She was later used as a wire drag vessel by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and finally as a tugboat along the Puget Sound until her abandonment in 1956.

Shipbuilder Matthew Turner designed and built Equator as a two-masted schooner in Benicia, California, in 1888 for the copra trade in the South Seas.

[2] Sometime in the 1890s she received a steam engine and worked as a tender for either an Arctic whaling fleet or for commercial fishing operations in Alaska.

[3][5] Equator spent her final years as a tugboat in use in Puget Sound until 1956, when she was abandoned on the coast of Jetty Island outside Everett, Washington.

[5] A survey conduced on February 21, 1968, by the National Register of Historical Places gave the following description (with recommendations) of the ship's condition at the time: "The deck house and all machinery, the propeller, shaft and fittings had been removed, and only the bare hull of the vessel remained.

"[2]Schalka helped to establish a nonprofit group to restore the vessel, which despite little fundraising success managed to get Equator listed in the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1972.

[8] The Port of Everett took custody of Equator and announced plans to dismantle her and reuse her timber for public art and an interpretive exhibit.

Several nautical archeologists, including students from Texas A&M University, began documenting the ship's remains in June 2023 while preparations for dismantling her were made.