James, Matthew J.

English

Aquatic Commons

30 NOTICIAS DE GALÁPAGOS No. 62
The biological consequences of the warm water pro-
duced by the El Niño phenomenon in the eastern Pacific
Ocean are felt early in the Galápagos Islands, and the
impacts can be severe, both on the islands themselves and
in the near shore waters surrounding the islands. Recent
experience by Galápagos scientists has shown that sea
surface temperatures near the Charles Darwin Research
Station exceeded 28°C (83°F) during both the 1982-83 and
1997-98 El Niño events (Snell & Rea 2002, data for March
1983 and March 1998). Documenting the frequency and
magnitude of even earlier El Niño events in this area could
assist in better understanding the impact of the phenom-
enon on Galápagos organisms.
In the summer of 2000, I visited the National Archives
in Washington, DC, to find information about a United
States Coast Survey vessel that would ultimately figure
prominently in Galápagos history. Serendipitously, air
and sea temperature information from this ship’s log
eventually led me to believe that an El Niño occurred in
1878 when the ship passed 200 miles to the west of the
Galápagos Islands. Kiladis and Diaz (1986) recognized
evidence for an El Niño event in 1877-1878.  My research
confirms both the existence and severity of that event.
DID GALÁPAGOS EXPERIENCE AN EL NIÑO IN 1878?
By: Matthew J. James
In the year 1875, the 89-foot composite-hulled gaff-
rigged schooner Earnest was launched in Baltimore by the
William E. Woodall Company, a well-known shipbuilder
(Figure 1). Following some brief coastal surveying work
in Florida, the Earnest sailed north on assignment to Maine
where she was badly damaged and sank in shallow water
off Isle Au Haut in an October 1876 storm. The schooner
was re-floated, returned to Baltimore for repairs, and
was then dispatched to Puget Sound on the opposite coast,
by way of Cape Horn.
Under the command of Sailing Master P. G. Letournau,
the Earnest departed Baltimore in the fall of 1877. While
rounding the Horn, the vessel’s most southerly position
was 59° 8’ 24’’ S and 65° 7’ 12’’ W before turning north
towards the equator.
My specific interest in this voyage of the Earnest was to
learn if the ship had stopped at the Galápagos Islands en
route to Puget Sound. I examined several of the 35 log-
books covering the period from 1875 to 1898 housed in the
National Archives. If the Earnest had visited Galápagos, it
would have presaged another, more famous, trip by the
same vessel some 28 years later. The logbooks revealed
that the Earnest’s sailing track carried her nearly 200 miles
to the west of the Galápagos. But as I tracked the vessel’s
northward progress on page after page of the logbook, I
1878 Sea Surface Latitude Longitude Rainfall
April Temp. Weather
10 82-83°F 8°41’24’’S. 104°4’48’’W. Light squalls
(27.8-28.3°C) & rain
11 83°F (28.3°C) 7°9’00’’S. 105°9’36’’W. Light squalls
12 83°F (28.3°C) 4°32’24’’S. 106°25’12’’W. Fine & clear
13 83°F (28.3°C) 2°25’ 2’’S. 107°4’48’’W. Fine clear
weather
14 82-83°F 0°33’00’’S. 109°1’12’’W. Fine clear
(27.8-28.3°C) weather
15 83-84°F On Equator 109°19’12’’W. Fine clear
(28.3-28.9°C) weather
16 83-84°F 1°28’48’’N. 109°24’00’W. N/A
(28.3-28.9°C)
17 84° F(28.9°C) 3°7’12’’N. 109°7’12’’W. Much rain
18 83-84°F 4°6’00’’N. 110°21’00’’W. Much rain
(28.3-28.9°C)
19 84°F (28.9°C) 5°6’36’’N. 112°15’00’’W. Fine weather
Table 1. – Geographic and ocean temperature data ob-
tained by the U.S. Coast Survey schooner Earnest in 1878,
approx. 200 miles west of the Galápagos Islands (Source:
National Archives 1878).
Figure 1. The schooner Earnest (later renamed Academy) when
she was on the rocks on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco
Bay in March 1904. (U.S. Naval Historic Center, Wash., D.C.).
December 2003 NOTICIAS DE GALÁPAGOS 31
stumbled onto what is perhaps an equally interesting
historical observation.
On a nearly daily basis while en route from Baltimore
to Puget Sound, Letournau and his crew took the air and
sea surface temperature readings mentioned previously.
These data, along with daily general weather observa-
tions and latitude and longitude readings, were
consistently recorded in one of the Earnest’s logs. Data for
ten days as the Earnest approached and departed the equa-
tor (Table 1) indicate a mass of extremely warm water in
the eastern Pacific.
The maximum sea surface temperature recorded be-
tween April 15 and 19, 1878, was 28.9°C (84°F) from the
time when the schooner had just crossed the equator and
continuing at least until 5° north of the equator. Since
these readings fall in the upper range of temperatures for
an El Niño event and are higher than those of non-El Niño
years, it appears that the Earnest sailed right through an
El Niño on its way from Cape Horn to Puget Sound.
How strong was the El Niño event that the schooner
Earnest sailed through in 1878? Quinn and Neal (1995)
analyzed the intensities of 115 separate El Niño events
between 1525 and 1987. On an intensity scale of 1 to 5, they
assigned a value of 5 to both the 1877-78 and 1982-83
events. Their highest ranking of “Very Strong” was also
given to both the 1877-78 and 1982-83 events, a ranking
that was only given to nine out of the 115 events docu-
mented since 1525. According to Kiladis and Diaz (1986),
the 1877-1878 El Niño was an extreme event comparable
to the 1982-83 event, and these two events are most likely
the strongest such occurrences that can be documented
with reliable data. Many of the same extreme worldwide
weather anomalies observed in 1982-83 were also ob-
served in 1877-78.
After reaching San Francisco in May 1878, and spend-
ing two weeks there, the schooner continued north to
spend the next 20 years in Coast Survey work in Puget
Sound, the San Juan Islands, and on several trips to Alaska.
By the end of the 19th century, the now-tired and well-
used schooner was “of no further use” to the U.S. Coast
and Geodetic Survey. In February 1898, the Earnest was
“condemned as a hulk” and turned over to the U.S. Navy
at the Puget Sound Naval Station in Bremerton, Wash-
ington “to be used as a target or for any other purpose.”
Despite two offers to purchase the schooner in 1898, the
Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Navigation informed the
Secretary of the Navy that: “The schooner “Earnest” is
worth far more than three hundred dollars to this Bureau
for target practice, and was turned over to the Navy
Department for that purpose – not to be sold.” (National
Archives 1898).
Ships, like people, sometimes get a second (or third or
fourth) chance. In September 1898, a reprieve of the scut-
tling sentence came when the Commandant of the Puget
Sound Naval Station wrote to the Secretary of the Navy
in Washington, D.C., requesting that the Earnest be con-
verted for use as a lighter at the Naval Station. Permission
was granted.
On March 9th, 1904, the Earnest was anchored near
Yerba Buena Island in central San Francisco Bay, now
playing a new role as a naval training vessel. During the
night, a violent southeast gale parted both a heavy wire
rope and a sturdy hawser causing the Earnest to be tossed
above the high tide mark on the island. Her advanced age,
intense Coast Survey use in the 1880’s and 1890’s, and
newly acquired storm damage resulted in the Navy put-
ting the schooner up for public sale (the documents
authorizing the sale were signed by President Theodore
Roosevelt; National Archives 1898).
In May 1905, the California Academy of Sciences pur-
chased the schooner from the Navy in a sealed-bid auction
for $1000. As the West Coast’s largest and oldest museum,
the Academy was eager to purchase a suitable vessel for
a scientific expedition. They changed her name to the
Academy and again made her seaworthy. Her eager new
owners soon dispatched her on a yearlong voyage of sci-
entific collecting and exploration to the Galápagos Islands.
The expedition departed San Francisco on June 28, 1905.
In late September 1905, almost 70 years to the day after
Charles Darwin first approached the Galápagos archi-
pelago aboard HMS Beagle, and approximately 28 years
after having rounded Cape Horn and passing westward
of the archipelago, this sturdy schooner would approach
Hood Island from the north, 89 days out of San Francisco.
While following in Darwin’s footsteps, the Academy and
her crew of eight young men who served as sailor-scien-
tists assembled an unrivaled collection of scientific
specimens, including tortoises, birds, plants, insects,
mollusks, fossils, and other organisms. Notable scientific
events during the 17-month expedition included the
documentation of tool-use by the woodpecker finch, and
the collection of the only known tortoise specimen from
Isla Fernandina. The schooner herself was honored in
perpetuity when the bay on southern Santa Cruz Island
was named Academy Bay on November 5, 1905. The
schooner and her expedition members remained in
Galápagos waters for a year and a day before returning
to San Francisco in late November 1906.
Joseph R. Slevin’s 1931 Log of the Schooner “Academy”
and other works published after the voyage provide much
useful information for Galápagos researchers. In this short
article, I have added another link between this special
boat and science in the islands by highlighting the careful
and useful records by the crew of the U.S. Coast Survey
vessel Earnest in 1878.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Valuable information and research assistance were
kindly provided by Rebecca Livingston (National Ar-
chives, Washington, D.C.), Marjorie Ciarlante (Archives
II, College Park, Maryland), Skip Theberge (NOAA Cen-
tral Library, Silver Spring, Maryland), and Michele Wellck
32 NOTICIAS DE GALÁPAGOS No. 62
INTRODUCTION
An herbarium is an indispensable tool for all botani-
cal research since plant studies depend on reliable
identifications.  For many difficult taxonomic groups,
well-prepared specimens are essential for identification.
Herbarium collections also provide material for tradi-
tional (morphological) and modern (genetic) research in
plant systematics, evolution, and ecology.
Until 1963, all plant collections made in Galápagos
had been sent to herbaria located outside the Galápagos
Islands (Mauchamp and Aldaz 1997).  Large or important
collections from Galápagos are deposited at:  the Royal
Botanic Garden, Kew, UK; Cambridge University, UK
(including most of Darwin’s collections); and the Califor-
nia Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, USA (Wiggins
and Porter 1971, Mauchamp and Aldaz 1997). In 1964, the
Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) created its own
herbarium to preserve important collections locally and
to facilitate botanical investigation in the islands. The
majority of the first collections were made in 1963–64 by
David Snow, Director of the CDRS at that time.  An impor-
tant contribution was made by I. L. Wiggins in 1966, who
left duplicates of the specimens collected for the prepara-
tion of the modern flora of the islands (Wiggins and Porter
1971). The herbarium received international recognition
in 1975 with its inclusion on the World Index Herbariorum
with the institutional identifier acronym of CDS.
Until 1994, herbarium maintenance was sporadic and
often not up to international standards, resulting in many
specimens still being deposited in other institutions
(Mauchamp and Aldaz 1997). In March 1994, the collec-
tions were moved to a new dehumidified, and since 1995,
air-conditioned room with custom-built storage cabi-
nets (Mauchamp and Aldaz 1997). The collection data
were entered into a computerized database which now
forms the core of the CDRS Database of the Galápagos
Flora. In 1995, an agreement was signed with the Na-
tional Herbarium in Quito, Ecuador, (QCNE), providing
for identification assistance from mainland researchers
(especially for introduced species) and for the deposit of
duplicate specimens in Quito.  The present paper reports
activities since 1996.
THE COLLECTIONS
The botanical collections have increased greatly in
recent years, growing from 7,000 specimens in 1996
(Mauchamp and Aldaz 1997) to more than 14,000 in 2003,
a growth of nearly 1,000 specimens per year (Figure 1).
This near doubling of the collection in six years has neces-
sitated continued expansion of the herbarium facilities.
The collections currently represent approximately 85%
of vascular plant taxa known from the islands, 70% of
algal taxa, 40% of lichens, and a collection of bryophytes
which is not yet fully catalogued. The collections include
THE CHARLES DARWIN RESEARCH STATION HERBARIUM:
IMPROVEMENTS OF THE LAST SIX YEARS
By: Patricia Jaramillo and Alan Tye
(Archives, California Academy of Sciences). Marc Miller,
John Woram and G. M. Wellington made editorial com-
ments.
LITERATURE CITED
Kiladis, G. N. and H. F. Diaz. 1986. An analysis of the 1877-78
ENSO episode and comparison with 1982-83. Monthly
Weather Review 114: 1035-1047.
National Archives. 1878. Logbook of the Schooner Earnest,
October 30, 1877 to June 11, 1878, Record Group 23, Coast
and Geodetic Survey, Series: Ship’s Records. National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA), College
Park, Maryland.
National Archives. 1898. Navy Correspondence, Record Group
80, General Records of the Navy Department, General
Correspondence 1897-1915, Letters 6039(83)–6121(5), Box
No. 212, Letter 6075. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Quinn, W. H and V. T. Neal. 1995. The historical record of El
Niño events. In Climate Since A.D. 1500. R.S. Bradley and
P.D. Jones, eds. Routledge, New York, pp. 623-648.
Slevin, J. R. 1931. Log of the Schooner “Academy.” Occasional
Papers of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 17, 162
pp., 16 plates, 1 map.
Snell, H. and S. Rea. 2002. Appendix. Summary of meteorologi-
cal data for Santa Cruz Island from 1965 through 1998.
Source: http://www.darwinfoundation.org/articles/
n60001299app.html (accessed 29 August 2002).
Matthew J. James, Department of Geology, Sonoma State
University, Rohnert Park, California 94928 USA E-mail:
matt.james@sonoma.edu.


Did Galapagos Experience an El Niño in 1878?

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Did Galapagos Experience an El Niño in 1878?

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