Ken’s second Navy tour ended in 1975, and he and Camille resettled in Puget Sound. When he launched his orca survey that first summer back, Camille proved to be a stalwart research partner. But then the Regina Maris appeared on the horizon, and his marriage was soon on the rocks. The Regina Maris was a floating dream of a boat, a tall ship straight out of an Errol Flynn swashbuckler: a three-masted, 144-foot barkentine driven by 16 canvas sails and a square-rigged foremast. George Nichols, Jr., a retired medical researcher from Harvard and a great-grandson of J. P. Morgan, had retrofitted the Regina as the flagship of his newly launched Ocean Research and Education Society. The Regina’s mission was to track and study Atlantic humpback whales while instructing college students in marine biology. Nichols hired Ken as his chief scientist and paid him $1 a day. From Ken’s point of view, it was a great deal. He’ d saved up $10,000 from his Navy tours, and the Regina provided him free room and board and the chance to survey whales from the deck of the most fabulous ship under sail on any sea.
