Last week, I had the privilege of seeing one of the most famous boats to ply the Pacific Ocean: the Western Flyer. Built in Tacoma in 1937 for the sardine fishery in Monterey Bay, California, the 76-foot boat achieved its notoriety through Ed Ricketts’ and John Steinbeck’s The Log from the Sea of Cortez. The book details the collecting trip they made in the summer of 1940. Best known as the model for “Doc” in Steinbeck’s novel, Cannery Row, and author of the legendary Between Pacific Tides, Ricketts, and Steinbeck, planned to survey marine life by collecting in the infamous sea. To do so, they chartered the Western Flyer.
The boat’s subsequent life was not nearly so celebrated. One Seattle-based owner changed the boat’s name to Gemini and moved it to Alaska to harvest red king crab. Another owner used it to transport salmon; this owner also crashed and sank the boat. By 2012, and additional owners later, the Gemini was in the Swinomish Channel, moored under the Twin Bridges near the Swinomish Casino. Neither seaworthy nor remotely ship shape, it sank again, was refloated, then sank yet again, this time for six months. Refloated for a final time, the derelict, mud strewn, more-or-less wreck was towed to Port Townsend and docked by a new owner. He had plans to refurbish the Western Flyer and use it as a tourist attraction in an artificial moat in Salinas, California, Steinbeck’s hometown.
Finally, and fortunately, in February 2015, marine geologist John Gregg bought the battered boat. As a long-time fan of The Log from the Sea of Cortez, Gregg worked with the Western Flyer Foundation and Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op to restore the legendary boat with plans to make it available as a research and teaching vessel. They finished the restoration in 2023, and the boat is now meeting their goals with education and scientific programming. (If you are interested in the full life and times of the Western Flyer, check out Kevin Bailey’s fine book The Western Flyer: Steinbeck’s Boat, The Sea of Cortez, and the Saga of Pacific Fisheries.)
Fully restored and updated, the Western Flyer now docks at Moss Landing, about 15 miles north of Monterey. I was lucky though to see it at Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey. Even better, volunteers for the Western Flyer Foundation were offering tours. We saw what had been the original sardine hold, now converted to an area for teaching and examining specimens; the updated engine (now diesel and electric); the tiny rooms and minimal bunks where the crew and Steinbeck and Ricketts slept; and the slightly larger captains’ quarters, where Steinbeck’s wife slept. We also saw the good luck antlers atop the mast, which the guide told us was a Sicilian tradition.
We also saw a shot glass found wedged between the walls of the boat; it (and other glass on the boat) bore the etchings of barnacles. Another highlight was the original toilet, or as the guide said, “the john where John sat.” Although I know basically nothing about boats and ships, I could recognize the beauty and skill of the restoration, and suspected that under the paint and below deck, the work was just as amazing.
If you cannot visit the Western Flyer, and even if you can, one great way to experience the boat is to read The Log from the Sea of Cortez. It’s a fun read, with colorful descriptions of people and place, and many, many tales of collecting animals. It’s also surprisingly funny, thought-provoking, and inspiring.
Here are some of my favorite lines from the book:
* A breakwater is usually a dirty place, as though tampering with the shoreline is obscene and impractical to the cleansing action of the sea.
* In a way, ours is the older method, somewhat like Darwin on the Beagle. He was called a “naturalist.” He wanted to see everything, rock and flora and fauna; marine and terrestrial. We came to envy this Darwin on his sailing ship. He had so much room and so much time…This is the proper pace for the naturalist. Faced with all things he cannot hurry. We must have time to think and to look and to consider.
* This little stream, coming from so high up in the mountains and falling so far, never had the final dignity of reaching the ocean. The desert sucked it down and the heat dried it up and on the level it disappeared in a light mist of frustration.
* We have never understood why men mount the heads of animals and hang them up to look down on their conquerers. Possibly it feels good to these men to be superior to animals, but it does seem that if they were sure of it they would not have to prove it.
* A curious sea-lion came out to look us over, a tawny crusty old fellow with rakish mustaches and the scars of battle on his shoulders….Then, satisfied, he snorted and cut for shore and some sea-lion appointment. They always have them, it’s just a matter of getting around to keeping them.
* Each of them in his own tempo and with his own voice discovered and reaffirmed with astonishment the knowledge that all things are one thing and that one thing all things—plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time. It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.
As someone interested in the natural world and history, and long a fan of Steinbeck’s writing, I was thrilled to be aboard such a lovely and lovingly cared for boat. Not only did it feel like an homage to the past, and to deeper connections to Steinbeck and Ricketts, but it also felt like a tribute to the future, to the next generations of scientists who are seeking to better understand the natural world around them. Perhaps their work will be as inspiring as that done by the crew of the Western Flyer in 1940.
This is my 40th podcast of this newsletter; I am surprised and honored to note that these podcasts have now been downloaded more than 42,000 times. Golly Ned.
Two upcoming events
September 6 - Waterfront Park - Opening Day Celebration - I’ll be down at the Waterfront, at the south end (east side of Alaskan Way S, between Yesler Way & S. Washington St.) at 3:00 and 5:00 P.M. giving short talks about the history of this area.
September 20, 2025 - Clima Incognita: Planning For An Unknown Climate – Jaipur Literature Festival: Seattle – Town Hall – 12:00 PM – 12:45 PM – I will be in conversation with author John Vaillant (Fire Weather, a brilliant book) and Brinda Sarathy (professor and Dean of the University of Washington: Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences). Our panel should be fun and interesting, along with the rest of the festival.
