That's My Story

DECKHAND KNOWS ALL – published Oct. 2005 – Western Outdoor Magazine Baja Backbeat Column

We all know what a “tell-all” book is, right? Basically, some “insider” writes a book about what “really happened” to such-and-such. Elvis must have had a zillion insiders judging from all the books his life spawned. Princess Di comes to mind. So does Marilyn Monroe. I think someone somewhere even dug up dirt on Adam and Eve if you checked back on it. Something about an apple and a snake or somesuch.

I’ve been writing for a number of years and sometimes having a journalist aboard a fishing boat isn’t always looked on with great favor. Think about it. What if someone followed you and the boys to Vegas on your next bender and jotted down all the highlights? Think about your fishing trips. Think of all the goofy things you did and said and heard that really weren’t meant for publication or anyone else who wasn’t on the trip. Even here in Baja, I hear folks say (men and women both), “What happens in Baja stays in Baja!”

Well, picture this. Think about all the things a deckhand on a long range trip might see and hear. Imagine what might come of that. Well, that’s exactly what happened on one memorable trip.

John Steinbeck is one of the pre-eminent American authors, a virtual icon of the American literary scene with award winning books such as “Tortilla Flat,” “Of Mice and Men,” and “Grapes of Wrath” which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. (Remember those high school book reports?) As a novelist, adventurer and social commentator, his name is right up there with contemporaries such as Hemingway and Zane Grey. The guy had some clout and literary brass. However, he also contributed to the literary lore of Baja in the manner of Fred Hoctor and Ray Cannon.

In the pre-war year of 1939, Steinbeck pushed off the docks of Monterey in the Western Flyer, one of those wooden fishing boats you can still see tied to the fishing docks along cannery row. At the helm was Captain Tony Berry and crew. Accompanying him was biologist Ed “Doc” Ricketts. The 6 week trip would cruise down the Baja peninsula and up into the Sea of Cortez collecting marine specimens and enjoying “comeraderie and conversation.” The trip would result in one of the most dispositive Baja books of the era, “Sea of Cortez – A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research” published in 1941. (New York Viking Press)

It’s a marvelous read and a MUST in any Baja book collection. It speaks of a different time and place when it was actually hard to find Cabo San Lucas; when a harbor master had to guide boats into La Paz; about dust; dirt; mule carts; warm beer; and spearing “devil fish” manta rays because they were dangerous.” Like I said, it’s a good read that you should pick up and add to your collection. Steinbeck had an obvious gift for memory and writing. However, it wasn’t a “perfect” memory.

He forgot about the deckhand!

In 1991, a book was published called “With Steinbeck in the Sea of Cortez” (1991 Sand River Press, Los Osos CA). It was published 50 years AFTER Steinbeck’s book and 23 years after his Steinbeck’s death in 1968. It was written by Sparky Enea, a local Montery fisherman who was the deckhand on the Western Flyer with Mssrs. Steinbeck and Ricketts. It’s a paperback that reads quickly but it has some incredible insight into the trip that was interestingly “missed” when Steinbeck wrote his book. You have to be careful about those deckhands.

For instance, the most glaring thing mentioned by Enea is that Steinbeck’s wife Carol was on the trip! She was supposed to be the galley cook but only cooked one meal in six weeks. In those close quarters 24 hours/day, it’s interesting that the award-winning author never mentions his wife was aboard. However, in the deckhand’s book, it is notable that Carol might have been doing a bit of wenching with good old Capt. Berry in the wheelhouse and on at least one occasion came onto deckhand Enea and flashed him and she had a tendency towards wearing wet shirts on deck with nothing underneath or playing “feely hands” under the galley table. The plot thickens. Ahhhh…a true pirate trip!

That’s exactly what it was. Research be damned. Mostly, Enea writes about a great “guy” trip worthy of an MTV reality show. He talks a lot of getting drunk and basically, “we signed on for a six week party!” They would sit on the deck drinking and telling stories about hookers and “weirdos” and how Steinbeck could tell a good yarn over beer and were disappointed he left out so many details in his books.

They got in bar fights and crew fights. They would pull into little “pueblitos” like Mulege and Loreto and and Guyamas and immediately find “Carta Blanca” beer and cheap whorehouses and party all night. They discovered the medicinal purposes of the alcoholic Damiana drink as well as it’s supposed aphrodisiac properties. The ate pots of spaghetti on deck and dug for clams. They had a tempermental outboard motor. They bought bottles of tequila for 30 cents and learned that you had to pay extra for girls on Good Friday.

But they also talked about beautiful sunsets; enchanging warm blue waters and going to Mass in La Paz and enjoying the all the singing. And they talked about dropping everything and never going back to California and moving permanently to Mexico. Like all guys, they talked about having “gas.” You can almost hear Steinbeck telling someone to “pull my finger.” Sound familiar? The more things change, the more they stay the same. Road trip! Just watch out for the deckhand!

How could John Steinbeck miss all this in his book?

That’s my story!
Jonathan