Equator (schooner)
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, 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.
