. In 1952, they built the SurfRider Hotel (today a wing of the Moana), followed by the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in 1955. Matson sold the four properties to

Sheraton Hotels Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is an American international hotel chain owned by Marriott International. As of June 30, 2020, Sheraton operates 446 hotels with 155,617 rooms globally, including locations in North America, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Centr ...

in 1959.

Current fleet

Matson's current cargo fleet of U.S.-flagged vessels include: * ''Anchorage / Kodiak / Tacoma'' (sister ships) * ''Daniel K. Inouye / Kaimana Hila'' (sister ships - Aloha Classbr>
* ''Imua II / Liloa II'' (sister ships) * ''Kamokuiki'' * ''Lihue'' * ''Lurline / Matsonia'' (sister ships - Kanaloa-class freighter, Kanaloa Classbr>
* ''Manoa / Mahimahi'' (C9 sister ships) * ''Manulani / Maunawili / Manukai'' (sister ships) * ''Maunalei'' * ''Mokihana'' (C9 with garage conversion) * ''Papa Mau'' * ''R.J. Pfeiffer'' * ''Haleakala'' * ''Mauna Loa'' * ''Waialeale''

References

External links

*
The last ocean liners of Matson lines

{{Authority control Shipping companies of the United States Ferry companies of Hawaii Transportation companies based in California Water transportation in Hawaii Companies based in Honolulu Companies based in Oakland, California Transport companies established in 1882 1882 establishments in California Corporate spin-offs 2012 establishments in Hawaii Dole plc Companies in the Dow Jones Transportation Average Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Container shipping companies of the United States Container shipping companies