Where Science Meets StorySteinbeck’s Western Flyer sails the Sea of Cortez once again.

Jack Barth, professor of oceanography in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, has been on a lot of ships in his time. He has deployed instruments and collected data aboard research vessels throughout the Pacific and Atlantic, with an emphasis on the California Current ecosystem that spans the U.S. West Coast.

This spring, he set out on a research vessel like no other, on an incredible voyage that traveled as much through history as it did through the waves of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. And it involved Oregon State people every step of the way.

Barth spent two weeks aboard the Western Flyer, the California sardine fishing vessel chartered in 1940 for a sample-collecting trip by author John Steinbeck and his friend biologist Ed Ricketts easily identified as the character “Doc” in Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row. Steinbeck’s documentation of the trip eventually contributed to the book he co-authored with Ricketts, The Sea of Cortez, from which the better-known The Log from the Sea of Cortez was extracted.

Top Left: The Western Flyer in the Sea of Cortez. Top Right: Adrian Munguía-Vega, the Mexican lead scientist for the expedition, with Barth. Bottom: Jack Barth talks with students. Photos by Pat Webster

After that expedition, the Western Flyer was put to work by many West Coast fisheries from California to Alaska, changing owners and names. For a time, it was lost to history. When it reemerged — twice sunk, dilapidated and waterlogged — in Anacortes, Washington, the Western Flyer Foundation was formed. Now chaired by Tom Keffer, Ph.D. ’80, the group lovingly restored the boat as a platform for research and education. After the restoration was complete, in 2023, the vessel sailed under a new captain, Paul Tate, formerly captain of Oregon State’s research vessel Elakha, to its old (and new) home in Monterey Bay.

This March, 85 years nearly to the day after the Steinbeck/Ricketts expedition began, the Western Flyer returned to the Sea of Cortez (also known as the Gulf of California) to retrace the steps of its most famous journey. American and Mexican scientists partnered to plan science and education programs for the trip. The boat stop-ped at many of the original Ricketts sampling stations, and local communities welcomed the Flyer with celebrations along the way. Students came aboard for education programs.

Barth serves on the board of directors of the Western Flyer Foundation, and he helped lead the installation of the vessel’s oceanographic equipment and plan the scientific aspects of the voyage. Aboard, he collected information about water temperature, dissolved oxygen, light penetration, salinity and more. He intends to compare his findings with the data collected by Rickets 85 years ago.

“One thing that I try to get across to people is the sounds of the vessel,” he says. “There’s one phrase in the book about the wind going through the forward stay of the boat sounding like a deep organ note, but there’s hundreds of other tones, too — the wood shifting and creaking, and the slapping of the water. It’s a totally amazing experience.”

For Barth, the trip was about connection to the past, and optimism for the future. He recalls the first time he stood on the bridge during the boat’s restoration. “I literally got a tingle down the back of my neck,” he says.

Oregonians interested in seeing the Western Flyer in person should stay tuned: Barth says he hopes to organize a visit to Newport and other Oregon ports in spring of 2026. In the meantime, follow the boat’s adventures at here.