A Merry-Time in Maritime San Diego, Part II

On the second day of our vacation, my awesome parents (MAP) and I went back to the harbor to visit the Maritime Museum. When doing my online research, I thought it was a building with some boats moored out back. In fact, the 9 ships ARE the museum. They range from tall-mast sailing ships to a yacht to a submarine. While the weather was gray with temperatures in the 60s when we arrived, by the time we had finished a 45-minute boat tour of the bay, the sun had come out!

Apparently, if you put a dead fish in a barrel of hardtack, the maggots will preferentially crawl onto the fish; replace regularly until there are no more maggots, and you'll know your ship's biscuits are safe(r) to eat. Bottom left is a hanging table; bottom right: sailors had to climb over the front rail of the ship toward the bowsprit to find the "head" (platform with a hole in it that served as the restroom).

Below is the 1898 steam ferry Berkeley, which once worked the San Francisco Bay, which has the museum offices, the gift shop, restrooms, and multiple exhibits. You can see how cloudy the weather was.

One of the local industries is tuna fishing. To the left, some representative packaging. To the right, a shallow "set line basket" with coiled line and hooks along the outside. It's a Sicilian method.

I learned that for most of the 1500s, Europeans thought that California was a big island!

Left: There are also many beautiful hand-made models of various kinds of sailing ships.

Right: You can go down into the bowels of the ship, where a volunteer will run the motor and show you how the captain on the bridge communicated with the engine room.

Upstairs is an auditorium on one side and a dance hall on the other.

Check out these glorious stained glass windows!

At 11 o'clock we went out on the San Diego Bay--just the three of us, a gregarious Italian-American tour guide who told the best stories, and the captain.

They keep fleece blankets onboard for the wind; I used an extra one as a seat cushion.

Above: The bridge supports are supposedly designed to look like the nave of a cathedral from this view.

Below: The symphony was rehearsing at this shell for a performance of an Indiana Jones movie that night with live accompaniment.

AHOY, matey!

The ship on the left is the HMS Surprise, the replica British frigate made for the Russell Crowe movie Master & Commander. On the right is Star of India, which they market as the world's oldest active sailing ship, dating back to 1863. It had been overrun by pirates--I mean, school children--the day we visited.