The Enterprise, Matson's first steamer. Originally powered by coal, and later converted to oil.
The Enterprise, Matson's first steamer. Originally powered by coal, and later converted to oil.
Captain Matson owned a shipping company that sailed between California and Hawaii. He served the sugar cane industry in Hawaii. In fact, to this day, Matson Corporation is owned primarily by Castle and Cook, the owners of Dole Pineapple.
Captain Matson switched to a steamship in 1902, and soon discovered that coal was very expensive. He knew there was oil in Coalinga, but there was no cheap way to transport it to his ships, so in 1903 he decided to build the pipeline. He also convinced the sugar cane plantation owners to switch from expensive Australian coal to his cheap American oil, which, of course, he would bring to them on his ships.
He sold the pipeline in 1905 to Associated Oil, but in 1908, realized that he really needed a reliable source of oil, so he started drilling his own oil wells near Bakersfield.