Equator (schooner)

Equator

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History
Builder:	Mathew Turner
Launched:	1888
Out of service:	Abandoned (1956)
Status:	Museum ship
General characteristics
Installed power:	Steam (1893–c1920s) Gasoline (c1920s–1941) Diesel (1941–)
Sail plan:	Schooner
Equator (schooner)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	14th St. Yacht Basin Everett, Washington, U.S.
Coordinates
Built	1888
Architect	Matthew Turner
NRHP Reference #	72001281
Added to NRHP	14April 1972

Equator was a two-masted pygmy trading schooner that in 1889 carried passengers Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson on a voyage through the islands of Micronesia. They visited Butaritari, Mariki, Apaiang and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands, (also known as the Kingsmills) now Kiribati. Photographs of Stevenson's voyage exist.

Originally built in San Francisco in 1888 as a copra trader, Equator was converted to steam in 1897 and eventually abandoned in the harbor at Everett, Washington in 1957. The vessel was Everett's first artifact placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The remains of the hull are protected by a shed near the Port of Everett's Marina Park. Several attempts to rebuild the ship have failed, and restoration is considered unlikely. Built in Benicia, California, she is the last surviving hull of that time period known to exist. In her career she worked under sail, steam, gasoline, and diesel power. She worked copra, fish, tug and support for the Geodetic Survey. Because of her shoal draft she could get close on shore where other vessels couldn't go.

See also

• Historic preservation
• List of Registered Historic Places in Washington

External links

• Equator at the Historic Everett Waterfront
• Silverado Museum, California, devoted to Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Writers' Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland, The United Kingdom, which holds photographs and documents of Robert Louis Stevenson