Wilhelm Matson said he was born on October 18,1849, in an area noted for fishing and sailing, Lysekil in Vastra Gotaland County, Sweden.
14 Facts About William Matson
1.
2.
William Matson attended public schools in Sweden, then took an intermission of a year to go to sea at the early age of ten.
3.
William Matson came to New York City in 1863 as a cabin boy, at the age of fourteen.
4.
In 1882, William Matson bought his first ship called Emma Claudina, named for Spreckels' daughter.
5.
William Matson had learned there was money to be made carrying sugar from the Hawaiian Islands.
6.
In 1887, William Matson sold the Emma Claudina and acquired the brigantine Lurline, which more than doubled the former vessel's carrying capacity.
7.
When William Matson died in 1917 at the age of sixty-seven, the William Matson fleet comprised fourteen of the largest, fastest and most modern ships in the Pacific passenger-freight service.
8.
One of the high honors conferred upon William Matson was his appointment as Consul of Sweden, giving him jurisdiction over the Pacific Coast of the United States.
9.
William Matson was president of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and was active in the civic life of the city and region.
10.
Walter William Matson later became an executive in his father's extensive business.
11.
Tradition in popular lore suggests that Captain William Matson then met Lillie Low in 1888, when she was traveling on the Lurline to Hilo to teach in a missionary school.
12.
However, as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of March 1,1887 recounted, other passengers and Lillie Low signed a letter to Captain William Matson regarding the shipwreck of the brig Selina in February, 1887.
13.
William Matson was named Lurline Berenice Matson for the legendary Rhine river siren Loreley, in remembrance of the ship in which her parents were reputed in lore to have met.
14.
In 1987, William Matson was inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame at the American Merchant Marine Museum in New York City.