The Log From The Sea of Cortez

The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951) is a nonfiction work by John Steinbeck, which combines travel, memoir, scientific observations, and philosophical reflection. In the book, Steinbeck accompanies the marine biologist Ed Ricketts on a six-week expedition to the Gulf of California. Regarded as one of Steinbeck’s most significant nonfiction works, The Log from the Sea of Cortez also includes an Appendix which serves as a eulogy to Ricketts following his death in 1948. The work explores Interconnection and the Ecology of All Life, The Pressures of War on Scientific Research, and Exploration as Both Literal and Intellectual Journey.

This guide uses the 1995 Penguin Classics edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, animal death, and substance use.

Summary

John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts charter the purse seiner Western Flyer out of Monterey in March-April 1940 to make a collecting voyage into the Gulf of California. The crew consists of skipper Tony Berry, engineer Tex, deckhands Tiny and Sparky, and the two authors. They load supplies and a balky one-lung skiff motor nicknamed “the Sea-Cow.” They run down the California and Baja coasts, stop in San Diego to check in with authorities, and continue south along the Pacific side of the peninsula.

They round the cape at San Lucas into the Gulf and begin working northward along the eastern shore of Baja California. At Puerto Escondido, they collect biological specimens in mangroves and rocky ledges, including sea cucumbers, urchins, and crabs. At Loreto and nearby islets, they add snails, sea stars, and corals. At San Lucas Cove, they find enteropneust (“acorn”) worms and dig for them with mixed success. In Bahía Concepción, they work eelgrass beds and sandy shallows. At Bahía de los Ángeles, they anchor among scattered ranchos and fish camps, trade with local people, and collect across reefs, boulder fields, and tide pools; they also note large tidal ranges. Through these stops, they settle into a familiar routine.

They push farther north to the long, barren mass of Ángel de la Guarda Island and aim for its northern harbor, Puerto Refugio. On the way, they pass Sail Rock, film it poorly with laundry flapping in front of the lens, and continue. Puerto Refugio proves a double anchorage connected by a narrow channel, with strong tidal streams that drag their weighted nets sideways. They anchor carefully and go ashore to a sand-and-rubble beach strewn with whale vertebrae and empty nesting platforms, then around a rocky point to low-tide pools rich with life. In caves, they hear bats but cannot catch them. That night, they dip-net pelagic visitors in the swift current off the boat. They remain long enough to fill jars and then move on.

They round the north end of Ángel de la Guarda and watch a school of whales pass by. They continue south toward Tiburón Island, the large square-shouldered island of the Seri people, and anchor off Red Bluff Point on its southwestern corner. They take Heliaster sea stars, cucumbers, urchins, giant snails, barnacles, hydroids, sponges, and tunicates, and they watch stingrays mating in the shallows. Large bats arrive and circle the boat; Sparky, alarming one, accidentally harpoons it, after which the bats vanish. They make a short hop to Puerto San Carlos, enter its narrow rocky mouth, and anchor in an inner basin. At dusk, they hear persistent hissing and splashing. Under their searchlight ,the water is dense with small fishes chasing even smaller ones. Sparky and Tiny attempt to net a school without success. The crew then scoops hundreds of fish with dip nets, fry them whole in olive oil, and eat them.

At Guaymas, they clear customs, visit the consulate for mail, resupply, and handle port business. They move out again to a cove opposite Pajaro Island light. The next day, they run south and overtake a Japanese shrimping fleet. They watch a closing scraper cough tons of shrimps and mixed fishes onto the cutting deck. The crew beheads and chutes the shrimp and throws the fish overboard; gulls swarm the floating carcasses. Steinbeck and Ricketts pull representative specimens from the piles, accept a few curios from crewmen, talk briefly with the Mexican fish and game official aboard, and then are cast off with their buckets. Back aboard Western Flyer, they steer for Estero de la Luna. South of Point Lobos, they see many large manta rays on the surface. Before dawn, they row toward shore to catch the low tide. A dense fog drops and they lose sight of ship and land. They beach safely, the fog lifts, and they find they are close to their intended entrance. The Sea-Cow starts and carries them inside.

In the estuary, they see four Indigenous persons coming in from night fishing with very large mullet-like fish. The men are unfriendly. The visitors search for biological samples. As the ebb strengthens, they fight the current back out to sea with the Sea-Cow and oars and return to the Western Flyer. They weigh anchor and set course south for Agiabampo, deciding it will be their last collecting station on the mainland side. They anchor offshore from the Agiabampo entrance and work in toward the northern margin. Tony refuses to bring the big boat closer than a mile, so five of them load the skiff to the gunwales and row in. Agiabampo is a large lagoon which has the first extensive eelgrass beds they have seen in the Gulf. They wade carefully because of stingrays. When the ebb turns to flood, they pull back out against the current with the Sea-Cow and oars and regain the Western Flyer.

They leave the mainland coast and run all night on a compass course across the Gulf. A heavy fog comes down and Tony stops the engine to drift. At dawn, Tiny and Sparky hear surf, the fog lifts, and an island lies half a mile away. They proceed into San Gabriel Bay on the island’s west side and go ashore. The white coral sand and clear water reveal pale-colored animals. In the middle of the bay, a coral head nearly breaks the surface. They collect Phataria and club-spined urchins on the coral, take many Chione clams buried under the sand (locating them by tiny green algal veils at their siphons), and are repeatedly stung by buried heart urchins while digging. In the mangroves, they find two large hairy grapsoid crabs high on the trunks, a slow xanthid crab, porcelain crabs, snapping shrimps, two brittle stars that prove to be new records for them, and a large sea hare. They swim off the bright sand, then return to the boat and head south for the cape.

They pass the tip of the peninsula with the Gulf calm behind them and a dark line of weather over the Pacific ahead. At the false cape in the early morning, they alter to a northerly course on the ocean side. A single loud thunderclap coincides with the first heavy Pacific swells and contrary wind. The sea becomes gray and steep. The boat pitches and takes spray over the deckhouse. Birds crab low, zigzagging for shelter in the troughs. Watches stand longer at the wheel because the helm offers a handhold and the course demands attention. They make their way up the Pacific, aiming for the lee of offshore islands like Cedros when they can, while the bow guy wire hums in the wind. They keep the engine turning steadily and the Western Flyer shoulders through the weather. The cruise ends with their return run up the coast to the United States.

They put into San Diego to clear entry and continue on toward Monterey. Once home, they unload and sort the hundreds of jars and tubes packed into the hold, check labels, and ship material on to the laboratory. The “log” portion of the book closes with the boat still working into the wind and the collected animals stored below. The narrative of the voyage ends there. In the Appendix, Steinbeck recounts the subsequent death of Ed Ricketts and offers a portrait of his life and habits.