Santa Cruz Flotsam
Big Sur Bureau
08 June 2025
To. Media TBA
Fm. Hayes, Marine Correspondent
Subj. Arcturus Expedition 1925--Ichthyologist Assistant--Elizabeth Trotter
Encl. (1) submitted herewith.
PART I. ORGANIZATIONAL DATA
1. Elizabeth S. Trotter and the 1925 Arcturus Expedition
a. Background and Role
Elizabeth S. Trotter (1889–1977) was a fisheries scientist and an employee of the New York Zoological Society's Department of Tropical Research.
b. On the 1925 Arcturus Expedition, she served as assistant to W.K. Gregory, focusing on vertebrate studies, ichthyology, and fish locomotion research.
c. She was known on board as "Betty" and was one of six professional women who made up about a third of the scientific staff—a groundbreaking inclusion at a time when women were rarely seen on scientific research vessels.
2. Contributions and Achievements
a. Trotter's scientific responsibilities included assisting with vertebrate studies, particularly fish, and contributing to the expedition’s ichthyological research.
She played a key role in the collection and study of marine specimens, especially during the detailed investigations in the Sargasso Sea and other locations.
b. Beyond her scientific work, Trotter also contributed to the expedition’s collaborative and educational atmosphere, for example, teaching fellow crew member Ruth Rose how to fish.
c. Her work, along with that of her female colleagues, helped challenge gender norms in science and inspired public interest in both marine research and the role of women in fieldwork.
3. Legacy
a. The 1925 Arcturus Expedition, led by William Beebe, was notable for its multidisciplinary approach, innovative sampling techniques, and the inclusion of women scientists and artists. Trotter's participation was emblematic of this progressive spirit.
b. The expedition’s findings were widely disseminated in both scientific literature and popular accounts, helping to popularize oceanography and field ecology.
c. Trotter herself later wrote articles and books and served as an assistant to author Booth Tarkington.
PART II. PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS
1. The role of Miss Trotter in the expedition can be found in news articles published both prior to and related to the voyage. The first article was uncovered in The Philadelphia Inquirer just as the ship departed New York on 10 February 1925 (page 6b).
SOCIETY GIRL OFF FOR SARGASSO SEA
Miss Elizabeth Trotter, of Chestnut Hill, Member of Scientific Expedition
Party Sent Out by New York Zoological Society Headed by Dr. William Beebe
From the Inquirer Bureau
NEW YORK, Feb. 10. The single stack steamer Arcturus, originally built for work in ice jammed waters. moved gently away from the Tebo Yacht Basin on the Brooklyn waterfront today and began a 13,000 mile journey whose main objective is the ever baffling Sargasso Sea.
'On the top deck of the vessel, which flies the flag of the New York Z00logical Society, Dr. William Beebe, naturalist, explorer and chief of the expedition. waved his hand to a host of friends on shore. Next to him stood Dr. Henry Fairchild Osborne, director of the American Museum of Natural History. who will remain aboard until the ship touches Norfolk. Va.
Then there was Miss Elizabeth Trotter, of "Cleve Gate," Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.
Miss Trotter Science Devotee
Miss Trotter. known to her friends as "Betty." joined the expedition because of her love for things scientific. So at 2 P. M. she fared forth with the others in the special yacht Arcturus, to explore the "haven of lost ships." For six months it will literally be a case of "water, water everywhere" for Miss Trotter, and not a drop of social gayety to break the monotony.
She appeared to realize this as she gazed about on oil cloth-covered cabin tables, tar-smelling rope coils, grease-dozing winches, and fishy-odored tarpaulins. Her auburn hair shining in contrast to a sailor costume. Betty trotter hardly looked a part of the expedition.
"Like it? We-e-ell. I guess I will." she said. "It ought to be quite a hit of fun. I'm going to assist Dr. W. Gregory, the naturalist and writer, you know.''
"You'll be gone a long time." it was suggested.
"Oh. well—I know this isn't going to be like a liner—if I don't like it, I can get off the boat at the end of three months."
"How come?"
Can Leave at Panama Canal
"You see," she answered, "the expedition goes from the Sargasso Sea through the Panama Canal to the Pacific Ocean. I can leave it at the locks and come home if I want to." A pause followed, and she stepped to the cabin door and peeped inside again.
"I think perhaps I shall," she said, and went inside.
In addition to those before are named are Dr. Wm. K. Gregory of Columbia University, a noted scientist; Mrs. C. J. Fish. of Wood's Hole and Pittsburgh' University; Miss Lynn Seagle, chemical biologist; Dwight Franklin, sculptor, who will make casts of the fish; Isabel Cooper, scientific artist; Miss Ruth Rose, Serge Chetyrkin, John Tee-Van, William Marion, Dr. Cady and Jay Pierson. Captain J. S. Howes is commanding.
2. Several months later, The Philadelphia Inquirer published another article (07 July 1925, page 4c) after the return of the Arcturus. Miss Trotter apparently didn't option out at the Canal and went on to report what she found at the Galapagos Islands.
SOCIETY GIRL WALKS ON BOTTOM OF SEA
Visits Shark-Infested Ocean Land in Diving Helmet and Bathing Suit
While Watching Volcano in Action She Sees Sea Buckle and Boil
After watching strange fish in the very bottom of the sea and seeing the surface of the ocean buckle and boil as the result of a volcano. Miss Elizabeth Trotter looks upon the vacation she is about to spend at Kennebunkport, Me., as a somewhat tame and placid experience.
This intrepid young society girl, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Trotter, "Cleve Gate," Chestnut Hill, was one of the four women included in Dr. William Beebe's expedition to the Sargossa (sp) Sea and tropical Pacific. She returned at the end of last week.
The biggest thrills of the three month cruise, Miss Trotter explained, were in sinking to the bottom of the sea in a swimming suit and diving helmet to watch strange fish weave their way about in the water. Ordinarily it was only the men of the expedition who did this, because of danger from sharks.
"But it seemed such fun." Miss Trotter said, "that I tried it myself. We were careful to guard against sharks, sinking in spots where the water was shallow. It was fun at the bottom, but my, what work for the fellow in the boat pumping air into the helmet."
Sargasso Sea Loses Danger
The Sargasso Sea, about which so many lurid tales of lost ships were woven by the sea dogs of other generations, has lost its wicked charm, Miss, Trotter explained, because steam driven vessels can plow through the brackish still waters regardless of breeze.
But things weren't so calm when the explorers found themselves in the Pacific Ocean off the northern coast of South America. They saw Mt. Williams very much in action. Lava was spurning up into the air, falling back on the rock like great rivers of molasses, dropping finally into the ocean amid hissing and boiling steam. Shortage of coal forced the Beebe party to turn back for more fuel, so they did not get a close up in little boats of this volcano.
But those in search of "thrills" had luck, because just as they were leaving. the ocean itself heaved tip into a small volcano of its own, hurling rocks and boiling water high into the air.
As for sea monsters. there are no such things, Miss Trotter said, but she added that the scientist found plenty varietie (sp) of sea life to keep them pawing for hours over great masses of stuff pulled in by nets.
PART III. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
Assistant in Ichthyology, Department of Tropical Research
(The Philadelphia Inquirer, 03 October 1924, page 2.)
This was three months before she sailed off on the Arcturus into the Sargasso Sea. Curiously, there isn't much about the young lady before or after her adventure. Several online historical articles of Miss Trotter all have the generic photographs preserved in the archives of the New York Zoological Society's Department of Zoological Research (DTR), now named the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
For such an imposing and important person in the Philadelphia "society" circle, it is a task to uncover what little is known about her before and after, and even during the voyage. Synthetic intelligence inquiries suggest she went on to do more writing, but it's the voyage research where the effort is centered.
3. GHOSTLY COINCIDENCE
(The Scranton Times, 09 October 1924, page 17)
4. Reference to Miss Trotter in Booth Tarkington papers.
a. Box-folder 1:12
n.d. Original Untitled Manuscript, with revision, by Elizabeth Trotter, with the text beginning, "Mr. Tarkington's nurses say that they go in fear - fear lest other nurses, rendered savage by envy, will have their lives. For Mr. Tarkington's popularity as a patient, like his popularity in other lives, is extreme. As Mr. Tarkington's amanuensis, and part-time hospital reader-aloud of detective stories, I am in a most justly exalted position, and I cannot avoid suspecting that I was asked to write this article in order that the entire nursing staff of Johns Hopkins hospital might feel avenged."
AMs, 5 pages on 5 leaves
b. a·man·u·en·sis /əˌmanyo͝oˈensəs/. A literary or artistic assistant, or one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts.
c. The "Guide" lists numerous references to Miss Trotter as possible dictation by Tarkington in her handwriting.
d. These were long after her Arcturus adventure well into the 1930s-40s.
5. Image above from The Maine Memory Network: "Booth Tarkington dictating a story to Elizabeth Trotter, 1938"
6. In Robert Gottleib's "The Rise and Fall of Booth Tarkington," Betty Trotter is introduced while the author-playwright went briefly blind.
a. "During that time, he was totally blind for five months. But even the calamity of blindness did not keep him from writing—the only thing he not only knew how to do but needed to do. He had found the ideal secretary in a close friend, Betty Trotter, and he dictated at least eight hundred words a day to her, as well as dealing through her with his always teeming correspondence. Betty became part of the Tarkington household—already a household of women."
7. As curious from the images as his secretary and from the Maine Memory files, Elizabeth is seen writing and mentioned as her notes, she did not use a typewriter. One might draw a conclusion that she also had handwritten notes during the expedition 20 years earlier related to her work with W. Gregory on board the ship.
8. Synthetic intelligence inquiries. Perplexity AI
9. Images with captions and credits included in text.
10. Report prepared by JCL for Santa Cruz Flotsam, Monsoon Beach.
End of Report.
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