“In September the Government granted to A. G. Benson, of New York, a contract to build a Marine Railway at Honolulu, to cost from $75,000 to $100,000, to take up ships of 800 tons burthen, in ballast. The monopoly was to continue for twenty years.”
“The site of the proposed railway, which was given by government to Benson, was at the foot of Maunakea street, now the fish market. But nothing was ever done, beyond signing the contract, it was understood for the want of funds”. (Saturday Press, April 22, 1882; Maly)
“Of the industries of Honolulu the operation of the Marine Railway is one of the most important in a variety of ways. It gives employment to much skilled labor, thus helping to keep a good class of people in the city. By a large consumption of shipbuilding material, the railway adds much directly to local trade”
“Its existence is a powerful inducement for shipping in these seas to call at this port for needed repairs; also for vessels trading between this and foreign ports to have works of renovation done here that, without such a convenience, they would require to go to San Francisco or elsewhere to have accomplished.”
“When it is considered that vessels while waiting for repairs are the means of circulating money from outside sources, in addition to the expenditure of the railway workmen’s wages in the shops, the importance of the work, in that respect alone, to the city needs no magnifying.”
“As a convenience for inter-island shipping, which was one of the main objects held in view by the projectors of the enterprise, the railway has been a boon of incalculable value. It would be needless to go into particulars to prove this manifest advantage of having such a work established in the chief port of the kingdom.”
“The Honolulu Marine Railway is a monument to the statesmanlike forethought, public spirit and enterprise of the Hon. Samuel G. Wilder.”
“In the year 1880 the Government of this kingdom, of which Mr. Wilder was Premier and Minister of the Interior, advertised in England, America, France and Sweden, for estimates from engineers for either a dry dock or marine railway at Honolulu.”
“Of all the responses received the estimates of Mr. Horace I. Crandall, forwarded through the Hawaiian Consulate of Boston, were accepted. In April, 1881, Mr. Crandall arrived here to make the necessary surveys.”
“After an examination of the harbor and its bottom he reported to the authorities that a stationary dry dock was impracticable, on account of the coral formation, that would form its floor, being so porous that it would be impossible to keep it dry, even at an enormous expense for pumping.”
“A floating dry dock was also out of the question on account of the circumscribed limits of the harbor. A marine railway was therefore decided upon by the Government, and Messrs. Wilder & Co. contracted to build it, the head of the firm having in the meantime retired from His Majesty’s Cabinet.”
“Of course, Mr. Crandall was selected as engineer, and in view of his record, particularly as a submarine engineer, it would indeed have been difficult to have found a better man.”
“In the year 1854, while living at New Bedford, Massachusetts, he invented an improved style of marine railway, since known as ‘Crandall’s Patent Marine Hallway.’”
“Up to the time he became known here, Mr. Crandall had built no less than twenty-three of these railways on the coasts of North and South America, from North Sydney in Nova Scotia to Buenos Ayres, Argentine Republic.”
“In addition to these works, he had built an important bridge on one of the Pacific Railway lines, and was for a time proprietary manager of a coal mine in Cape Breton, N. S.”
“He was also the author of many mechanical inventions of great utility, and is a relative of Mr. James Crandall, of the United States, the inventor of the famous and ingenious ‘Crandall’s Toys.’”
“The work of construction was begun on the railway on February 11th, 1882. A large amount of material for filling up the ground on the site being required, it was necessary to build a land railway from the spot to the base of Punchbowl.”
“This work was accomplished under the mechanical superintendence of Mr. James Lyle, who had been employed as foreman of the works.”
“He had been Mr. Crandall’s foreman, many years previous, in the construction of the Buenos Ayres marine railway, and also in later works of the same kind at other places.”
“Mr. Crandall came out in the same season from Canada, with a brigade consisting of two skillful divers, thirteen shipwrights accustomed to marine railway work, and one mechanical engineer. So expeditiously was the work forwarded that on the first day of January, 1881, the railway was ready for business.”
“The engines for the railway were made at Geo. Forester & Co.’s works. Liverpool, England, and all the wrought iron work, chains, etc., were made by Henry Wood & Co., Liverpool. Oregon forests provided the wood, the native woods being too heavy, as well as difficult to get and work.”
“The railway has a capacity for vessels of fifteen hundred tons with ballast. It cost in the neighborhood of one hundred thousand dollars to build.”
“Upon the completion of the railway it was leased for fifteen years from the Government by the Hon. Mr. Wilder. lie operated it successfully until Feb. of the present year, when, with the permission of the Government, he made a transfer of the lease to Messrs. Sorenson & Lyle, the latter having been superintendent of the works from the start.”
“Mr. Sorenson is the veteran master shipwright of this port, having been engaged in that business here for about 27 years. Many a gallant craft has he ‘hove down,’ when that was the only method in vogue here, and transformed from the condition or a more or less battered and fouled hulk to her original seaworthiness.”
“Mr. Lyle, his partner, has spent his whole life in shipyards and on dry-docks and marine railways. His father was a leading ship-builder in Nova Scotia, a country second to none for the class of wooden ships it sends forth, whoso sails speck every sea with whiteness.”
“Shipbuilding is therefore second nature to both members of the firm now operating the Honolulu Marine Railway.”
“Ample stocks of material are always at hand, and shipowners and masters sending vessels away from here for rehabilitation cannot possibly fare any better in obtaining the required services elsewhere.”
“Every facility is here provided for ship and boat building and repairing. As no slight guarantee to the safety of the works and the assurance of prompt service thereupon, the fact may be stated that from the beginning of operations to the present time there has been no mishap of any kind on the railway.”
“A thorough ship’s blacksmith, in the person of Mr. Hugh Munro, is employed at the works constantly, and his execution of any kind of ship’s forging cannot be excelled in workmanship. Then the Honolulu Iron Works can always, in an emergency, provide any ordinary metallic fittings of a ship, so that on the whole this port is exceedingly well equipped for repairing ships.”
A ‘Marine Railway’ “is an inclined railway, descending from a repairing shipyard into deep water. A heavy platform with high frames at the sides, called the cradle, slides upon series of rollers running in grooves in ironclad timber rails.”
“A system of chains connected with powerful steam winches is employed to let the cradle down into deep water and haul it up again. When the cradle is run out into a sufficient depth, the vessel to be hauled up is floated between the arms of the cradle.”
“Then a system of movable blocks, worked by cranks from the tops of the cradle frames, grasps the hull of the vessel, and the cradle and its burthen are drawn up high and dry.” (Daily Bulletin, August 14, 1885)
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