The Western Flyer is a 73’ purse seiner built in 1937 in Tacoma, Washington. In 1940 she was chartered by author John Steinbeck and marine biologist Ed Ricketts for a marine specimen-collecting expedition in the Gulf of California. Steinbeck’s book about their journey, The Log from the Sea of Cortez, is considered one of his most important works. After a hard life of fishing, the Western Flyer sunk and was left for dead… until a marine geologist named John Gregg stepped up and purchased the boat. The Western Flyer arrived in Port Townsend in 2015 and since then has been painstakingly rebuilt and restored by the Port Townsend Shipwrights Coop. On the 29th June 2022 she was pulled out of the shed on rollers, launched, and towed to Seattle for engine and systems installation.