[1] She was built for the Falls Line (Wright, Breakenridge & Co., Glasgow, Scotland), at the shipyard of Russell & Co., at Greenock on the River Clyde, at Yard No.130.

Falls of Halladale was the seventh vessel in a series of eight similar iron-hulled sailing ships, all built by Russell & Co, and all named after waterfalls in Scotland.

Falls of Clyde is preserved as a museum ship at Pier 7 in the Port of Honolulu and, as of 2023[update], remains there afloat, but is in a deteriorated condition and is not open to the public.

For weeks after the wreck, large crowds gathered to view the ship as she gradually broke up and sank in the shallow water.

Soon after the accident, the ship's master, Captain David Wood Thomson, was brought before a Court of Marine Inquiry in Melbourne.