The eNotes Blog The Western Flyer Steinbecks Boat Flying ThroughTime

The Western Flyer Steinbecks Boat Flying ThroughTime The compass simply represents the ideal, present but unachievable, and sight-steering a compromise with perfection which allows your boat to exist at all. - The Log from the Sea of Cortez In Port Townsend- a charming, coastal town nestled in  the northeastern end of the Olympic Peninsula- a piece of literary and biological history is being remastered and preserved. The Western Flyer, a 77-foot fishing boat built in 1937, sits docked at  Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op as it undergoes  restoration. In 1940, author John Steinbeck  set sail on The Western Flyer for a six-week trip on the Sea of Cortez with,  friend and famous marine biologist, Ed Ricketts. Steinbeck had just finished writing  The Grapes of Wrath and (presumably needing to blow off some dusty melancholy) departed with Ricketts, a small number of crewmen, and his wife, Carol, for a leisurely voyage. This trip resulted in Steinbecks acclaimed book  The Log from the Sea of Cortez, a combination of their shared expeditions journals and Ricketts species catalog.  Because of this voyage,  The Western Flyer is referred to as the most famous fishing vessel ever to have sailed. The Log  is also regarded as one of Steinbecks  most important non-fiction works due to Ricketts influence.  Ricketts helped shape  Steinbecks thinking, providing  a prototype for many of Steinbecks  pivotal literary characters and, thus, some  of the most important characters in American literature. The Flyer is now embarking on a three-year restoration project overseen by the Port Townsend Co-op. Its commissioned by  John Gregg, a scientist  from Southern California, whose life was changed when he picked up Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (the predecessor of The Log)  in a bookmobile at age ten. Gregg hopes to restore The Flyer to its original glory- complete with modern updates and a high-tech learning environment for students. With our Seattle HQ located just 2.5 hours from Port Townsend, I was lucky enough to set up a tour of the boat (on the eve of Steinbecks birthday, no less!) to  learn more about the project. I met with  Chris Chase, overseer of  the restoration, and, after our chat, it became apparent that the boat represents not just a famous fishing or sailing voyage, but a voyage through time itself. The boat has become a victim of our changing world, Chris said as he explained  the ongoing  struggle of obtaining proper materials for restoration.  Finding lumber has been the hardest aspect of  the project: because of the U.S.s astronomical prices and scarce supply, theyre forced to import wood from France for the appropriate fit (and right price). Back in 1937, when The Flyer was first built, all of the boats components were acquired  locally thanks to the Pacific Northwests abundance of the necessary raw materials. Chris and his team of  experts  are still able to economically source  what they need, but he admits,  everything that made this boat its hard to replicate now. Its now an art, not a skill. Its been lost. Resources and specialty craftsmanship arent the only things The Flyer has seen come and go. Since its birth 80 years ago, the boat has witnessed firsthand the depletion of marine life and clean-water sources. And though the world that The Flyer lives in now may seem a bit bleaker than that of its youth, it remains steadfastly resilient. The Flyer has a spirit that lives on, Chris said, smiling. He then told me  about how itd sunk four(!) times- three of them reaching the bottom of the sea. Shes just kind of shrugged it off, he said. As they work to restore The Flyer, theyre careful to do her justice and pay homage to her tangible spirit. This  spirit was  indeed  captured by Steinbeck; he had a kinship with  boats  and wrote of The Flyer  as  an actual character in his writings. His affinity for boats  extended into his other works, shown in this excerpt from The Pearl:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"This was an evil beyond thinking. The killing of a man was not so evil as the killing of a boat. For a boat does not have sons, and a boat cannot protect itself, and a wounded boat does not heal.† As with  a character  in a novel,  we observe The Flyers  character arc- an arc of  resiliency, survival, and renewal. While the initial restorations goal will be  to re-tread  the path of the Sea of Cortez,  The Flyers ultimate destination will then be a sort of floating classroom:  a place for marine biology and ecology students with, what are  planned to be, impressive learning tools.  Students and scientists alike will be able to get up close and personal with the marine life of the Pacific Northwest aboard this historic vessel. Perhaps the very answers we seek to the environmental obstacles we face will be solved right in The Western Flyers belly. In the meantime, well await the next few  years as Chris and his team works vigorously on this exciting adventure. Its a pretty amazing project, Chris told me at the end of my tour. I agree, and I think Ricketts and Steinbeck would, too. Follow The Western Flyers progress at the Western Flyer Foundations website.