Wilhelm Matson said he was born on October 18, 1849, in an area noted for fishing and sailing, Lysekil in Västra Götaland County, Sweden.

At the end of two years he was captain of a vessel, engaged chiefly in carrying coal to the Spreckels Sugar Company refinery.

As later listed in the Dec. 7, 1917 San Francisco Chronicle, the couple parented five children: Walter (1877), Ida (1879), Emily (1881), Arthur (1882), and Theodore (1884).

Tradition in popular lore suggests that Captain Matson then met Lillie Low in 1888, when she was traveling on the Lurline to Hilo to teach in a missionary school.

However, as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of March 1, 1887 recounted, other passengers and Lillie Low signed a letter to Captain Matson regarding the shipwreck of the brig Selina in February, 1887.

She 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.

[12] An exhibit that includes William Matson's Swedish Consul General's uniform as well as artifacts from the Matson-Roth families may be seen on the San Mateo County Historical Association Online Collections Database.

[13] In 1987, Matson was inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame at the American Merchant Marine Museum in New York City.