Yacht N a ni 
Papeete, Tahiti 
Jan. 19, 1957 
Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt 
Head curator, 
U. S„ National 
Washington 25, 
Dept, of Zoology 
Museum 
D. C., USA 
W.LS. 
JAM 2 8 my 
Dear Dr. Schmitt, 
I came in from 4>orea to Papeete yesterday just^ to catch 
the mail. There are some very important letters, long overdue that 
I thought for sure would arrive 5 "but they did not. However I did 
receive your letter and there is time for " e to get off a quick 
reply to you via the same plane. 
Unfortunately I cannot give you a definite answer 
regards my availahlility as skiooer on "Mareva". Had I received 
two of the important letters I mentioned, I would be in a better 
position to give an answer,.. One of the correspondents^ rom whom I 
expected a letter was OH ’oss. :, il wrote about last °entember tnat 
he ' had a talk with Smith, and he thought it would be possible to 
"renegociate" my starting date (which is now set at June 1 , i'H'h. 
I immediately wrote and requested a delay to Sent. 1 - primarily o 
give me time to adequately complete the many phases of my research 
which I hawe begun and, equally important, to give me time to sail 
my boat to California to sell her, if the need arises as it looks 
like it will. Suspecting that Oil's letter might have gone astray 
(as one of his prior letters did) 1 wrote again requesting a rapid 
reply. The second correspondent who failed to reoly was an.M.D,^ in. 
Hawaii who had expressed an interest in buying "Nani" here in Tahiti. 
Any chance of your wielding your influence at the marine 
lab to arrange for my arrival there as late as Sept. 1 : i-ou could 
mention that I will be of assistandeto your expedition here in j-ahiti 
(which I will be whether I become your skinner or not). -f 1 am 
unable to sell my boat he^e and have to be in Miami by June 1 , I shall 
have to leave in March. 
As for the question of pay ... 1 would not be willing to 
accent $300 a month. By T a hitain standards this may be adequate 
nay (although I do know that the skipper of the schooner Te ve|a 
which is in Papeete now and has largely a Tahitian crew draws^ 1 5 00 
a month), but it is not sufficient to lu^e me from my researcn in 
Moorea. My minimum would be 500 a' month. 
Preston Moore had asked that 1 inform Him (he is now in 
San Francisco) when I heard that the charter of areva was definite. 
I wrote to tell him that the charter seemed to be going through, and 
I just had a letter from him stating that chances of his participation 
are unlikely. 
I fully understand that it would be very awkward for 
you to cancel with McConnaughey at this time. r here is also no 
question but that "Mareva" would be a better boat because of her 
larger size. My offer to charter "Nani" was offered as a substitute 
in case the " M areva" deal did not work out. 
