UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
AS (ROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 
NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM 
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 
AIR MAIL 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Was/anepton 2S, D. C. 
ITS A.. 
February Hi, 1957 
NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 
NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 
FREER GALLERY OF ART 
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 
CANAL ZONE BIOLOGICAL AREA 
Mr. James McConnaughey 
The Kettering-Oakwood Times 
2600 Far Hills Building 
Dayton 9, Ohio 
W(y dear Mr. McConnaughey: 
Dr. Schmitt has told me of your great helpfulness in making the 
MAREVA available to the Smithsonian's Society Islands Expedition for 
a period of about six weeks from April U to May 18. It gives us a 
very wonderful opportunity to enrich our study collections from the 
littoral of an area from which the Museum has received very little 
invertebrate material in the past. 
With this I send you our check for 13,000 in payment of the first 
month's charter of the MAREVA, which includes the use of the vessel and 
all necessary gear for running it, fuel for the charter period, and the 
services of your Tahitian sailor or caretaker, Tautu. 
As regards the liability for the first $1,000 insurance against 
damage to the vessel, we accept the assurance given in your letter 
of January 16 that the Institution or our expeditionary party, while 
the MAREVA is under charter to us (April 1* to May 18), would not be 
held responsible for any hull or major damage to the vessel exceeding 
the sum of *L ,000j and, further, that we would not be held accountable 
for any superficial damage to decks, interior, or things of that sort, 
including ordinary wear and tear and normal deterioration. 
With this understanding the Smithsonian and its Society Islands 
Expedition agrees to take care of the first $1,000 of any major damage 
that may befall the MAREVA while in our custody. 
I wish to thank you again in behalf of the Institution for your 
most generously given cooperation* 
Sincerely yours. 
Enel, 
Leonard Carmichael 
Secretary 
