Schooner Of

Move To Salvage

R.L.S. Fame

Captain Fred K. Klebingat, research associate of the San Francisco Mari time Museum, has written to PIM seeking help in tracking down pictures and plans of the schooner "Equator" which took Robert Louis Stevenson to Samoa.

Captain Klebingat tells us that he wants these because Mr. Karl Kor tum, director of his museum, is trying to salvage what is left of the vessel to restore as a museum exhibit. The Kiwanis Club in Everett, Washington State, USA, is also interested.

Captain Klebingat says that the "Equator" was lost "a few years ago" at the mouth of the Quialute River, near the Cape Flattery entrance to Juan de Fuca Strait, Washington State, after having served for years as a towboat.

"Although I have collected data on Stevenson and his stay in the Pacific for years," Captain Klebingat goes on, "so far I have turned up no photos or plans of the 'Equator'.

"The former owners of the 'Equator', now Whiteman, Crane and Stuart, lost all they may have had in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. A letter of thanks they had from Robert Louis Stevenson addressed to John Whiteman, Jr., was also lost in the conflagration.

"One thing I am sure of is that Stevenson's skipper. Captain Reid, married a daughter of Mr. Greig, who then owned Fanning Island, and that they settled in Sydney.

"There is a chance that some of their descendants are still living there and may possess photos of Stevenson, his family. Captain Reid, Mrs. Reid (the former Miss Greig), and the schooner, and documents pertaining to the crew. If so Mr.

Kortum or I would like to hear about it.

"I am also on the look out for photos of the 'Casco' in the South Pacific, and would like to know more about Captain Otis of that vessel." [The "Casco" was the schooner in which Stevenson first entered the South Pacific. She sailed from San Francisco on June 27, 1888. Captain Otis was her skipper.]