Tag Archives: the Western Flyer
Western Flyer Restoration: The John Steinbeck fishing seiner
Built in Tacoma, Washington, the state-of-the-art seiner was launched from Western Boat Building Company in 1937, destined for the sardine trade of Monterey, California. Builder and shipyard owner, Martin Petrich Sr, specialized in sturdy vessels. For Western Flyer, he used a single, 64ft piece of old-growth fir for the keel; ribs were white oak; fir planks steamed, fitted, and caulked with cotton. The boat’s strength was offset by a graceful sheer and jaunty wheelhouse. In early 1940, scientist Ed Ricketts and author John Steinbeck combed the Monterey waterfront for a vessel that would carry them, along with a small crew and makeshift biology lab, on a scientific research mission to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. No one was willing until Western Flyer tied to the pier and her captain, Tony Berry, agreed. 12 Photos, more, >>click to read<< 15:37
Western Flyer sails again
The Western Flyer left for Seattle after seven years of intense restoration and rebuilding in Port Townsend, but she will make a detour on the way to her final destination for one last visit to the town that returned her to the ocean. The boat, known most famously as the vessel writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts chartered for a research trip to the Sea of Cortez in 1940, had been in Port Townsend undergoing restoration since 2015. On Wednesday, the Western Flyer embarked on stage two of its rehab when it was towed to Snow & Company boat builders in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. There, over the course of the next four or five months, it’ll get a new engine, rigging, hydraulics and mechanical systems. >click to read< 12:14
A piece of western Washington literary history heads back to sea
The boat John Steinbeck was on while writing The Log from the Sea of Cortez is embarking on a new chapter. The Western Flyer has been being refurbished in Port Townsend for the past nine years. Now, the 85-year-old boat is launching into Puget Sound once again. The painstaking voyage back to the sea begins with a bulldozer noisily hauling the 77-foot seiner out of drydock, inch by inch. It’s part of a journey Rom Welborn has been on since he first learned about the boat when writing a high school paper. “It changed my life and it still feels like it’s changing my life,” he said. >Video, click to read/watch< 11:27
Steinbeck’s Western Flyer purchased, coming to Monterey
,The Western Flyer, a ship immortalized by author John Steinbeck, has been purchased by an investor who plans to restore it to its former glory and bring it back to Monterey Harbor, said Cannery Row historian Michael Hemp. “Bob and I have been working since 1983 to get our hands on the Western Flyer with basically no money and no resources,” Hemp said. “In recent years it’s been moored in a boat yard in Port Townsend, Washington, where it sank twice in the past two years.” Read the rest here 17:23
The Western Flyer has drawn the attention of a Canadian documentary filmmaker.
“This is a part of our history,” said Ian Hinkle, a former resident of Port Townsend who now lives in Victoria. “It’s sad to see a wooden boat rotting in a yard, but it has done its part and can still communicate things that are very important,” he added. “Boats like this are important. They capture the past.” Hinkle spent Friday morning filming the outside of the vessel for use in “Reaching Blue,” a 15-minute film produced by Ocean Networks Canada Read more@PDN 16:49
The past-due rent of wrath: Boat linked to John Steinbeck becomes $7,978 Port of Port Townsend liability
As of Friday, Gerry Kehoe, the owner of the Western Flyer — which was brought into the Boat Haven covered in mud and barnacles earlier this summer — owed the Port of Port Townsend $7,877.73 in fees and has not responded to any communications about the bill, according to port executive assistant Jean French. Kehoe, a businessman and developer in Steinbeck’s old stomping ground of Salinas, Calif., purchased the Western Flyer in 2010 with the intention of using it as a tourist attraction. more@peninsuladailynews 09:31
