''Equator'' was a two-masted pygmy trading schooner known for carrying passengers

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

and Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson on a voyage through the islands of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

in 1889. She was later used a wire drag vessel for the Coast and Geodetic Survey organization, and finally as a tugboat along the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

until her abandonment in 1956. Equator was left to decay as part of a

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

before she was saved in the 1960s. Efforts to restore her ultimately failed, leaving her remains under an enclosed structure in a decaying state.

History

Career

Shipbuilder Matthew Turner designed and built Equator as a two-masted schooner in Benecia, California in 1888 for the

copra Copra (from ) is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from co ...

trade in the

South Seas Today the term South Seas, or South Sea, is used in several contexts. Most commonly it refers to the portion of the Pacific Ocean south of the equator. In 1513, when Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term ''Mar del Sur'', ...

. In mid 1889,

and Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson chartered the Equator in Hawaii for extended South Pacific cruising. Stevenson learned alot about sea life from his voyage which later influenced his books

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...

and The Wrecker. He ultimately took up residence in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

which was reached by the Equator. Sometime in the 1890s she received a steam engine and worked as a tender for either an Arctic whaling fleet or for fishing operations in Alaska. Equator was later enlarged, and lost her

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay A bobstay is a part of the rigging of a sailing boat or ship. Its purpose is to counteract the upward tensio ...

when she was purchased by Carey-Davis Co. in 1915. During this phase of her career she was used as a wire drag vessel for the Coast and Geodetic Survey organization. Equator was later converted to gasoline engines sometime in the 1920s, but in 1923 she ran aground on the Quillayute Bar. It remains unclear when Equator was converted into a tugboat as sources give dates of 1916, 1923, and 1941 all as possibilities. In any case, she was completely renovated in 1923, and received a diesel engine in 1941. Equator spent her final years as a tugboat for use in the

until 1956, when she was abandoned on the coast of

Jetty Island Jetty Island is a man-made island and park in the U.S. state of Washington, located 30 miles north of Seattle in the Puget Sound, just off the Everett, Washington waterfront. The island is two miles long and half a mile wide, approximately 1,800 ac ...

outside Everett. She was then left to decay for the next 11 years as part of a

with other discarded vessels.

Restoration efforts

The first efforts to save the Equator were led by Everett dentist Eldon Schalka in the 1960s. Eventually he was able to mobilize enough volunteers from the Everett Kiwanis Club in to haul the vessel ashore and clean the muck out of her sometime in June 1967. She was then dry-docked at the 14th Street Fisherman’s Boat Shop in Everett. A survey conduced on February 21, 1968 by the National Register of Historical Places gave the following description (with recommendations) of the ship's condition at the time: Schalka helped to establish a nonprofit group to restore the vessel, which despite little fundraising success managed to get the Equator listed to the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1972. This was the fist Everett property to receive this designation. The foundation ultimately tried but failed to raise enough money to restore the vessel which eventually became an eyesore for the local community. By the late 1980s, Equator had been reduced to a crumbling hull and was moved to its present location at the corner of 10th Street and Craftsman Way. The foundation that Schalka had started was finally dissolved after his death in 1992 from a plane crash.

Uncertain future

Equator initially sat under a makeshift structure which was exposed on all sides, leaving her exposed to the elements. Eventually her back side collapsed in November 2017 which led the Port of Everett to enclose the shelter around the schooner to protect her from further decay. Equator remains in a fragile state as she can't be moved or preserved in place, to complicate matters more she is also described as an "orphan" with no legal owner. There is currently a makeshift

open air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

in place for Equator which includes the National Register plaque and an interpretive sign, as well as a list of donors to the Equator Foundation.

References

External links