EQUATOR (Schooner) - Everett, WA
N 48° 00.245 W 122° 13.075
10U E 558335 N 5317049
Quick Description: The remains of a schooner that once carried Robert Louis Stevenson
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 7/27/2007 9:16:13 AM
Waymark Code: WM1XF4
Views: 65
Long Description:The Equator was built as a two-masted schooner in 1888 by renowned
ship builder Matthew Turner, in California. She first worked as a
south sea trader and mail boat under sail.
Her most famous charter was to novelist and poet Robert Louis
Stevenson, who sailed her in 1889 and 1890 from Honolulu to the
Gilbert Islands. On her decks he conceived of and started his book
"The Wreckers" while cruising the Gilberts and trading copra with
the islanders.
The 76-ton vessel was fitted with a steam engine in 1893 and
served as a tender to an arctic whaling fleet. In 1915 the Equator
was put into service as a towing vessel and was later converted to
diesel power.
The boat became stranded on the Quilleute River bar in 1923
where the hull filled with water, but she was eventually refloated
and towed to Seattle for repair. The Equator was thoroughly
renovated and worked for many more years for Puget Sound Tug and
Barge Co. In 1956 the Equator's machinery was removed and the hull
abandoned and forgotten on the Everett Jetty, just 1000 yards west
of its current location.
Today the vessel is listed on the state and national historic
registers. The Equator Foundation has been established to
reconstruct her to her schooner configuration, maintain her, and
establish an interpretive center to tell her story.