Upcoming program at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church details saga of historic boat

Published 11:23 am Sunday, September 6, 2015

The “Saga of Western Flyer,” a program detailing the restoration of the historic fishing vessel, will be shared at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9 at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church.

This lecture, by renowned author and historian Michael Kenneth Hemp, is free and open to the public.

Built in 1937 at Tacoma’a Western Boatbuilding Company by Martin Petrich and Frank and Tony Berry, according to local historian Gerald Elfendahl, the fishing vessel became famous three years later when a crew that included famed marine biologist Ed Ricketts and his most devoted student, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for Literature recipient John Steinbeck, chartered the vessel on an epic cruise.

The tale was recorded in Steinbeck’s “The Log from the Sea of Cortes.”

Ricketts’ own scientific masterpiece, “Between Pacific Tides” (1939),  would set the standard for generations of biologists as he documented intertidal life from Baja to Yukutat, including excursions in Port Madison and Port Orchard, Elfendahl said.

Hemp is author of “Cannery Row: The History of John Steinbeck’s Ocean View Avenue.” He first shared its story in three library talks here in 2009, and now he returns to discuss the project to restore the historical boat.

The National Historic Registry-bound vessel will be accessible to the public during the upcoming Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, Elfendahl said, where the Shipwrights’ Co-operative will work to restore the ship to its 1937 condition for future use as a teaching platform for kids from the Salish Sea to the Sea of Cortes.

For more information, call 206-842-4164.