EQUATOR

In early 2024 our studio group finished disassembling and salvaging the wood from the historic schooner Equator for use in future sculptures.

Built in Benicia California in 1888, the two-masted schooner sailed the South Seas (in 1889 it was chartered by Robert Louis Stevenson). In 1897 she was converted to a steam schooner and worked as a tender for salmon canning operations in Alaska. In 1915 the Equator was chartered by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey in South East  Alaska for use in survey and wire drag operations. The vessel was later converted to a motor tug and spent the next half century as a tugboat operating in the Salish sea. In 1956 she was left to decay as a breakwater with other discarded vessels along Jetty Island outside Everett, WA. In a bid to salvage the Equator, it was hauled ashore and dry-docked at the Port of Everett in 1967. Regrettably, in 2023, the Port of Everett deemed the Equator irreparable and made the decision to dismantle and remove it. To preserve its historical significance, an archaeological team from Texas A&M University meticulously documented the vessel in June 2023.

The Port of Everett has commissioned a sculpture for the entry of their offices. It will be made from some of the salvaged Equator and installed in early 2026.

See a full version of the infographic poster here.