Maritime Museum of San Diego by Deirdre O'Regan
T
he Maritime Museum of San Diego, a museum with no real estate, is home to a fleet of seven ships and a myriad of small boars representing a wide range of maritime history. Naval, commercial, and recreational histories are each interpreted through exh ibits and educational programs. The museum tal<es five of its seven ships out under their own power; Star of India sails at least one weeke nd per year and "HMS" Surprise (ex-"HMS" Rose) has just received her Certification of Inspection from the US Coast Guard to sai l with museum programs. The others are sailed more regularly. The museum's mission is "ro serve as the communiry memory of our seafaring experience by coll ecting, preserving, and presenting our rich maritime heritage and hisroric connections with the Pacific world." While the link to West Coast maritime hisrory is presented fully and clearly, the
~
"---...LJ.J.w..u.....---'--'J..1.l.l.l.l~l....ll..."--l.w.._---"~ z
Star of India crewmembers work aloft, stowing sails at the end of the day. The museum's success story is as much about the people who work and volunteer there as it is about the ships they work on. museum recognizes that, in maritime hisrory, the Pacific world is linked globally by the scope of ocean travel, communication , and commerce. As a result, visitors will find more than a local hisrory represented. Through its collections, library, exhibits, and the ships themselves, the maritime stories of America as a whole are connected ro San Diego and the West Coast. Maritime museums ca n rake many forms. The more tradi tional facilities keep their focus indoors, where climate control works best ro preserve the collections within. Others have artifacts too large to keep indoors-these are maritime museums, after all, which ryp ically involve the preservation and interpretation of ships and ship-related culmre. In roday's economy, many worthy organizations struggle ro maintain their very costly hisroric vessels. Some museum professionals consider ships too expensive ro maintain and debate the need to keep them afloat or ro keep them at all. During these rimes of cost-cutting and reduced budgets, the Maritime Museum of San Diego is holding strong and is even adding ro the ships in their fleet. When a purchase price is very reasonable o r even free, the cost of owning a large ship is exorbitant, and no one accepts ownership of a large vessel without careful consideration and a plan for her use and upkeep. The museum was founded in 1948 and much of their early efforts were working on the Star of India, which had been tied ro the San Diego waterfront for more than twenty years and essentially abandoned. In 1973, the museum added two vessels, rhe ferry Berkeley and the steam-yacht Medea, creating an institution whose mission reached beyond a single ship. Since then, they have acquired a San Diego Harbor pi lot boat (1996), the schooner Californian (2002), a replica of an 18rh-cenmry frigate, "HMS" Surprise (2004), and rhe Soviet submarine B-39 (2005). Recently, the museum appli ed to the US Navy to acq uire USS Dolphin (AGSS555), which was struck from the Naval Register last January, and hopes to have it at the museum within a year. (left) The seagoing vessels of the museum's fleet (top to bottom): Star of India, Californian , Medea, Pilot, and the 1902 sloop Butcher Boy. Not pictured are 'HMS " Surprise and the two vessels which do not leave the pier, the Soviet submarine B-39 and the Jerry Berkeley.
16
SEA HISTORY 120, AUTUMN 2007