The ship Niagara at her dock in Victoria, British Columbia

University of Iowa
1922 Fiji-New Zealand Expedition

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First Leg of the Voyage

The party left Iowa City on May 14, 1922. They reached Portal on the Canadian border on May 16. On the following day they boarded the Canadian Pacific train to Vancouver. After a couple of days in Vancouver to write letters and do some sightseeing, they finally boarded the "Niagara" ship, which would be home until they landed at Fiji.

pacific party

Expedition members with two other voyagers (Ms. Fanning and Ms. Hutton)

On May 27, after a journey of 2,435 miles, they arrived at the Hawaiian Islands and spent a day in Honolulu, where they were welcomed by Dr. C.H. Edmondson, Dr. Gregory, director of the Bishop Museum, Dr. Bergman, professor of botany at the University of Hawaii, and several other scientific men and their wives. They visited the botanical garden experimental station and Waikiki Beach which also offered them the opportunity to see a marine laboratory headed by Dr. Edmondson, who was Professor Nutting's former student. When they returned to the "Niagara" everyone was pleased with the hospitality that had been shown to them. Now they were to travel 2,780 miles more to reach their destination. Nutting describe the Pacific as "a vast lonely sea singularly devoid of living things on or above the surface. Very few birds were in evidence even gulls familiar to voyagers of the Atlantic were absent and for days at a time not a living thing was seen."

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